“RELIABILITY OF CHEST X-RAY INTERPRETATION IN PGS, INTERNS AND FINAL YEAR PHYSIOTHERAPY STUDENTS: A SURVEY REPORT”

Question: Is chest radiograph interpretation reliable in PGs, interns and final year physiotherapy students? Design: survey report. Participants: 100 PGs, interns, and final year physiotherapy students were taken from Jaipur National University, Department of Physiotherapy. Methodology: A self-administered questionnaire google form having a time limit of 20 minutes was prepared and distributed to all the PGs, interns, and final-year physiotherapy students of Jaipur National University. The questionnaire form consists of Section 1 which includes basic information about the students and section 2 consists of 10 chest X-rays which are to be answered along with their key features and then the final diagnosis. The data were obtained and then analyzed. Outcome measures: Score between 0 and 2 (with 2 being in agreement with the radiologist’s opinion,1 being partially correct, for example, the correct interpretation of the key features which resemble abnormality but failed to diagnose the exact condition) and 0 being no consistency with the radiologist opinion. Results: The results were calculated using the ANOVA test. A one-way ANOVA revealed that there was a statistically significant difference in mean score between at least two groups (F (2,97) = [3.025], p=0.53. Conclusion: By the virtue of this survey, we can conclude that PGs, interns, and final-year physiotherapy students have poor scores in the ability to interpret chest X-rays. Therefore, more recent exposure to radiology teaching to physiotherapy students may develop their interest and knowledge in the interpretation of unreported chest X-rays even in emergency situations as well as in acute settings in the hospital.