Peter MacIsaac wrote: > At yesterdays radiology quality workshop it was suggested that radiology > images as currently delivered were only useful a drink coasters. > > Any views on what GPs want from radiology re images and the CD method of > delivery?
In this age of powerful computers, I am amazed that CAT and MRI scans are still routinely presented as a series of slices which the viewer needs to synthesise into a mental image of the structures of interest. Radiologists and others accustomed to looking at such images all the time no doubt form the necessary neural connections to facilitate this, but for others, it is not so easy, and for patients, very difficult indeed. Why aren't CAT and MRI scans delivered in a form which provides 3D visualisation? Software to do the processing and visualisation is freely available - some superficial googling reveals http://www.itksnap.org/ or http://www.sph.sc.edu/comd/rorden/mricro.html - I am sure there are others. Of course, for the ultimate in imaging you can send your patients off for the VHP treatment - but warn them its a one-way trip: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/research/visible/visible_human.html Tim C PS As for delivery, I have already opined that cheap and highly scalable Web storage services such as Amazon S3 or the soon-to-launch OmniDrive are the future for exchange of large health-related files - without having to invest in infrastructure oneself: http://ozdocit.org/pipermail/gpcg_talk/2006-March/002533.html TC _______________________________________________ Gpcg_talk mailing list [email protected] http://ozdocit.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/gpcg_talk
