Teleradiology
In the expanse of the medical profession lies radiology. Radiology is the biggest revenue producer in the United States medical profession. Within radiology lies a dilemma that continues to grow. That dilemma is the lack of radiologists that are now graduating. To compound that shortage, the baby boomers are reaching the age of medical necessity. As the population ages, the need for medical treatment increases.
Teleradiology was born out of hospitals needing emergency reads in the middle of the night and the radiologists needing the ability to make these reads without making a trip to the hospital to do so.
Today, Teleradiology is the fastest growing segment in radiology. With the demands for 24 hour reading services that use overseas radiologists, to a "new" group of teleradiology that is spawning daytime reading services. To take that one step further there are now "subspecialty" teleradiologists. They specialize in specific modalities; specific body parts (neuroradiologists, musculoskeletal, PET, Cardiac and so on).
With the technological advances in Telemedicine, networking, high speed image transmission and super fast computers, the rural portions in the United States now have access to world class expertise in all of these fields. The population now does not have to fear "standard" care in rural areas. Specialization is just a click away. Radiologists can consult with other radiologists across the country to get the correct diagnosis.
Coming from both hospital based and free standing imaging centers and now working in this area I have seen all sides. Some of you have not had that experience, some have. I would like to hear your input, good or bad, on this subject.
I have also had some problems with teleradiology. However, I must say that as time goes by they seem to be few and far between. Initially, 10 years ago or so, I had so many problems that I hated it. I thought it was a waste of time. Little did I know the strides in technology that would be made and how it would affect my job.
Thanks for responding, the outlook for teleradiology is very good and with the current advances in technology it will become even better
Your absolutely right! This new era of teleradiography has reached all the way out to those rural areas of this nation. Physicians can now have access to highly detailed reports and know that interpretations are being done by specialized radiologists in the subspecialty areas like neuro, ortho, etc.
Images traveling at lightspeed across the net, and rads sitting at home reading has totally altered the way medical imaging used to be. Radiologists have been known to distant themselves from direct patient interaction, leaving it up to the primary physician to explain what actually he dictated. Imaging facilities have done away with on-site radiologists and rely totally on teleradiography, reducing the costs to staff rads all day. I still feel that patients and physicians feel more comfortable knowing that a radiologist is physically present during there imaging procedures.
Referring physicians like to pick up the phone and call in to discuss their patients report findings with quick response, this establishes good relations. If a physician has to wait a while to be called back, that's not good. Patients are far more educated these days about their health care and do at times insist to speak with the radiologist. Now that usually does'nt happen. There must be a common ground in medical imaging, one that has both on-site rads to console the referring physicians needs quicky and the use of telerad to enhance the expertise of all areas of medical imaging interpretations.
I think its great that someone is bringing attention to this topic. I actually work in a level one trauma center which happens to be a very large hospital and constantly expanding. We use teleradiology with radiologists in Australia during the third shift time period. I believe it is a wonderful advancement and use of technology and gives the patients better care. Sometimes in talking to the patient I will mention that we will have a reading from a radiologist but we have to send the images over first, they sometimes ask about where we send them. It never fails they are always amazed that technology has advanced so much that we can send them over with a click of a button across the ocean to another continent. As with any technological advancement though there are always a few bugs. When that system goes down in the middle of the night radiologists are not happy. Most of them understand and deals with it even if it means having to come in to do readings. Some radiologists though balk at the very idea of it happening, but as with any computer system there can always be break downs. Another point is sending large studies. There are many times that they never receive all of the images especially for a study with over 400 images. Also it is almost impossible to get in touch with a radiologist over there or when you finally do they don't know your protocols well enough to give the go ahead on certain instances. I once had an emergency situation that was on a time line due to t-pa administration and called. After waiting for over five minutes on hold the clerk came back on and said they would have to call me back. I told them it is extrememly stat big emergency. I finally gave up waiting on the call and called my backup radiologist. By the time the teleradiologist called back the patient was already on their way upstairs to the neuro intensive care unit. So no matter what we are making advances and the bugs are being worked out slowly but always have a back up system ready in the mix just in case. You never know when you are going to have to resort to it.