Development of profession and quality in radiography with focus on evaluation criteria and image quality of chest x-rays.

Learning Objectives: Learning Objectives: To improve quality of chest xrays by Education Conferences for radiographers and evaluation of image quality. Background: Introduction of digital imaging technology and picture archiving and communication system (PACS) has changed the workflow in the x-ray department including evaluation of image quality and feedback from radiologist to radiographer. Imaging Findings or Procedure Details: Procedure Details: Data for evaluation of image quality was collected by questionnaires aimed at: anatomy, image-focusing, image-collimation, exposure and body habitus of patients. Data was collected at two regional Danish x-ray departments including 200 AP and 200 LAT chest examinations. Evaluation was performed at 1) primary monitor by radiographer, 2) diagnostic monitor by expert radiographer 3) diagnostic monitor by radiologist. After evaluation of 100 examinations Education Conferences for radiographers was held by radiologists. Data was collected for further 100 chest examinations.Statistics: Descriptive, t-test, Fishers exact-test, kappa, Spearmann correlations. Conclusion: Conclusion: No differences in patient characteristics between first and second data collection were found. Evaluation results from anatomy, image-focusing, image-collimation and exposure from first data collection shows variations from 7 % to 37 % between evaluation at primary monitor by the radiographers and diagnostic monitor by the radiologist. In relation to anatomy, the quality of image-focusing and image-collimation can be improved. Fewer examinations met the evaluation criteria by radiologists compared to radiographers. After Education Conferences evaluation of the second data collection showed a trend of more examinations to be evaluated positively by radiologist. We found that image quality may be improved by Education Conferences and continuous focus on the subject.