ORIGINAL ARTICLE   

Il Giornale Italiano di Radiologia Medica 2019 Settembre-Ottobre;6(5):422-35

DOI: 10.23736/S2283-8376.19.00226-2

Copyright © 2019 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English, Italian

Preliminary study on the use of WhatsApp for the transmission of images and clinical data between radiologists and pathologists from the same working group

Donato MASTRANTUONO ¹ ✉, Domenico MARTORANO ¹, Guido REGIS ¹, Alessandra LINARI ², Alda BORRÈ ¹

¹ Division of Radiology, Department of Diagnostic Imaging and Radiotherapy, C.T.O. Hospital, Città della Salute e della Scienza, Turin, Italy; ² Istitute of Anatomy and Pathologic Histology, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Città della Salute e della Scienza, Turin, Italy

BACKGROUND: WhatsApp (WApp) is a messaging application for smartphones, cross-platform. Its widespread use, in an extremely simple and immediate manner, has made us reflect on the possibility of using WApp, for communication and exchange of clinical information between different medical specialists, Pathologists and Radiologists, but belonging to the same work group. For this purpose, the “Patoradiologia” group was created.
METHODS: From November 2018, for 6 months, the communication through WApp was monitored within the work team in order to identify its merits and weaknesses, advantages and limitations.
RESULTS: In 6 months, 1311 messages were sent in the “Patoradiologia” WApp group, both in the form of a written text and of mixed media, with useful exchange of information between the two professional groups. The advantages, found and shared by all the members of the group, have resulted, for the radiologist, in an improvement in the adequacy of the bioptic sample, for the pathologist, a greater support for the final diagnosis and, for all, an increased awareness of the quality offered in the path of diagnosis and treatment of the oncological patient of the musculoskeletal apparatus.
CONCLUSIONS: The need to improve the diagnostic service of patients suffering from musculoskeletal tumors has inspired a new method of communication within a WApp group, comparing the advantages and disadvantages of the method. While acknowledging the limits, mostly due to the lack of guidelines in m-Health, the experience was judged as a whole very positive by the professional figures involved and therefore worthy of further development.

KEY WORDS: Smartphone; Social media; Telemedicine