Curbside radiology consults: how does the time allotted for review, level of training, and subspecialization affect interpretation accuracy?

The interpretation accuracy of resident and attending radiologists was assessed based on time allotted for study review, level of training, and subspecialization. Twelve cases were presented in a time-constrained and a time-unconstrained fashion to eight residents and six attendings. Overall, timed and untimed diagnostic accuracy was similar for all groups tested. Attendings sometimes performed worse than residents and in-field attendings when reviewing out-of-field studies. Residents often had greater specialty-specific accuracy than out-of-field attendings. Residents are capable of providing accurate "curbside" consultations to referring clinicians even under time-constrained conditions. Highly subspecialized attending radiologists should be cognizant of their out-of-field limitations.