University of Toronto to use IMS tech to test radiology residents

A simulated emergency radiology environment will undergo testing at the University of Toronto’s Department of Medical Imaging.


A simulated emergency radiology environment will undergo testing at the University of Toronto’s Department of Medical Imaging.

The approach aims to increase the competency of radiology residents using high-fidelity simulations to understand their roles in emergency settings.

The Toronto institution has signed a partnership agreement with International Medical Solutions to develop the approach to assess the performance of diagnostic radiology residents. The program is part of a larger study being funded by the Radiology Society of North America to determine the effectiveness of the ER Simulation testing program.

Under the RSNA initiative, residents from 10 Canadian universities plus as many as 10 U.S.-based programs will be taking the simulation assessment to demonstrate competency in an emergency radiology setting. This is an important part of their training before these radiologists-in-training are scheduled for after-hours shifts on-call for emergency cases.

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The Toronto program will be using International Medical Solutions’ IMS Web Viewer within the simulated emergency environment.



"The objective of our study is to determine the competency of our residents using this high-fidelity, realistic simulation experience," says Eric Bartlett, program director of diagnostic radiology at the University of Toronto. “We hope the 'Sim' will enable our residents to better understand their roles in the emergency radiology setting, including all of the tasks and responsibilities that will be expected of them."

The FDA-approved imaging technology enables physicians to engage in interactive, web-based assessments, on any device using full-fidelity DICOM images.

"One of the challenges that I encountered in the project was finding a full fidelity DICOM web viewer that worked well on a variety of devices and low bandwidth connections,” Bartlett adds. “I selected the IMS Web Viewer for my research simulation project because I found it to be simple to use on any device and reliable in all types of network conditions.”

Other industry organizations, including the American Society of Emergency Radiology and the American College of Radiology, have adopted IMS' technology to provide testing and training because the images are realistic and easily accessible, and the platform can be used by hundreds of physicians at the same time.

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