Drillers Versus Scanners

Diagnosing from medical images has become much easier in the digital age – and whole-slide images can offer gains in both processing and accuracy. But what is the most effective visual technique for evaluating slides in the digital realm – scanning the XY plane or “drilling” by zooming in and out of the Z plane?

A group of researchers tracked eye movements to compare how pathologists and radiologists visually assess breast pathology slides – and established that, whereas pathologists gain their critical diagnostic information primarily from scanning, radiologists prefer drilling to interrogate critical features (1).

They also found that pathologists’ scanning rates correlate with higher diagnostic accuracy, but further work is needed to determine whether there is a causal relationship between scanning rate and accuracy. These findings add to our knowledge of how visual search behaviors affect tissue screening moving forward in our increasingly digital world.