Teleradiology and emergency neurosurgery

Abstract

With an increase in the number of district hospitals equipped with CT scanners, neurosurgical centres are frequently being approached to interpret emergency brain scans. Patient management is improved if the images can be transferred rapidly and reliably between hospitals. Although the technology for electronic image transfer (teleradiology) has been available for some years, it remains expensive, particularly as many hospitals would only use such a system a few times a year. This paper examines the established and potential methods for emergency image transfer and proposes a simple and cheap alternative method. This method employs an optical scanning device and a conventional modem linking personal computers at the transmitting and receiving sites. Such a system would be cheap enough for consultant neurosurgeons to have a system at home, allowing their opinion to be more easily and rapidly obtained at all hours.