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


METHODS
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.


RESULTS
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.


CONCLUSIONS
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.
Chew
F S
FS
Department of Radiology, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Medical Center Blvd, Winston-Salem, NC 27157-1088, USA.
D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011871:Radiology / Q000193:education*; D011873:Radiology Information Systems; D012189:Retrospective Studies