Biomedical subjects

R Procter

Publications and source records attributed to R Procter.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

Use of computer-aided detection (CAD) tools in screening mammography: a multidisciplinary investigation.

We summarise a set of analyses and studies conducted to assess the effects of the use of a computer-aided detection (CAD) tool in breast screening. We have used an interdisciplinary approach that combines: (a) statistical analyses inspired by reliability modelling in engineering; (b) experimental studies of decisions of mammography experts using the tool, interpreted in the light of human factors psychology; and (c) ethnographic observations of the use of the tool both in trial conditions and in everyday screening practice. Our investigations have shown patterns of human behaviour and effects of computer-based advice that would not have been revealed by a standard clinical trial approach. For example, we found that the negligible measured effect of CAD could be explained by a range of effects on experts' decisions, beneficial in some cases and detrimental in others. There is some evidence of the latter effects being due to the experts using the computer tool differently from the intentions of the developers. We integrate insights from the different pieces of evidence and highlight their implications for the design, evaluation and deployment of this sort of computer tool.

Anthropology, Cultural↗

PubMed2003

Trusting the record.

OBJECTIVES: This paper aims to contribute to a longstanding interest in documents and paperwork in healthcare work through an examination of everyday work with patient records in a clinic. METHODS: An ethnographic study of record keeping practices in a deliberate self harm clinic was conducted to consider the role that document work plays in the development of trust in the routine social interactions of a working division of labor. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Issues of trust are seen to play central roles within the complexities of organizational working and some consequent implications for the deployment and use of electronic medical record systems are considered.

Hospital Units↗

PubMed2000

Computer-aided mammography: a case study of coping with fallibility in a skilled decision-making task.

Breast screening requires radiologists to exercise keen perceptual skills to find what may be faint, small features, and sophisticated interpretative skills to classify them correctly. Understandably, radiologists sometimes make errors, and evidence suggests that employing a computer prompting aid can reduce them. To investigate prompting aid requirements, we have studied both current reading practices and radiologists reading with prompts. These studies have enabled us to understand better how radiologists manage errors in current practice, and how they deal with prompting aid errors. They also show that such aids may get used in ways quite different from those originally envisaged.

Breast Neoplasms↗