Changing Image Transfer Methods in Radiology practice

Today, radiology is practiced by learned radiologists in different ways than it used to be a decade back. The new technologies have enhanced the radiology outcomes practice in its entirety, however the eyes for details is still required in the profession. It starts with how the fellow radiologist are reading and writing their reports in today's highly connected world of 4G.

At the outset, from Enterprise point of view, there are generally 4 methods of reading and reporting radiology images such as MRI scans, CT scans , Xray Scans, USGs etc.

1. Directly on the Machine Console
2. Indirectly on PACs that is on LAN but within Console Premises
3. Indirectly on Web PACs that is on desktop away from Console Premises
4. Indirectly on Cloud PACs that is on desktop/laptop/mobile away from Console Premises
   

Each Method requires different hardware and networking configuration,  infrastructure and software tools.

The 1st method is hands-on and can be practiced anytime wit or without networks (private or public). The reporting radiologist makes her available at console which is still the best way to practice radiology. She can attend the patients directly, but it reduces turn around time for reports. However in some patients groups, it is required to personally attend and do the scan procedure.

The second method is practiced in bigger hospitals where the distance between the console and radiologist display units is at more distance. In such cases, the turn around time of scans is expected to be less due to patient load. The frequent intervention of radiologists is not expected.The console machine is brought into private network before it was rightly connected using IPs of different machines in network- requires advises from network engineer. As said earlier the intervention from radiologist follows normal probability distribution pattern. The outlier cases are 10% where local radiologist need to attend the subject.

Whereas, the third method gained popularity (at enterprise level) once internet speed had increased to 10 mbps in last decade. Now the radiologist got peace of mind and he could report the cases from anywhere. The diagnostic facility now had option to outsource the work load to outside radiologist. The least of the 10% cases still required intervention of radiologist were done under the supervision of resident radiologist on site in working hours. Hence Enterprise got more flexibility now they hired 1 resident radiologist and other teleradiologist, It was smart move that saved budget and decreased turn around time (TAT) per case. Network wise, it was challenge as two networks came into pay : private and public. However, the telereporting companies developed or hired PACS application which was installed at the client end from where the diacom images needed to push on the web-server.

The last method is new but very effective. With the arrival of 4G internet speeds almost to the level of 100 mbps, it was possible to transact image data directly on local cloud server. With this, apart from PACS, even the diacom viewer application were now possible to host on the Cloud Server. This gave in true sense the close virtual experience of console room for radiologists. On network side, it became still easier as now the communication from console to the clouds could be established with IP configurations at node level using dynamic security protocols. Cloud PACS and Online