Patterns of use and satisfaction with a university-based teleradiology system

The Radiology Department at the University of Arizona has been operating a teleradiology program for almost 2 years. The goal of this project was to c haracterize the types of cases reviewed, to assess radiologists' satisfacti on with the program, and to examine case turnaround times. On average, abou t 50 teleradiology cases are interpreted each month. Computed tomography (C T) cases are the most common type of case, constituting 65% of the total ca se volume. Average turnaround time (to generate a "wet read" once a case is received) is about 1.3 hours. Image quality was rated as generally good to excellent, and the user interface as generally good. Radiologists' confide nce in their diagnostic decisions is about the same as reading films in the clinical environment. The most common reason for not being able to read te leradiology images is poor image quality, followed by lack of clinical hist ory and not enough images. Copyright (C) 1999 by W.B. Saunders Company.