title: Economic impact of real-time teleradiology in thoracic CT examinations.
abstract: Conventional teleradiology is a useful tool, but sometimes we have found it to be an insufficient means of investigation because the radiological specialists cannot indicate the imaging protocol during the investigation. The purpose of our study was to evaluate the efficacy of real-time teleradiology, which will improve the quality of medical management. Ten radiologists evaluated thoracic CT scans of 50 patients transmitted through teleradiology retrospectively. We evaluated whether or not the contrast enhancement study was performed effectively on the basis of the clinical data and after interpretation of the pre-contrast scans. The clinical data showed that 47.6% of the CT contrast enhancement examinations were not necessary. After interpretation of the pre-contrast CT scans, 66.6% of the contrast-enhanced scans were considered unnecessary. Real-time teleradiology will improve the quality of medical management providing the virtual presence of radiologists, and will save medical costs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, 465 Kajii-cho, Kawaramachi-Hirokoji, Kamigyo-ku, Kyoto 602-8566, Japan. atakada@koto.kpu-m.ac.jp
authors.forename: Akihiro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Takada
authors.forename: Toshiyuki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kasahara
authors.forename: Yasutomi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kinosada
authors.forename: Minoru
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hosoba
authors.forename: Tsunehiko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nishimura
mesh_terms: D003287:Contrast Media / Q000191:economics; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D006801:Humans; D013902:Radiography, Thoracic / Q000191:economics*; D019112:Teleradiology / Q000191:economics*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000191:economics*
chemical_list: D003287:Contrast Media