I am nowhere near as good as our worst radiologist (who is, frankly... not great). It's not even close.
I am nowhere near as good as our worst radiologist (who is, frankly... not great). It's not even close.
We have some excellent ER physicians, and several who are very good at looking at their own xrays. They also have the benefit of directly examining the patient, "it hurts HERE", while I am in my basement. Several times a year they catch something I miss!
But when it comes to the hard stuff, and particularly cross-sectional imaging, they are simply not trained for it.
I hurt my arm a while back and the ER guy didn't spot the radial head fracture, but the specialist did. No big deal since the treatment was the same either way.
I rate techs against non-radiology trained physicians in terms of identifying pathology. However techs aren’t anywhere near the ability of a radiologist.
Persuading junior techs not to scan each other and decide the diagnosis is a reoccurring problem, and it comes up too often.
These techs are trained and are good. I have too many stories about things techs have missed which a radiologist has immediately spotted.