title: Novel, portable, cassette-sized, and wireless flat-panel digital radiography system: initial workflow results versus computed radiography.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this article is to compare workflow efficiency between a conventional computed radiography (CR) system and a novel, portable, cassette-sized, and wireless flat-panel digital radiography (DR) system.
  
  
  METHODS
  Observational time-motion analyses were performed at one site at which CR and the new portable DR system are used concurrently. The workflow steps of both systems were identified and categorized to facilitate comparison. The times required for examination preparation, patient positioning, exposure, postacquisition processing, and the examination as a whole were recorded by a neutral observer. Timing differences between the CR and portable DR systems were compared, and all data were analyzed using commercially available statistical software. Nine general radiographic examination types were selected, with approximately 50 patients per examination type.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 941 examinations (CR, n = 474; portable DR, n = 467) were timed in this study. Total examination time differences between CR and portable DR system (mean, 26.44 seconds; median 26.99 seconds) were found to be statistically significant (p < 0.001), with DR proving faster than CR. The single largest contributor to the time difference between CR and portable DR was postacquisition processing (mean, 26.58 seconds; median, 25.91 seconds), which was a composite of multiple individual steps, including cassette transport (CR only, mean, 13.22 seconds; median, 12.74 seconds), cassette readout (mean, 10.15 seconds; median, 10.4 seconds), and postprocessing (mean, 3.21 seconds; median, 3.11 seconds).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Overall radiographer time was significantly shorter when performing examination-related tasks with the novel, portable DR system than when performing comparable tasks with the CR system, a difference that appears to result largely from technology configuration.
authors: Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Clinic of Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University, Theodor-Stern-Kai 7, 60590 Frankfurt, Germany. thomas.lehnert@kgu.de
authors: Thomas
authors: T
authors: Lehnert
authors: Nagy N
authors: NN
authors: Naguib
authors: Hanns
authors: H
authors: Ackermann
authors: Christof
authors: C
authors: Schomerus
authors: Volkmar
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authors: Jacobi
authors: Joern O
authors: JO
authors: Balzer
authors: Thomas J
authors: TJ
authors: Vogl