A pediatrician and three neonatologists participated in an exercise to simulate a telephone neonatology consultation. PCT represents an inexpensive means to accurately send a radiographic image over the phone as part of a telephone consultation. Neonatologists were able to interpret teleradiology images more accurately than a pediatrician reviewing the original film. Although this did not result in an improvement of the neonatologists' ability to determine patient severity on the basis of the model used in part 2, their identification of serious radiographic findings missed by the pediatrician can only suggest that teleradiology may be beneficial in certain instances. Although verbal communication can often suffice in a telephone consultation or transfer, there may be specific instances where visualizing a radiographic image such as an x-ray film or computed tomographic scan can provide important information that cannot be optimally described verbally.
Rural hospitals can form interhospital image transmission links with tertiary center resources.