Teleradiology on a laptop

[Second Doctor]

I'm on my 1st fourth year radiology rotation and some attendings have spoken about reading films from anywhere using their windows xp-based laptops with a wireless connection. I was wondering what the minimum laptop system requirements of this would be to be able to do this without compromising the quality of your work (I'm assuming monitor quality has much greater importance than speed of the system).

Thank you

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[MossPoh]

I'm not a radiologist, but have a fair amount of exposure with this stuff. One thing, operating system is kind of a case by case basis. System requirements aren't too steep....I have a basic image viewer on my macbook. As well as opensource software on my pc. 1 to 1.5 gigs of ram is pretty much the standard for smooth transition and what not.

Monitor quality is kind of subjective as well. The ideal setup is generally considered two 21-24 inch widescreen monitors...from a usability standpoint at least.

The largest limiting factor tends to be bandwidth when you come to large cases. I'd be a little hesitant of wireless from a security standpoint. There really area multitude of things that come into play...and technically, anything outside of the standard workstation (and some things with the workstation) will affect "quality" of work. Eyestrain, speeds, neck strain, screen resolution, absence of certain software..all affect productivity.

If I am completley off base, then someone please correct me. I'm not trying to be a know it all punk with this stuff...I've just read more than a couple usability studies, PACS/RIS implementation books, etc...GOooooooo information science.

 

[BullsOnParade]

To do telerads, your workstation must meet the technical standards of the ACR. Check out this article:

http://www.radiologytoday.net/archive/rt41006p14.shtml

 

[f_w]

I'm on my 1st fourth year radiology rotation and some attendings have spoken about reading films from anywhere using their windows xp-based laptops with a wireless connection. I was wondering what the minimum laptop system requirements of this would be to be able to do this without compromising the quality of your work (I'm assuming monitor quality has much greater importance than speed of the system).

Thank you

In order to provide anything but prelimnary review, you need an FDA 510k approved monitor and software combo. Also, you need an environment with controlled background lighting. While I am guilty of having reviewed the occasional ultrasound off my living-room couch, none of these conditions are typically met with a standard laptop.

 

[durfen]

I've done some research with PDA and laptop teleradiology. In general, the posters are right. Mobile devices are very good if you need to read a scan quickly for emergency cases. However, you need a high resolution monitor with high grayscale depth, especially for CRs.

 

[ImagingonCall]

If Teleradiology is where you want to be. There are many ways that the field is just growing and growing and will continue to do so.
There are definitely, though, quality of read standards to ensure.