I am happy to report that our Teleradiology initiative in Tripura has till date been a resounding success. Beginning in September 2016 we have till date (July 1, 2017) reported 15662 cases and are providing services to 23 sites in the state. This is our first venture into Government Collaboration (in the past our efforts to respond to tenders has met with dismal failure). This time we were pleasantly surprised by the openness, complete transparency and seamlessness of the tender process, and credit is due to the Honorable Health Minister of Tripura for this.
In general we appear to be entering a new era in public-private partnership with several state governments launching tenders for privatization of radiology reporting for government centers, in this era of radiologist shortages (http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/dehradun/shortage-hinders-radiology-facilities-in-doon-hospitals.html).
All credit to the Indian Government for realizing that healthcare is a subject where the collaboration between private and public can achieve far more than either can individually, and for taking concrete steps to address this.
In Tripura, in addition to the primary innovation of using teleradiology to deliver high quality reports to remote governmental centers, we have also deployed the use of smartphone technology in data transfer to overcome the image capture and connectivity challenges faced in such locations. Such projects have the potential to be transformational in their impact. We are happy to be at the center of one such transformation.