The Hindu Business Line : <B>T</B>eleradiology outsourcing... the new buzzword

Mumbai June 1 Teleradiology services from India are in great demand oversees. No, Indian radiologists are not shifting base to distant lands. Instead of being closeted in a hospital here, many of them are poring over X-rays, CT and MRI scans of patients admitted in the US and UK hospitals, and forwarding back reports — all in a span of minutes.

That too, sitting in the comfort of posh offices in Bangalore and Delhi. Welcome to the world of teleradiology outsourcing!

The estimated market potential for outsourced teleradiology services is about half-a-billion dollars worldwide, according to a senior official of Wipro Technologies. "Indian solution providers have not yet managed more than one per cent of this growing market," he said.

Companies like Teleradiology Solutions and Wipro Technologies have been early movers in providing `night hawking' services, a term used as description of overnight teleradiology services, by taking advantage of time zone differences. Diagnostic companies such as Metropolis, Wellspring and others are readying themselves to grab a share of this large pie.

Shortage

An aging population coupled with the quelling shortage of trained radiologists during night hours have ensured that the US, UK and Singapore are traditional customers, accounting for 90 per cent of the business. Demand in the US is especially high as there are about 6,000 hospitals there, which average 10-15 scans a night.

"Similarly Singapore has 70 radiologists of which only a handful are available during night hours," said Dr Sunita Maheshwari, Director, Teleradiology Solutions.

A radiologist takes 21 days to submit a MRI scan report in the UK, said Dr Maheshwari. As India has over 4,650 trained radiologists, Indian nighthawk companies are able to offer reports in 20-30 minutes in case of emergency.

Cost advantage

Added to it is the cost advantage. "Depending on training and experience, we pay our radiologists between Rs 8 lakh-Rs 30 lakh annually," said the Wipro official. This is double of what a radiologist working in an Indian hospital makes. On an average an US radiologist earns about $5,00,000 (about Rs 2 crore) a year.

Global acceptance of outsourcing has brought about a major change in this business in the last couple of years. "We have been seeing expressions of interest from the Netherlands, France and other European countries as they have realised that we have a stringent quality benchmark," said Dr Maheshwari.

Specialists say that this is because Indian radiologists have a reputation for maintaining 99.8 per cent accuracy.

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