Original InvestigationThe Effects of Changes in Utilization and Technological Advancements of Cross-Sectional Imaging on Radiologist Workload
Section snippets
Study Design
This retrospective study performed at a single academic medical center met Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act privacy guidelines and was subject to institutional review board (IRB) approval. The need for continued IRB oversight was waived as this study qualified as a quality improvement project. All diagnostic, angiographic, and interventional CT and MRI examinations performed from 1999 to 2010 were extracted from our institutional Radiology Information Management System using
Trends in Number of Examinations Over Time
From 1999 to 2010, a total of 1,517,149 examinations (994,471 CT, 522,678 MRI) were performed at our institution. Trends in institutional CT and MRI examination utilization from 1999 to 2010 are shown in Figure 1a; Sen's slope estimates are summarized in Table 1. Over this span of time, CT examination utilization increased from 55,372 exams/year to 93,491 exams/year (Q = +4499 exams/year, Z = 3.77, P < .0001); representing a 68% increase in CT utilization over the study period. Similarly, MRI
Discussion
The results from our large single-center radiology practice revealed that, despite efforts to normalize staffing workload for increases in cross-sectional imaging utilization, radiologist workloads are dramatically increasing. Although there has been a steady rise in the number of examinations performed per year, much of this increase in workload burden is a result of increases in the number of images that must be interpreted in each examination. Increases in examination content alone have
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