How do healthcare professionals select the medical images they need?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how healthcare professionals search for and select the medical images they need within medical settings.Design/methodology/approach – In total, 29 healthcare professionals participated in the study. Using a think‐aloud technique and face‐to‐face interviews, the authors asked participants to explain how they looked for medical images and how they judged the relevancy of retrieved images.Findings – A total of 15 criteria were applied by participants when determining the relevance of medical images in relation to their information needs. Topicality was found to be the primary and most important criterion used by participants.Originality/value – This study compares the relevance criteria used for medical images with those identified in the literature and highlights six additional criteria that have not been suggested in previous work.