Mapping RadPro Hub to a duckyPad Pro: Twenty Labelled Keys for the Reading Room

One reader runs a busy CT list and wanted every RadPro Hub action, every editor key, and every PACS preset on physical buttons with labels, without touching the workstation's software. The device they chose was a duckyPad Pro, a small open-source macro pad that plugs in as a keyboard. Here is how the setup works and why a macro pad is a good fit for a reading room.

What a duckyPad Pro is

It is a twenty-key mechanical macro pad with a small OLED screen, optional rotary encoders, and a scripting language called duckyScript that runs on the pad itself. Each key can send a keystroke, a chord, or a whole sequence with delays, and the pad can hold dozens of profiles that switch automatically based on which application is in front. Profiles live on a microSD card, so a setup can be copied to a second pad by copying a folder. The firmware and configuration tools are open source, and the pad costs less than a dictation microphone.

The point for a reading room is the last part of the previous paragraph: because the pad is a keyboard as far as Windows is concerned, it needs no driver and no vendor software on the workstation. That is a much easier conversation with hospital IT than a mouse suite that wants to install a service.

The layout

The reader's main profile uses the twenty keys in three rows. Top row for RadPro Hub, the middle for the report editor, the bottom for the PACS. The OLED shows the label for each key, so nothing has to be memorized.

1. RadPro row. Send the open report (Backtick), send with a template (Shift+Backtick), paste the polished report back (Ctrl+Backtick), insert the "Integrate these findings" marker (Alt+Backtick), and send the signed report for prompt improvement (Ctrl+Shift+Backtick). Five keys, five labels.
2. Editor row. The Hub maps F13 to F17 and F24 to previous field, next field, sign, record, delete word, and end of line. Each gets a key.
3. PACS row. F18, F19, and F21 to F23 for measure, arrow, and window presets, plus Ctrl+F12 to sign off and advance to the next case.

REM Send the open report to RadPro AI with a template
SHIFT `

REM Sign the report, wait, then advance the PACS
F15
DELAY 300
CTRL F12

A second profile, switched to automatically when the PACS viewer is in front, puts the window presets and measurement tools on the top row instead, because that is where the thumb lands during scrolling. The rotary encoder scrolls through the stack; pressing it toggles a preset.

Why this works better than remembering chords

• Labels beat memory at 2 a.m. A chord like Ctrl+Shift+Backtick is fine in week one. A key that says "Train" on a screen is fine in year three.
• The workstation stays clean. No driver, no vendor software, no service. The pad shows up as a keyboard and the Hub is the only thing running.
• The setup travels. A locum can carry the pad between sites. The Hub detects PowerScribe automatically and otherwise sends keys to the window in front, so the same profile works on the next site's editor.
• It is fun. Chasing every optimization in a workflow you repeat a hundred times a day is one of the few pleasures of reading-room life, and a macro pad gives you a new one to chase every week.

The cautions that still apply

The pad sends synthetic keystrokes, so everything the download page says about the Hub applies here: keep the report editor in front when you press a key, use Ctrl+Z if a paste lands in the wrong place, and never let a sequence run unattended. Keep the delays generous between a sign and an advance; a PACS that has not finished loading does not care how fast the pad is. And clear any new hardware with IT before it touches a clinical workstation, even hardware that only pretends to be a keyboard.