OFF‐SITE SMARTPHONE VS. STANDARD WORKSTATION IN THE RADIOGRAPHIC DIAGNOSIS OF SMALL INTESTINAL MECHANICAL OBSTRUCTION IN DOGS AND CATS

Off‐site consultations by board‐certified veterinary radiologists benefit residents and emergency clinicians by providing immediate feedback and potentially improving patient outcome. Smartphone devices and compressed images transmitted by email or text greatly facilitate availability of these off‐site consultations. Criticism of a smartphone interface for off‐site consultation is mostly directed at image degradation relative to the standard radiographic viewing room and monitors. The purpose of this retrospective, cross‐sectional, methods comparison study was to compare the accuracy of abdominal radiographs in two imaging interfaces (Joint Photographic Experts Group, off‐site, smartphone vs. Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine, on‐site, standard workstation) for the diagnosis of small intestinal mechanical obstruction in vomiting dogs and cats. Two board‐certified radiologists graded randomized abdominal radiographs using a five‐point Likert scale for the presence of mechanical obstruction in 100 dogs or cats presenting for vomiting. The area under the receiver operator characteristic curves for both imaging interfaces was high. The accuracy of the smartphone and traditional workstation was not statistically significantly different for either reviewer (P = 0.384 and P = 0.536). Correlation coefficients were 0.821 and 0.705 for each reviewer when the same radiographic study was viewed in different formats. Accuracy differences between radiologists were potentially related to years of experience. We conclude that off‐site expert consultation with a smartphone provides an acceptable interface for accurate diagnosis of small intestinal mechanical obstruction in dogs and cat.