Nonradiologists interpreted 43.6% of office-based imaging studies in 2022, according to a study published April 2 in the American Journal of Roentgenology.
Researchers from the Harvey L. Neiman Health Policy Institute analyzed more than 1.6 million Medicare physician office-based imaging claims ordered by nonradiologists. They found that just 36.4% of the studies were interpreted by a radiologist.
The study’s authors said the trend of ordering physicians interpreting their own imaging studies “warrants scrutiny given nonradiologists’ limited training in imaging interpretation.”
The rate of self-interpretation varied by specialty, office size and imaging modality. Orthopedics and sports medicine physicians self-interpreted 75.7% of their imaging orders, compared to 19.9% among primary care physicians.
For imaging type, nonradiologists interpreted 52% of ultrasound images, 5.3% of CT scans and 6.1% of MRIs. Smaller practices — those with one to nine providers — had a higher rate of self-interpretation than practices with 500 or more physicians.”Our results raise potential implications for quality of patient care,” Vijay Rao, MD, senior vice president of enterprise radiology at Philadelphia-based Jefferson Health and one of the study’s authors, said in a news release. “The large differences between radiologists and nonradiologists in interpretation training could lead to differences in diagnostic accuracy.”
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