TITLE:
Assessment of Jordanian Radiologist Performance in the Detection of Breast Cancers
AUTHORS:
Mohammad Rawashdeh, Mostafa Abdelrahman, Maha Zaitoun, Mark F. McEntee, Kriscia Tapia, Patrick Brennan
KEYWORDS:
Radiologist, Performance, Breast Cancers, JAFROC
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Medical Imaging,
Vol.8 No.3,
September
6,
2018
ABSTRACT: This
study aims to monitor diagnostic accuracy amongst Jordanian mammography readers
and identify parameters linked to higher levels of performance. In this
study, we have used the Breast Screen Reader Assessment Strategy (BREAST)
platform to facilitate 27 radiologists in reading a case set of 60 digital
mammograms, 20 of which included cancers. Each case consisted of the four
standard cranio-caudal (CC) and medio-lateral oblique (MLO) projections. All
radiologists were registered to read mammograms at their workplace by the
Jordanian Ministry of Health. Each reader was asked to locate any malignancies,
provide a confidence rating using a scale of 1 - 5, and
identify the type of appearance. All images were displayed using 8 MP monitor,
supported by radiology workstations with full image manipulation facilities.
Results were evaluated using Jackknife Alternative Free-Response Receiver
Operating Characteristic (JAFROC). Demographics obtained from each radiologist
regarding their experience, qualifications and breast-reading activities were
correlated against JAFROC scores using Spearman techniques. The results showed
that the mean JAFROC score was 0. 52 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.46,
0.58); location sensitivity score was 0. 41 (95% CI: 0.41, 0.56); specificity score
was 0.73 (95% CI: 0.68, 0.83). Higher performance in term of JAFROC scores was directly
related to number of years since professional qualification (r = 0.433; p = 0.024),
number of years reading breast images (r = 0.62; r = 0.001) and number of
mammography images read per year (r = 0.69; p = 0.001). On the other hand,
higher performance was inversely linked to the frequency of reading other
modalities per week (r = -0.48; p = 0.010). No other statistical differences
were significant. Finally, higher radiologists’ performance in cancer detection
is correlated with increasing the number of mammograms reads per week.