RadBuddy DEXAhelper
Reads the bone density results screens on your monitor into report text, screen by screen. Runs entirely on your own workstation.
Get DEXAhelper for Windows · 52 MB
What it is
DEXAhelper is a small program for reporting bone density studies. Show a results screen on your monitor, press one key, and the numbers on it (the sites, their BMD, T-scores and Z-scores with the percent of peak reference and age matched beside each, the FRAX box) are read off the screen and written into report text in the app's window. Do the same for each screen of the study; the screens are merged into one case, and Replace findings puts the text into the open report in place of its findings (Copy report puts it on the clipboard instead). It is a separate app from Highlighter, with its own download and license; About RadBuddy has both in short.
Everything happens on your own computer. The text is recognized by Windows' own on-device recognizer; nothing is sent anywhere, and the app cannot reach the network at all. The screens are held in memory for the case only: no image is saved, and Clear case drops them.
It is a prototype, not cleared or validated: see the disclaimer at the end of this page.
Starting it
The download is given out on request, separately from Highlighter: on your account page, ask under DEXAhelper and you get an email when it is approved. Then download it, with the button above or from the account page; unzip anywhere and double-click DEXAhelper, the one with the icon (DEXAhelper.cmd beside it starts the app the same way, should your computer block the other). On its first start the app asks for a license: click Get / renew license at radbuddy.com, sign in, and the page sends the license to the app by itself. Nothing is installed: the whole program lives in that folder, and deleting the folder removes it. It opens one window that stays on top, and puts an icon in the system tray.
Windows may show a blue SmartScreen box the first time because the download is not code-signed. Click More info, then Run anyway. Chrome may hold the zip back as an uncommon file for the same reason: open its downloads panel, the three dots beside the file, then Keep.
The license
On its first start the app asks for a license and offers one button, Get / renew license at radbuddy.com: sign in, and the page sends the license to the app by itself; there is nothing to type or to copy. It is kept as the file rb_dexahelper.license beside DEXAhelper.cmd, and it works offline.
A license lasts a limited time; the account page says how long. The app renews it by itself before it runs out, asking radbuddy.com from the same separate process its updater uses (Settings → License → Renew automatically, on unless you turn it off; the request carries the license and nothing about your computer). Where that cannot happen, on a network that lets only the browser out for example, the app says so when the license runs out and offers the license page: sign in, and the page sends the license to the app by itself; the app unlocks on its own. Your browser may ask once whether to open RadBuddy DEXAhelper: choose Open, and tick always allow to skip the question next time. If the browser cannot reach the app, click Show license on the account page, copy it, and paste it into the app's license box.
Reading a study
| Ctrl+Alt+D | Read screen: read the results screen on the chosen monitor into the case. Press it once per screen. A small Reading screen badge flashes at the centre of what is being read, so you know the press was taken; the app never sees the badge. |
| Ctrl+Alt+Shift+D | Auto read: read, scroll the viewer, read again, until the screens stop coming; then it replaces the findings and triggers Auto Impression by itself, as the next row does (Settings → Report turns either off). |
| Ctrl+Alt+P | Replace findings: put the text in the window into the report open in your dictation software, in place of everything between its FINDINGS: and IMPRESSION: lines, then trigger the dictation software's Auto Impression (Ctrl+Shift+1) and take off the two trailing spaces it leaves. The report has to be open with both lines in it; the app says so when it is not. Ctrl+Z in the report undoes it. Settings → Report turns Auto Impression off or changes its keys, and points the app at the report editor when it is not found on its own. |
| Ctrl+Alt+Q | Quit. |
The window lists the screens in the case and shows the report text as it grows. When a hip screen does not say which side it is, the app asks you; nothing is guessed. Anything worth a second look (a value read on two screens that disagree, a FRAX result whose hip is not clear, a FRAX pick it could not settle) is listed under Check these, in the window and in the text.
The report names the sites that were read, their values, the FRAX assessment or the reason it was not reported, and the usual closing paragraphs. The closing paragraphs and the hotkeys are changed in Settings (Closing text, Hotkeys); the FRAX sentences, the monitor and the auto-read pace in dexahelper.ini (copy dexahelper.ini.example to it in the same folder).
Updating
The app updates itself: Update… in its window, then Check for updates, Update now and Restart to finish update. It replaces its own folder in place and keeps your settings and license. The check and the download run in a separate process, with the license on that computer as the account's credential; the app itself never goes online.
On a network that lets only the browser out (many hospital networks), the check fails with "connection forcibly closed". Then download the new version from your account page in the browser; the Update window notices the DEXAhelper-…zip in your Downloads folder and offers to install it, or use Install a downloaded zip… to pick the file.
Checking the download
The published release is DEXAhelper-0.1.13.zip, sha256 , listed in SHA256SUMS. The zip you download is exactly that file; the app's updater fetches it the same way and checks it against that listing.
Disclaimer
DEXAhelper is a prototype, handed out for testing: it has not been cleared or approved by any regulator, it has not been validated, and it does not interpret the study or replace your read. It writes report text from the numbers on a results screen, and that text is not a report until you have checked it; any value or sentence can be wrong or missing, and every value must be checked against the screen before it goes into a report. It is provided as is and used at your own risk, the author owes no support or availability, and nothing about a patient ever leaves your computer. The terms of use say all of this in full; you agree to them on your account page before anything is handed out.