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Want to launch an offshore teleradiology startup
Hi everyone,
I had a startup idea that I wanted to share with you guys and get your thoughts on whether this sort of thing could be feasible.
Basically, the teleradiology centre would be located in a low-cost country (I live in Pakistan so that is where it would initially be) and the radiologists here would report on cases within a few hours of receiving the images or overnight (since there is an approximately 12 hour time difference with the US). For hospitals, this would be considerably cheaper than having an onsite radiologist (or within the US/Europe/Canada).
My main concern would be that these radiologists would only be licensed to practice in Pakistan and therefore would not be able to report on cases in the US (correct me if I am wrong).
As a workaround, the service could be marketed as a way for radiologists to obtain a second opinion on their reporting before issuing their reports. This would give greater comfort to the patients, doctors, and the hospital administration as it would reduce the risk of misdiagnosis and potentially also reduce insurance liability/expenses.
This would also resolve any staff shortage problems that hospitals may be facing.
Do you guys think this is a reasonable idea? Would love to hear your thoughts!
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1 Reply
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Hi –
It’s not a reasonable, or realistic idea. Here is why.
1. Back when teleradiology took off, plenty of people had this idea of cheaper labor from overseas. There was a bit of a panic at the time amongst american radiologists that our ‘golden goose’ was going away. I was a resident at the time and never took it seriously.
Subsequently, Medicare and insurance companies made it very clear that they will not be reimbursing for any overseas radiology reads. Prelims are allowed in a limited capacity I believe, but are essentially non existent. American radiologists do not want foreign involvement or reads taking away from business. Most of these foreign (were mostly indian) ‘radiology’ companies ( that were doing shady stuff to begin with) pretty much fell apart.
2. Why would an american trained radiologist want a ‘second opinion’ from a foreign trained radiologist without the same training or standards? I can simply swivel around in my chair and ask the radiologist next to me, or call a colleague at home to look at the scan. A ‘second opinion’ from some far away non american radiologist makes 0 sense, and would also hold 0 value to a referring clinician, tumor board, whoever. Same applies to any other medical specialty. If you’re going to read and interpret imaging from the US, you need to be residency trained and meet US ACGME standards. Plain and simple.
3. If this was a possibility – our venture capitalist backed radiologists groups would already be over it. Trust me.
Foreign teleradiology is a reality for many american trained rads to do prelims if they want to read from foreign countries, in some capacity. For a foreign trained rad with no us training, not gonna happen, wether it’s as a prelim or a ‘second opinion’.
If you want to interpret imaging in the US – come to the US and do residency. (Most) US radiologists feel pretty strongly that we are not in the business of outsourcing our skillset and patient liability to ‘cheap’ or foreign labor. Hospital systems, insurance companies, and certainly the government feels similarly.
