Free software to help radiologists at JIPMER provide Online Radiology consultations

Puducherry: A free of cost software provided by the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry has helped the Jawaharlal institute of postgraduate medical education and research (Jipmer) launch an online radiology service and consultation.

Peers, doctors and paramedical staff members at hospitals and institutes in remote and rural parts of the country will be able to through the software ‘CollabDDS’ (Collaborative digital diagnosis system) access the consultations being given by the institute’s radiologists. JIPMER experts, on the other hand, will be able to share their knowledge with their peers and assist them in research and academic activities on a real-time basis.

“The Union government has launched the service due to acute shortage of expert radiologists in remote/rural areas of the country.The CollabDDS software is funded by National knowledge network (NKN),” nodal officer (telemedicine) and head (IT wing), JIPMER, Ravi Kumar Chittoria informed TOI.

The software has been developed jointly by the National Informatics Centre (NIC), New Delhi, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Chandigarh, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay, and All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi. All necessary equipment to JIPMER has been provided by the Ministry, while the application for the online radiology services has been provided by the NIC the technology partner,

“The CollabDDS software has been installed and tested with the NIC, Delhi. NIC will train radiology consultants at Jipmer to extend the online services,” said Vishnu Bhat, the JIPMER, Director of TOI.

10 medical centers for extension of services in the first 6 months have been identified by the institute in South India. The institute will cover other centers in the second phase in the next six months, as per the Ministry instructions

Jipmer, he added is the first government medical institution in South India to offer online radiology services and consultations.