‍

Online Teleradiology Reporting is growing exponentially in the face of the Demand-Supply gap between Healthcare providers' needs and the availability of skilled Radiologists. Hence, we at Softmed Technologies are helping our customers to access our fully managed, cloud-based innovative Teleradiology service platform - the Telerad Web Portal (TWP), by leveraging different technologies like PACS and DICOM to provide end-to-end remote radiology reporting solutions. We make it possible for certified and experienced radiologists to extend their reach to otherwise unreachable patients and provide cost-effective radiology image diagnoses.

Why is Online Teleradiology Reporting important?

The need for teleradiology reporting has been growing for decades. Now, the healthcare system is also growing at a rapid pace to meet the challenge of managing the large volumes of information as more people are being diagnosed with health complexities and illnesses. This has put tremendous pressure on the efficiency of the healthcare infrastructure. Simultaneously, the quantity of information has been accompanied by an exponential growth in demand for radiologists. This problem of radiologist shortage is acute even in the US, where it is projected that the shortage of radiologists will increase by 8 - 10% between 2020 and 2025. Here in India, we have an even bigger challenge - our nearly 1.4 bn population is served by only 10,000 qualified radiologists according to industry sources!

Many health institutions are struggling to keep up with the demand for patients’ radiology reports due to this shortage of expertise. Add to this a sudden surge in the demand for radiology reports based on quick diagnosis of the patients’ image scans during rush hours when radiologists are on call. The solution to this problem is remote/online teleradiology reporting. With online reporting, radiologists can now reach out to otherwise unreachable patients. Logically, there is an increase in demand for radiologists to perform remote radiology image interpretations and generate reports.

Benefits of online Teleradiology reporting

Cost Savings - With online radiology reports, radiologists can reach out to patients who are unreachable by conventional means due to their remote geographical location, inability to access healthcare, or financial reasons. With the cost of healthcare increasing at a rapid pace, healthcare providers need to find affordable ways to extend their reach to their patients. Through online radiology reporting, radiologists can now provide cost-effective radiology diagnoses.

Greater Reach to Patients - Online radiology reporting enables certified and experienced radiologists to extend their reach to otherwise unreachable patients and provide cost-effective radiology diagnoses. Softmed Technology's TWP Portal helps radiologists to analyze and report image scans and findings, deliver test results, and communicate with the patient's healthcare provider through a singular and seamless end-to-end platform.

Secure and protected environment - Radiologists working remotely need to ‘read’ the images, deliver test results and communicate with the patient's consulting medical expert. Hence, a secure and protected environment is mandatory for radiology reporting. Radiologists can access the images and reports from a safe, secure and protected environment through our TWP Portal.

Improved workflow - With online teleradiology reporting, radiologists can report the images and findings, deliver test results, and communicate with the patient over a single platform. This helps to improve workflow and provides preventive as well as treatment options for the patients.

Sample workflow for online Teleradiology reporting

The radiologist receives images from our TWP Portal via our built-in on-cloud PACS, Thereafter, the rendered images are delivered to him instantly by the system, He then checks the images and delivers his test reading and interpretations to the patient's doctor or the Hospital/Diagnostic Center.The patient's doctor and Healthcare provider, who will then view the report on their respective devices on-premise or even ‘on the go’.

Clinical Data – Structural Improvements are welcome

Interoperability – Availability of clinical data across systems is still relatively unstructured in India. This creates challeges for ‘interoperability’ between different systems for the end-to-end data transfer. EMR (Electronic Medical Records) systems are also not necessarily integrated with Radiology systems. Softmed Technologies is actively working in this area to improve speed of response and healthcare eco-system productivity further.

Data Security - The security and privacy of the patients are the most important aspects of online radiology reporting. Imaging systems have been designed with security in mind and ensure that only authorized users can access these images. New standards for protecting the privacy and security of data, backed by legislation is being actively pursued by Govts in developed economies and digitally advanced nations like India.

Key takeaways

The ever-growing demand for radiology reports has made it critical for radiologists to respond efficiently to provide quick and quality services to patients and their Healthcare providers. With the increasing demand for remote radiology, the shortage of radiologists has simultaneously added an even bigger challenge for the healthcare system.

Softmed Technology’s Telerad Web Portal - TWP helps both our pool of  radiologists and our customers to deliver/receive test results and communicate with the patients’ doctors on a single, seamless, end-to-end platform effectively and efficiently.

Contact us today at inform@softmedtechnologies.com or call Arindam at +91 9433051055