Ben White

How I Use the Contour Shuttle for Radiology

09.04.23 // Radiology

This post could have been titled:

  • Why and How to Use an Offhand Device for Radiology

Or maybe even:

  • How to Make the Most of All Those Extra Buttons on Your Gaming Mouse or Similar Device

We’ll be talking about using productivity devices to make diagnostic radiology more biomechanically (and functionally) efficient. I was personally more focused on the former (repetitive stress is no joke), but both are important. Even if you don’t want to read more cases per day, reading the same number of cases with less friction is still a win.

This discussion applies broadly, but we’ll be doing so through the example of my current left-hand device: The Contour Shuttle Pro V2, a weird little ambidextrous off-hand device mostly used by video editors:

The principles of optimizing your radiology workflow and customizing tools for manipulating PACS are nonspecific. Whether you use this device, some sort of gaming/productivity mouse, or a combination (with or without the help of AutoHotkey), there is a lot you can do to streamline and improve your day-to-day practice.

(See this post for a thorough breakdown of microphones, mice, peripherals, and other workstation equipment).
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From the short essay, “Energy Makes Time,” by Mandy Brown:

But there’s something else I want to suggest here, and it’s to stop thinking about time entirely. Or, at least, to stop thinking about time as something consistent. We all know that time can be stretchy or compressed—we’ve experienced hours that plodded along interminably and those that whisked by in a few breaths. We’ve had days in which we got so much done we surprised ourselves and days where we got into a staring contest with the to-do list and the to-do list didn’t blink. And we’ve also had days that left us puddled on the floor and days that left us pumped up, practically leaping out of our chairs. What differentiates these experiences isn’t the number of hours in the day but the energy we get from the work. Energy makes time.

The what is sometimes even more important than the how much.

// 09.04.23

From the free ebook A Manifesto for Applying Behavioral Science from the UK’s Behavioural Insights Team:

The other concern is that [behavorial science] theories can make specific predictions, but they are disconnected from each other – and from a deeper, general framework that can provide broader explanations (like evolutionary theory, for example). The main way this issue affects behavioral science is through heuristics and biases. Examples of individual biases are accessible, popular, and how many people first encounter behavioral science. These ideas are incredibly useful, but have often been presented as lists of standalone curiosities, in a way that is incoherent, reductive, and deadening. They can create overconfident thinking that targeting a specific bias (in isolation) will achieve a certain outcome.

Cognitive biases and mental models make for great blog posts but are really hard to put into practice as an individual or effectively guide policy as an organization.

For further reading, try Nudge (the new/final edition was just released in 2021).

// 08.28.23

AutoHotkey for Radiology

08.25.23 // Radiology

AutoHotkey is powerful free software you can use to control your computer and generate simple (or complex) macros to automate tedious or repetitive tasks.

For radiology, I consider the most important ability AHK enables is true hands-free dictation.

Ultimately, you can go crazy with this power, and it only takes a few minutes to learn how to use the software. The AHK website includes beginner tutorials and examples, and ChatGPT is even familiar enough with AHK scripting to get you most of the way. You don’t really need to understand very much in order to use it.

Randall Munroe, author of the always wonderful XKCD and Thing Explainer, illustrates why basically every radiologist should be doing this:

Please note that I am far from an expert on AHK or scripting in general. I started this journey in order to more effectively ditch the dictaphone, and—once I started—realized I also just dislike wasting my time.

I promise: The small investment in time and energy is absolutely worth it.
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In a similar vein to our recent discussion of radiology practice and game theory, this is from Andrew K. Moriarity’s new article in JACR, “Pirate Practice”:

Employed sailors could count on the guarantee of agreed-upon pay in return for work performed. However, each pirate must be primarily motivated to ensure group success by their own self-interest because each endeavor lasted only as long cooperation maximized profits over expenses.

[…]

In considering the cooperation needed among individuals for a successful voyage to keep moving forward, perhaps Jack Sparrow was right to conclude that “not all treasure is silver and gold, mate.”

// 08.24.23

Humans–with some incredible diligence and lots of practice–can do such fascinating things.

Pretty unreal.

// 08.23.23

Hold in the back of your mind the notion that someday you’re gonna write a book. You don’t have to write it this year. Meanwhile, writing begets writing. Just get into some kind of situation where you are writing, and if it’s some various thing you’re publishing online, it’s still grist to the mill.

Legendary nonfiction writer John McPhee in an interview with GQ at the tender age of 92. For further reading, see Draft No. 4.

// 08.22.23

From Tanner Greer’s The Scholar’s Stage:

The professionalization of intellectual pursuit is another problem. Melville would never have written Moby Dick if he had spent years enrolled in an MFA program instead of spending years at sea. Men and women who in past ages would have observed humanity up close (or at least who would have been forced through a broad but rigorous education in classics) instead cloister themselves in ivory towers. Their intellectual energy is channeled into ever more specialized academic fields and cautiously climbing a bureaucratic and over-managed academic ladder. Could that social scene ever produce a great work?

// 08.21.23

Great reporting by Cezary Podkul in ProPublica (and amazing perseverance by Dr. Shteynshlyuger):

A powerful lobbyist convinced a federal agency that doctors can be forced to pay fees on money that health insurers owe them. Big companies rake in profits while doctors are saddled with yet another cost in a burdensome health care system.

// 08.16.23