Quantifying and Characterizing Trainee Participation in a Major Academic Radiology Department

Trainees play an important role in the delivery of medical services in academic medical centers, yet the full extent of their contribution in radiology is unknown. The purpose of this study was to quantify trainee involvement in a single large academic radiology department.

In this Institutional Review Board-approved retrospective study performed in a tertiary care academic medical center, we identified the proportion of radiology reports with trainee involvement (by means of report co-signature) between July 2015 and June 2016. For each exam, we documented the modality, whether a trainee co-signed the report, and the division/subspecialty of the attending radiologist. We computed the overall proportion of radiology reports that involved a trainee and compared this proportion between imaging modalities, type of patient setting (Emergency Department, inpatient, outpatient), and across subspecialty divisions using Chi-square tests.

Overall, we analyzed 607,074 radiology reports, of which trainees co-signed 239,187 (39.4%) reports. Trainee involvement varied considerably by division, ranging from 7.1% (ultrasound division) to 99.2% (cardiovascular imaging division) of reports, P <0.001. Among diagnostic imaging modalities, trainee participation was highest in CT (67.0%) and MRI (60.9%) examinations, and lowest in ultrasound (15.3%), P < 0.001. Trainees were more involved in the emergency department (58.0%) and inpatient (43.4%) settings than in the outpatient setting (33.9%), P < 0.001.

Less than half of the imaging studies performed in an academic radiology department involved radiology trainees. Similar data and studies at other institutions may be useful to help define, monitor and improve optimal trainee education nationally.