Comparison of rural remote site production of digital images employing a film digitizer or a computed radiography (CR) system

This project describes two digital image acquisition methods for transmission from two rural sites to a remote site for primary interpretation of images. Practical considerations or implementation of rural teleradiology links are discussed. Digital image production occurred by either employing a film digitizer or a computed radiography (CR) system. Adequate image resolution was possible for most clinical applications for both methods (minimum array size of 2048×2048×10-12 bits for digital transmission). Benefits of CR included reduction in the image production cycle time and improved image handling. The technical sophistication and the cost of the link are directly proportional. Film digitizer technology was two to three times less expensive than CR. CR, on the other hand, offered significant operative expense reductions in the long run. Both CR and digitizer approaches are clinically useful methods for teleradiology. The type of equipment depends on the requirements of the applications needed and financial resources available