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Friday 21 September 2018

Barriers To Adoption Of Teleradiology Services


By Karen Butler


The information technology service industry has impacted the global work environment by creating a workforce that is able to operate 24 hours a day. Advancements in telemedicine have been pioneered especially in the field of teleradiology. A radiology in one part of the world is able to offer teleradiology services to hospital staff working night shift in another part of the world.

It is now possible for radiology services to be offered across countries and different time zones. This has improved patient care, especially in emergency situations. A radiologist in one country can offer a diagnosis to personnel in an emergency situation in a remote hospital in another country. The staff is then able to offer the patient the right treatment.

E-commerce platforms have made service delivery even more efficient. Not only can a radiologist offer their service, the platforms enable the billing, work flow monitoring and payment to be automated. This has increased the efficiency and reliability of the delivery process.

The delivery model has enabled the radiology services to be delivered to emergency rooms, large hospitals, and even remote clinics. A single radiologist can simultaneously offer these services to multiple hospitals during the night shift. This leads to cost-effectiveness as the need to hire night shift personnel in the remote hospitals is minimized.

Many benefits have been noted with the introduction of teleradiology. However, most hospitals are still facing challenges in adopting this great advancement thereby limiting the kind of care they are providing to the patients. Some of the challenges are technology related. The equipment being used requires a certain type of skill and not many technicians are available to offer this service. Reliable internet is also a challenge for most countries and this affected the adoption of the service in remote locations.

The current regulatory structure of most of the medical institutions also hinders the adoption of teleradiology. For example, most of the hospital boards and license requirements require a physical appointment be made when hiring a consultant to validate his or her credentials. This kind of requirement hinders the adoption of the service easily as it is challenging for consultants to visit the remote clinics.

Medical liability laws also differ between countries. There is a gap that remains unclear when it comes to delivery of radiology services across such countries. Liability claims have also been made over incorrect use of the equipment as well wrongful transmission of data leading to a wrong diagnosis.

Another obstacle that has faced the spread of the service globally is the security and confidentiality concerns that have been raised. The patient data is usually transmitted over a public network and the threat of unauthorized access to this data is present. The hospitals involved in the setup need to safeguard the information they have and have it encrypted without affecting its reliability.




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