Teleradiology network to improve patient care in a peacekeeping military operation

摘要

The Imaging Science and Information Systems (ISIS) Center of the Department of Radiology at Georgetown University Medical Center recently collaborated with the US Army in developing an off-the-shelf teleradiology network for Operation Joint Endeavor, the peace-keeping mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The network is part of Operation Primetime III, a project to deploy advanced communications and medical equipment to provide state-of-the-art medical care to the 20,000 US troops stationed there. The network encompasses three major sites: the 212th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) near Tuzla, Bosnia-Herzegovina; the 67th Combat Support Hospital (CSH) in Taszar, Hungary; and the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center (LRMC) in Landstuhl, Germany. Planning for the project began in January 1996, and all three sites were operational by April 1996. Since the system was deployed, computed radiography (CR) has been sued almost exclusively at the MASH and CSH for all general x-ray exams. From mid-May to September 1996, over 2700 CR images were acquired at the MASH and over 1600 at the CSH. Since there was not a radiologist a the MASH, the images were transferred to the CSH for primary diagnosis and archiving. In the same time period, over 550 patient folders were sent from the MASH to the CSH.