On-demand teleradiology using smartphone photographs as proxies for DICOM images

The use of photographs of the screen of displayed medical images is explored to circumvent the challenges involved in transferring images between sites. The photographs can be conveniently taken with a smartphone and analyzed remotely by either human or AI experts. An autoencoder preprocessor is shown to improve the performance for human experts. The AI performance provided by photographs is shown to be statistically equivalent to using the original DICOM images. The autoencoder preprocessor increases the PSNR by 15 dB or greater and provides an AUC that is statistically equivalent to using the original DICOM images. The photo approach is an alternative to IHE-based teleradiology applications while avoiding the problems inherit in navigating the proprietary and security barriers that limit DICOM communication between PACS in practice.