OsiriX HD App for iOS

A study from the University of Maryland found that radiologists using iPad 2s to evaluate patients for tuberculosis (TB) took twice as long to make a diagnosis as they did when using a 27-inch LCD monitor. Still, the study of 200 negative and 40 positive TB cases that included five radiologists, found the two displays to yield no significant differences when it came to diagnostic decisions.

Those diagnostic imaging applications that have secured FDA clearance, like Mobile MIM or Calgary Scientific’s ResolutionMD, are cleared to be used when a traditional, larger display is not immediately available.

This study used OsiriX HD viewing software for the iPad 2s and OsiriX viewing software on a 27-inch iMac monitor. Medical student Samir Abboud presented the research at the RSNA meeting in Chicago last year, according to the report in AuntMinnie.com.

The researchers randomly selected the 200 negative cases and 40 positive cases from a database of more than 500, which had been originally interpreted by a chest fellowship-trained attending radiologist. The DICOM images were loaded into a viewer in random order and two chest fellowship-trained attending physicians, two chest fellows, and on fourth year resident characterized the images as positive or negative.

Regardless of the display, the study found agreement among the five readers was statistically equal. Only two cases did not have agreement: One was called positive on iPad but negative on the larger display, and the second disagreement had it the other way around.

Be sure to read all the details in the AuntMinnie.com report here (registration required)