Looking to aviation for tips on reducing errors in radiology

Conversations around the “human factor” in radiology—basically, the impact people have by nature of who they are and what they do—mostly center around the context of reducing errors. However, if those conversations aren’t also focused on improving the quality of life for radiologists and technologists, then reducing errors may be impossible, says Grainne Murphy, a radiology consultant from University Hospitals Birmingham.

In a presentation given at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) conference in Chicago, Murphy reflected on how her own career led her to study what it means for a person to work in radiology, and how factors inside and outside of work impact performance.

“Why (did I become) interested in human factors? Because every time I was shown an error, I thought I was the worst radiologist in the world. I wondered how I could be so stupid—and how could I miss such an obvious nodule,” she said.  “And that became ... ‘What happened at that moment in time and how do I avoid doing the same thing next time?’"  

Murphy took a look at aviation, using its extremely low rate of accidents (mainly plane crashes) as a metric for the level of success radiologists and techs should aim to achieve when reading reports and conducting scans. She also noted that, when airlines have some kind of accident, they’re typically attributed to human error.

How has the aviation industry worked to reduce these accidents over time? The same way radiology department leaders should, Murphy said, by looking at what “human factor” led to the incident occurring, be it a lack of communication, complacency, failure to work as a team, pressure, stress, lack of awareness—or something else related to how a person interacts with their job.

Murphy said airlines address these concerns by increasing pilot comfort, doing everything from improving chairs to ensuring they have the necessary resources to address issues in their personal lives, and conflicts they may have inside of work with their colleagues or employer.

“One of the things they do in aviation is look at the ‘I’m safe’ model of ‘are you fit to fly that day?’” she noted, spelling out that “I’m safe” is an acronym that stands for Illness, medication, stress, alcohol, fatigue, and emotions. Something as simple as ensuring a person is well fed and sober can mean the difference between life and death.