Unused Radiological Findings on Data Carriers: 'What an Intellectual Loss'

The first ('conventional medicine') and second healthcare markets ('complementary medicine', 'medical wellness') are believed by many representatives in the statutory health insurance system to differ in the particularly high efficiency of the first healthcare market. But this is far from the case, as radiologist Prof. Dr.

Werner Golder (Avignon, France) points out. In a commentary published in the journal 'Nervenarzt,' he criticizes the so-called 'treasure trove' of digital data carriers loaded with radiological images, which are often attached to every report nowadays. These CDs or DVDs can only truly be an enrichment, according to Golder, if one can easily open them, quickly find what is being sought, and view the findings without any delay.

But this is still problematic — especially when comparing the radiographs with the results of clinical examinations or during assessments. The immediate access to image information, which was once available with the simple X-ray films of the past, is certainly far from being achieved in the digital age. Retrieving the 'analog' images generally took less time than their examination and evaluation, Golder recalls.

Today, startup times are longer — sometimes much longer. One inserts the CD/DVD into the laptop, waits varying amounts of time until it is recognized and incorporated by the respective DICOM viewer (software for viewing digital X-ray findings), is prompted to open it, navigates to the overview of the stored image files, and is then offered the option to open them in any order. And if the display software has an interface and controls that one is not familiar with, even more time is wasted.

According to Golder's rough but probably not inaccurate estimate and based on his own experience, at least every second CD/DVD carrying radiological data remains unopened and therefore unnoticed in the files. 'What a deficit on the way to specialized information! ' laments Golder, 'what a renunciation of independent evaluation of the image material!

What an intellectual loss!