Does mammographic practice affect film reading style - breast screening vs. symptomatic radiologists?

In the UK there are two groups of radiologists who routinely read mammographic cases: Symptomatic and Screening Radiologists. We examined the performance of these two film-reading populations, Breast Screening Radiologists and Symptomatic Radiologists, to evaluate if there were group differences in their ‘style’ of reading the same set of cases. Specifically we looked at each group’s sensitivity and specificity measures. In addition we investigated if there were any individual group differences apparent in the cases which they found challenging and what (if any) were the characteristics of those cases. Data from 66 Breast Screening Radiologists and a matched group of 66 Symptomatic Radiologists were compared over a number of years (360 cases). Results are presented which demonstrate that whilst the two groups show overall similarities in performance there exist subtle underlying differences which we attribute to the differences in their everyday experience of the types of cases that they read. In conclusion, we argue that these differences are related to the volume of cases which UK Screening Radiologists read in order to maintain skill level.