But there are still plenty of chances for errors in interpretation. Sometimes a radiologist will make a mistake; they might miss lesions (false negatives) or report something as positive when in fact there is nothing there (false positives).

Elizabeth Krupinski (krupinski@radiology.arizona.edu, http://www.radiology.arizona.edu/krupinski/index.html), who holds joint appointments in the radiology and psychology departments at the University of Arizona, is a leader in Medical Image Perception research, which seeks to discover the root causes of interpretation errors and find ways to avoid them. She is the first of several speakers on this topic at session WE-E-I-609 (Wednesday, 3:30-5:00 PM), which is designed to highlight the importance of medical image perception research to a community of researchers that may not be that familiar with the topic or know why it is important.

As Krupinski points out, the radiologist is the final link in the imaging chain. He or she holds the final responsibility for interpreting the image data and making a diagnostic decision that will affect patient care. Hence there is a need for examining how the radiologist views images and what factors influence the interpretation process.

IV. TREATING LUNG CANCER WITH 4D PROTONS

Compared to the x rays traditionally used in radiation therapy, protons offer the ability to destroy lung tumors just as competently while inflicting less damage to surrounding healthy tissue.

In a small experimental patient study, researchers have increased the effectiveness of using protons to treat lung tumors. In traditional radiation therapy, one
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28-Jun-2005