Radiologic image sharing among U.S. children's hospitals.

Area of Science:

• Radiology
• Medical Informatics
• Healthcare Administration

Background:

• Streamlined radiologic image sharing between medical institutions is lacking.
• Current methods include electronic platforms and physical media like compact discs (CDs).
• Efficient imaging transfer is crucial for patient safety and increasing imaging demands.

Purpose of the Study:

• To outline methods and difficulties of radiologic image sharing among U.S. children's hospitals.
• To identify current practices and challenges in inter-institutional medical image transfer.

Main Methods:

• A survey was distributed to U.S. children's hospital department chairs in August 2021.
• The survey focused on radiologic image sharing practices and challenges.
• Descriptive statistical analyses were performed on the collected data.

Main Results:

• 78% of responding children's hospitals utilize an electronic image-sharing platform.
• 27% of institutions report daily difficulties with radiologic image sharing.
• Key challenges include issues with CDs (67%) and electronic platform interoperability (51%).

Conclusions:

• The study identified diverse radiologic image sharing methods in U.S. children's hospitals.
• Significant ongoing challenges with current image sharing systems were quantified.
• Interoperability and physical media limitations persist as major obstacles.