Evaluation of clinical experience in a radiology residency program with quantitative profiling: rationale, methods,...

The author developed a technique for residency program evaluation, called "quantitative profiling," that is based on computer retrieval of radiologic reports. The hypothesis was that it would provide insights into the contributions of residents to clinical service, measures of resident experience and productivity for program evaluation, and benchmarks for comparison.

The radiology residency program of a major teaching hospital was studied retrospectively from 1989 to 1997. The number of radiologic reports signed by individual residents and faculty members was retrieved. The clinical experience of the 1993-1997 cohort of residents was described according to subspecialty area and modality.

Residents signed 46.5% of all reports, with a mean total of 14,445 reports +/- 1,292 per resident during the entire residency. The distribution of examinations was as follows: thoracic, 42.1%; musculoskeletal, 26.1%; abdominal, 13.4%; sonography, 8.7%; neuroradiology, 4.3%; nuclear, 2.4%; breast, 1.6%; and vascular, 1.4%. The most frequently reported results were for one-view chest radiography.

Quantitative profiling can help track the range and progress of resident experience, help determine the deployment of residents, and provide empirical data upon which decisions to modify residency programs may be based.