Field hospitals’ diagnostic radiology standards in low-resource settings

Abstract

Objective: To review the current standards being followed for diagnostic radiology at low-resource settings.

Design: A systematic review was conducted.

Setting: Low-resource field hospitals were reviewed.

Patients and participants: All patients who were diagnosed using imaging in field hospitals were included in this review.

Interventions: Only standard care diagnostic imaging was reviewed.

Results: Scanty evidence on the standard quality control for mobile health unit (MHU) in low-resource settings is observed. The lack of evidence makes it inconclusive to decide if suboptimal quality of care is being provided to patients at the MHUs or if the quality is optimal. Multiple international societies such as the Radiological Society of North America and European Society of Radiology do provide extensive guidelines and algorithms for radiologists under normal conditions in the hospital. However, no such guidelines were found for MHUs. The most significant contributions that have been done in the guidance and quality control of the MHUs have been done by the World Health Organization with their emergency medical team guidelines and publications.

Conclusions: MHUs are critical interventions introduced to mitigate crises and manage health campaigns. Diagnostic imaging also plays a pivotal role in ensuring successful patient management in the MHUs. No international or local diagnostic imaging standard for quality control was found in the evidence. Investigations to access the feasibility of different quality control standards in the MHUs are warranted.