Dr Christoph Agten

I am (probably) faster than most attendings at finding Waldo.

Why? And what does it have to do with radiology?

I'll explain in full at my webinar on Monday (register here: dub.sh/AgtenWebinar) — but for now, let me tell you a story about search patterns.

Dr. Randal Olson was snowed in one weekend in 2015.

Instead of relaxing, he decided to find the mathematically optimal way to locate Waldo.

He pulled the coordinates of all 68 Waldo locations across 7 editions of the original books, plotted them, and ran a genetic algorithm on the data — treating it as a travelling salesman problem: visit every probable location in the shortest possible path.

What he found: Waldo's placement isn't random.

There's a dead zone in the top-left corner (always a postcard there). He's almost never on the edges — too obvious. And he's never at the very bottom of the right page, because that's the first thing you see when you flip to a new spread.

The algorithm produced three rules:

- Start at the bottom of the left page
- Move to the upper quarter of the right page
- Then sweep the bottom-right half

With that pattern, Olson found Waldo in under 10 seconds on nearly every illustration.

Here's what this has to do with your reporting speed:

It's not enough to have a search pattern. It has to be a meaningful one.

Scanning left-to-right in a grid feels thorough. But it's a bad search pattern.

The best search patterns are built around where findings actually live — and which compartments give you context for what comes next.

For example, in knee MRI: lateral compartment before the ACL, not after. Because the bone bruise pattern tells you what the ACL injury looks like before you've even looked at it.

The right, logical search pattern — matched to a template — is the single highest-leverage change most radiologists can make today.

I'm covering this in detail — including my own search pattern, live demo, and the templates I personally use. Register here: dub.sh/AgtenWebinar

🗓️ When: Monday, Feb 23 | 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM PST (9:00 PM – 10:00 PM EST)

📍 Where: dub.sh/AgtenWebinar

⚠️ No recordings. No slides sent later. Live only.

31 minutes ago | [YT] | 1

Dr Christoph Agten

Most radiologists have never seen their own eye movements.

These are mine — and they show exactly why some radiologists are 3–4x faster than their peers, as I'll explain in depth next Monday: dub.sh/AgtenWebinar

The pattern tells you everything about how an expert radiologist’s brain processes images differently from a beginner's.

On Monday, I’ll go through the research that shows:

- Experts have shorter fixation times
- They make larger saccades — fewer jumps to cover the same ground
- They use peripheral vision to catch pathology outside their direct focus
- They spend most of their time in the "kill zone" — not scanning everything equally

Notice my eyes skip over large areas of the image. I’m not being reckless. I just have calibrated my pattern recognition.

This is what it looks like when you train yourself on a search pattern.

You know what you’re looking for before you look. It's not about moving your eyes faster. You just learn to trust your peripheral vision to flag anything unexpected elsewhere.

The search pattern is the engine of a fast and confident radiologist. Everything else (templates, macros, voice recognition, genAI) is just fuel.

Without the engine, you're not going anywhere faster.

Join me next Monday to see the neuroscience behind this, and learn how to build your own systematic approach to faster reporting.

🗓️ When: Monday, Feb 23 | 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM PST (9:00 PM – 10:00 PM EST)

📍 Where: dub.sh/AgtenWebinar

⚠️ No recordings. No slides sent later. Live only.

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22 hours ago | [YT] | 19

Dr Christoph Agten

Slow radiologists aren't more careful.

They're less efficient -- as I will argue next week here: dub.sh/AgtenWebinar

Every time I talk about doubling reporting speed, people push back. Speed equals carelessness, they say.

But there is zero evidence in the literature for that. It's a limiting belief.

When a beginner reads an MSK scan, their entire brain lights up on fMRI. They're actively searching, problem-solving, burning energy. It's exhausting.

Expert radiologists work differently. Through a process called neural recycling, we recruit the fusiform face area — the same region that lets you spot a friend across a crowded room.

This triggers a "gist response", which is brain's ability to extract the essential "gist" of a visual scene in a single glance, before conscious analysis even begins. This is what lets radiologists detect an abnormality in 200 to 500 milliseconds.

Speed is the shift from effortful processing to automated perceptual processing.

Last month, 464 radiologists joined me to explore the neuroscience behind expert reading scans fast. Now I'm running it again — for North and South America.

We'll cover exactly how to 2X your reporting speed without sacrificing quality.

🗓️ When: Monday, Feb 23 | 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM PST (9:00 PM - 10:00 PM EST)


📍 Where: dub.sh/AgtenWebinar

⚠️ Note: No recordings. No slides sent later. Live only.

Claim your spot for the US-timed session. The link to register is here: dub.sh/AgtenWebinar

2 days ago | [YT] | 5

Dr Christoph Agten

How does the brain of a radiologist work when reporting?

Register here if you want to find out on Monday 23rd Feb: dub.sh/AgtenWebinar

Let me show you in this live-only session, now scheduled for North and South American time zones.

People think speed reporting is dangerous, but there is no evidence to support that. It is just a limiting belief.

Speed IS NOT Rushing! They are not the same thing.

Last month, 464 participants joined me to investigate the science of the radiologist’s mind. We looked at why the brain is the ultimate bottleneck and how to unlock it using "Synchronous Reporting."

I have trained hundreds of radiologists to increase their speed, and in one group, I saw an average speed increase of 3.82x!

Speed in radiology is a learned skill, but you have to understand the cognitive mechanics first.

Because last month's session was packed with mainly European viewers, it is time to bring this to the Americas. Join me for a deep dive into the neuroscience of a radiologist's mind and learn exactly what you need to do to 2x YOUR reporting speed.

🗓️ When: Monday, Feb 23 | 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM PST (9:00 PM - 10:00 PM EST)
📍 Where: Online
⚠️ Note: No recordings. No slides sent later. Live only.

Claim your spot for the US-timed session. The link to register is here: dub.sh/AgtenWebinar

3 days ago | [YT] | 8

Dr Christoph Agten

Which of these do you most want to read?

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 1

Dr Christoph Agten

Surgeon emails you. You missed a meniscus tear.

You open the scan and it looks obvious. Your stomach drops.

One mistake like this isn't the problem. What happens next is.

Your brain turns one mistake into twenty negative thoughts. "I'm not good enough". "I'm going to get sued". "Everyone thinks I'm terrible".

Here are 3 rules from my new video to help you escape this trap:

1. Get feedback. More articles won't build confidence. You need a mentor to review your cases and find the blind spots you didn't know you had.

2. Don't blame. Bad image quality and vague requests are easy excuses. They leave you powerless. Use post-op scans to see what you missed. It is the surgically confirmed truth.

3. Don't cherry-pick. Swapping a hard ankle for an easy knee feels safe. It’s not. Avoidance de-skills you. Don’t let your comfort zone shrink your career.

How do you come back from a mistake?

1 month ago (edited) | [YT] | 34

Dr Christoph Agten

🚫 Stop trying to learn MSK from static images.

Real pathology is messy. It doesn’t look like the textbook examples.

That’s why I just opened the doors to The Agten Library. It is a vault of 1,300+ video case reviews where I show you exactly how I diagnose complex cases in real-time.

I cover everything from "Rotator cuff partial tears" to "TFCC injuries" to the stuff that usually makes you want to skip the case.

I just finished the migration, and the full archive is live now.

If you want to:

Report faster ⚡

Stop over-hedging 🛑

Own a massive reference library for a one-time price 💰

Click the link below to unlock the vault.

👉 www.skool.com/mskrad/classroom

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2 months ago | [YT] | 5

Dr Christoph Agten

Radiopaedia can't teach you this...

Here is why I built the Agten Library:

You open a wrist MRI at 4:45 PM.

You scroll. You see something at the TFCC. You're not sure if it's a partial tear or just degeneration. Radiopaedia gives you a dense list of features. Google shows you a textbook case that looks nothing like yours.

You're due to go home in 15 minutes.

This is the gap between textbook radiology and real life.

Generic resources give you lists. They don't show you the messy middle: what's normal, what's subtle, what actually matters, and how to phrase it so your surgeon knows exactly what to do.

Over the last four years, my fellows have sent me their hardest MSK cases every week. I open the DICOMs, scroll in real time, show my search pattern, and talk through how I'd word the report -- with a big focus on what the orthopaedic surgeon really cares about (and what they don't).

I pulled the 1,200 most useful videos and turned them into The Agten MSK Library.

It's what you'd see if I sat next to you and walked through your case.

For example, you can watch me explain:

- How to tell chronic partial UCL detachment from an acute tear in the elbow.
- When that "adhesive capsulitis" is actually an articular-sided partial supraspinatus tear.
- How to separate Morton's neuroma from intermetatarsal bursitis when they coexist.
- What to report (and what to ignore) when you see carpal instability with TFCC perforation.

There's nowhere else I know where you can keep coming back to real MSK cases like this and keep sharpening your eye whenever you have a spare 10 minutes.

To get lifetime access, go to www.skool.com/mskrad/about, join the free community, click on Classroom, and select The Agten Library

2 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 5

Dr Christoph Agten

An orthopedic surgeon in London once told me a secret.

When he gets a radiology report, the first thing he checks is not the "Findings" section.

But the NAME of the radiologist. If the surgeon does not know or trust them, he ignores the report. The harsh reality is that many MSK reports are never opened.

Why does this happen?

Because clinicians are fed up with reports that create more work.

To make sure surgeons don't hate you, you need to know the top three things in a radiology report that make clinicians most angry.

I explain what they are and how to avoid them in my YouTube video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzN6g...

Please let me know what you think with a comment on the video -- it helps more radiologists find these tips.


P.S. I made a free AI app trained on my content (including this video) -- the MSK Report Analyzer is almost ready. Just mention in a comment if you want early access and I'll get you a link.

3 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 18

Dr Christoph Agten

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Forget the goblins. You know what’s really scary?

That one missed finding that becomes a medico-legal nightmare.

Most conferences don't help. They're just passive lectures with "perfect" textbook cases. Nobody learns like this.

That's why I'm holding a 2-day intensive MSK MRI workshop in Abu Dhabi.

It’s a hands-on deep dive covering all major joints, using real DICOM cases to give you the practical calibration you've been missing.

Now for the truly scary part.

The event is only 15 days away.

We have exactly 4 spots left.

Once they are gone, that's it. I keep this group small to make sure everyone can interact.

If you want to join for this unique event that will give you confidence to handle any MSK case that hits your list, this is your last chance.

FULL DETAILS HERE: www.agten.org/msk-course

3 months ago | [YT] | 5