Issue Date: September 2012
Publication: Color Doppler Magazine
Suchet Singh, Chief Executive Officer, Srishti Software, shares his views on healthcare sector which is moving towards automation and how PACS is fast becoming a tool for bringing different technologies together
What are the major requirements of Indian hospitals and healthcare institutions as far as RIS-PACS is concerned?
Indian hospitals and healthcare industry are highly value focused. Hence, the key requirements are — the solution should be cost competitive, have high interface with third party applications, easy to use for end users and must conform to global standards of healthcare.
What do you focus on while designing RIS-PACS solutions for Indian hospitals and healthcare institutions?
Our RIS-PACS solution is a generic platform that is designed to be easily deployable across nations and usage. We have emphasized on ease of use, maximizing price-performance and virtualization of patient image records. Our RIS-PACS virtualization solution delivers medical collaboration of different specialists across locations simultaneously. This helps in multiple faculty consultations including remote locations. By integrating to OT cameras, OT images can be streamed live for cross consultations. Virtualization helps medical tourism wherein the referring doctor can also the view the same images that the attending doctor is viewing and consult thereby. The RIS-PACS Solution makes life of a PACS administrator a lot easier since there is just one server to maintain.
What are the ways by which the workflow in RIS-PACS leads to improvement in productivity?
Work-flow in RIS-PACS solution stores images electronically, thus helping hospitals save a lot on operational cost. Before the implementation of RIS-PACS, hospitals employ human resource to file images physically for in-patient files. Post implementation, they can channel their resource to a different area, improving their efficiency. Since RIS-PACS enables attaching patient medical records and report electronically to their files, it is easier for doctors to send them within the hospital to experts/ consultants and also outside the hospital for second opinion. They can even store data for their record and reference. Finally, electronic storage of data enables them to store the images in their archive, which can be revisited by them at any point of time for reference without the fear of physical damage to reports.
What are the major challenges that you face while doing business in India? How does the ever-increasing taxation on healthcare facilities in India pose as a hurdle for companies in delivering quality healthcare products and solutions?
Implementation of RIS/PACS poses certain challenges, especially when it requires integration with third party solution. For this, we are dependent on appropriate technical support from the vendors of the third party for the smooth integration. Any inadequate support and coordination leads to delay in the implementation timeline and would create a possible risk to the project.
How beneficial have your RIS-PACS solutions been to your clients? Can you cite an example?
The best example is that it enables patient x-rays and other images to be digitally attached to patient electronic medical record and be sent outside or within the hospital to consultants/experts for second opinion within minutes. Also since the whole process of filing the images is automated, there is little chance of error which could be life threatening in some cases.
Do your clients have an option of customizing their PACS solution before buying?
PACS solution comes with product releases every three months and incorporates most of the buyer’s requirement. In this way the customization becomes minimal and customer gets all the features readily available in our standard PACS solution.
How does Srishti’s RIS-PACS solution get integrated with the external HIS solutions?
Our RIS-PACS solution can be completely integrated with external HIS solutions. The system uses what is called an ‘Integration Engine’ and an ‘Enterprise Service Bus’ to communicate to third party software. To put it in simple terms, Integration Engine acts as a platform for the HIS Solution and the third party software to communicate by converting both their languages into a common language. After conversion, the Enterprise Service Bus communicates the meaning to each side and aides them to understand and work in sync with each other.
What does make Srishti stand out from its competitors?
We stand out from our competitors because our solution has been designed after extensive market research on typical pain points that radiologist/administrative staffs of hospitals struggle with. PARAS-RIS solution enables ease of use, price performance and virtualization of patient image records.
How do you manage to stay ahead of the game with the rising competition in the market, especially from MNCs?
We believe in listening to our customers and constant innovation as a driver to business development.
What will be the future of PACS in India (and globally)? How fast is this market growing?
The future of PACS looks promising. Recently, healthcare segment has been witnessing a trend towards automation and IT system adoption. Initially hospitals used to outsource radiology procedures to outpatient clinics. Now in a bid to save cost and offer integrated services, they are evolving their own radiology divisions. In the wake of this shift, we definitely see PACS fast becoming a tool for coming together of different technologies.
How do you plan to make the best out of it?
We are working on evolving many futuristic models to improve patient care. We are confident that our relentless focus on listening hard, innovating along the industry trends and excellent after sales support will help us drive revenue and gain market share. Srishti Software’s future plans for their clients? Srishti will continue to engage with clients, implementing PARAS in their hospitals successfully, driving user adoption and providing after sales support. On the development front, we are working on many futuristic models that would contribute in improving the quality of patient care.
