The Hindu Business Line : Teleradiology to read Singapore NHG scans

X-ray and other health scans from three of the nine polyclinics under the National Health Group would be read and diagnosed by its radiologists in Bangalore.

Bangalore , Feb. 17

THE Bangalore-based Teleradiology Solutions has bagged the first radiology outsourcing deal from Singapore's Ministry of Health.

The four-year-old radiology service provider on Friday said X-ray and other health scans from three of the nine polyclinics under the National Health Group would be read and diagnosed by its radiologists in Bangalore. Without mentioning the value, Dr Arjun Kalyanpur, CEO of Teleradiology Solutions, said the deal with the NHG, Singapore's largest healthcare services provider, would officially take off on March 1 starting with the Ang Mo Kia polyclinic.

"This is the first time that an Indian healthcare organisation has been recognised formally by Singapore's Ministry of Health," Dr Kalyanpur and Dr Sunita Maheshwari, Director at Teleradiology, said.

"This agreement is a big step forward for India in terms of providing expert medical opinion to other parts of Asia. This definitely helps establish India as a major player in the global telemedicine arena."

A six-month pilot has already done 950 readings from Bangalore for NHG. This may touch 1,500 by March 1 and 30,000-40,000 readings in the first year, said Dr Tyrone Goh, GM - NHG Diagnostics. The quality of reading and the quick turnover of getting interpretation within an hour of scanning was what clinched the issue; Singapore was trying to keep pace with galloping healthcare needs and partly outsourcing its radiology requirements to local hospitals and clinics, but it was taking 36-48 hours to get back the reports, he said.

NHG covers nine satellite polyclinics, four hospitals, a national centre and three specialty institutes and gets 5,000 in-patients at a time. Dr Goh said the agreement may also lead to increased academic exchanges between the two.

The 80-strong Teleradiology Solutions, with 20 radiologists working in shifts, provides remote readings of digitised x-ray, CT, MRI, ultrasound, nuclear medicine to 42 hospitals in the US, besides Narayana Hrudayalaya and Columbia Asia hospitals in Bangalore.

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