Abstract
BackgroundExperts in medical image perception are able to detect abnormalities rapidly from medical images. This ability is likely due to enhanced pattern recognition on a global scale. However, the bulk of research in this domain has focused on static rather than dynamic images, so it remains unclear what level of information that can be extracted from these displays. This study was designed to examine the visual capabilities of echocardiographers—practitioners who provide information regarding cardiac integrity and functionality. In three experiments, echocardiographers and naïve participants completed an abnormality detection task that comprised movies presented on a range of durations, where half were abnormal. This was followed by an abnormality categorization task.ResultsAcross all durations, the results showed that performance was high for detection, but less so for categorization, indicating that categorization was a more challenging task. Not surprisingly, echocardiographers outperformed naïve participants.ConclusionsTogether, this suggests that echocardiographers have a finely tuned capability for cardiac dysfunction, and a great deal of visual information can be extracted during a global assessment, within a brief glance. No relationship was evident between experience and performance which suggests that other factors such as individual differences need to be considered for future studies.
Highlights
Experts in medical image perception are able to detect abnormalities rapidly from medical images
Decades of research in the medical image perception field has demonstrated that with exposure, practitioners develop a type of perceptual fine tuning which allows for the efficient and accurate diagnosis within a medical image
The bulk of the research has focused in radiological domains presenting static stimuli and little is known about the visual processing of dynamic medical stimuli such as real-time imaging
Summary
Experts in medical image perception are able to detect abnormalities rapidly from medical images. Echocardiographers and naïve participants completed an abnormality detection task that comprised movies presented on a range of durations, where half were abnormal. The sound waves, directed towards and reflected from the heart, are used to generate images that are displayed on a screen in real time. These images are stored for future analysis by a physician. Echocardiographers must first acquire and visually search images, identify and capture normal and abnormal features, and perform complex anatomical and hemodynamic measurements. The echocardiographer’s image acquisition, visual search of the display, measurement of features, and diagnostic decisions must occur quickly. Searching for abnormalities and formulating diagnostic decisions are perceptually and cognitively demanding which means that the potential for error can be high
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