title: To see or not to see: a qualitative interview study of patients' views on their own diagnostic images.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To ascertain what meaning individuals attach to perceiving images of their own interior body and how the images and their meanings affect the clinical consultation.
  
  
  METHODS
  Face-to-face semistructured interviews.
  
  
  METHODS
  25 adult patients in southern England who, within the preceding 12 months, had been referred for diagnostic imaging.
  
  
  METHODS
  Community.
  
  
  RESULTS
  For patients, being shown their own X-rays, MRIs or CT images creates a variety of effects: (1) a sense of better understanding of the diagnosis; (2) validation of their sensory and emotional response to the illness or injury and (3) an alteration to the tenor and nature of the clinical encounter between patient and physician. In addition to meanings attached to these images, patients also impute meaning to the physician's decision not to share an image with them. The desire to see their image was greater in those patients with a skeletal injury; patients are less keen on viewing abdominal or other soft tissue images.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Viewing images of one's interior, invisible body is powerful and resonant in a number of ways. The experience of not seeing, whether through the patient's or the physician's choice, is also fraught with meaning.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Therapy, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Leslie E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Carlin
authors.affiliation: Brighton and Sussex Medical School, Brighton, UK.
authors.forename: Helen E
authors.initials: HE
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: School of Applied Social Science, University of Brighton, Brighton, UK.
authors.forename: Flis
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Henwood
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D032882:Comprehension; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging / Q000523:psychology*; D004739:England; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D033283:Patient Access to Records / Q000523:psychology*; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012189:Retrospective Studies
keywords: Primary Care; Qualitative Research
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