Eyestrain in Radiologists

描述（由申请人提供）：本申请的广泛、长期目标是确定在数字显示放射检查阅读过程中动眼肌疲劳对诊断准确性的影响。这将有三个具体目标：(1)测试疲劳是否会降低静态图像数据集中的检测精度和视觉搜索效率，(2)测试疲劳是否会降低动态图像数据集中的检测精度和视觉搜索效率，以及(3)发现放射科医生在日常实践中面临的各种情况下所经历的视觉疲劳程度。当前的放射学实践越来越依赖于先进的成像技术。这不仅改善了与分科专家的接触，提高了效率和生产力，也大大增加了放射科医生的工作量。放射科医生现在解释更多的成像研究，每一个都包含更多的图像。口译工作量的增加延长了他们必须花在观看数字显示器上的时间，这可能会对诊断性能产生不利影响。广泛的人为因素工程研究表明，长时间使用视觉显示终端会导致动眼肌疲劳，从而降低性能。目前还没有关于放射学中眼疲劳的研究，但一项初步研究表明，随着放射科医生阅读更多的影像学研究，他们报告的眼疲劳症状越来越严重，包括视力模糊和聚焦困难。我们建议评估动眼肌疲劳的可测量参数，如调节、收敛和视觉搜索效率，并将它们与诊断解释性能联系起来。诊断准确性将用受试者工作特征（ROC）方法进行分析。视觉搜索效率将通过测量扫视长度、决策停留时间和搜索模式的类型来研究。在本项目结束时，我们将了解动眼肌疲劳对诊断准确性和解释效率的影响。只有更好地理解观测器误差的本质，我们才能发现减少误差的有效方法。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The broad, long-term objective of this application is to determine the impact of oculomotor fatigue on diagnostic accuracy during the reading of digitally displayed radiological examinations.This will be accomplished with three specific aims: (1) test whether fatigue reduces detection accuracy and visual search efficiency in static image datasets, (2) test whether fatigue reduces detection accuracy and visual search efficiency in dynamic image datasets, and (3) discover the levels of visual fatigue that are experienced in a variety of situations faced by radiologists in daily practice. Current radiology practice relies increasingly on advanced imaging technology. Not only has this improved access to sub-specialists, yielding greater efficiency and productivity, it has also increased the radiologists' workload significantly. Radiologists now interpret more imaging studies, each containing many more images. This increase in interpretation workload lengthens the time they must spend viewing digital displays and this may adversely affect diagnostic performance. Extensive human factors engineering research has demonstrated that prolonged use of visual display terminals yields oculomotor fatigue, which in turn reduces performance. No research on eyestrain in radiology is available, but a preliminary study demonstrates that radiologists report increasingly severe symptoms of eyestrain, including blurred vision and difficulty focusing, as they read more imaging studies. We propose to evaluate measurable parameters of oculomotor fatigue such as accommodation, vergence, and visual search efficiency and relate them to diagnostic interpretation performance. Diagnostic accuracy will be analyzed with receiver operating characteristic (ROC) methods. Visual search efficiency will be studied by measuring saccade length, decision dwell, and type of search pattern. At the end of this project, we will understand the influence of oculomotor fatigue on diagnostic accuracy and interpretation efficiency. Only by developing a better understanding of the nature of observer error, may we discover effective approaches to reducing the errors.