Teleradiology Solutions: Taking expertise to hospitals in US

Vijaya K - Bangalore

Teleradiology Solutions, Inc, Bangalore, a nascent teleradiology consultations provider to hospitals in the US, which started just about two years ago, has now become a leader in the imaging markets. While the US is facing a shortage of radiologists, where 20 per cent of the vacancies remain unfilled, workload on radiologists has increased and staffing has been inadequate. Seeing the increasing potential for radiology solutions in the US with inadequate number of radiologists and inadequate training programme to meet the demands of the growing aged population, Teleradiology Solutions was set up in India mainly to provide night shift support to the hospitals in US in a much more productive way.

The service is based on the use of web-driven teleradiology systems. “We use broadband internet access with complete redundancy that ensures total uptime to transfer image data from the hospital server,” explains Dr Arjun Kalyanpur, CEO and chief radiologist, Teleradiology Solutions.

The company provides teleradiology based services over the internet like Nighthawk coverage, where it provides on-call preliminary or final interpretation by board certified radiologists of all emergently performed non invasive imaging studies including Computed Tomography, MRI, ultrasound, X Ray, nuclear medicine studies and conventional plain films (digital format) with a turnaround time of under 30 minutes for a transcribed faxed report. “Here a single radiologist is able to support multiple hospitals,” adds Dr Kalyanpur.

“We also offer 3-D post processing service for CT/MR image data, facilities for transcription/editing/proofing of radiologic dictations and even support with billing operations and data entry services for radiology groups,” he asserts.

With a team of about two US Board certified radiologists and radiologists trained locally, Teleradiology Solutions is licensed in about 30 hospitals in the US including California, Georgia, Indiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Texas, Washington. Locally, the company offers services to the well known cardiac hospital Narayana Hrudayalaya.

“We basically provide support to hospitals in the US in their night shift coverage. When there is an emergency, the patient gets scanned for the purpose of diagnosis, the images are sent to us, we then interpret and review the images and send the report back to the hospital within 30 minute round time” says Dr Arjun. “To give such interpretations we have to be licensed in that particular state,” he affirms.

The company is HIPAA compliant and utilises Virtual Private Networking to maintain patient confidentiality. Communication between their reporting site and the hospital is by means of electronic fax and telephone. A professional transcription service is an additional feature that ensures a high quality of reporting with error-free reports.

“There is a growing need in the US right now. But we do not deny the possibilities of looking at other markets like the Gulf or South East Asia,” Dr Kalyanpur reveals.

Teleradiology Solutions which gets about 100 cases a day is in the growth phase expecting more clients in the US and recruiting more radiologists. The company is also in talks with a couple of hospitals in India.