In an effort to reduce costs and more importantly, make it more convenient for our nuclear medicine radiologists to review cases without having to drive to the hospital, a simple and very inexpensive no-frills teleradiology system was developed.
The heart of the system we developed are two SupraFax 28.8 kbps V.FC modems. These modems are attached to the radiologist's home PC, and the other is attached to a NeXT workstation connected via ethernet to our 4 Picker Odyssey workstations.
The modems provide a high speed link through which nuclear medicine image files can be transferred from the department to the radiologist's home for viewing and consultation with the technician. With error correction and data compression, a 1 MB image file from a lung scan can be transferred in under 5 minutes.
The images are obtained by using a program to obtain a screen capture of the image window, which is then converted to a .gif file. There are a number freeware programs for the PC/Windows environment that will display .gif files. Alternatively, the raw image data can be downloaded and displayed using a program that will handle 16 bit image data.
The radiologist then dials up the modem connected to the NeXT, and downloads the images contained in a predetermined directory. Once the images are downloaded, the radiologist can view them and call in a preliminary diagnosis.
Total cost of the project: ~$5000 Cdn. The price includes 1 486DX66 computer with 8 MB RAM, 730 MB hard drive, 17" monitor and 2 SupraFAX 28.8 kbps V.FC modems. Consider that most commercial systems will probably cost considerably more for a computer they supply, and their software.
Since many people will already have a home computer and in some cases a modem, the price can be reduced to just the cost of one or two high speed (V.34) modems, about $270 Cdn/modem. Additionally, many SPECT systems are now shipped with their own modems which are generally used by the vendors to provide remote servicing. With a bit of cooperation, these could also be used to transfer images. In theory, the entire project could be done at no cost, using already existing equipment.
Since the project was started, the NeXT has since been replaced with a 486. With a high speed serial port, data transfer speeds should improve considerably. Also, images are no longer converted to gif format. Instead, the raw image data is downloaded directly and viewed using a display program.
A similar endeavor is in the works for our two CT suites.
If you would like further information about this project, feel free to mail Eugene Mah or Dr. Mike Hoskinson
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