Dear Healthcare Informatics Insider,
Healthcare institutions are increasingly emphasizing the need to limit and track radiation doses to patients from imaging procedures. Automatic dose-monitoring software can be an important tool for accomplishing that goal, according to recent research from the University of Zurich in Switzerland.
In an 18-month study, the researchers determined the software was 100% accurate for automatically capturing dose metrics from chest and CT abdomen exams performed on polytrauma patients. They also found it to be quite useful for quantifying the impact of implementing dose-reduction techniques. Click here for all of the details.
In other news this month in our Healthcare Informatics Community, we've got coverage of a recent study that delved into the utilization and opinions of structured reporting by radiologists in Italy. A survey performed by the Italian Society of Medical Radiology revealed that more than three-quarters of its responding members indicated either no radiologists or less than half of radiologists were using structured reports at their institution.
Although they generally perceived structured reporting to yield benefits such as improved report reproducibility, many participants also shared a number of reservations about the technology. Learn more about these lingering concerns -- and find out what can be done to improve adoption of structured reporting -- by clicking here.
We've also reported on a new cloud-based image sharing project underway in France. Under the Shared Regional Medical Imaging Services project with the Agence Regional de Santé, image producers across the Île-de-France region will be able to share data even if they already have their own PACS, RIS, or archive. You can click here to access our article by Frances Rylands-Monk.
Although the concept of deconstructed PACS and enterprise clinical management has largely been driven by the U.S., deconstructed PACS may also offer some important advantages in Europe, according to Stephen Holloway, principal analyst and company director at Signify Research. Holloway explains in his latest column for AuntMinnieEurope.com how radiologists can benefit from clinical repositories, independent clinical archives, and clinical enterprise content management models.
If you have any tips or suggestions for topics you'd like to see covered in the Healthcare Informatics Community, please feel free to drop me a line.
