Radiology is a constantly changing field, but Google alerts can be a helpful tool for imaging experts to create custom searches tailored to their practice and stay up-to-date on recent news and research.
That’s according to doctors at NYU Langone Health and the University of California San Francisco, who used the popular search engine to assess new radiology content published online.
They found that a majority of news was pushed out by non-radiology press—such as NBC and Yahoo! Finance—but rarely detailed peer-reviewed research. Radiology-specific outlets, such as this one and our sister site Radiology Business, were the second most common source of content, the group explained Oct. 9 in Current Problems in Diagnostic Radiology.
“These findings highlight the importance of staying well-informed of medical coverage by traditional non-radiology lay press outlets and/or making active attempts to publicize research or viewpoints in these forums,” Kamran Munawar, MD, a radiologist at NYU, and colleagues wrote Friday. “This is especially important as prior work has shown that media articles can be sensationalized and may omit basic facts, which have the potential to mislead the public.”
The researchers also noted that such alerts may be particularly useful for practitioners wanting to stay informed of the latest practical and clinical COVID-19 guidelines.
For the study, independent raters used a coding system to classify the content source and discussion topic of daily links created for the search term “radiology.” In total, 526 links were assessed between Nov. 2019 and April 2020. Most were created by non-radiology lay press (68%), followed by imaging press (28%), university publications (2%), and professional society sites (2%).
Most commonly, these links discussed market trends (28%), promotional materials (20%), COVID-19 (13%), artificial intelligence (8%) and new technology or equipment (5%).
In terms of pandemic-related coverage, a majority of stories detailed operational challenges, such as how to prepare imaging suites, protect staff, maintain exam volumes, and forthcoming financial problems.
The team also found that nearly 20 articles covered topics related to RSNA’s 2019 Annual Meeting. A majority were from non-radiology press, indicating such outlets are taking notice of imaging research and meetings.
“New radiology-related media obtained from a popular search engine were largely provided by traditional non-medical news sources and infrequently described peer-reviewed literature,” the authors concluded. “Google Alerts may be a useful tool that radiologists can use to design unique searches relevant to their practice area and stay abreast of the most current public radiology or subspecialty subject matters, especially during these times of social isolation and rapidly evolving clinical practice.”
Matt joined Chicago’s TriMed team in 2018 covering all areas of health imaging after two years reporting on the hospital field. He holds a bachelor’s in English from UIC, and enjoys a good cup of coffee and an interesting documentary.