Pay Attention to Non-Interpretive Skills

It isn’t a secret to any radiologist that the bulk of his or her day is spent in the reading room, pouring over scans, looking for critical findings that can help detect disease or change the course of a patient’s treatment. Those interpretive skills are highly valuable throughout all aspects of healthcare.

But, what about the non-interpretive skills. The ones that don’t go directly into analyzing a CT scan or MRI image? They are equally as vital to successful radiology practice. They can help providers create the most impactful and useful radiology reports, they can create collegial work environments, and they can help a radiologist and his or her colleagues avoid burnout.

In a session during this year’s Radiological Society of North America annual meeting, Dr. Diane Strollo, associate professor of cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Pittsburgh led a panel specifically dedicated to discussing the importance of and implementation of non-interpretive skills. This week, Diagnostic Imaging talked with her about the skills that are most important and the impact they can have.

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