A new study has shown that it is possible to humanize medical cases by attracting a photo of the patient along with their radiological scans, which thereby enhances the accurate reading of the scans by radiologists.
An Israeli report which is to be presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America, in Chicago on Tuesday has proposed that attaching a photo of the patient in his or her record provides a personal touch between the radiologist and patient, in such a time when advanced technology has distanced the two.
According to a press release issued by the organizer of the conference, Shaare Zedek Medical Center’s radiology resident Dr. Yehonatan N. Turner in Jerusalem said that their study aims to perceive the patient, not just as a medical case, but also as a human being. He also referred to the growing use of teleradiology, which makes it even more important to reduce anonymity in radiologic exams.
For the purpose of the research, radiologists used the communication system and picture archiving facility from the hospital, which is a storing and retrieving network for medical images to review patient’s files. As soon as the files were opened, the photos of the patients’ automatically appeared.
All radiologists confirmed after reviewing the files said viewing patient’s photos made them feel more empathy towards them. With the help of the photographs they were able to obtain key medical information including physical signs and suffering of the patients said the doctors.
