Bangalore, India's teleradiology outsourcing capital

Bangalore, India's tele-radiology outsourcing capital:- Bangalore March 04, 2005 9:30:30 PM IST

Bangalore famous for its information technology and biotechnology revolutions is now gearing up for a tele-radiology revolution that could globally change the face of health sector and diagnosis.

The onset of tele-radiology has created a viable career opportunity for Indian radiologists both and in foreign countries like the United States, where they are particularly in great demand.

Tele-radiology basically consists of separating the radiologist from the sites where radiological images are required. It is also called long distance interpretation of radiological scans. The digital radiological images are sent to Indian doctors, who interpret, and diagnose the reports before sending them back to respective hospitals in the U.S.

This new outsourcing to India is called Nighthawking and is a new trend in American healthcare.

Talking to ANI in an exclusive interview, Dr. Arjun Kalyanpur, the Director of Teleradiology, India's first medical company involved in this process, says this is a new trend in the health process.

According to Kalyanpur, it takes 30-minutes for radiologists to analyse and diagnose the data before sending the report back to the U.S.

American hospitals have a stringent standards, which Indian doctors have to meet. Kalyanpur says this concept is an offshoot of telemedicine and has opened up new vistas for outsourcing.

Being a pioneer in this field, Kalyanpur, a renowned radiologist says that this concept can fill the gap on shortage of radiologists in US. He says the Indian doctors were helping the U.S. in filling the gap and justifies that it is not taking away jobs from the US.

They are also one of the centers connecting many rural hospitals in Karnataka through telemedicine project. Kalyanpur's company has tied up with 30 hospitals in US and is planning to tie up with many hospitals in Australia, Europe and in some of the Asian countries.

Talking to ANI, Alex Sommers, the Chief Financial Officer of the US-based Teleradiology Solutions, says the cost advantage and shortage of radiologists in U.S. has made them look towards India.

According to him the accuracy of the diagnosis done in India was more than 99 percent and pbuttes all U.S. standards. (ANI)