teleradiology reflections in a district general hospital setting – pleasures, pitfalls and practical pointers

Abstract

in 1997 the teleradiology facilities at princess margaret hospital swindon were upgraded to a modern dicom compliant system. we describe the practicalities rather than the technical issues of setting up and running a teleradiology system that can send images to the radiologists' homes on call obviating the need for them in many cases to attend the hospital. we list the initial doubts and concerns voiced by both radiologists and radiographers and describe the means of overcoming the problems that arose. from these reflections we have obtained a deeper insight into the use of teleradiology in a district general hospital (dgh) setting. our conclusions are described.