TELERADIOLOGY TECHNOLOGIES AND SOME SERVICE MODELS

Teleradiology has become increasingly important in the managed care ra diology practice environment. In order to fully appreciate the telerad iology operation, we have to understand the current technology availab le, some service models, and trade-off factors. This paper is organize d in three parts. The first part is a review component of a teleradiol ogy operation as well as state-of-the-art technologies. In the second part, we generalize several service models based on our past experienc e to illustrate the trend in teleradiology applications. The last part on trade-off factors is derived from field data. Four major factors ( image capture, workstation, image compression and communication techno logy) balance a teleradiology operation in terms of cost, image qualit y, and turnaround time. The major issues in teleradiology yet to be re solved are patient confidentiality and image authenticity. Copyright 1 996 Elsevier Science Ltd.