eRAD Donates PACS to Hospital in Grenada

Dramatically impacts care for entire country at St. George’s General Hospital.

Greenville, S.C., January 5th, 2017 – eRAD announced today that it has successfully deployed its PACS at St. George’s General Hospital in Grenada as part of a philanthropic effort by the company to bring the benefits of digital imaging to Grenadians.

eRAD is a leading provider of standards-based, web-centric radiology image and data management solutions. It is the information technology division of RadNet, Inc., the largest imaging center network in the U.S.

Randy Becker, M.D., a radiologist at Advanced Radiology, a RadNet center in Baltimore, obtained his medical degree from St. George’s University School of Medicine in Grenada and has been spearheading the initiative to bring modern radiology imaging equipment and supplies to the island.

“Medical services available to Grenadians are extremely limited,” Dr. Becker said. “In fact, nearly all the imaging supplies in the Department of Radiology at the Main General Hospital in the capital of Grenada, St. George’s, have been secured via outside donations.”

Dr. Becker has donated his time and expertise as a radiologist for many years. He visits regularly and provides donated supplies, such as “IVC filters, dialysis catheters, oral contrast agents, drainage catheters, angio catheters, biopsy needles—essentially anything I can get my hands on that will improve health care accessibility and service for Grenadians.”

Even internally on the island, transferring images between the main General Hospital and other imaging centers proved cumbersome. A second facility, Princess Alice Hospital, serves patients who cannot come to the capital. Princess Alice has limited imaging equipment—a CR and a few ultrasound machines—and no means of transferring those images to the General Hospital in St. George’s or surrounding local clinics. “Printing reports and film incur significant financial costs for patients and the radiology department. To save money, radiology reports had to be hand-written, and additional copies for a referring physician made with carbon paper,” said Dr. Becker. “eRAD PACS solves those problems, since now all radiology reports and images are saved and accessible on two servers. So eRAD is driving healthcare costs down for patients and for the government, which supports most of the public sector medical services.”

Imaging performed on different sites of the island is now linked, and physicians both in and out of the hospital can see images and results online, and almost immediately. “eRAD PACS enables better access, faster transmittal of images, and the portability of radiology reports,” said Dr. Becker. “We are so fortunate to have many volunteer physicians in diverse subspecialties who donate their time and services to the Grenadian patients. Now these physicians have radiology images, patient histories, and other medical record information available to them for review, often already loaded on eRAD PACS prior to their arrival in Grenada. Plus the information is stored forever, allowing easy retrieval for future projects.”

Ranjan Jayanathan, General Manager of eRAD, said: “Dr. Becker has contributed so much to the island, and we saw a way for eRAD to help. We’re honored that our PACS deployment is a successful first step in Grenada’s overall vision for taking healthcare digital. Radiology touches so many facets of healthcare delivery, and this was right in line with our focus on better access of care and greater portability. Providing better imaging services to people who have no access, who have no healthcare—it’s a good feeling.”