Earlier this month, we had the privilege of hosting the first edition of AIR, a Symposium on Artificial Intelligence in Radiology jointly conducted by our Technology group TeleradTech and our Research Division Image Core Lab.
Keynote lectures were delivered on AI in Healthcare by Dr Anurag Agrawal Director of CSIR- Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology on AI in Healthcare, Dr Nobhojit Roy, formerly Advisor to NHSRC and currently advising the Government of Bihar on AI in Public Health, my colleague Dr Anjali Agrawal on AI in the ED. I spoke on the synergies between AI and Teleradiology.
There were 4 stimulating panel discussions that covered Clinical Applications, Business Models and Strategies, Technology/Infrastructure and Research/Validation.
A quiz on Artificial Intelligence conducted by my colleague Dr Jayadeepa was a big hit.
And an electure from Boston on Trends in AI in Healthcare by Dr Mark Michalski, Executive Director of the Massachusetts General Hospital- Brigham and Womens Center for Clinical Data Science was the icing on the cake.
Our team also took the opportunity to launch our new AI product in Mammography called MammoAssist. The Chief guest for the launch was renowned Radiation Oncologist and Entrepreneur, Dr Ajai Kumar from HCG-Global, India’s rapidly growing network of Oncology centers.
Huge learning, great exchange of ideas and excellent networking on a critically important topic.
Hopefully the first of many such!
We recently celebrated our 17th anniversary at TRS. When asked to say a few words I reflected over the things that had remained constant since the beginning and what had changed. In terms of the aspects of our organizational culture that I feel are a constant and have remained so since the beginning of TRS. These are:
1. Focus on quality. This is something that we have truly believed in from our inception. Ultimately there is no point practicing teleradiology unless the reporting is done at high quality as patient care is the core mission. At the beginning of the organization which was also the beginning of the industry, it was necessary to address the initial concerns about teleradiology in general and also to demonstrate that the quality of this fledgling new entity not just matched but exceeded that of its large competitors. Being JC accredited is another feature that obligates an organization to introspect on its quality practices. Today many years later as the organization spans the globe and many more radiologists in many different locations are on board, the QA process has become hugely more complex and technology plays a major role, with e-learning platform at its core, but the obsessive focus on quality remains unaltered.
2. Culture of effort and sincere hard work. We have been blessed as an organization with an outstanding team who have given their maximum effort to deliver the goods whenever it has been needed. While I perhaps do not sufficiently appreciate this on a day to day basis, for me this was highlighted in stark relief on a day when (as seems to happen only too often) there was a political bandh called. Although we are a healthcare entity and therefore exempt from joining such protests on that day a mob invaded our office demanding that we shut down. Our managers bravely explained to the protesters that this would put patient lives at risk and politely asked them to leave which they, now convinced of the necessity for our continuing our work, proceeded to do. Hats off to our team!!!
3. Inclusiveness – another aspect of the organization’s culture that has remained unaltered to this day is that the effort has always been to keep it non-hierarchical and the communication open and transparent.
I think it is important to sustain fundamental core values throughout the life of an organization. At the same time it is important to evolve and adapt. My next blog entry will focus on those aspects in which we have evolved and adapted.