An Initial Qualitative Investigation of Augmented Reality Interactions with AR-Novice Radiologists

The need for efficiency in radiology has been made clear and augmented reality (AR) has the potential to address this by aiding with issues around irregular lighting conditions impacting the accuracy of reports, while also speeding up the process with improved interactions. However, some interaction questions are still very much open, and interactions for radiological applications deserve more attention. This short-term exposure study involved a series of seven interviews with practising radiologists and radiology registrars, most of whom were AR-novices. Participants engaged in AR tasks using the Microsoft HoloLens 2 and Meta Quest 3, running software provided by GigXR, as a basis for rich dialogue around the interaction value of AR for radiological tasks. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to analyse the resulting data, generating five themes, with the NASA-TLX providing additional context. The themes were mapped to three design considerations that stand as the contribution of this work and highlight how radiological AR requires interaction design distinguishing intended from unintended movement, standardised hardware requirements for clinical-grade HMDs, and versatile, workflow-integrated deployment to overcome resistance to clinical adoption. These are embodied in the speculation of an AR-First world that illustrates key requirements.