Imagine that you’re sitting at a restaurant after a long day. Your tech calls you on your iPhone to get the okay to release a patient who has just had an MRI. In the old days, you may have had to skip dessert and head back to work to look over the images. But with the eFilm for iPhone, a work in progress being developed by Milwaukee-based Merge Healthcare, you could have the scans in front of you before you put down your fork.

The application, which was unveiled at RSNA 2009, features a viewer that allows radiologists to see complete studies on their iPhone or iPod Touch. The application is not designed for reading images or providing a diagnosis—as these tasks are too difficult to perform on small-screened devices like the iPhone. But the ability for radiologists to access their desktop eFilm Workstation from anywhere there is a WiFi connection has definite advantages.

For example, a radiologist can look over the studies that have come in while he or she is  away from the office to decide which can wait for the next day and which studies need immediate attention from another radiologist.

“We’ve given them the functionality to actually tell eFilm to route a study to another DICOM destination,” said Mark Logan, director of research and special projects for Merge Healthcare.

The software uses two layers of encryption to protect patient privacy and ensure that the study can only be read by the correct iPhone “destination.” The radiologist can decide how much access to allow each iPhone connected to the system.

“You could actually have a referring physician connecting to your eFilm, and you can grant them access to see only studies for their patients,” Logan said. “So, instantly your referring physician would be able to see their studies for their patients.”

For Logan, the most exciting feature of the application is how easy it is to install and use.

“There’s no networking configuration, no IP addresses or firewalls—it just works,” he said. “It’s providing accessibility for radiologists that they just didn’t have in the past.”

Logan notes that as radiologists start using the eFilm for iPhone application, they will begin to discover even more capabilities for the application.

“I really feel that there are going to be a lot of further uses for this once people get their hands on it,” he said. “Potentially, we could expand this to patients having access to their images or even radiologists signing reports.”