In teleradiology, medical images are transmitted to offsite radiologists for interpretation and the dictation report is sent back to the original site to aid timely diagnosis and proper patient care. Although teleradiology offers great benefits including time and cost efficiency, after-hour coverages, and staffing shortage management, there are some technical and operational limitations to overcome in reaching its full potential. We analyzed the current teleradiology workflow to identify inefficiencies. Image unavailability and delayed critical result communication stemmed from lack of system integration between teleradiology practice and healthcare institutions are among the most substantial factors causing prolonged turnaround time. In this paper, we propose a blockchain-based medical image sharing and automated critical-results notification platform to address the current limitation. We believe the proposed platform will enhance efficiency in workflow by eliminating the need for intermediaries and will benefit patients by eliminating the need for storing medical images in hard copies. While considerable progress was achieved, further research on governance and HIPAA compliance is required to optimize the adoption of the new application. Towards an idea to a working paradigm, we will implement the prototype during the next phase of our study.
翻译:在远程放射学方面,医疗图象被传送到场外放射学家,以便进行解释,听闻报告被发回原址,以帮助及时诊断和适当的病人护理。虽然远程放射学带来巨大的好处,包括时间和成本效率、课后覆盖率和人员短缺管理,但在充分发挥潜力方面仍有一些技术和业务限制需要克服。我们分析了目前的远程放射学工作流程,以查明效率低下问题。由于远程放射学实践和保健机构之间缺乏系统整合而导致图像的缺乏和延迟的关键结果通信是造成长期周转时间最重大的因素之一。在本文件中,我们提议建立一个基于连锁医疗图象共享和自动关键结果通知平台,以解决目前的限制问题。我们认为,拟议的平台将消除对中介的需求,通过消除将医疗图象储存硬拷贝的需要,从而提高工作流程的效率,将有益于病人。虽然取得了相当大的进展,但还需要进一步研究治理和HIPAA的遵守情况,以优化新应用程序的采用。为了形成工作模式,我们将在下一阶段实施原型模型。