Mobile Versus Fixed Facility: Latinas' Attitudes and Preferences for Obtaining a Mammogram.

Purpose: Mobile mammographic services have been proposed as a way to reduce Latinas' disproportionate late-stage presentation compared with white women by increasing their access to mammography. The aims of this study were to assess why Latinas may not use mobile mammographic services and to explore their preferences after using these services.

Methods: Using a mixed-methods approach, a secondary analysis was conducted of baseline survey data (n = 538) from a randomized controlled trial to improve screening mammography rates among Latinas in Washington.

Vaginal shape at resting pelvic MRI: predictor of pelvic floor weakness?

Objective: The objective was to determine if alteration in vaginal shape seen on nonstraining pelvic magnetic resonance (MR) scans is associated with pelvic floor weakness.

Methods: Two readers classified the shape of the middle third of the vagina on resting T2-weighted axial images as normal or abnormal for 76 women with and without pelvic floor weakness.

Results: The sensitivity and specificity for diagnosing pelvic floor dysfunction were 84% and 68% for reader A and 41% and 91% for reader B.

Online social networking for radiology.

Online social networking services have changed the way we interact as a society and offer many opportunities to improve the way we practice radiology and medicine in general. This article begins with an introduction to social networking. Next, the latest advances in online social networking are reviewed, and areas where radiologists and clinicians may benefit from these new tools are discussed.

Digitization of medicine: how radiology can take advantage of the digital revolution.

In the era of medical cost containment, radiologists must continually maintain their actual and perceived value to patients, payers, and referring providers. Exploitation of current and future digital technologies may be the key to defining and promoting radiology's "brand" and assure our continued relevance in providing predictive, preventive, personalized, and participatory medicine. The Association of University of Radiologists Radiology Research Alliance Digitization of Medicine Task Force was formed to explore the opportunities and challenges of the digitization of medicine that are relevant to radiologists, which include the reporting paradigm, computational biology, and imaging informatics.

An evaluation of the impact of clinically embedded reading rooms on radiologist-referring clinician communication.

The aim of this study was to investigate whether locating reading rooms in clinical areas at a large tertiary care, academic hospital in the United States corresponds with increased rates of direct communication between radiologists and clinicians. Data recorded included the frequency, form, duration, and general purpose of communications. Two-tailed Fisher's exact tests were used to determine the statistical significance of differences between the frequencies of communication methods for the reading rooms included in the study.

The 'worthy' patient: rethinking the 'hidden curriculum' in medical education.

This paper examines how physicians determine the quality and quantity of time to devote to each patient, and how these decisions are taught to physicians-in-training as part of the 'hidden curriculum' in medical education. The notion of moral economy is used to analyze how judgments of patient worth come to guide and influence interactions among physicians and physicians-in-training and patients, and how these interactions impact medical care. However, this paper also questions the notion of the hidden curriculum as a static or reified concept.

Elder care as "frustrating" and "boring": understanding the persistence of negative attitudes toward older patients among physicians-in-training.

Objectives: This study explores the attitudes of physicians-in-training toward older patients. Specifically, we examine why, despite increasing exposure to geriatrics in medical school curricula, medical students and residents continue to have negative attitudes toward caring for older patients.

Methods: This study used ethnography, a technique used by anthropologists that includes participant-observation, semi-structured interviews, and facilitated group discussions.

Renegotiating expertise: an examination of PACS and the challenges to radiology using a medical anthropologic approach.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to examine how the adoption of PACS has affected the professional relationships among radiologists and referring providers and to evaluate the effect of PACS on perceptions of radiologists' roles in patient care.

Methods: A medical anthropologic approach was used to assess the impact of PACS among radiologists and a community of clinical subspecialists at a large academic medical center (n = 40). Data collection techniques included 3 months of ethnographic participant observation during the routine medical practice of study participants as well as semistructured interviews and archival research.

Eye-movement study and human performance using telepathology virtual slides: implications for medical education and differences with experience.

A core skill in diagnostic pathology is light microscopy. Remarkably little is known about human factors that affect the proficiency of pathologists as light microscopists. The cognitive skills of pathologists have received relatively little attention in comparison with the large literature on human performance studies in radiology.