Smartphone Teleradiology Application Is Successfully Incorporated Into a Telestroke Network Environment

Abstract

Background and Purpose— ResolutionMD mobile application runs on a Smartphone and affords vascular neurologists access to radiological images of patients with stroke from remote sites in the context of a telemedicine evaluation. Although reliability studies using this technology have been conducted in a controlled environment, this study is the first to incorporate it into a real-world hub and spoke telestroke network. The study objective was to assess the level of agreement of brain CT scan interpretation in a telestroke network between hub vascular neurologists using ResolutionMD, spoke radiologists using a Picture Archiving and Communications System, and independent adjudicators. Methods— Fifty-three patients with stroke at the spoke hospital consented to receive a telemedicine consultation and participate in a registry. Each CT was evaluated by a hub vascular neurologist, a spoke radiologist, and by blinded telestroke adjudicators, and agreement over clinically important radiological features was calculated. Results— Agreement ( κ and 95% CI) between hub vascular neurologists using ResolutionMD and (1) the spoke radiologist; and (2) independent adjudicators, respectively, were: identification of intracranial hemorrhage 1.0 (0.92–1.0), 1.0 (0.93–1.0), neoplasm 1.0 (0.92–1.0), 1.0 (0.93–1.0), any radiological contraindication to thrombolysis 1.0 (0.92–1.0), 0.85 (0.65–1.0), early ischemic changes 0.62 (0.28–0.96), 0.58 (0.30–0.86), and hyperdense artery sign 0.40 (0.01–0.80), 0.44 (0.06–0.81). Conclusions— CT head interpretations of telestroke network patients by vascular neurologists using ResolutionMD on Smartphones were in excellent agreement with interpretations by spoke radiologists using a Picture Archiving and Communications System and those of independent telestroke adjudicators using a desktop viewer. Clinical Trial Registration Information— www.clinicaltrials.gov unique identifier NCT00829361.