Incorporation of Macropads Into Abdominal Imaging to Improve Radiologist Productivity and Efficiency

Shifting demographics within the United States population will likely continue to increase workplace demands of radiologists over the next decade, highlighting the importance of improving radiologist productivity and efficiency. Macropads may serve to optimize radiologist workstations by assigning complex repetitive tasks to a single press of a button. Information technology (IT) restrictions in many radiology practices limit the use of macropads, which often require software installation for use. duckyPad is a unique macropad that circumvents the obstacle of workstation software installation. As a proof of concept, a duckyPad was modified for use in an academic abdominal imaging department. Specifically, commonly accessed online resources (ie, incidentaloma management tables) were programmed to open in a new Google Chrome window when the assigned key on the duckyPad was pressed. The device was replicated and successfully used in several reading rooms within the department. Despite reported benefits of device use, widespread implementation of duckyPad is limited by a number of factors, including required assembly. Future efforts of macropad incorporation into radiology workflows will focus on collaboration with IT departments to potentially facilitate use of more robust devices that can be managed centrally using proprietary software.