Radiopaedia Blog: New feature

In the next few days we are going to deploy a complete overhaul of the search page. This has been required not only to make it easier to find the case or article that you are looking for but also in preparation for mobile-friendly responsive design (which is currently being deployed piecemeal in beta). We are also going to be including other content types in search results (e.g. blog posts, courses, user-profiles etc..) which needed a change in layout. 

The main changes you will see on the new search page: 

1. layout
   1. results will be presented as a single column 
   2. articles have the first few lines of text shown
2. results 
   1. all result types (currently Articles and Cases) will be mixed together ordered by relevance
   2. modalities included in cases will be visible
   3. diagnostic certainty is made more promient
3. filtering / sorting
   1. result types can be filtered easily to only show one type of content (e.g. cases only)
   2. all filtering and sorting options currently available will remain
   3. ability to filter cases by modality has been added
   4. filtering and sorting does not require a page re-load so is faster

Hope you enjoy these changes. 

Now that we have over 20,000 cases, it has become imperative that we are able to more easily find quality cases with confirmed diagnoses. To that end over the next week or two we are introducing a new component to all cases: Diagnostic Certainty (DC). 

This new user interface is located immediately below the title in case edit mode. 

There are 5 possible levels of diagnostic certainty 

1. Possible
   • The preferred diagnosis is one of a number of possible diagnoses, and although it is perhaps more likely, other conditions remain viable alternatives. Cases like this are sometimes worthwhile, but often they are not. What you need to do: include a discussion on why you favor your diagnosis. Be prepared for your case to be rejected for publication. That's ok, you can always keep it as one of your unlisted cases.
2. Probable
   • The preferred diagnosis is far more likely (>90%) than any alternative, but the diagnosis has not been established.
3. Confirmed but unsubstantiated
   • You have reason to believe the diagnosis was confirmed, but you do not have access to the proof and cannot upload it. For example, you collected this case some time ago and have included "path proven" in the description but no actual histology report. Alternatively the referral states the diagnosis which was established elsewhere.
4. Confirmed and substantiated
   • The diagnosis is known beyond a doubt and proof is included in this case. For example, histology report +/- slides are included, or confirmatory tests have been provided and those results included. Sometimes images are pathognomonic (e.g. fractures) and need no supportive evidence.
5. Not applicable
   • The images are not of a patient with a particular diagnosis. For example, they may be a normal scan for teaching purposes, or alternatively a diagram or flow chart.

How diagnostic certainty is used on the site

The diagnostic certainty of a case has many implications and functions. 

Firstly it has a strong influence on case completeness, and therefore sorting search results by case completeness will favor cases with high DC. Similarly these cases will be more frequently shown in Quiz Mode. 

Secondly search results will show the DC state as a colored dot (matching the slider). 

Thirdly search results can be (soon) filtered to only show cases of a minimum DC (e.g. at least confirmed but unsubstantiated). 

For a long time we have heard from many of you that you wanted to have some cases private, but still be able to share it with colleagues.

So now you can.  

This has been a long time coming and has required considerable work behind the scenes, but now you can create cases that only you can see unless you decide to share them. 

How do I create an unlisted case?

Just create a case as you normally would (just click "+ Add Case" in the header) and select "unlisted" 

You can also do this at the end of creating the case, and you can of course always change your mind; change one of your existing cases to unlisted or make an unlisted case public. 

Why would I need an unlisted case?

There are many reasons why you might want to keep a case unlisted. Here are a few:

1. get a colleague to give you an opinion on a tricky case
2. save a case for future publishing
3. send your residents / registrars cases as unknowns (stay tuned for more features on this front)
4. prepare a tutorial or lecture

How do I share a case?

Once you have created your case and saved it, just click on the "share" button from the top right side of the page.

Then either use the buttons at the top for your favorite social media service, or simply copy and paste the url into an email etc... 

Important: you must use the "share" url, not the one in your browser window. It should look something like:

http://radiopaedia.org/cases/2d122042bdc6bb951d8ff77ae6050f8d

The very long alphanumeric hash at the end is what keeps your case private. The url in your browser only works if you are logged into Radiopaedia as you!

Can I use an unlisted case in playlist?

Sure you can. The playlist must also be unlisted, but I guess that is the whole point right? Just go to the case and click the "Add to" button, and off you go. 

Can anyone else see my cases?

Other than you and those you share your url with, only the site administrators and editors can see your case. 

How many unlisted cases can I have? 

At the moment you are limited to 10 unlisted cases, although you can of course delete or make them public as often as you like. 

We are very much looking forward to building additional functionality for all of you out there that want to use Radiopaedia.org for teaching, so please stay tuned for much much more! 

Frank

Dr Frank Gaillard is a neuroradiologist at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, Melbourne, Australia, and is the Founder and Editor of Radiopaedia.org.  NB: Opinions expressed are those of the author alone, and are not those of his employer, or of Radiopaedia.org.

One of the most frustrating parts of Radiopaedia.org is its usability on mobile devices. Articles are ok, but to be frank (and if anyone is going to be, it will be me) the ability to view cases on a small screen is not great. 

We have been aware of this for some time, and we have been working on it. A responsive design for a site of our complexity (scrolling stacks, lots of images, lots of screen layouts to support) is no small task. But we are making progress. 

Our first substantial improvement is a responsive-design for our quiz mode, which should now make viewing playlists (such as this exam review playlist) or individual cases much more pleasant. 

Click PLAY from any case!

So, if you are struggling to view a case in normal view mode (we know, no easy way to scroll etc...) then all you need to do is tap the "play" button to the right of the case title, and you are good to go. 

Basically what we have achieved is the interface adapting to your screen size and changing the layout and size of buttons etc so that we make the experience of viewing a case as pleasant as possible regardless of your device. 

Have a go and look at this case.

In all views scrolling is supported either by using the mouse scroll wheel or by swiping up and down anywhere on the image. 

There are naturally going to still be a few rough corners, and we hope to iron these out over the coming months. If you have feedback, please feel free to drop us an email to [email protected]. 

This is just the beginning, and we are determined to make the mobile experience better for the whole site (as well as bring you a whole gamut of awesome new features and improvements). 

Cheers,  Frank

Dr Frank Gaillard is a neuroradiologist at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, Melbourne, Australia, and is the Founder and Editor of Radiopaedia.org.  NB: Opinions expressed are those of the author alone, and are not those of his employer, or of Radiopaedia.org.

A quick tiny itsy bitsy little feature which was actually a pain, but necessary on our way to a better stack experience. 

Now, if you do not set a stack key image, the default slice chosen for the series thumbnail will be the middle image rather than the first image. This of course makes much more sense, as rarely is the first image representative. 

This same middle image will be the start position for stack viewing in Quiz Mode, and soon the same will occur in case view. 

We have also gone back and set the middle image as key for each stack which had not had a key image set; all 16,175 cases !  But don't worry.. if you have previously set another image as the key image, we didn't touch that, so all should be good. 

Thanks, and happy case creation. 

Frank