Hunger, recent travel and occupational exhaustion significantly impact radiologists’ breast imaging reads
“Radiologists are human too,” according to new research shared May 17, with hunger, recent travel and occupational exhaustion “significantly” impacting their mammography reading performance.
These findings are based on a small survey of 22 rads and eight trainees, published in Academic Radiology. Researchers tasked physicians with interpreting 30 mammograms, including 15 abnormal and 15 more with no noteworthy findings.
Those with occupational exhaustion—as measured by the Maslach Burnout Inventory—demonstrated poorer interpretation performance, investigators discovered. Recent travel, meanwhile, lowered a radiologist’s sensitivity and overall diagnostic accuracy, while hunger increased their ability to correctly identify a disease or condition, but at the expense of specificity.
“These findings highlight the importance of addressing radiologists’ well-being by optimizing workloads, allowing recovery periods after travel, and ensuring structured meal schedules,” Abdulaziz S. Alshabibi, PhD, with the Radiological Sciences Department at King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and co-authors concluded. “Future research should explore real-world clinical settings and targeted interventions, including AI integration.”
Researchers conducted the investigation at two separate Radiological Society of Saudi Arabia conferences held in 2023. Participants were practicing radiologists and trainees who also completed a survey on personal factors that might impact their interpretations. For the study, they used DetectedX, which provides standardized sets of deidentified mammography images, allowing for direct comparison of radiologists’ performance and any influencing factors.
Participants with high occupational exhaustion notched “significantly” lower scores compared to those with low to moderate fatigue. Those who had recently traveled also had much lower area under the receiver operating characteristic curve scores and diminished sensitivity compared to those who had not. Hunger at the time of interpretation presented a “trade-off,” the authors added, increasing their sensitivity at the expense of specificity.
Alshabibi and colleagues believe their findings signal the “urgent need” for interventions to address workload management, provide adequate resources and promote rad well-being. Responses may include modifying work schedules, optimizing travel arrangements or providing recovery periods after travel, along with optimizing meal schedules or providing nutritional support during long reading sessions.
“By identifying the impact of occupational exhaustion, hunger, and travel on diagnostic accuracy, we have highlighted the importance of a more holistic approach to radiology practice and the need for a paradigm shift in how radiology departments and healthcare systems manage working conditions and environments for their staff,” the authors advised. “By researching, acknowledging, and addressing human factors, we can enhance not only the quality of diagnoses but also the sustainability of the radiology profession in the face of growing challenges, such as burnout and cognitive fatigue.”
Read much more in the official journal of the Association of Academic Radiology here.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.