Since the utility of using the iPad for reading plain films is still up in the air, a team from Massachusetts General Hospital sought to assess the tablet's sensitivity and its diagnostic accuracy as compared with a PACS workstation, said presenter Dr. Supriya Gupta. In a retrospective evaluation of 30 cases of chest radiographs, the team found a high level of concordance.
"The image quality and accuracy of interpretation is excellent when an iPad-based application is used for visualizing chest radiographs," Gupta said. "It can potentially aid radiologists for making faster clinical decisions, for example, in confirming the placement of chest tubes, as there is no delay in downloading images onto the device and time taken to interpret the image is nearly equivalent to the PACS workstation."
