MRI Exams Performed Remotely Over the Internet

TUESDAY, Oct. 24 (HealthDay News) -- Radiologists are reporting a successful test of computer software that allows magnetic resonance imaging in one hospital to be controlled over the Internet by a distant expert.

"Some patients require specialized scans that not all technologists are familiar with, so we set up a software program that enables us to run the MRI machine from a remote location," said study lead author Dr. J. Paul Finn, chief of diagnostic cardiovascular imaging at the University of California, Los Angeles, David Geffen School of Medicine.

That test had Finn sitting in his office and controlling an MRI machine that scanned 30 patients a half-mile away at the UCLA Medical Center, while 30 other age-matched people were scanned by a technologist in the hospital. Other radiologists who evaluated the images rated 90 percent of the remote scans as excellent, a mark achieved by only 60 percent of the onsite scans, he said