The College of Engineering Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) is a unique opportunity for college of engineering undergraduate students to engage in hands-on research with a faculty mentor while using critical thinking, collaborative, and entrepreneurial skills. SURP is an 8-week long program (can be non-contiguous), and students are expected to spend at least 20 hours/week working on their research projects and additional time preparing and presenting their poster for the annual SURP symposium; SURP students and their faculty mentor will agree upon a start date and timeline for their research project (with a suggested start date of June 26th, 2023). The goals of SURP are to: 

Project Title: Radiologist Report Composition Methods Study

Faculty Email: jespeece@calpoly.edu

The primary role of the radiologist is to produce a report based on diagnostic imaging that helps the referring clinician develop a plan of care for their patients. Continued increase in imaging volume, a decline in radiology labor, and ever-fluctuating payor reimbursements has necessitated the development of a faster way to compose high quality reports. With voice recognition, the most common method of composing a report, the radiologist dictates custom phrases for each section of the report and the conclusion. It is a highly labor-intensive method of report composition, prone to voice recognition errors, and requires the radiologist to edit each dictated sentence to ensure accuracy. An advanced macro-button toolbar system was developed that helps the radiologist decrease report turnaround time and increase report quality. With the click of a button, the report is populated instantly with standardized error-free text. The result is reduced report composition and editing time, and overall faster report turnaround time. Additional benefits of macro button report creation include reduced radiologist fatigue, standardization of reports across the practice, and the ability to satisfy reporting requirements needed for systematic reimbursement. The proposed research opportunity is to study the advanced macro-button toolbar system in use at a local outpatient imaging center and perform a statistical analysis to verify the abovementioned benefits and assess barriers to adoption.

HOW TO APPLY: