The primary interpretation workstation: Information beyond image data

Abstract

With the advent of picture archival and communication systems (PACS), the importance of design surrounding prima~y review workstations has become apparent. To help acceptance of filmless medical imaging, workstations must be developed that serve the needs of both radiologists and referring clinicians. This report will discuss integral requirements of workstation design, including information creation, medical management, medical knowledge, and enabling technologies. Copyright 9 1998 by W.B. Saunders Company p ICTURE ARCH]VING and communication systems (PACS) have made possible the viewing of radiographic images on computer workstations both where interpretation occurs and where clinical care is delivered. With the advent of this technology, much development has been focused towards improving both aspects of these deployments from an image-centric perspective. This report will serve to discuss the experiences of the Massachusetts General Hospital-Advanced Imaging Laboratory's (MGH-AIL) design and development of primary interpretation and clinical review workstations that include not only image data, but also the integration of a variety of other essential patient information and medical knowledge. PRIMARY RADIOLOGIC INTERPRETATIONThe ideal primary radiologic interpretation workstation serves to provide the radiologist with not only the sets of images for clinical interpretation, buta host of tools and other information necessary to make this process more efficient and accurate. While our currently deployed workstations are primarily DICOM-based image display stations running C+ + display applications in UNIX OS, future workstations will run Active X components on NT OS layers. Because of this trend, the features added to the existing workstations by the MGH-AIL ate occurred on Microsoft OS platforms using Active X modules. To interface to existing UNIX

Radiologists' Productivity in the Interpretation of CT Scans

“…The net result is more efficient retrieval and display of sequential studies, resulting in a measured decrease in the interpretation time of chest radiographs. Other authors have described similar advances in PACS interface design to enhance radiologists' workflow with soft-copy interpretation [20][21][22].…”

An Automated PACS Workstation Interface

“…An interface that is cumbersome and slow will cause frustration, require additional time, and increase labor costs of ancillary personnel. Though researchers have studied interface design, little research has directly evaluated how the interface design affects radiographic interpretation work flow and radiologist efficiency [1][2][3][4].…”