Abstract
At our institution, we have roughly 300 different CT protocols in routine clinical use. Of these 300 protocols, we have 149 distinct clinical indications that are not broken up into different patient sizes [1]. A single-phase examination with three reconstructions has roughly 50 editable fields on the scanner. These parameters need to be maintained across 12 scanner models, which translates to 180,000 (300 50 12) unique scanner parameters needed to define our complete CT protocol set. This is a low estimate because many of our examinations are multiphasic and have more than three reconstructions. This estimate also does not include any clinical parameters (eg, patient preparation, contrast instructions), which are important to maximize the diagnostic utility and workflow of our CT practice. Almost immediately, problems arise when so many protocols and protocol parameters are in clinical use. Maintaining the same protocol name and number identifier for the same indication on all scanners has proved challenging at our institution, requiring a dedicated effort by our lead CT technologist. Furthermore, many dose monitoring software packages use protocol number identifiers. Therefore, managing the
Published Version
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