Basic Neuroradiology – Chapter 10 – Harm is Rare

Academic residencies have a number of safety valves that mean even when you do make mistakes, there are people there to back you up. Plus residents make mistakes about as often as faculty!

For more detailed information about resident miss rates, check out our publication reviewing a large number of independent resident studies. 

The level of this lecture is appropriate for medical students, junior residents, and trainees in other specialties who have an interest in basic concepts of neuroradiology.

Basic Neuroradiology – Chapter 9 – Don’t argue

While it can seem like a good idea to argue with ordering providers, it seldom pays off in the long run. You’re essentially playing the odds that you are always right, and radiologists read A LOT of studies. Eventually you’ll be embarrassed at yourself.

Plus, much of the arguing comes from inner insecurity about having to read more studies or a complex study that you don’t understand. Be confident, advise ordering clinicians to the best of your ability, and help them.

The level of this lecture is appropriate for medical students, junior residents, and trainees in other specialties who have an interest in basic concepts of neuroradiology.

Basic Neuroradiology – Chapter 8 – Edges of the Study

Don’t forget to look at the edges of the study. Sometimes the most important finding is there.

It’s a common mistakes radiologists to miss findings that aren’t in the center of the images or aren’t in the regular search pattern, so you have to make it part of your search pattern. For brains, you need to look at the skull base and the bones. For spines, be sure to look at the soft tissues of the neck, lungs, and abdominal organs and soft tissues.

The level of this lecture is appropriate for medical students, junior residents, and trainees in other specialties who have an interest in basic concepts of neuroradiology.

Basic Neuroradiology – Chapter 7 – Satisfaction of Search

Don’t find one abnormality and stop looking. Sometimes the most important abnormality is the second one… or third… In fact, it’s an old saying that if you’re working at the VA and you only found one cancer, keep looking for the second one. 

While that is somewhat in jest, one of the most common mistakes for starting radiologists is not continuing their search pattern after finding abnormal findings. Look at every study the same and don’t get too distracted by some findings which can be very impressive. Sometimes it may even help you to finish your search pattern before describing the obvious findings.

The level of this lecture is appropriate for medical students, junior residents, and trainees in other specialties who have an interest in basic concepts of neuroradiology.

Basic Neuroradiology – Chapter 6 – Learn from your misses

While it’s not fun to miss a finding, you can benefit from it when you learn to improve in the future. Plus, it looks really bad when you miss the same finding over and over again! Build your misses into your search pattern and look for areas which can be trouble spots. On the brain, that’s often the posterior fossa, middle cranial fossa, and skull base. However, each person will likely have their own individual weak spots. Keep track of your misses and learn from them.

The level of this lecture is appropriate for medical students, junior residents, and trainees in other specialties who have an interest in basic concepts of neuroradiology.

Basic Neuroradiology – Chapter 5 – Follow the clues

Sometimes, useful clues on the image which are themselves unimportant can direct you to the useful findings. For example, soft tissue swelling on a head CT is not particularly important. However, it may lead you to a more significant underlying finding, like a hematoma or skull fracture. Use those clues to be better than the average radiologist.

The level of this lecture is appropriate for medical students, junior residents, and trainees in other specialties who have an interest in basic concepts of neuroradiology.

Basic Neuroradiology – Chapter 4 – Reports are important

As a radiologist, your reports are your main way of representing yourself to your referring physicians, your supervisors, and your colleagues. It’s easy to let this effort slip and put out reports that are sloppy, have spelling errors, or generally don’t reflect us well, particularly in a rush. When this happens, it’s useful to think what it might be like to describe a report with spelling errors when you are testifying about a case.

The level of this lecture is appropriate for medical students, junior residents, and trainees in other specialties who have an interest in basic concepts of neuroradiology.

Basic Neuroradiology – Chapter 3 – History is important

Having appropriate history is necessary to render the best interpretation of a study. It helps if that history is accurate. Mistakes can be propagated by bad history, and it can severely hamper you as a radiologist. When necessary, take the extra effort to get a good history.

The level of this lecture is appropriate for medical students, junior residents, and trainees in other specialties who have an interest in basic concepts of neuroradiology.

Basic Neuroradiology – Chapter 2 – Follow up on your patients

It’s critically important to learn from the studies you read by following up on the outcomes. This is how you continually improve as a radiologist. Your referring colleagues will have direct access to the patients and better history than you. In this way, they can get very good at imaging as well. You, as a radiologist, need to offer value to them, and to make that happen you need to continually improve.

The best way to facilitate this is to keep a list of patients that you need to follow-up on. It can take weeks to months to get useful follow-up, so develop a system by which you can remember when to follow up.

The level of this lecture is appropriate for medical students, junior residents, and trainees in other specialties who have an interest in basic concepts of neuroradiology.