8 Apps for Radiologists
Apps that can help you perform your best.
With patient volume continuing to grow throughout healthcare-and the steady stream of referrals coming your way-it can feel as if your work as a radiologist is never done. At one time, that meant you spent countless hours tethered to your workstation, trapped in a dark reading room.Today, however, with the advent of the smartphone and the development of ever-sophisticated apps, you can stay on top of your workload and provide a high level of patient care from virtually anywhere. Diagnostic Imaging reviewed eight apps designed to keep you connected with your patients, your referring providers, and your facilities. The overall goal is to keep work at your fingertips while helping you be as productive and integrated as possible.
You can’t always be at your workstation, so a handheld option might be just the thing you’re looking for.
Although it isn’t intended to replace a full workstation-and should only be used when your standard workstation isn’t available-the free app Mobile MIM can give you password-protected, encrypted real-time viewing, registration, fusion, and display of medical images for a wide variety of modalities, including SPECT, PET, CT, MRI, X-ray, and ultrasound. However, it isn’t intended or approved for use with mammography.
With approved images, though, the app easily lets you see contours, dose-volume histograms, and isodose curves for radiation treatment plans, and makes patient care easier by letting you approve those radiation treatment plans.
Have you ever read an image and been confounded by what you saw? Wondered if others have seen something similar? Maybe you’d like to challenge your diagnostic skills to see how you’d fare if you did encounter something out of the ordinary.
Radiology Rounds is a free app that offers you that opportunity. By providing a feed where radiologists can upload cases and share images, it gives you the chance to read studies and make your own determinations. An internal team of editors verifies the correct diagnosis for each case, so you can be confident in your final interpretation. In some instances, image analysis is turned into a game for radiologists using the app to test their knowledge.
If you focus on thoracic radiology, Radiology ToolBox Pro can be a useful resource with dealing with certain patients. It’s designed to provide you with easy-to-access answers for some of your most-asked questions.
At $3.99, this app brings you information about the criteria for the management of adnexal and renal cysts, as well as thyroid and pulmonary nodules. In addition, it includes adrenal adenoma and glomerular filtration rate calculators, as well as charts of amniotic fluid indexes and pediatric spleen and kidney size. You can also access details about cervical nodes, liver segment anatomy, and ankle and wrist compartments. It’s all designed to help you render more accurate diagnoses faster.
Secure access to patient images is critical when you’re trying to provide a timely diagnosis, especially when the circumstances are emergent. In all those cases, being able to access the studies at your fingertips can be significant.
Via the free app, Nuance PowerShare, you can have immediate access to medical reports and images. Scans can be uploaded securely to the cloud-sharing platform and shared with imaging facilities, referring providers, and patients. Once you access an image, you’ll be able to manipulate them and zoom-in as needed.
In many instances, the patients you see will have been referred from another facility where they have also had imaging studies completed. In the past, you haven’t always had access to these studies, and you’ve needed to repeat them.
However, if you work in a facility connected with LifeIMAGE, you can easily acquire both existing patient images and patient data. Through this free app, anyone working in a LifeIMAGE facility on a patient’s care team can access his or her entire patient history and make referrals. Not only does it smooth out the transitions-of-care, but it can also reduce patients’ radiation exposure by eliminating the need for duplicated studies.
Voted the “Best App of 2019 at RSNA,” Radiology Assistant 2.0 is free to download, though you pay within the app for the level of subscription you choose.
This medical imaging reference and educational app brings together full-text articles of interest within radiology, including breast, abdomen, cardiovascular, chest, pelvic, musculoskeletal, neuroradiology, and pediatric imaging. Not only can you search within the article texts for particular topics or citations, but you can also access high-resolution images and image stacks.
Although it’s on the pricier side ($49.99), Osirix HD lets you download and manipulate series of images directly within your iOS device. The app, which can receive data via email, Safari, or DropBox from any WiFi/3G network device, can handle display images from ultrasound, CT, MRI, and PET in their native standard DICOM format. It facilitates your productivity since it works with PACS, medical workstations, and acquisition modalities and communicates through built-in VPN for secure and encrypted networks. Additionally, it supports several DICOM network protocols: C-STORE SCP, C-MOVE SCU, C-FIND SCU, C-GET SCU, and WADO, can be easily integrated into the RIS, HIS, or PACS.
Nearly everything about medicine and healthcare can be hectic. So, finding time to interact with other doctors-whether it’s for patient care or for personal interaction-can be difficult.
Doximity tries to help you stay connected. Billed as a social network for doctors, this free app offers several features that can put you in touch with other physicians quickly through a HIPAA-secured link on your phone. With a quick touch, you can search a physician directory, locating providers based on specialty and location. Through the app, you can both securely send patient data or contact the patient specifically. Doximity can also help you with a job search, including comparing salaries.
