Aims and objectives
The ICT-committee of the Radiological Society of the Netherlands (NVvR) set up a survey of which the primary goal was to assess the radiologists’ interest and involvement in various issues related to informatics in radiology.
Based upon the results the ICT-committee wants to make recommendations concerning the society’s future policy regarding informatics in radiology.
Methods and materials
The survey was made in September 2013 using the free web-based Google Docs application (http://docs.google.com).
The questionnaire contained 32 questions subdivided in 7 topics regarding the following subjects:
Systems (PACS,
RIS,
EPR and post-processing software)
Teleradiology and image transmission
PACS- and IT-management in the radiology department
Knowledge of informatics and interest of radiologists in IT
Usage of Structured Reporting
Usage of Teaching data bases
The survey consisted of 23 multiple-choice questions (one answer possible) of which 9 had the option to give an alternative answer,...
Results
53 electronic forms were completed of which 43 unique submissions (7 radiology groups sent 2 or more answers).
There are 91 hospitals in the Netherlands,
of which 8 academic.
Eight unique answers were submitted by academic radiologists and 36 by peripheral radiologists,
meaning that 100% of the academic and 43% of the non-academic radiologists responded,
of which the majority work in training hospitals (Figure 1,
Table 1).
Type of hospital
Number
Percentage
Academic (employed)
8
18%
Non-academic,
free,
training
13
30%
Non-academic,
employed,
training
4...
Conclusion
From this survey it becomes clear that most Dutch radiology departments are well digitised.
In most PACS the RIS is fully integrated,
only in one quarter (25%) the PACS is linked to the EPR.
In most radiology groups usage of teleradiology is limited to the ability to view images from the hospital at home or elsewhere,
mostly for on-call situations.
Therefore teleradiology is mostly of the intra-mural type [1,
3].
Currently there is only very limited secured networking between hospitals enabling digital transmission radiological images,...
References
RadLex – http://www.radlex.org - Last visited on 30-12-2013
SNOMED CT - http://www.nlm.nih.gov/research/umls/Snomed/snomed_main.html - Last visited on 30-12-2013
Weiss DL,
Langlotz CP.
Structured Reporting: patient care enhancement or productivity nightmare? Radiology 2008; 249:739-747
ESR white paper on teleradiology: a status report from the teleradiology subgroup,
accepted for publication in Insights into Imaging,
DOI 10.1007/s13244-013-0307-z