BC to AC – Future of imaging post-COVID-19
Following the outbreak of the corona virus (COVID-19) pandemic, countries around the globe have implemented a number of measures and policies to avoid the damage done by the disease. However, a new perspective is needed in the health industry from Before COVID (BC) to After COVID (AC) as the priorities have changed. The situation is akin to the essence of the book Future Shock by Alvin Toffler, wherein there is too much change in too short a period of time.
The imaging industry also has to wake up to a number of new challenges. Safety and hygiene have become the all-important factors today. The safety of the patient, the technical staff, the scanning equipment, the radiologist, and the service engineers is of paramount importance. The focus is on how to ensure the safety of all these without compromising on the diagnostic performance and throughput of the centers. The sanitization of the gantry rooms, equipment, consoles, workstations, dictaphones, etc., has suddenly become the central issue, and will have a significant impact on the way the departments will need to be redesigned. The AC ventilation, HEPA filters, fumigation, and remote positioning of patients will need rethinking, and the new benchmark the companies would have to take care of.
There is already an exponential increase in teleradiology, with most imaging radiologists preferring to work from home. Software will have to be devised to not only facilitate just reporting of scans remotely, but also to provide the requisite capability to replicate a workstation to have the VR models, 3D reconstructions, and all the necessary tools of the radiologist at his command. There may be evolution of cheaper and mobile workstations, affordable by most radiologists. At the same time, extensive use of teleradiology will lead to a unique learning experience by rapid sharing of information and data by radiologists across the continents. Webinars could wipe out extravagant conferences and online presentations could make day-long sales calls a thing of the past. The machine companies would have to work around these adaptive measures too.
The world economy has taken a huge slowdown hit from literally 78 rpm to 16 rpm, maybe even lesser. The adaptation of the health industry to the crisis is like a double-edged sword. The imaging departments too have had to rally to the influx of patients who are virus-infected, or probables with special measures in place – all from changing rotas to social distancing on one hand to combating low revenues due to fewer non-emergency procedures on the other. The situation is going to remain largely unchanged for a long time in the foreseeable future. The economic slowdown will have an impact on the number of patients undergoing scans as physicians may look for cheaper alternatives. All this translates into lower demand in the number of health professionals required at every level, multitasking by those who get retained, difficulty in centers to keep profitable, and definitely a very low demand for new equipment.
The world cannot go back to the Before COVID era and a new normal will emerge in the After COVID era.
