Interventional radiologist Dr. Darren Klass was at a friend’s bat mitzvah when he received an important call. A patient who just had surgery  had been scanned for internal bleeding. Normally, Dr. Klass would have had to drive to Vancouver General Hospital (VGH) to view the images and make an assessment. Instead, using a new app, all he had to do was login on his iPad to see the scan remotely and conveniently.

“I took a look and called the physician back,  to tell him I didn’t think anything needed to be done that night and we made a management plan for the next morning,” he recalls. “It saved me from having to drive to the hospital, look at the scan and then calling the physician—so it saved a huge amount of time for everyone because the consultation time is a lot faster. If a patient is in really bad shape, every second counts and this saves us a lot of time.”

Over the past six months, as part of a pilot project, VGH interventional and neuro-interventional radiologists have been using  the Siemens syngo.via WebViewer app, which allows them to rapidly and securely access images outside of the hospital on their smartphones and tablets.

“For many years, it was very cumbersome for clinicians, radiologists and interventional radiologists to look at medical imaging outside of the hospital,” explains Dr. Tim O’Connell, an Emergency and Trauma radiologist at VGH, who initiated the project. “For example, if someone is having a stroke, you need to act quickly to treat them and get a therapy plan set up—they’re losing millions of neurons per minute.”

About a year ago, upon recognizing a need to react more quickly, Dr. O’Connell looked into different types of technology that could help close the crucial gap of time and assessment. His solution was “turning on” the mobile device access to syngo.via which is already used in the radiology department. He worked with the Vancouver Coastal Health IT department, who developed a new, fast and secure way for doctors to access the software on their smartphones and tablets.

Dr. O’Connell and donor, Sylvia Chen, have funded the pilot project. The radiologist says they could use more funding for additional software licenses so that more clinicians can access the technology to help more patients.

“It would make a big difference in care,”  he says. “I would eventually like to see about  20 clinicians—stroke neurologists, radiologists, interventional radiologists and potentially more—using the system.”

Help fund more equipment like this app by making a donation.

[:zh]介入性放射科医生达伦•科斯医生(Dr. Darren Klass) 在参加朋友女儿的成人礼时，接到一个重要的电话。一名刚刚接受手术后的病人在扫描时被挖现内部出血。通常，科斯医生不得不开车去温哥华综合医院(VGH)细看图像并进行评估。但是有赖使用一个新的应用程序，他所要做的就是登录他的平板电脑，便可方便地遥距操控查看扫描。

“我看过后便回电当值医生，告诉他我认为当晚并不需做什么，我们亦制定了第二天早上的治理计划，” 他回忆说：“这让我不必开车回医院看扫描，然后再与当值医生商量方案，让大家都节省了大量的时间，从而缩短咨询的程序。如果一个病人的情況很糟糕，每一秒都是十分重要的，这样可省时很多。”

过去六个月，作为试验计划的一部分，VGH的介入性治疗和神经介入性放射科医生，一直在使用西门子的syngo.via WebViewer应用程序，让他们在智能手机和平板电脑上，在医院以外快速和安全地查看图像。

“多年来，临床医生，放射科医生和介入性放射科医生在医院以外，要查看医疗影像是非常繁琐的，” VGH的紧急创伤放射科医生蒂姆•奥康奈尔医生(Dr. Tim O’Connell) 说：“例如，如果有人中了风，你需要迅速为他进行治疗，并制定治疗方案 – 因病人会每分钟损失数百万个神经元。”

大约一年前，奥康奈尔医生了解到有做出更快反应的需要，他研究了不同类型的技术，来帮助缩短时间和评估的关键差距。他的解决方案是“开放” 已经在放射科使用的syngo.via 网络, ，让移动通讯设备可直接连系。他与温哥华沿岸卫生局的科技部门合作，开发了一种新颖，快速和安全的程式，让医生在智能手机和平板电脑上能够使用该软件。

奥康奈尔医生和捐助人蔡银子女仕 (Mrs. Sylvia Chen) 资助了此试验计划。奥康奈尔医生表示，他们希望获得更多的资金，买得更多软件的使用权，以便更多的临床医生可以使用该技术，来帮助更多的患者。

他说：“这样会为医疗保健带来很大的跃进，我希望最终看到约20名临床医生 – 中风神经病医生、放射科医生、介入性放射科医生，甚至更多医生使用该系统。”

您可以通过捐赠给温哥华综合医院塈卑诗大学医院基金会，来资助添置更多的设备。请浏览vghfoundation.ca/innovation网頁了解更多信息。