The Improvement of Patient Centering in Computed Tomography Through a Technologist-Focused Education Initiative

• Published in: Journal of digital imaging 2022-04, Vol.35 (2), p.327-334
• Main Authors: DeWeese, Lindsay, Griglock, Thomas, Moody, Alexander, Mehlberg, Aaron, Winters, Celeste
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Computed tomography; Education; Humans; Image quality; Imaging; Intervention; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Misalignment; Patient Positioning - methods; Patients; Quality control; Radiation Dosage; Radiology; Software; Teaching methods; Technologists; Tomography, X-Ray Computed - methods; Vertical orientation
• ISSN: 0897-1889; 1618-727X; 1618-727X
• DOI: 10.1007/s10278-021-00580-w

Proper patient centering is fundamental to the operation of CT. Misalignment of the patient is known to have a negative impact on image quality and dose. The purpose of this study was to improve patient centering in CT and examine the efficacy of several educational methods that could be implemented at any clinical site. The IRB determined the study was not human subjects research, and oversight was waived. Three interventions were examined. The first intervention involved a discussion on patient centering at a staff meeting. As the second intervention, an educational presentation was developed and delivered to CT technologists addressing the physics behind the importance of patient centering in CT. As the third intervention, individual technologist centering performance reviews were conducted by the modality supervisor. Clinical scan data was collected for each study period via a cloud-based software to examine the efficacy of each intervention in terms of lateral and vertical offset. The mean vertical offset of the baseline data was −1.97 cm. After the staff meeting, the mean vertical offset decreased to −1.60 cm ( p