title: Relating physician's workload with errors during radiation therapy planning.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To relate subjective workload (WL) levels to errors for routine clinical tasks.
  
  
  METHODS
  Nine physicians (4 faculty and 5 residents) each performed 3 radiation therapy planning cases. The WL levels were subjectively assessed using National Aeronautics and Space Administration Task Load Index (NASA-TLX). Individual performance was assessed objectively based on the severity grade of errors. The relationship between the WL and performance was assessed via ordinal logistic regression.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There was an increased rate of severity grade of errors with increasing WL (P value = .02). As the majority of the higher NASA-TLX scores, and the majority of the performance errors were in the residents, our findings are likely most pertinent to radiation oncology centers with training programs.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  WL levels may be an important factor contributing to errors during radiation therapy planning tasks.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Electronic address: lmazur@med.unc.edu.
authors.forename: Lukasz M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Mazur
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
authors.forename: Prithima R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Mosaly
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
authors.forename: Lesley M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Hoyle
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
authors.forename: Ellen L
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
authors.forename: Bhishamjit S
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Chera
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
authors.forename: Lawrence B
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Marks
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D010820:Physicians / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011878:Radiotherapy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D016526:Workload / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*