For working radiologists, managing consultations with clinicians can prove an inefficient and lengthy process.
Feedback Medical CEO Dr Thomas Oakley explains how using Bleepa, which allows for the remote sharing of medical imagery for annotation and discussion within care settings, can take the pain out of this process and save valuable time for radiologists.
Just last month the Royal College of Radiologists warned that, despite more consultant radiologists entering the workforce, there was still a 29% shortfall and more than 200 vacancies across the UK. This could rise to 39% in 2026, the RCR warned, without further investment.
The knock-on effects of constraints on staffing are a significant hurdle in efforts to clear the elective care backlog. Delivering an efficient, simple way for radiologists to manage consultations and communicate with colleagues can support their workload and cut down on diagnostic delays.
“I have practised radiology and understand first hand a number of the problems that we face as a specialty, which is really why we have made radiology and image transmission, and viewing the cornerstone of Bleepa as an application,”
Dr Thomas Oakley, CEO Feedback Medical.
Building a team around a patient
A significant challenge for radiologists is communicating findings in a seamless and efficient way with colleagues on the frontline, Oakley explains.
“Communication with [clinical] colleagues is absolutely fundamental to what we do as a specialty,” Oakley explains. Whilst it is possible to generate a standard report containing a lot of clinical information, this can fail to capture the nuance of clinical imaging and their significant findings. Being able to communicate those findings directly and quickly is where radiologists can add real value to clinical teams.
Bleepa builds a clinical team around an individual patient. Clinicians can securely share, annotate and query medical imaging directly with radiologists, or where necessary with third-party support such as teleradiology, all in one conversation.
That conversation is then captured, creating an auditable record of patient care, cutting down on paperwork and providing confidence for clinicians that their consultation has been recorded.
As these conversations can happen remotely, no time needs to be wasted chasing colleagues on the phone or travelling across departments within the hospital.
“It’s much better to have a dynamic exchange based on instant messaging so that you can reply to colleagues and pick up questions between your reporting so that you’re not disrupted, and you’re able to actually give their clinical question the amount of time and attention that it needs,”
Dr Tom Oakley