Study Reveals Bias Among Doctors Who Classify X-rays For Coal Miner's Black Lung Claims
University of Illinois Chicago researchers are the first to report on the financial conflicts of interest that exist among doctors who review the chest X-rays of coal miners who file workers' compensation claims of totally disabling disease with the U.S. Department of Labor's Federal Black Lung Program. The UIC researchers found that the determinations of these doctors-who are known as B-readers and who are certified by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, or NIOSH-were strongly associated with the party that hired them. By analyzing 63,780 radiograph classifications made by 264 physicians in Black Lung Program claims filed during 2000-2013, the researchers found that B-readers who were identified as ever being hired by a coal miner's employer read the images as negative for pneumoconiosis in 84.8% of the records. Pneumoconiosis is the general term for a class of lung diseases caused by the inhalation of dust-coal worker's pneumonoconiosis, or CWP,...