Outsourcing Radiology Services

"The internet, affordable high performance computers, the wide adoption of digital imaging, and picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) have propelled radiology into the digital era. Amy Davis has discussed pros and cons of the radiology services outsourcing in this article in BMJ, taking on issues like diagnostic clarity and cost effectiveness."

Read the full article here-

BMJ 2008;337:a785

Radiology Preliminary Read Concept

Teleradiology Providers offers an offshore service that provides a preliminary report of various radiological studies producing a detailed report that a U.S. radiologist may utilize to prepare the official final diagnostic report. This service is an unique innovation that in a way is a method which allows the so called demon of out-sourcing to be used in a collabrative method. This allows increasing the efficiency of the the radiologists in places wherein they have higher loads (like US) and overcomes the legal barriers, wherein the Indian counterparts are just providing the preliminary report, which is neither final nor binding. This in particular may be useful for clincal trial reporting and plain filsms a model that has been used by Singapore goverment wherein they outsource the x-rays to have their radiologist read the CT and MRIs and hence reduce the waiting lists. Further it increases the workflow just as it is postulated that computer aided diagnosis will help in reducing the loads, i personally feel it is preliminary reads which will ultimately improve the workflow.

Dr.Sumer K Sethi, MD

Consultant Radiologist ,VIMHANS and CEO-Teleradiology Providers

Editor-in-chief, The Internet Journal of Radiology

Director, DAMS (Delhi Academy of Medical Sciences)