Remote Radiology Solution Ensures Dependable Imaging

An innovative graphics solution provides quality, security, and performance for radiologists working outside hospital walls.

The Barco (Kortrijk, Belgium) remote radiology reading solution consists of an eGFX graphics box and a Thunderbolt 3 connector, which can drive any high-resolution display used for medical applications. All radiologists need to do is bring their laptop and connect it to the graphics box, which resides between the laptop and the medical displays. The flexible eGFX graphics box also includes a high-performance Barco MXRT display controller that provides radiologists with access to Barco’s clinical workflow tools, such as SpotView.

SpotView enables radiologists to focus on a particular area of the image by increasing luminance in a region of interest; this allows them to increase reading accuracy by 6%, with a concomitant 16% reduction in the time required to identify details, resulting in an overall faster workflow. The remote reading solution includes access to QAWeb, an online service for automated quality assurance (QA) and calibration of medical displays. Quality managers can thus automate compliance of QA for every remote workstation, including tracking and reporting.

“We see a growing trend towards radiologists reading outside the hospital. Outsourcing radiology imaging, the expansion of teleradiology, and the demands for better work-life balance for radiologists are fueling this trend,” said Mick Grover, product manager at Barco. “However, this kind of evolution doesn’t come without challenges. Think of security and patient privacy when medical images are shared outside the hospital, possible quality and compliance issues, and the level of performance that is required to efficiently run medical applications.”

It is projected that by 2025 there will be a shortage of radiologists in the U.S. to the order of tens of thousands of positions. In addition, hospital consolidation and the rise of remote imaging results in more medical workstations that need management. In order to help radiologists work more efficiently, ensure optimal working conditions and a flexible work schedule, remote reading can offer a viable solution, but remote workstations used for home reading are particularly challenging to control.