Teaching files: ConceptsTopic number: 1427875032951
Teaching files are anonymous copies of images from original studies. Users can flag images and provide metadata before the teaching file is anonymized and routed to a teaching file repository.
Use cases
A teaching file typically describes a medical case that is interesting for teaching or research purposes. Users can add information and metadata to describe the case in more detail or to categorize it.
Possible use cases for teaching files include:
- Attending radiologists use teaching files to document a specific pathology for teaching residents
- Technologists use teaching files to document examples of poorly acquired images
- Researchers use teaching files to document cases for clinical trials
Teaching files can be created, edited, and viewed from within the List and Text area in the Diagnostic Desktop, Clinician Desktop, and Acquisition Desktop. Alternatively, teaching files can be accessed through a browser-based Teaching Files Web Client.
Teaching files can be retrieved from the teaching file repository to view the images on their own or, in Text area, to view the images in comparison with the images of the current reading task.
Information and metadata
Teaching files primarily contain images. Additional information and metadata is available in two separate sections.
The Overview section groups the following fields:
| Field name | Contents |
|---|---|
| Title | A short, one-line description of the case. |
| Abstract | A free-text description of the case. |
| Author | Filled in automatically with the name of the user who is logged in when creating the teaching file. |
| Affiliation | Name of the performing department or facility or both. |
| Contact info | Preferred phone, email, and chat details of the user who is logged in. |
| Keyword | One or more keywords to describe the case. |
| Anatomy | A single anatomy value to describe the case. |
| Pathology | A single pathology value to describe the case. |
| Category | One of nine values from the IHE/American Board of Radiology categories (Musculoskeletal, Pulmonary, Cardiovascular, Gastrointestinal, Genitourinary, Neuro, Vascular and Interventional, Nuclear, Ultrasound, Pediatric, and Breast). |
| Organ system | A free-text description of the organ system. |
| Level of difficulty | One of three values from the IHE teaching file levels (Primary, Intermediate, Advanced). |
| Modality types | Filled in automatically with all active modality types relevant for the attached images. Can be edited. |
| Number of images | Total number of images (can be the entire study or a subset of tagged images). |
| Patient sex | Sex of the patient at acquisition. This field is filled in automatically. |
| Patient age | Age of the patient at acquisition. This field is filled in automatically. |
| Ethnic group | Identifier of the race or species of the patient. |
The Details section groups the following collapsible fields:
| Field name | Contents |
|---|---|
| Findings | Description of available findings and reports. |
| Diagnosis | Description of the diagnosis with the possibility to indicate whether the diagnosis was confirmed at the time of creating the teaching file. |
| Differential diagnosis | Description of available differential diagnosis. |
| History | Patient or case-relevant history. |
| Bibliography | References to relevant literature. |
| Linked cases | References to similar cases. |