The impact of a short course of study on the performance of radiographers when highlighting fractures on trauma radiographs: "The Red Dot System".

This study was set up to determine the effect of a short course of study on radiographers' ability to identify fractures in a trauma context (Red Dot system). The performance of 133 radiographers attending Red Dot courses delivered from April 1999 to September 2003 was evaluated prospectively using a selected sample of radiographs. Assessment of fracture identification occurred before, immediately after and 6 months after the course. The same film set was used and consisted of 30 axial and appendicular cases, 18 with fractures and 12 normal or normal variants. Following a test for normality of the data, a Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test was selected and paired tests were done between each assessment for sensitivity and specificity. There were significant differences in sensitivity between all three assessments (p