Method for teaching interpretative skills in radiology with standardized terminology

A method for training radiologists and other interpreters of radiologic studies to track and to determine their diagnostic accuracy and use of feature descriptors in the interpretation of radiologic examinations comprising:

• preparing a test set of images derived from radiologic examinations of patients;
• having the radiologist evaluate defined areas within the images to characterize an abnormality using accepted feature descriptors;
• and,
• reviewing the results of the evaluations to determine the radiologist's ability to recognize abnormalities in the images and to properly characterize any abnormalities found using the feature descriptors thereby to improve the radiologist's accuracy of interpretation, reduce the variability in the use of standardized terminology, and train radiologists in understanding the relationship between feature descriptors and pathological entities found in radiologic examinations.

A method for training radiologists and other interpreters of radiologic studies that tracks their use of feature descriptors and determines their diagnostic accuracy during interpretation of radiologic examinations and relates these performance data back to the findings in individual radiologic exams, comprising:

• preparing a test set of images derived from radiologic examinations of patients;
• having the radiologist evaluate defined abnormalites within the images to characterize the abnormalities using accepted feature descriptors and to assess the causes of the abnormalities;
• and,
• reviewing their evaluations of the radiologic examinations to determine their ability to accurately assess the causes of abnormalities and to consistently characterize abnormalities using the feature descriptors, thereby training radiologists to understand the relationship between feature descriptors and pathological entities found in radiologic examinations, improving the radiologist's accuracy of interpretation, and reducing variability in the use of standardized terminology.