The film-reporting session as a qualifying examination in diagnostic radiology

To assess the value of a film-reporting session as a qualifying examination in radiology, 11 residents were allowed 1 hour to interpret and dictate reports on 20 test cases. Reports were marked by four examiners; two used a standardized marking scheme and two a simple pass or fail assessment. The marking schemes were compared and the scores were related to the level of training and performance on the American College of Radiology (ACR) practice examination. With pass or fail marking, there was 55% agreement between markers and poor correlation with the candidates' training level. There was 100% marker agreement using the standardized scheme and better correlation with the level of training. There was poor correlation with the ACR scores. Preliminary results suggest that a film-reporting session with standardized marking is feasible and may be a useful addition to current evaluation methods in diagnostic radiology.