Attitudes of radiology residents toward personal computing: results of survey

The authors' purpose was to evaluate radiology residents' assessment of their own computer skills for potential development of computer training in a residency curriculum.

The authors conducted a survey to evaluate the attitudes of radiology residents concerning personal computing. Surveys were completed by 136 radiology residents from six academic institutions.

Sixty percent of residents surveyed considered themselves to be computer literate and 93% would like further computer training. Fifty-six percent had a computer at home and 9% had a laptop. Almost all residents had access to a computer at work. Word processing and medical literature searches were the most common computer tasks performed by residents. Image processing was the least common task performed. Although all hospitals surveyed were connected to the Internet, only 26% of residents used the Internet and 14% used Internet teaching files. Most residents expressed a preference for self-paced, on-line evening training sessions.

Most radiology residents believed they possessed adequate computer skills. This proportion has markedly increased over that found in previous surveys. Radiology residents desire and could likely benefit from computer training included as part of the residency curriculum.