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The use of cell phones for preliminary image viewing is particularly justified in ER, when images should be delivered to dedicated radiologists, wherever they are. Most current PACS, however, provide not functionality for mobile image distribution, and smartphones do not have any DICOM capabilities either.
We found a very straightforward solution to this problem:
1. A gateway server (GS) was developed to link our PACS with multiple phone destinations. The server is a standard DICOM server, capable of converting incoming DICOM images into AVI and PPT (PowerPoint).
2. On the PACS side, GS is configured as several DICOM-push destinations (associated with particular radiologists).
3. On the smartphone side, GS is linked into our departmental email system.
As a result, any set of the images can be pushed from PACS to a specified DICOM destination, supported by GS. When these DICOM images arrive to the GS server, they are converted to AVI or PPT format, and emailed to the associated email address. The recipient is able to view these images on a smartphone (linked to our departmental email).
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The proposed system was beta-tested in our Radiology department, to evaluate the main image distribution parameters.
Image quality: All participating radiologists found image quality sufficient for preliminary readings.
Image viewing: Current smartphone models already provided built-in support for image pan and zoom. Multimedia formats (AVI and PPT), provided simple support for image scrolling and compression. Thus, the most fundamental viewing functions were based on generic smartphone functionality.
Image distribution: Pushing images from PACS to preset destinations ideally matched the PACS data distribution model, requiring no customization on the PACS side.
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The entire image-distribution framework was built from the existing and generally available systems and software. The only programming was done on GS side, requiring DICOM to AVI/PPT export and SMTP client. However, these functions are well-known and can be programmed at a minimal cost.
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