A study presented Tuesday at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America, in Chicago concluded that adding a photo of the patient next to their radiological scans may boost the accuracy with which scans are read by radiologists.

Radiologists often spend little or no time at all with their patients, the study explained. That’s why showing them a photo of a test subject can help improve their performance. These photos remind them “it’s not just a case,” but a human being who needs more attention than ever once there.

“Our study emphasizes approaching the patient as a human being and not as an anonymous case study. We feel it is important to counteract the anonymity that is common in radiologic exams, especially with the growth of teleradiology,” lead author Dr. Yehonatan N. Turner, radiology resident at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, said.

 For the study, Turner and colleagues analyzed the quality of reports on 318 patients who underwent computed tomography, or CT scans, an advanced type of X-ray. The patients accepted to be photographed before undergoing CT scans. The photos appeared automatically when the doctors opened the patients’ computer files.

After three months, the doctors were given for evaluation the same scans but without patients’ pictures. Radiologists missed some of the things 80 percent of the time at this reading. How was this possible? Well, the radiologist said viewing the photos made them feel more empathy for the patients.

“Once you see that this is a human being ... the attitude changes. You see this is a young woman, an old suffering man. It adds something,” said study co-author Dr. Irith Hadas-Halpern, a radiologist at the Jerusalem hospital.