MOH signs contract of $31 m to bring teleradiology to Govt. hospitals

From left: Redtone International Group CEO Lau Bik Soon,Redtone CEO Kar Fong,  Minister of Health Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine Dr.Rajitha Senaratne, Hinacom CEO Tony Cui, and  Hinacom Co-founder Executive Vice President  Yi Isabelle Sun - Pix  by Indraratne Balasuriya

The Ministry of Health recently announced a signed partnership of $31 million with global experts REDtone MEX Malaysia and Hinacom Software and Technology China to provide teleradiology infrastructure to government hospitals. 

Making a mark in the history of medical imaging in Sri Lanka, the innovative advanced artificial intelligence-based technology will be introduced to 20 hospitals in the project’s first phase. A Teleradiology Command Centre will be established at the National Hospital of Sri Lanka (NHSL), where facilities would be provided free of charge. The Command Centre, linked to hospitals around Sri Lanka, will utilise Picture Archiving Communication System (PACS) and Radiology Information System (RIS) digital platforms, bringing considerable cost savings and increasing efficiency of teleradiology to the public health sector. The project is spearheaded by Health Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne. 

The Minister said that the teleradiology infrastructure would make a revolutionary impact on the public health sector. “When a doctor of a rural hospital has to face a complicated health situation of a patient, the only option would be to transfer the patient to another hospital if it does not have the required facilities. The time wasted doing so could be risky to the patient. Now, with telemedicine, this could be changed. With it we can communicate every detail of the patient’s condition with a specialist instantly and they could advice the doctor to do what is needed.”

The PACS and RIS is a medical imaging platform that will provide economical storage, presentation, retrieval, distribution and management of medical images. PACS will benefit medical professionals through improve availability, accuracy, speed, economy, and accessibility for all physicians (of the hospital), any place and any time, along with better productivity. There would also be increased savings in film and staffing for film rooms as the hospital goes primarily filmless.  REDtone MEX CEO Yee Kar Fong said: “This should, over time, improve the quality of healthcare services in Sri Lanka. Additionally, the Government can derive significant cost savings through the implementation of this system as the current practice of buying radiology films, printing, distribution, and storage is inefficient and expensive.” 

With the introduction of PACS to the government hospitals, the Health Ministry would be able to better utilise expensive imaging equipment across entire government hospital network. There would be more cost savings due to digitisation while creating teleconsulting, research, and teaching capability through better access.

REDtone MEX is a healthcare technology and services company that provides teleradiology, picture archiving and communication system and filmless radiology information systems to hospitals, medical centres and clinics.

Hinacom Software and Technology Ltd. is a healthcare IT company specialising in medical imaging information systems/telemedicine systems and their applications. Hinacom was established in 2008 by industry veterans with a combined 60 plus years of healthcare IT and medical imaging experience in global companies.

Pix by Indraratna Balasuriya