Teleradiology Means Access for Rural Regions
Digital imaging allows images to be transported around the world electronically in near real-time. While this can significantly improve access to imaging experts for patients living in remote or rural areas, teleradiology also opens new opportunities for cost savings and efficiencies.1
- Teleradiology means that providers do not have to hire their own experts for imaging interpretation and analysis.
- The University of California at San Francisco joined with four other university health centers in providing an imaging interpretation center to assist rural clinics in analyzing radiologic tests.2 A program at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston offers teleradiology interpretation services to 30 countries throughout the world. 3
- The Canadian Province of British Columbia undertook a $5.7 million tele-imaging program to speed-up patient care and to avoid unnecessary patient transfers. A Province official noted that the move would also save money in the long term by eliminating the cost of film, storage, and retrieval.4
- The ability of teleradiology to deliver high-quality, cost-effective imaging care to rural areas is underscored by a 2003 study of teleradiology in Japan, published in European Radiology. The study reported that "…teleradiology allows rural hospitals access to a radiology consultation 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Real-time teleradiology can provide highly specialized radiological services to a rural hospital with no full-time radiologists ...."5
1 "Radiology at the Turn of the Millenium," Alexander R. Margulis and Jonathan Sunshine, Radiology, 2000; 214:15-23.
2 "Networking Health: Prescriptions for the Internet," The Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences, 2000, pp. 70-77.
3 "New System Delivers Critical Information in Real Time, Reduces Medical Errors," Associated Press Business Wire, February 11, 2003.
4 "Technology Improves Patient Care, Reduces Wait Times," Press Release, Office of the Premier, Ministry of Health Planning, British Columbia, November 27, 2002.
5 "Economic Impact of Real-Time Teleradiology in Thoracic CT Examinations," Akihiro Takada, Toshiyuki Kasahara, Yasutomi Kinosada, Minoru Hosoba, and Tsunehiko Nishimura in European Radiology, 13:1566-1570, 2003.
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