Solving Your Medical Imaging Issue

Please remove this app support form insights section before publishing.

Here’s a detailed breakdown of the Medical Imaging App Support Form, explaining the purpose of each section, why the questions are structured the way they are, and how they help streamline troubleshooting:

1. User Information

Purpose:

• Ensures the support team can contact the user and verify account/app details.
• Helps identify whether the issue is device-specific or widespread.

Key Insights:

• App Version: Critical because bugs may exist in specific versions.
• Device & OS: Medical imaging apps often rely on hardware acceleration (GPU) and OS-specific rendering, so compatibility issues are common.
• Date/Time: Helps correlate with server logs or known outages.

2. Issue Details

Purpose:

• Categorizes the problem to route it to the right team (e.g., crashes → developers, login → backend).

Key Insights:

• Crash Reports: If the app crashes, the team may need device logs (not included here but can be requested later).
• Reproducibility: Intermittent issues suggest race conditions or network problems; consistent ones point to code bugs.
• Error Messages: Exact wording helps search knowledge bases or bug trackers.

Why These Questions?

• Medical imaging apps handle large datasets (e.g., DICOM files), so crashes often stem from memory leaks or rendering failures.

3. Image/Data-Specific Issues

Purpose:

• Isolates whether the problem is file-related (corrupt DICOM headers, unsupported modalities).

Key Insights:

• File Formats: DICOM files have metadata that may not render correctly if malformed.
• Source of Images: MRI/CT/X-ray files have different compression and may fail in unique ways.
• Repro Steps: Critical for developers to replicate the bug (e.g., "Crash when applying 3D volume rendering to CT scans").

Why This Matters:

• Medical apps must comply with DICOM standards; issues here may require validation tools or PACS integration checks.

4. Network & Connectivity

Purpose:

• Rules out connectivity as the root cause (common for cloud/PACS-dependent apps).

Key Insights:

• VPN/Firewall: Hospitals often restrict DICOM traffic, causing upload failures.
• PACS Errors: Server names help debug DICOM C-STORE/QR issues (e.g., "AE Title not recognized").

Why This Section?

• Medical imaging apps frequently sync with PACS (Picture Archiving Systems), which are sensitive to network latency and security settings.

5. Troubleshooting Steps Attempted

Purpose:

• Avoids redundant suggestions (e.g., "Have you tried restarting?").
• Identifies user-side fixes that didn’t work, pointing to deeper issues.

Key Insights:

• Reinstallation: Suggests corrupt local data if the issue resolves afterward.
• Cache Clearing: Relevant for rendering/display bugs in cached images.

Why Include This?

• Saves time for both users and support by skipping basic steps.

6. Additional Information

Purpose:

• Captures contextual clues (e.g., OS updates breaking GPU rendering).

Key Insights:

• Screenshots: Essential for UI/display bugs (e.g., misaligned DICOM viewports).
• Other Apps Working?: Confirms whether the issue is isolated to the app or a device-wide problem.

Why It’s Useful:

• Medical apps often use OpenGL/Vulkan for rendering; OS updates can disrupt these frameworks.

Priority Selection

Purpose:

• Triage system for urgent issues (e.g., radiologists unable to access critical images).

Key Insights:

• High Priority: Reserved for clinical workflow blockers (e.g., failed DICOM exports during a surgery).

Why This Matters:

• Medical apps may qualify for faster SLAs (Service-Level Agreements) due to clinical impact.

Please remove this mandatory questions recommendation before publishing.

These are critical for diagnosing issues in medical imaging apps, which often involve complex workflows, DICOM/PACS integrations, and device-specific rendering.

1. User Information

Mandatory Fields & Why:

Email Address*

• Why? Required for follow-up communication and sending resolution steps.
• Without this, the support team cannot contact the user.

App Version*

• Why? Bugs may be version-specific (e.g., a DICOM rendering bug introduced in v2.5).
• Helps determine if the issue is fixed in a newer update.

Device Type & OS Version*

• Why? Medical imaging apps rely heavily on hardware (GPU acceleration) and OS-specific frameworks (e.g., iOS Core Graphics, Android OpenGL).
• Example: A crash on an iPad Pro (M2 chip) may not occur on an older iPhone.

2. Issue Details

Mandatory Fields & Why:

General Issue Type (Selection)*

• Why? Routes the ticket to the right team (e.g., crashes → developers, login → backend).
• Example: "Image loading issues" suggests a DICOM parsing problem vs. "App crashes" pointing to memory leaks.

Detailed Description of the Problem*

• Why? A vague "It doesn’t work" provides no actionable data.
• Example: "When loading a 500-slice CT DICOM, the app freezes at slice 120" suggests a memory management issue.

3. Image/Data-Specific Issues (Conditional Mandatory)

Mandatory if the issue involves imaging:

File Format(s) Affected* (if related to rendering/loading)

• Why? DICOM, JPEG, and NIfTI files have different parsers—failures may be format-specific.

Steps to Reproduce* (if applicable)

• Why? Ensures the team can replicate the bug (critical for debugging).
• Example: "Open DICOM → Apply MPR → Rotate 90° → Crash" isolates the issue to 3D rendering.

4. Network & Connectivity (Conditional Mandatory)

Mandatory if the issue involves cloud/PACS/syncing:

Internet Connection Type* (Wi-Fi/Mobile Data)

• Why? DICOM transfers fail on unstable connections; hospitals may block certain ports.

PACS Server Name/Type* (if syncing fails)

• Why? Helps debug DICOM protocol errors (e.g., C-STORE rejections).

5. Troubleshooting Steps Attempted

• Why? Avoids wasting time on redundant fixes (e.g., "Have you restarted?").
• Example: If the user already reinstalled the app, the issue likely isn’t local cache corruption.

6. Priority Level

• Why? Medical apps may have SLAs for critical failures (e.g., radiologists unable to access images).
• Example: A "High" priority crash during surgery demands immediate escalation.

Why These Fields Are Mandatory

1. Efficiency – Reduces back-and-forth emails asking for basic info.
2. Reproducibility – Ensures developers can replicate and fix the bug.
3. Clinical Impact – Medical imaging apps often support urgent workflows; missing details delay diagnoses.
4. Device/OS Specificity – GPU rendering, memory limits, and DICOM compliance vary across platforms.

Optional (But Recommended) Fields

• Screenshots/Logs – Helpful but not mandatory (users may not know how to collect them).
• Sample Images – Useful but must be anonymized for privacy compliance (HIPAA/GDPR).

By enforcing these mandatory fields, the support team can quickly triage, diagnose, and resolve issues unique to medical imaging apps.