Doing It for the First Time: Sex Sigma™

Abstract

As the ACGME and ABR have recognized, the future of radiology hinges on effective quality improvement. Yet many residents, program directors, and practicing radiologists have expressed uncertainty and anxiety about how to conduct such initiatives. Because of a lack of prior education and experience, they do not know where to begin. What is a quality improvement project? What methods should it employ? What features distinguish good or successful quality improvement projects from those that fail? In an effort to demystify and clarify these matters, we sought some means of illustrating the philosophy and techniques of quality improvement through a practical application with which many radiologists would be more familiar. Quality improvement, like charity, we suspected, should begin at home. By gaining initial experience, radiologists will be in a position to apply lessons learned in a less intimidating domestic setting to the work environment, armed with greater understanding and confidence. For multiple reasons, we determined that sex provides the best available at-home training opportunity. First, it is an utterly necessary activity, without which the very perpetuation of the species would be in doubt. Second, although we lack hard empirical data, we have reason to believe that many participants are less than enamored of current levels of performance, no doubt because sex has so rarely been subjected to scientific analysis, let alone any systematic quality im-