The x-ray factor
 |
Peter Bull |
Health practitioners around the country, particularly those in regional areas, are set to save time and money thanks to Macquarie University spin-off company Image Connections Australasia.
And thanks to the increasing demand for teleradiology, Macquarie University is compiling an extensive database of electronic x-rays which is set to provide exciting opportunities for research.
Image Connections Australasia, which provides an end-to-end teleradiology solution for health practitioners across the country, currently has tens of thousands of x-rays housed in its database.
“For 112 years since x-rays were first taken nobody has ever stored them with a view of looking at them for ongoing research,” says Peter Bull a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Health and Chiropractic and co-founder of Image Connections Australasia. “Now that they are electronic and housed on the university’s web servers we can use them to search for the incidence of certain diseases, patterns in different regions and extrapolate information about work injuries or car accidents for instance.”
What is Teleradiology?
Teleradiology is the ability to electronically send x-rays of patients, particularly in remote areas, back to larger institutions, radiology practices or hospitals for reporting.
Image Connections is what Bull describes as a classic middle man in the market. The company takes electronic films, compresses them into the right format and then sends them through to the radiologist.
Currently there are in excess of 64 regional chiropractors who use the services of Image Connections along with an increasing number of dental practices and medical centres.
“In some country areas the chiropractor, dentist, or health centre providers are the only x-ray service providers for a fairly large remote area,” says Bull. “For the first time they are able to have access to specialist radiology reporting in a timely manner.”
Once the x-rays are received by Image Connections they are sent through to one of their radiologists and a report is generated and returned within 48 hours. If required a faster turnaround can be arranged.
Major benefits of Teleradiology
Apart from the research benefits there are a number of other advantages of using Teleradiology:
- patients in rural areas can access city specialists without having to travel
- radiologists can undertake more reporting as they save on travel time (it has been estimated a radiologist can now report on 10,000 patients per year)
- there is no longer a need to purchase film or chemicals
- new equipment means a significant reduction in the patient’s radiation dose
- large storage facilities for film are no longer required
Research
Bull and partner Ray Hayek are currently in talks to have films sent from overseas to augment the database. There are already two PhD students using the database for their research. One student is investigating the incidence of sacral plane obliquity and the other is investigating the incidence of leg length insufficiency. “Both these studies will have a major impact on the diagnosis and management of scoliosis, the abnormal curvature of the spine in adolescence,” Bull says.
“The ongoing research that this database generates is the most exciting thing for the University,” says Bull. “In the history of x-rays there has never been a database like this one.”
For further information visit Image Connections Australia www.imageconnect.com.au or contact Peter Bull pbull@imageconnect.com.au