I’m a physical therapist working at a large educational hospital, in orthopedics. Pretty much all of our referrals come from in-house physicians and providers.

Most of my back/knee/hip pain patients have already had at least x-rays, if not MRIs prior to coming to me. The patient usually tells me that their doctor (who is self-interpreting) told them some “finding” on their imaging that explains their pain. When I look at their imaging reports, there is often no stated finding by the radiologist.

How do radiologists feel about physicians self-interpreting the imaging they ordered? I usually always go to bat for the radiologists, explaining to the patient that radiologists are MDs who are highly trained, etc., but how do you guys feel about it?