The evolution of filmless radiology teaching

The transition from hard-copy film to the picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) arena is often a long and difficult path, but the complete transformation to the digital environment does not end with the successful clinical practice utilizing PACS. The next hurdle for academic institutions is similar changes in the teaching field. The loss of hardcopy films can greatly hinder the radiology teaching file and teaching conference experiences. The next step in our growth is the conversion to digital teaching files and conferences. The original work 10 years ago with utilizing computers linked with laser disks and magneto-optical media, have now evolved into complex networks with expanding and relatively cheap storage media, such as CD-ROM and easily to navigate graphic-user interfaces such as hypertext markup language (HTML) and extensible markup language (XML), for use with multimedia teaching tools.

The transition into the digital arena for radiology education and interdepartmental conferences can be accomplished through several different paths. These include direct transfer of images into a presentation program, as well as exportation of images into suitable image file formats for later use. There is also the ability to expand the PACS network to include conference rooms. Similar training and teaching can allow radiologists to transition into the digital environment for future digital teaching file creation as well as correlative radiology interdepartmental conferences.