The findings, published in the June issue of American Radiology, show that in a group of more than 200 surveyed patients who received MRI or CT scans, a total of 40 percent believed radiologists were either technologists or nurses, not specially trained physicians.
The report also indicated that for exams with normal results, 73 percent of patients preferred to receive results from the ordering physician rather than the radiologist.
“There is persistent confusion as to the role of radiologists, with only 60 percent of respondents correctly defining radiologists as physicians,” wrote study author Melanie Kuhlman, MD, of the University of Arizona in Tucson. “There is the possibility that patients believe that their primary physicians are ‘experts’ at interpreting images.”
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