Last summer, I pointed out reports of a shortage of mammogram readers. Reading the image one gets from such a machine is quite difficult. Since reading it wrong will often get a doctor sued, fewer and fewer doctors are specializing in reading them.

So I’m glad to see the Medinnovation blog post on The Limits of Digital Technology:

For radiologists, digitally-powered images have become the magic wand. There’s only one problem, of course. What images mean reside in the eyes of the beholder. Image subtleties must be interpreted. It’s a high art form, based on years on experience, a discerning eye, the quality of the image, comparison to past images, even the mood, time of day, number of images required to be interpreted, and in the case of mammography, the density of the breast tissue. [read the whole post]

The medical malpractice problem, of course, is that, even though “the technology is always ahead of the interpretation,” the expectations are always ahead of the technology. And expectations play a key role in jury decisions.