Small footprint, small investment
Anyone in radiology has an idea of the footprint of traditional reading workstations. At this stage, anyone in radiology and many people outside of radiology, have an idea of the footprint of an iPad Pro (or two). The difference is substantial. Radiologists don’t have a briefcase or satchel large enough to take a reading station along for the days they’re intending to work remote. The UDE offers a server, plus viewing diagnostic monitor solution in a portable package.

Coupled with the smaller footprint comes another reduction, one that should be of particular interest to finance managers – the cost involved. Workstations are expensive, but two iPad Pros would set someone back a little over $2,000. User support for Apple products also continues to be solid.
Attracting talent
As was previously mentioned, the UDE app allows flexibility for radiologist read locales. If a radiologist has a significant commute and therefor would prefer working from a home office a couple days a week, it’s more feasible and less expensive via the UDE and the iPad Pros. If they float from different hospitals throughout the week, having access to images in a standard interface that they can interact with daily, instead of a variety of interfaces from healthcare system to healthcare system – or even hospital to hospital in a single system – will help them to focus on the work instead of on the process to get to the work they need to do or to deliver it, leading to faster, more seamless reads.

Accessing imaging studies through their own dedicated iPad Pros rather than the communal workstation also means there’s not friction between different physicians in how a station is set up, be it the ergonomics or display preferences.

For employers, giving more freedom to their talent increases their ability to attract and retain topnotch physicians. Another point of interest in that same vein is that it reduces the need to be physically in a hospital when a radiologist isn’t physically interacting with a patient and as the pandemic has shown, there’s a big benefit to that. Providing physicians with essentially their own image reading workstation also delivers a safety benefit on many minds during COVID. It limits contact with others – people don’t need to use the same desk. They don’t even need to physically be at the hospital, they can be at home doing the work, reducing their exposure to increase their ability to stay healthy and improve the chance that others will stay health as well.

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