DIAGNOSTIC-ACCURACY IN REMOTE EXPERT CONSULTATION USING STANDARD VIDEO-CONFERENCE TECHNOLOGY

An international multicenter study (Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland) was performed to investigate the feasibility and diagnostic reliabilit y of standard video-conferencing (VC) technology for remote expert con sultation in radiology. Three high-spatial-resolution films (hand-bone , mammography, chest) and two low-spatial-resolution image sets (liver CT and MRI) were studied (total 446 images taken from different exami nations). The images were recorded by a video camera, transmitted via public broadband networks, and displayed on a video monitor. The resol ution of the recorded images varied from 2.4 lp/mm to 4.8 lp/mm at max imum zoom. After 3-4 months, the images were reexamined using conventi onal light-box reading. Diagnostic reliability was evaluated by receiv er operating characteristics (ROC) analysis. With video conferencing, there was a noticeable loss of diagnostic accuracy for the high-spatia l-resolution films, whereas for liver CT and liver MRI images VC readi ng seemed to be satisfactory (average area value difference < 0.02).