Report from RSNA IV: Intelerad

Here it is, my Canadian friends....I promised an update tonight, and I always fulfill my promises. Well, almost always....

My friend Rick from Intelerad was gracious enough to show me some of the improvements to be found in the latest and greatest version of Intelepacs. There has been no huge change, but a nice system is even nicer today.

Presently, my group uses the InteleViewer stand-alone program at our site that has no PACS. My boys are very pleased with it. It helps that one of them trained at ProScan, and learned speed-reading from Dr. Pomeranz himself. Dr. P. is an Intelerad user, and even was featured doing live readings from the Intelerad booth. I wonder if any fellows back in Cinci overread his live readings...

The Intelepacs worklist is a little spartan, being mainly a table of values, but there is color coding for status, and the colors can be changed at the user level. Great way to confuse your partners if they are foolish enough not to sign out of their account! Each column can be moved about, and one can sort by the column value or search for something specific within. To actually read a block of studies, simply click and drag over the ones you want, and they are sequestered to you. One can apply various worklist filters, although there is no natural division that I could see, such as a divider between one day and the next as Amicas does it. Still, this is a very usable setup.

The Intelerad folks have done something impossible; they have topped the Amicas spine labelling program. Well, it isn't a huge triumph, but they have developed a way for the computer to automatically realize if you are advancing cranially or caudally (up or down for those in Rio Linda) after starting at a particular level (which you still have to specify.) It works well.

Tab thumbnails have been added for displaying prior studies, a nice touch. There is again Voxar or TeraRecon integration. Presentation states can be saved, although one customer voiced concern about referring docs seeing how he left the window/level settings. Well, just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you, I suppose, but I'm really not too worried about that.

At first, I thought the hanging protocol setup was as user unfriendly as Sectra's, but then Rick realized that I wasn't familiar with the "Capture" function. This simply captures (duh) the on-screen layout, and then you can tweak it with a complex system that is pretty much like Sectra's. But it works, and in the end, it's pretty much like Amicas' which I'm very fond of.

There is a method for ER reports to go back and forth, and an audit trail thereof. Voice clips are now included in the interface.

Bottom line, this good program has become even better, which would help to explain it's #1 KLAS rating. Not that I believe KLAS ratings, but.....