Taking cases in a conference setting is an important aspect of training because it is part of the practice of radiology. When I pick up the phone and a clinician asks for a wet read, I am "taking the case." When I'm presenting at tumor board and the oncologists add on a last minute case that just got scanned, I am "taking the case." You have to be able to quickly look at a case, formulate an opinion, and communicate your thoughts aloud clearly. Part of it is knowing radiology, but part of it is a finesse that comes with practice.
When I have seen radiology people give a bad tumor board, it's because they don't communicate clearly, they drag on without concluding, they speak in jargon or innuendo, they don't understand the clinical question asked, they hedge unnecessarily, or they don't know when to say they don't know.
These are things that should get whipped out of you in case conference. When you're in the hot seat, you are practicing managing your anxiety being put on the spot in front of smart people and you are exercising your mental bandwidth to both process the visual information and articulate your thoughts simultaneously.
When you're not in the hot seat, you are learning by example or counterexample from your peers. When they are 'um'ing and 'er'ing, you are making a mental note that it sucks to listen to that and you should not do that when in that position. When someone gives an awe-inspiring masterful rendition of a read and the differential/pathophysiology/management/etc, you are making a mental note to be more like that and study harder. Radiology residents do not get that many opportunities to see each other really at work (doing the mental work live, not the reports that have been edited by an attending). It is a useful calibrator for how well you are doing.
