Evaluation of thoracic computed tomography interpretation by emergency medicine residents with regards to accuracy and confidence

Abstract

Purpose: Interpretation of thoracic computed tomography (CT) scans by emergency department (ED) physicians is important especially in crowded EDs. The aim of this study is to assess the proficiency and confidence of ED physicians with varying levels of experience in interpreting thoracic CT. Materials and methods: A total of 25 pathological and 5 normal thoracic CT images were interpreted by 32 ED residents, initially without clinical information, then with. After each session the participants were asked to score their confidence on a scale of 1 to 10. At the end of the study, the results were compared between seniors and junior residents. Results: The median age of the participants was 29 years (24-34). Twenty (62.5%) of the residents were junior residents. There were no significant differences between the two resident groups in terms of accurate diagnosis rates, regardless of the clinical information (p=0.307 and p=0.061). The physicians’ certainty of their own diagnosis mostly does not seem to be statistically different in these diagnoses. The seniors are more confident in the diagnosis of the CT scans they evaluated without clinical information (p=0.004), while when the clinical information is added, the confidence of the junior physicians also increase (p=0.087). Conclusion: Both senior and junior emergency medical residents are able to interpret thoracic CT images with a high degree of accuracy, both for COVID-19 and for other emergency diagnoses. Senior physicians were confident in their decisions regardless of whether they are accurate or not, solely by visual inspection, whereas junior residents displayed similar confidence when clinical information was available. © 2023, Pamukkale University. All rights reserved.