Eyestrain in Radiologists

描述(申请人提供)：本申请的广泛、长期目标是确定在读取数字显示的放射检查期间动眼疲劳对诊断准确性的影响。这将通过三个具体目标来实现：(1)测试疲劳是否会降低静态图像数据集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所面临的各种情况下视觉疲劳的程度。目前的放射学实践越来越依赖于先进的成像技术。这不仅改善了获得专科医生的机会，提高了效率和生产力，还大大增加了放射科医生的工作量。放射科医生现在解释了更多的成像研究，每个研究包含更多的图像。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学研究表明，长时间使用视觉显示终端会导致动眼疲劳，进而降低性能。目前还没有关于眼疲劳的放射学研究，但一项初步研究表明，随着放射科医生阅读更多的成像研究，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。将使用接收器操作特征(ROC)方法分析诊断准确性。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类型来研究。在本项目结束时，我们将了解动眼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者误差的本质，我们才能找到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.