Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Aug 20;20(1):767.
doi: 10.1186/s12913-020-05564-0.

Mobile X-ray outside the hospital: a scoping review

Maria Dietz Toppenberg  1 , Thomas Erik Møller Christiansen  2 , Finn Rasmussen  2 , Camilla Palmhøj Nielsen  3 , Else Marie Damsgaard  4
Affiliations

Mobile X-ray outside the hospital: a scoping review

Maria Dietz Toppenberg et al. BMC Health Serv Res. .

Abstract

Background: For several years mobile X-ray equipment has been routinely used for imaging in patients too unwell within the hospital, when transportation to the radiology department was inadvisable. Now, mobile X-ray examinations are also used outside the hospital. The literature describes that fragile patients may benefit from mobile X-ray, but we need to provide insights into the breadth, depth and gaps in a body of literature.

Methods: The scoping review was performed by searching PubMed, Cinahl, Embase, EconLit and Health Technology Assessment. English-, Danish-, Norwegian-, German-, Italian-, French- and Swedish-language studies, published 1.1.2009-1.5.2020 about mobile X-ray outside the hospital were included. Participants were patients examined using mobile X-ray as the intervention. PRISMA was used when eligible to build up the review. To extract data from the selected articles, we used a structured summary table.

Results: We included 12 studies in this scoping review. The results were divided into four topics:1. Target population 2. Population health 3. Experience of care and 4. Cost effectiveness. The main findings are that target population could be larger for instance including hospice patients for palliative care, group dwelling for people with intellectual disabilities, or psychiatric patients, population health may be improved, image quality seems to be good and mobile X-ray may be cost effective. Limitations of language, databases and grey literature may have resulted in studies being missed.

Conclusions: Mobile X-ray may be used outside hospital. There seems to be potential benefits to both patients and health care staff. Based on the published studies it is not possible to draw a final conclusion if mobile X-ray examination is a relevant diagnostic offer and for whom. Further studies are needed to assess the feasibility of use in fragile patients, also regarding staff, relatives and societal consequences and therefore the topic mobile X-ray needs more research.

Keywords: Cost effectiveness; Experience of care; Mobile X-ray; Population health; Target population.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

“The authors declare no competing interests”.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Flowchart of the selection process for literature search
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Palazzetti V, Gasparri E, Gambini C, Sollazzo S, Saric S, Salvolini L, et al. Chest radiography in intensive care: an irreplaceable survey? La Radiol Med. 2013;118(5):744–751. doi: 10.1007/s11547-012-0886-6. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Mortani Barbosa EJ, Jr, Lynch MC, Langlotz CP, Gefter WB. Optimization of Radiology Reports for Intensive Care Unit Portable Chest Radiographs: Perceptions and Preferences of Radiologists and ICU Practitioners. J Thorac Imaging. 2016;31(1):43–48. doi: 10.1097/RTI.0000000000000165. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Audin CR, Aran S, Muse VV, Abbott GF, Ackman JB, Sharma A, et al. Bedside Chest Radiographs in the Intensive care Setting: Wireless Direct Radiography Compared to Computed Radiography. Curr Probl Diagn Radiol. 2017. - PubMed
    1. Graverholt B, Riise T, Jamtvedt G, Husebo BS, Nortvedt MW. Acute hospital admissions from nursing homes: predictors of unwarranted variation? Scand J Public Health. 2013;41(4):359–365. doi: 10.1177/1403494813482200. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Datta B, Hazarika A, Shewade HD, Ayyagari K, Kumar AM. Digital chest X-ray through a mobile van: public private partnership to detect sputum negative pulmonary TB. BMC Res Notes. 2017;10(1):96. doi: 10.1186/s13104-017-2420-4. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types