SignalPet: a second look at radiographs
Useful when you are between appointments. Not a radiologist, and not a reason to skip your own read.
The actual problem
In GP, you read the films. Often between appointments, sometimes after the last one. A boarded radiologist is the right call on hard cases and still costs real money and a day or two. Subtle things get missed when you are tired. That is not a character flaw. It is the schedule.
SignalPet is one of the tools that will score a study in about a minute and spit back a structured list of findings. Thoracic and musculoskeletal work is where it is most used. Abdomen and exotics are weaker. I treat the output as a colleague who talks too fast, not as the attending.
How I would use it
- Take decent films. Garbage in, confident garbage out.
- Read them yourself first. Write the impression down, even mentally.
- Run the software. Look for disagreement, not confirmation.
- If you and the model fight, or the case is ugly, send it out.
- You can show an owner a labeled image. You still explain what it means.
What I will not claim
I am not reprinting a vendor's sensitivity percentage. I have not run a study in this clinic that would justify one. If a salesperson quotes a number, ask for the paper and whether it matches your machine, species, and views.
Related: notes from the consult, discharges.