ABSTRACT
AIMS: Since 2017, medical students at the University of Bergen were taught PET/CT "hands-on" by viewing PET/CT cases in native format on diagnostic workstations in the hospital. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, students were barred access. This prompted us to launch and evaluate a new freeware PET/CT viewing system hosted in the university network. METHODS: We asked our students to install the multiplatform Fiji viewer with Beth Israel PET/CT plugin (http://petctviewer.org) on their personal computers and connect to a central image database in the university network based on the public domain orthanc server (https://orthanc-server.com). At the end of course, we conducted an anonymous student survey. RESULTS: The new system was online within eight days, including regulatory approval. All 76 students (100â%) in the fifth year completed their course work, reading five anonymized PET/CT cases as planned. 41 (53â%) students answered the survey. Fiji was challenging to install with a mean score of 1.8 on a 5-point Likert scale (5â=âeasy, 1â=âdifficult). Fiji was more difficult to use (score 3.0) than the previously used diagnostic workstations in the hospital (score 4.1; pâ<â0.001, paired t-test). Despite the technical challenge, 47â% of students reported having learnt much (scores 4 and 5); only 11â% were negative (scores 1 and 2). 51â% found the PET/CT tasks engaging (scores 4 and 5) while 20â% and 5â% returned scores 2 and 1, respectively. CONCLUSION: Despite the initial technical challenge, "hands-on" learning of PET/CT based on the freeware Fiji/orthanc PET/CT-viewer was associated with a high degree of student satisfaction. We plan to continue running the system to give students permanent access to PET/CT cases in native format regardless of time or location.