An article that was recently published in Knack magazine
accurately touched upon the changing role of the radiology department
while raising the issue of ‘the invisible radiologist’. Indeed, several
studies report that – although an important member of a patient’s care
team – a radiologist is often seen as a technician who takes pictures.
Patients don’t know what the responsibilities of the modern radiologist
truly entail. Popular media have a crucial role to play in this, say
radiologists Erik R. Ranschaert and Olivier Vanovermeire.
So where does it go wrong?
Erik R. Ranschaert, Radiologist at Jeroen Bosch (The Netherlands): “We offer very complex services to ensure high-quality patient care. But most of the time, we are represented as people who are staring at X-ray films on light boxes all day. This is how we worked 20 years ago. The way we are presented in the media – think of medical television series but even in newspapers and magazines – doesn’t always reflect who we are or what we do and could be misleading to patients.”
Olivier Vanovermeire, Head of Radiology at AZ Groeninge (Belgium), agrees: “There’s a serious gap between public perception and reality. Radiologists are very tech-savvy and the radiology department is often the forerunner when it comes to introducing and adopting new technologies and medical innovations. In fact, our technological innovations are included among those ranked as the most important to patient care(1). It would be nice to see this reflected in popular media as well.”
Today, radiologists no longer view images on film on lightboxes.