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EDITORIALS: Amy Davis Better radiology in the BMJ BMJ 2008; 336: 628 [Full text]

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Response to "Better radiology in the BMJ"

Ganapathy Ananthakrishnan, T.B. Oliver, Consultant Radiologist, Ninewells Hospital & Medical School, Dundee DD1 9SY.   (16 June 2008)

Response to "Better radiology in the BMJ" 16 June 2008
Ganapathy Ananthakrishnan, Specialist registrar in Radiology, Ninewells Hospital & Medical School, Dundee DD1 9SY., T.B. Oliver, Consultant Radiologist, Ninewells Hospital & Medical School, Dundee DD1 9SY. Send response to journal: Re: Response to "Better radiology in the BMJ"	We read the recent editorial ‘Better radiology in the BMJ’ with interest (1). The article was concerned about the low number of BMJ publications featuring radiology as a central theme and the quality of the material published therein. To address this, potential authors were encouraged to submit manuscripts, particularly in relation to the BMJ series ‘Rational Imaging’ and the forthcoming ‘Picture Quiz’. We applaud the journal’s attempt to promote a medical specialty that is central to the diagnosis and treatment of all patients, but are concerned that the editorial’s guidance, which states that all images must be accompanied by a signed patient consent form, will hamper the initiative. In practice, most radiologists’ best educational material is housed within electronic databases on their PCs, many important clinical lessons arise in cases when the patient is deceased and others are learned on retrospect when the patient is no longer available. Obtaining patient consent in these situations is often impossible. Whilst we agree that patient anonymity is paramount, we feel that radiology images with demographic data removed are very different to clinical photographs and it is difficult to conceive that any patient could be identified from their abdominal x-ray, pelvic ultrasound or shoulder MR image. In view of this, we suspect the BMJ’s editorial position will discourage submission of some of the most publishable material. Four of the leading radiology journals, Clinical Radiology, BJR, Radiographics and Radiology, apply a less rigorous but we believe more reasonable standard, requiring patient consent, only ‘if there is any possibility of a patient being identified from an illustration’(2)&(3). We propose a softening of editorial policy to bring BMJ into line with the practice of other journals and suggest that this will increase the number and quality of radiology themed manuscript submitted. Dr. G. Ananthakrishnan Specialist registrar Dr. T.B. Oliver Consultant Radiologist Department of Clinical Radiology, Ninewells Hospital & Medical School, Dundee DD1 9SY 1. Amy Davis Better radiology in the BMJ BMJ, Mar 2008; 336: 628 ; doi:10.1136/bmj.39504.640104.80 2. BJR: Instructions for Authors (Page 5/15, Ethics: Patient consent) 3. Radiology: www.rsna.org/publications/rad/PIA/policies/rights.html Competing interests: None declared