TELERADIOGRAPHY IMPLEMENTATION IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: SAUDI ARABIAN TEACHING HOSPITAL'S RADIOLOGY DEPARTMENTS EXPERIENCE

Aims and objectives:
While the benefits of Teleradiography, specifically picture archiving and communication system PACS system to hospitals are generally accepted, the PACS technology is still relatively new in some countries.
As such although in theory the system should work well, in practice some time may be needed for new systems to be accepted as an efficient replacement for previous technologies, as well as requiring time for staff training.
It is therefore useful to undertake research in such local contexts and to evaluate the challenges in changing over from previous systems to modern replacements such as PACS.

Methods and materials:
Mainly quantitative methodology was used, through a questionnaire survey on the radiology departments’ staff.
Fifty five respondents of Radiology departments’ staff collected in a period of two months
The questionnaire consists of five point Likert scale to test mainly three aspects: Familiarity of Use with PACS, Staff Training and User Perceptions of Use of PACS.

Results:
Overall 100% of respondents held the view that PACS had made their job more satisfying, and that there was a more comfortable working environment. A majority (83%) indicated that PACS had fully met their expectations, and fewer than 5% disagreed with this statement.
These findings suggest that PACS is overall successful in this hospital environment.

Conclusion:
Even though PACS was relatively newly introduced to the site (4 years old at questionnaire time), the level of staff confidence and acceptance was high. Possibly that is due to relatively high efficiency indicated by the short down time compared to literature of studies undertaken at other sites.