[Unknown Member]

That’s too bad.
 
I thought mammo was going to be like fluoro and IR, i.e. could not be easily displaced by telerad. At least they still need one person to do the wire locs and biopsies.

[g.giancaspro_108]

.

[ruszja]

You dont need MQSA to do a wire-loc. Just train a PA 😉

[Unknown Member]

Et tu, Brutus?
 
There are people saying the same about reading CXRs and noncon heads. And we want to open that door for what, so there is some more breast work for teleradiologists to do remotely ?  Give it up a little here and a little there for a little convenience, and we will eventually find ourselves with neither work nor convenience. 

[cytek1]

Talking to your patients through a screen? I bet they enjoy that a lot.

[Unknown Member]

No, I’m talking about diagnostics as per OP and training PAs to do breast procedures, as in the post above. 

[seb_arrosa_904]

great point, teleradiology is like junk food  and is becoming fast food medicine. Trying to short cut may work with normal reads but sooner or later will compromise patient care and its surprising that malpractice lawyers have not picked up on this gold mine.  There is no short cut when you need to talk to the patient and the clinician in person. Just like virtual sex, its not the same as real sex,  is it.

[leann2001nl]

How do you do a diagnostic virtually

That sounds horrific

The computer told me I had cancer

[seb_arrosa_904]

exactly my point, virtual garbage

[ruszja]

Quote from Flounce

Et tu, Brutus?

 
Its a joke, sarcasm. Even put the little smiley after it.
 
90% of my mammo practice could be done via tele. Stereos and ultrasound biopsies can be lined up for a half day in the hospital. Locs can be done by the IR. The only thing I ever loc these days is the marker from the biopsy that diagnosed the patients cancer.

[kaldridgewv2211]

Is there now 2 definitions for teleradiology. In house teleradiology and shipping the work to another party? If its in house Id be curious to know what kind setup is being used successfully for mammo. Especially diagnostic which need real-time attention. We have lots of people who can sit at home buts its a tangled web and theres not much view into a lot of it like various internet service providers.

[Nieves1953]

I’ve been reading mammography and all modalities from home for 8 years. A used Dell T5500 workstation for a few hundred dollars, a used Barco 30 inch 10 MP monitor for around $7 grand and a $500 8 GB video card. 25-50 mbs internet speed and a large hard drive for tomography caching. There is a team of traveling physicists that certify the local hospitals who come by once a year for a couple hundred bucks and download the QC data generated by Barco software. I have recently looked at mammos on a $500 4K TV and I can’t tell the difference, but it isn’t legal.  I travel to the hospital 1-2 days a work week for locs and biopsies. Diagnostics by phone consult in real time. It allows tiny rural hospitals to provide mammo services without in house coverage. 

[ruszja]

Heresy !!

[mpezeshkirad_710]

Quote from Haltmadness

I’ve been reading mammography and all modalities from home for 8 years. A used Dell T5500 workstation for a few hundred dollars, a used Barco 30 inch 10 MP monitor for around $7 grand and a $500 8 GB video card. 25-50 mbs internet speed and a large hard drive for tomography caching. There is a team of traveling physicists that certify the local hospitals who come by once a year for a couple hundred bucks and download the QC data generated by Barco software. I have recently looked at mammos on a $500 4K TV and I can’t tell the difference, but it isn’t legal.  I travel to the hospital 1-2 days a work week for locs and biopsies. Diagnostics by phone consult in real time. It allows tiny rural hospitals to provide mammo services without in house coverage. 

Nice post and I wonder how the lockdowns and nationwide shift to remote work will affect radiology.