How is Nandico digitalising the radiology services to improve existing services and work efficiency in the overburdened Healthcare Industry?

Bengaluru: The healthcare industry needs to proactively implement digitalisation of radiology on cloud frameworks and developing radiology data management strategies that address the issues of Clinicians, Radiologists and Patients within their current working pattern. Various cloud digitalisation frameworks like cloud PACS, Digital radiology films, Digital sharing of radiology scans, Augmenting radiology reports with AI , Voice to text transcription , Cloud teaching of medical students, Cloud storage of data to help doctors bring new researches for management of diseases and to help hospitals improve healthcare services in an all new, digital and efficient way.

As the global focus on digitalisation continues to grow, the Cloud technology has become a critical component of modern world. Various sectors that prioritize digitalisation and AI not only foster trust and loyalty among service users, but also create value in terms of their performance at reduced cost, environment benefit and efficient delivery of services.

In other words, role of radiology has become important in making diagnosis of diseases especially in emergency cases including trauma, stroke etc. In such cases every minute counts a-lot on treatment outcome.

Establishing links between radiology and cloud implementation can help save a-lot of lives where digitalisation efforts can drive improvements to the bottom line. The dedicated involvement of doctors to solve pain areas and their suggestions also helps in providing a more holistic view of the healthcare operations and overall impact on society and the environment.

In the healthcare industry specifically, cloud digitalisation of radiology can demonstrate a new commitment to patients and can help to achieve efficient services. Additionally, the industry is heavily reliant on manpower resources; digitalisation can help ensure long-term change towards betterment.

Digital bellwethers are already reaping profits as patients and clinicians are increasingly prioritizing digitalisation and efficient service delivery.

On the contrary, laggards who fail to accept digitalisation run the risk of reputational damage, increased regulatory scrutiny, lower patients loyalty and ultimately, poor service delivery.

Current Challenges:

The healthcare industry is slow in the adoption of new technology due to persistence of many remote challenges. Firstly, the healthcare workers are overburdened. Secondly, the lack of infrastructure and resources to provide services as most work is still been done in traditional way. Finally, lack of technology trained staff and the resistance to change.

The Way Ahead:

Today, the healthcare industry needs to be proactive in implementing digitization frameworks and developing Cloud based solutions strategies that address the specific healthcare problems and opportunities within their operations.

Various digitalisation frameworks in radiology like PACS, tele-radiology software’s, Data Management and Storage are present but are developed on old technology. Steps to make cloud implantation in radiology to help clinicians and doctors will prove to be more comprehensive than others. Adopting cloud based frameworks can help healthcare industry to serve effectively to patients.

The benefits to consider in this context would be:

1. Emergencies like trauma, stroke etc. can be managed in efficient way where every minute decides the prognosis of patient.

2. Difficult cases being referred to Higher Centres will have their CT/MRI scans on Cloud. This will help save time and cost as the need for patient to undergo repeated scans is minimized.

3. Surgeons can plan surgeries in better way on digital data as compared to images on CD and films and can also discuss it with their colleagues.

4. Clinicians and radiologists are overburdened; it helps save a-lot of time by reading the scans on cloud compared to CDs, which they need to copy on laptops. Now a day’s laptops even don’t even have CD drives.

5. Cloud data can be used to develop new research in healthcare.

6. Removal of outdated Plastic Films from the Healthcare Industry and moving to Environment Friendly Digital cloud technology will prove to be milestone.

Tele-radiology has become central part in radiology. Clouds based PACS will help achieve radiology services in rural areas.

Common reasons that the healthcare industry is lagging behind in Digitalisation:

- Doctors are reluctant to step out of their comfort zone and take new initiatives to develop healthcare industry.

- Lack of digital documentation in healthcare industry. Most of healthcare documents including prescriptions, scans, investigation, admission and discharge summaries are still poorly managed and are paper dependent.

-Reluctance to accept new changes, as most healthcare workers are overburdened and don't show interest to make changes in their workflow.

- People outside this industry don't dare to bring innovation as healthcare industry has complex workflows and in depth knowledge is required to understand it.

Conclusion:
Cloud based technology in radiology will be a critical aspect of the healthcare industry’s sustainability journey. Companies backed by doctors that invest in cloud based technology reporting are not only meeting patient’s expectations but also driving real progress toward a more sustainable future. By embracing the best practices and overcoming common reasons for lag in healthcare digitalisation, Healthcare service providers can leverage cloud based solutions to enhance Work reputation, Deliver the best services and achieve Long-term success.

As we move forward, it is imperative that the industry continues to push the envelope on cloud based technology, ultimately leading to a more sustainable and responsible healthcare industry.

—The author, Dr. Bharat Gupta, MD, DNB, PDCC, FVIR (Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate institute , Lucknow) is the founder of Nandico Healthcare Private limited , Healthcare start-up backed by Doctors from pioneering institutes of India. He is an emerging name in Intervention Radiology and is also an entrepreneur serving healthcare and dedicated to bring change in healthcare sector to serve patients in efficient way in this digitalisation era. The views expressed are personal.