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1. Evaluation of aDigital Camera for Acquiring Teleradiology Images
3. This work was supported by:1) US Dept. Agriculture, Rural Utilities Service Distance Learning and Telemedicine Grant2) US Dept. Commerce, National Telecommunications and Information Administration TIIAP Grant3) Office of Rural Health Policy, HRSA Dept. Health & Human Services Rural Telemedicine Grant Program4) The State of Arizona
4. Goal To determine if a commercially available digital camera can be used to acquire photographs of radiologic images to transmit them via store-forward technology over a telemedicine network.
6. Arizona Rural Telemedicine Network (ARTN) ATM based network based on high-speed T1 carriers
3 ATM switches located in Northern (Flagstaff), Central (Phoenix) & Southern (Tucson) regions of the state
Tandberg CANVAS Health Care Unit for real-time interactive teleconsults
MedVision for store-forward teleconsults
CompuRAD/Lumisys for teleradiology
13. Rationale Teleradiology is an important part of an increasing number of Radiology & Telemedicine programs
Saves time and feedback to referring clinician is faster than with other methods (e.g., courier) - 85% of our teleradiology cases have a “wet read” report generated within 6 hours
14. Rationale It can, however, be expensive!
For digital modalities a merge box is needed
For plain film a digitizer or video capture system is required
Some sites just cannot afford these options
A low-cost alternative had to be explored
15. Rationale The Patagonia Family Health Center needs consults especially in orthopedics & bone radiology
Have no x-ray facilities so send patients to Nogales’ Mariposa Clinic, the report & films are sent over either with patients or later
Problem - Mariposa only has a general radiologist so sub-specialty consults are often required
16. The Camera
17. The Cases 40 bone trauma cases (e.g., fracture, subluxation, soft tissue damage) from the Patagonia Family Health Clinic
Cases that required a consult in the past & were representative of the types of cases they would be sending for teleconsults in the future - typically subtle lesions
18. The Photographs Film images were placed on standard viewbox with extraneous light blocked out
The physician identified region(s) of interest based on clinical history and nature of problem
At least one global and one close up shot were acquired for each image using the Canon PowerShot camera
19. Display Images sent over ARTN to the MedVision workstation
Color monitor, 1024 x 768 pixels
Window/level, zoom/pan available for use during viewing
Film images displayed on standard viewbox
23. Protocol 2 orthopedic surgeons & 2 bone radiologists reviewed the 40 cases on film & using the digital photographs displayed on the monitor
Film reading 6 months after monitor reading
Reported:
Diagnosis
Decision confidence using 6-level scale
Image quality using 4-level scale
24. Results - Image Quality
25. Results - Image Quality C2 = 20.32, df = 9, p = 0.02
9 of the photo cases were rated poor
4 film cases were rated poor
Of the 9 photo cases, 4 (45%) were rated as poor because the region-of-interest was not captured sufficiently
Some views (film & photo) were not what the readers were used to - different technologists
26. Results - Diagnoses* Reader Agreement (Kappa)
1 0.89
2 0.92
3 0.94
4 0.88
* Truth was determined by 2 radiologists not participating in the study from the film images
27. Results - Confidence
28. Conclusions A digital still camera can be used effectively to capture images of bone trauma radiographs for store-forward telemedicine consults
Well-framed close-up shots of the region-of-interest are essential
Good quality original films are essential
29. Other Applications? Other non-screening applications where a specific suspicious region-of-interest can be identified for close-up photographs
Unless the lesion is fairly gross, the global shots are not adequate for consultation - close-up shots are required in the majority of cases