Global Teleradiology Quality Control Programme

To enhance the quality of the radiology services in Migration Health Assessment Programmes, the Global Center conducts an innovative semi-automated global teleradiology quality control programme (GTQC).  The GTQC aims to assess radiology services in the field and provides feedback and recommendations for quality improvement. The GTQC system auto-samples a percentage of CXRs from local missions’ and the primary CXR reading from the IOM health information systems. The GTQC radiologist interprets the CXR, and the system compares the results of the two readings and calculate the level of discrepancy , and cases with significant discrepancies are sent to the local radiologist for review. Upon completion of the quality control process, the data is analyzed, including the radiologists’ agreement on TB diagnosis. Based on the results, feedback on the identified strengths and areas of improvement, along with recommendations, is provided to the field operation to optimize the quality of the radiology service provided. 

The IOM GTQC was first implemented in 2015 for IOM locations examining US-bound migrants and has been expanded to a total of 37 IOM locations examining US-bound migrants worldwide. In coordination with the US CDC, the Global Center conducted eight teleradiology QC projects for non-IOM panel clinics examining US-bound migrants , and in collaboration with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, IRCC, completed two QC projects for non-IOM panel clinics examining Canadian-bound migrants. A recently conducted project implemented annotation of TB abnormalities for US QC cases to assist in deep machine learning for the development of artificial intelligence (AI). 

The Global Center, in coordination with IOM ICT, has developed a new comprehensive Global Teleradiology QC system, which provides QC for all migration health assessment programmes in both IOM and non-IOM locations, with an option to sample cases, import the primary reading and chest X-ray images from different systems, and ability to conduct both real-time and periodic readings. The new QC system was rolled out to several locations examining UK-bound migrants in 2021, supporting a total of 41 locations for both the US and UK QC as of December 2021. The Global Center plans to expand the new Teleradiology QC to all migration health assessment programmes and start using the new QC system for real-time internal QA monitoring for readings at the Global and Regional Teleradiology Centers, as well as expand the Global QC programme to other beneficiaries and non-IOM panel clinics.  

Using IOM Teleradiology program is made easy 

Using the IOM Teleradiology Programme is made easy. The Global Center designs, implements and uses simplified and affordable solutions for both Teleradiology Centers, which are tailored to the needs of each clinic in the different countries. Minimal technical requirements are needed to start the service, where the basic requirements are DICOM images with standard biodata and access to the internet. The expert global technical team provides full technical support and guidance for implementing the service with real-time chat communication. A dedicated support staff will be assigned to the clinic to support the service. Web-based teleradiology user training and practice runs will be conducted with the users before the service starts. The Center provides reliable service 7 days a week with an average turnaround time of 20 minutes, and with a system to connect to our expert radiologists in real time for any queries. You can also contact the Global Center either by telephone or email. 

Please feel free to contact us at +63 8230 1676 / 1674 or email us at globalteleradCenter@iom.int. We will be glad to assist you. 
 

Teleradiology quality control system integration and process workflow