A new radiology workstation that integrates digital dictation with information retrieval technology will facilitate information transfer and improve workflow, said researchers at the SCAR meeting.
The radSmart workstation links a microphone to a computer system, allowing radiologists to dictate and store their reports in digitized form while at the same time querying other databases to retrieve related patient information.
"Even as the physician dictates the report on the patient into the computer-hooked microphone, the system automatically queries the hospital database and brings on the screen all previous medical records of the patient," said Dr. Charles Suitor, a radiologist at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.
This is how radSmart works: A barcode microphone serves as a computer input device, forwarding the procedure's accession number to the main server. The server in turn queries all available databases, including the radiology information system, laboratory information system, clinic notes, hospital discharge, and operative report system. The results are automatically displayed on the workstation.
After the radiologist dictates the report, the digital voice file is transferred to the dictation server and the patient's records are electronically updated.
"Even though in our facility we have access to a lot of patient data, information was still underused or not accessed for a variety of reasons, including inefficient user interfaces, nonintegrated computer terminals, or simple lack of proximity to data-access ports," Suitor said. "Also, the existing interfaces were underused due to nonintuitive, nonintegrated display screen."
The system requires less than five minutes of radiologist training time and has a query time of less than one second.
"RadSmart is unique, as it allows a radiologist to view a patient's history as it resides in several different vendors' medical products, without sacrificing the simplicity of the interface of a traditional radiologist's microphone," Suitor said. "All of the different information stores are queried and presented to the radiologist simply from the interactions with the microphone. The mouse and the keyboard are available to back up the barcode reader and to allow radiologists to switch views or type comments to colleagues."
The system may become the accepted model as a standard tool for radiologists, Suitor said.
