One of the recent success stories in medical outsourcing after medical transcription, medical coding and medical tourism is probably radiology reading outsourcing a part of telemedicine. What do we mean by radiology reading? Before knowing that it is important that we define telemedicine. By definition, Telemedicine is the application of clinical medicine where medical information is transferred via telephone, the Internet or other networks for the purpose of consulting, and sometimes remote medical procedures or examinations.

 

Radiology Reading or Teleradiology is the ability to send radiographic images (x-rays) from one location to another. For many the idea of sending images across the globe to countries like India for “reading” or review / assessment may be frightening, but the fact is that it does work quite efficiently. One need not fear because they do not do complete reading and moreover final medical judgements are never passed by the Indian counterparts. There is a known shortage of radiologist in the US and doctors in India are available on call night long and it is day there. A part of this shortage problem has been successfully found the solution in outsourcing. Technology enables the speedy transfer of medical data over the Internet to any global location. All that is required is just a computer network. The the receiving computer can have a printer so that images can also be printed for convenience.

 

Besides X-rays, other radiology reading areas include,