Advances in medical imaging technologies have opened up new avenues to improve and enhance healthcare diagnostics and thereby delivery. A report released by marketsandmarkets.com states, “The global diagnostic imaging market is expected to grow from $20.7 billion in 2010 to $26.6 billion by 2016, at a CAGR of 4.2 per cent from 2011 to 2016.” India’s imaging market is also on an accelerated growth path.
While the benefits accrued from various imaging technologies like CT, PET/SPECT, MRI etc cannot be denied or overlooked, it is equally true that they have also contributed to rising healthcare costs. Imaging machines are not only expensive to buy but also to maintain. Their operational costs are quite substantial. One such capital-intensive operation is printing medical images to specialised and expensive film printers supporting the DICOM protocol, a universally-used communication standard in the medical imaging world.
The growing realisation among hospitals and imaging centers on the necessity to reduce every-day costs, and X-ray films imply high production, storage, shipping and disposal costs have caused them to look for more cost-effective alternatives to this mode of printing.
RSG Infotech, a company offering the cutting edge Apple technology in the business segments of video, film, broadcast, audio, graphics, photo and print, is now offering a cost-effective alternative to expensive films in the form of DicomJet, software, alongwith an appropriate Windows-compatible printer. This printer is being touted as a high-quality and cost-efficient DICOM printing solution for the radiology department and the other hospital departments.
| User ratings scale: 1-5 ( 5 being the highest) | |||||
| Name of the respondent | Technology | Performance of the product | Image quality | User-friendliness | Value for money |
| Dr Anirudh Kohli |
4
|
4
|
5
|
5
|
5
|
| Bomi Bhote |
4
|
4
|
4
|
4
|
5
|
Rupesh Pandey, GM, RSG Infotech explains the benefits of this printer and they include:
- Seamless integration in any DICOM network
- In small imaging center, DICOMJet can be coupled even with a single modality supporting DICOM print
- Dramatic cost reduction (from hundereds of rupees per copy to Rs 20-25 per copy).
- Near-diagnostic print quality
- Easy filing, storage, shipping and disposal of paper printouts
- Environment-friendly
He also informed that the printer is, gradually yet steadily, gaining acceptance in the Indian market. Ruby Hall Hospital and Sahyadri Hospitals in Pune, Ayush Hospital in North India etc are some of the places where the printer has been installed.
Express Healthcare, in its Tech Scan section, chose to review this product looking at its potential, and garnered some user reviews to understand the product and its usability in the Indian market.
| Technical features
Some of the key features of the DICOMJet software:
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Simplifying operations
Dr Anirudh Kohli, Chief Radiologist, Breach Candy Hospital and Research Center is one of the users of the printer. He has been using it for the last six months and sharing his experience he says, “Prior to DICOM print solution, we needed to outsource our printing requirements as we did not have an in-house high quality printer since it was expensive. Outsourcing entailed having a runner boy to carry the files on a CDs/pen drives to the commercial printer and receive physical prints back, resulting in a turn around time of a day, now the turnaround time is five minutes. In medicine, a faster turnaround time directly impacts patient care many fold.”
Bomi Bhote, CEO, Ruby Hall Hospital informs, “Our printer got installed in July, since then we are using it very aggressively and our average print per month is more than ten thousand.” He further adds, “Prior to DICOM Print, we used to have different printers for different modalities, both for film and paper. Now since we get print from a single printer we can expect consistent quality across all modalities.”
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Paper print taken from the DICOM printer
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Beneficial features
Talking about the features that he finds most helpful, Dr Kohli says, “There is no need to save the image in file into other formats such as TIFF/JPEG 2000 etc, where due to the compression there is bound to be some loss of resolution. The image is uncompressed, providing the best resolution – again patient management is impacted by quality of imaging. An important aspect is the cost of a DICOM print as compared to conventional laser film; the savings are nearly in the range of 80 per cent!! This can dramatically impact patient cost as laser film costs are the largest consumable expense in imaging studies.” Adding further he says that the DICOM print, the crystal clear image quality, the ability to print both colour and grey scale and of different sizes are some of the unique features of the product.
Bhote says that printing high quality greyscale and colour images directly from the modalities are the unique features of the DICOM printer. His says, “One single printer for both greyscale and colour images and also radiologist can print positive or key images straight from PACS workstation for reporting.”
Recommendations for improvement
Both the users have no complaints from the product so far. However, Dr Kohli gives his suggestion for enhancing the product and says, “The sky is the limit- – but if grey scale imaging can match laser film imaging totally it would be a boon as the savings would be dramatic.” Bhote feels, “In India, this technology is in the nascent stage but it has got opportunity to evolve.”
A promising technology
While the technology and therein the product is yet to take off completely in the country, it definitely offers a good alternative to expensive film printing. Going by the good reviews received from the users of the product, it is to be expected that soon more and more healthcare may opt for it in a bid to reduce their operational costs without compromising on quality.
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