Development of an interactive model for teaching emergency pediatric radiography: preliminary report

The authors describe the development of an interactive digital teaching module designed to help prepare residents to diagnose emergency pediatric radiology cases.

Cases were identified using the authors' own dictation search software. Cases were selected that depicted common conditions that had been misdiagnosed by the radiology resident who had first interpreted them clinically. Normal cases involving similar anatomic regions were also collected. Images from these cases were captured from the picture archiving and communication system. "Hotspots" were superimposed on abnormalities to highlight them. Example dictations were captured. A simple user interface was developed for the teaching module, and a database was built to log all user responses.

The system has been well received at the authors' institution. It has been incorporated into the standard orientation for all incoming residents. Residents' diagnostic performance has subjectively improved since the module was launched.

The module is interactive, easy to use, and subjectively improves incoming residents' diagnostic accuracy. A prospective, controlled study assessing its impact on short-term and long-term diagnostic performance is under way.