Incorporating Peer Learning Into Your Breast Imaging Practice

Leveraging Society Membership for Career Development

A breast radiologist who is early in their career will be faced with many opportunities that can be both challenging and rewarding. It is helpful to be aware of the resources available in the breast imaging field. Specialty society membership provides opportunities for personal and professional growth. Connections and relationships can be made with other breast radiologists at differing career stages, presenting opportunities to develop mentor-mentee relationships with experienced members and peer-to-peer relationships with colleagues who may have similar professional experiences. The resources available through society membership can assist in career development and help navigate academic and private practice settings.

Using the Medical Audit to Improve Practice Performance

Feedback to physicians on their clinical performance is critical to continuous learning and maintenance of skills as well as maintaining patient safety. However, it is fraught with challenges around both implementation and acceptance. Additionally, rewarding of performance improvement is not often done, putting into question the efficacy of the process. Physician audit and feedback have been studied extensively and shown to be beneficial in many fields of medicine. Documenting physician performance and sharing individual and group data have been positively linked to changing physician behavior, ultimately leading to improved patient outcomes. Although casual review of one's own performance is often the easiest approach, it is frequently over- or underestimated by self-evaluation. Objective measures are therefore important to provide concrete data on which physicians can act. A fundamental question remains in mammography: Is reporting the information to the physician and accreditation bodies enough, or should there be consequences for the radiologist and/or facility if there is outlier behavior?

Peer learning in breast imaging

With the increasing focus on quality and safety in medicine, radiology practices are increasingly transitioning from traditional score-based peer review to peer learning. Participation in a peer learning program can increase learning, practice improvement, and cultivation of interpersonal relationships in a non-punitive environment. As breast imaging errors are the most cited in medical malpractice cases, learning and attention to and reduction of these errors in breast imaging are especially important. We describe the strengths of a peer learning program, implementation process in a breast imaging program, challenges to overcome, and strategies to support success.