Chest reporting by radiographers: Findings of an accredited postgraduate programme

Radiographers' performance in chest X-ray interpretation: the Nigerian experience

“…23,24 Previous studies have reported mean sensitivity and SPC ranging from 81% to 98% and 95% to 100%, respectively, for radiographers in the developed world. 2,4 Performance in many of these studies was adjusted for training and body part. A meta-analysis has shown insignificant variation in performance between trained (sensitivity 5 92.9%; SPC 5 97.8%) and untrained radiographers (sensitivity 5 96.0%; SPC 5 93.7%).…”

“…124 In some countries, chest X-ray constitutes about 20% of all radiological examinations. 4 It is a non-invasive and quick examination; however, it is considered one of the most challenging radiological examinations to interpret. 5 Reasons for this challenge include but are not limited to anatomical noise caused by superimposition of thoracic structures, similarity in radiographic appearances of some chest diseases, and subtlety of some chest pathologies.…”

“…1,6,7 Results of the radiological examinations are often not readily available especially in developing low-resource countries, partly due to shortage of qualified personnel to interpret the acquired images and the ever-increasing population. 2,4 In 2011, the International Skeletal Society outreach in SubSaharan West Africa estimated that there were 220 certified radiologists in Nigeria with a population of 152.21 million, and a radiologist to population ratio of 1 : 692,000. 8 With the population increasing to over 170 million and the bottomless demand for radiological examinations, radiologists are faced with a high work volume, making throughput of radiological services quite slow.…”

“…4 While this approach has been used for over 40 years in the UK and other industrialized countries, and has been shown to be effective, 2,4,10 X-ray interpretation by radiographers is still a subject of contention in Nigeria and Africa at large. Against this background, and with the increasing pressure from patients and their relatives for radiographers to provide their X-ray result, there have been agitations for relaxation of regulations on radiographers to interpret radiographs.…”

“…Also, factors such as age, academic qualification or training, and number of years since qualification have been shown to influence accuracy of image interpretation. 11,12 While radiographers in the developed world acquire formal training in image interpretation, 4 there is no postgraduate training program in X-ray interpretation in Nigeria as yet. However, radiographers attain informal knowledge of image interpretation during practice through personal study, from radiologists, and other radiographers knowledgeable in X-ray interpretation.…”