Medical Outfitters

European Congress of Radiology 2014: Mobile Devices Promise Healthcare Enhancements

 

Medley, FL -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/12/2014 -- Today’s ever-changing technology brings about advancements in health care. Patients are getting more engaged as Electronic Medical Records become mainstreamed in doctors’ offices. Electronic Health Records (EHR) software allows providers to oversee workflow better and enhance the quality of care. Health information exchange emerged as a result of EHRs’ ability to compile comprehensive patient data. As such, medical imaging technology has been improving as a result.

Mobile IT in radiology has been discussed in one of the refresher courses held at the European Congress of Radiology (ECR) in Vienna last March 6, 2014. Adopting tablets and mobile devices in radiology was conceptualized to provide alternatives and extensions to conventional workstations and laptop computers. Prof. Dr. Osman Ratib mentioned, “mobile devices are becoming part of our life and have introduced a disruptive but very attractive new paradigm in our professional activity." Prof. Dr. Ratib is the division head at the department of medical imaging and information sciences, University Hospital of Geneva, and chair for the ESR sub-committee on eHealth and Informatics.

Mobile devices are being used in radiology to serve as cost-effective and practical solution for on-call and remote viewing. Thus, the tools are not intended to primary diagnosis. More physicians are following the norm of purchasing smartphones and tablets, using the devices to continue medical care outside the physician’s office.

About 47 percent of doctors use a combination of smartphones, tablets and computers in their practice, according to a 2013 Mobile Trends Report from Epocrates. Mobile technology can be used for enhancing patient care, especially in medical imaging. Using such devices assists the physicians in reviewing diagnoses in real time and also facilitates easy collaboration with other medical professionals in their network.

Joseph Fernandez-Bayo, PhD, head of the digital medical imaging department at software company UDIAT in Sabadell, Spain, emphasized that, “tablets are probably here to stay. In Spain, tablets are beginning to be used in the healthcare sector. A recent survey found that 54% of professionals would be willing to use tablets in patient rounds, with 14% preferring traditional methods. However, economic restrictions and budget cutbacks have probably delayed their implementation, especially in the public sector."

Fernandez-Bayo pointed out that tablets present a promising solution, however the images should have the same quality as those in the reading room and it should appear the same. Clinicians need to learn how to establish a good viewing environment and develop good practices, such as turning auto-brightness off to ensure maximum allowed brightness and prevent direct reflections on the screen from windows of clamps. The implementation of a mobile viewer for ultrasound systems, and other digital radiography systems could help improve the its practice in the near future.

About Medical Outfitters
Medical Outfitter provides new technologies to advance your medical practice. Our sales advisers have been in the Diagnostic Medical Equipment Business for more than 20 years with experience ranging from MRI, CT, PET CT, Nuclear, X-Ray, Ultrasound and all other Imaging modalities. After years of dealing with the bigger more complex imaging equipment we have decided to concentrate our efforts in selling Computer Radiography, Film Digitizers, Diagnostic Displays, Fluoroscopy, Mammography, PACS, Printing Systems, Ultrasound Solutions, and X-Ray systems to better serve our clients. Our mission is to help you discern and decide which system will better serve your Diagnostic Imaging Equipments needs, better patient flow which will ultimately result in better customer service and boost profitability.