Indian Healthcare spending has increased at an annual growth rate of 10%.
In spite of the increased expenditure, India spends only 4.2% of its GDP on Healthcare against the global expenditure of 9.4%.
There is a personnel resource gap with a doctor patient ratio of 1:1500 against the WHO recommended 1:600.
75% of qualified doctors serve urban areas restricting access to the rural population.
80% of healthcare spending is made directly by the patients due to limited insurance availability
Quality in Radiology
a) Image quality
b) Report Quality
c) Report TAT
d) Communication quality
e) Overall Service quality
The subject of quality in medicine is discussed at various radiologic events and fora across the world. It has been the subject of numerous papers and books, one of my personal favourites being Complications by the Boston-based writer and surgeon Atul Gawande. And yet the concept remains elusive and nebulous. When complaints come in though, there is
The First Annual Meeting of the Society Of Emergency Radiology was held at PGI Chandigarh earlier this month. My colleague Dr Anjali Agrawal who was the Chair of the Scientific Committee put together a star studded faculty including Dr Leonard Berlin, eminent researcher and writer on legal issues from Chicago, ‘Mr Trauma’ Dr Shanmuganathan, fondly known to all as ‘Shan’ from the University of Maryland, Dr Christine Menias from Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Dr Raju Sharma Professor from AIIMS, New Delhi and many other eminent speakers from as far away as Japan and Australia. The Society has been launched in a timely manner given the increasing adoption of emergency Imaging in the Indian setting, and I am honoured to be a founder member. Spearheading it is the energetic Professor Khandelwal Head of Department of PGI Chandigarh, whose enthusiasm is as infectious as it is inspiring. Our own team gave a series of talks and presented some excellent, e-posters, one of which, on CT in Stroke Imaging, won the Award for Best Exhibit. Details are available on our website www.radguru.net
The goal of the Society is to espouse the subspecialty of emergency radiology and establish protocols for its effective practice and training. Preparing for my own lecture on “Teleradiology: increasing the scope of Emergency Radiology” made me introspect on how teleradiology has revolutionized the practice of emergency radiology in the US and elsewhere and how the synergies between the two have led to the growth in both.
An Emergency Radiology Society in India? Speaks of how rapidly radiology subspecialization is evolving in India – from traditional modality specific subspecialization ie that which is focussed on a single technology such as CT or MRI, to a specialization that is defined based purely on a clinical need and which spans every conceivable imaging modality. An interesting evolution indeed!