Advancement in Telemedicine Technologies

Telemedicine has been around as long as the telephone but the first video telemedicine was used in 1920s in Nebraska. Telemedicine has been evolving for the last 10 to 12 years and is defined as interactive health care using modern telecommunications.

Various practices have become involved in telemedicine and the one that has made enormous progress is radiology. Teleradiology is the process of electronically transferring radiographic images and related patient information from one location to another. The goal of introducing telemedicine practices such as teleradiology is to become a filmless and paperless solution for the radiology department and also for the patients. Advanced technologies and digital imaging have now made it possible to view radiographic images on computers and on the web. Constant efforts are been made for the development of teleradiology and one such development is of picture archiving and communication systems (PACS). Picture archiving and communications systems are useful for managing and storing huge amount of information for the healthcare facility. As PACS is web based technology a radiologist can use any computer in any part of the world and access the scanned images on the web. No special software or program is needed. All a radiologist has to do is use his credentials and sign on to access the website, analyze the scanned images and then enter the result into the program. Since this whole process is web based it is so quick that as soon as the radiologist enters his result onto the program and saves it, it is available for the hospital to access.

Radiologists require four factors to be present in PACS to be satisfied with the system. The reporting should be accurate for the content, teleradiology staff must be available to interact with the in-house radiologist, technical help must be available when needed and there must be acceptable turnaround time for results.

Imaging On Call is dedicated to high quality patient care. Our tailored services make Imaging On Call a smart, cost-effective nighthawk teleradiology solution for today’s radiology practices. IOC welcomes the opportunity to make a personal visit to your facility to discuss how Imaging On Call’s teleradiology services can help you grow your practice. http://www.imagingoncall.net/