Abstract
ObjectivesEye tracking has been used in medical radiology to understand observers' gaze patterns during radiological diagnosis. This study examines the visual identification ability of junior hospital dental officers (JHDOs) and dental surgery assistants (DSAs) in radiographic and nonradiographic images using eye tracking technology and examines if there is a correlation.Material and methodsNine JHDOs and nine DSAs examined six radiographic images and 16 nonradiographic images using eye tracking. The areas of interest (AOIs) of the radiographic images were rated as easy, medium, and hard, and the nonradiographic images were categorized as pattern recognition, face recognition, and image comparison. The participants were required to identify and locate the AOIs. Data analysis of the two domains, entire slide and AOI, was conducted by evaluating the eye tracking metrics (ETM) and the performance outcomes. ETM consisted of six parameters, and performance outcomes consisted of four parameters.ResultsNo significant differences were observed for ETMs for JHDOs and DSAs for both radiographic and nonradiographic images. The JHDOs showed significantly higher percentage in identifying AOIs than DSAs for all the radiographic images (72.7% vs. 36.4%, p = .004) and for the easy categorization of radiographic AOIs (85.7% vs. 42.9%, p = .012). JHDOs with higher correct identification percentage in face recognition had a shorter dwell time in AOIs.ConclusionsAlthough no significant relation was observed between radiographic and nonradiographic images, there were some evidence that visual recognition skills may impact certain attributes of the visual search pattern in radiographic images.
Highlights
An early identification of an abnormality suggesting pathological change is a critical skill for every health-care professional
The junior hospital dental officer (JHDO) were in their first year of work and the dental surgery assistant (DSA) had a minimum of 15 years of experience
These two groups were selected as convenient samples, and subsequently, nine DSAs and nine JHDOs were recruited
Summary
An early identification of an abnormality suggesting pathological change is a critical skill for every health-care professional. Such an early identification using visual or special investigations such as radiological examination can aid in early diagnosis of a disease and more importantly in the early initiation of therapy to treat the underlying condition. Variability in radiologists' performances may occur for several reasons, including differences in decision making and recognition abilities. These abilities may be influenced by variability in training and experience or preexisting individual differences in perceptual abilities (Sunday, Donnelly, & Gauthier, 2017)
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