Challenges Faced When Adopting Teleradiology Services

By Karen Butler


Teleradiology is increasingly becoming common due to the advancements in technology. It is now accessible globally through the world wide web. The advancements seen in the information technology industry have created a global office workforce that can operate 24 hours a day. This has seen radiology works follow the sun as radiologists offer teleradiology services to hospital staff working night shift in another part of the world.

The recent advancements in information technology have made it possible for radiology services to be delivered across time zones and geographical regions. The best application of the service is through facilitating prompt responses, especially in emergency situations. This allows an off-site radiologist to offer timely diagnosis resulting to timely administration of the appropriate treatment to the patient.

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 services are being offered to large hospitals, remote clinics and even in emergency rooms. The platform has enabled many hospitals to be cost efficient during the night shift as they have reduced the need to hire extra personnel to work at night. With the platform set up, it is possible for one radiologist to actually offer the service to several client hospitals in different locations during the night shift.

Teleradiology has provided very many benefits and improved patient care. There are, however, several barriers that exist in the global healthcare system that prevent the adoption of the service. This has had a direct impact on the delivery of this medical service to patients. Firstly the technology used in the service requires trained technicians to operate the equipment. These technicians are not readily available. Reliable internet in remote locations is also another barrier that has hindered the successful wide-scale adoption of teleradiology.

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 in most of the countries. This creates a gap where the implication of the service delivery is not clearly understood. This tends to impact the service negatively. There is a need for the laws to be streamlined with changes in globalization. Some liability claims have been noted so far in the transmission of wrong data as well as incorrect use of the equipment and this ends up affecting the service delivery.

The confidentiality and security of the data being transmitted across the network is a major concern in the service delivery. In order to prevent unauthorized access to the information on patients, both locations need to set up adequate safeguarding measures. The information needs to be encrypted to secure the image data while also maintaining its reliability. The security measures needed are a major barrier to the adoption of the service especially in the remote locations.




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