New Imaging Partnership

Medica and Nuffield Health announce imaging partnership

Medica and Nuffield Health have announced a diagnostics partnership which will create the largest remote radiology reporting network in the UK. Nuffield Health Diagnostics, which is part of the charity Nuffield Health, says that the agreement has the potential to deliver substantial benefits to the NHS and independent healthcare sector through reduced cost and increased availability of services across all the major modalities.

Under the terms of the agreement, Nuffield Health Diagnostics has acquired Medica for an undisclosed sum.

The new partnership means that Nuffield Health now has access to Medica’s remote reporting technology and  Medica has an introduction to more than 500 experienced consultant radiologists who have been working with Nuffield Health for many years.

Together, the two organisations see significant growth opportunities in the self-pay, independent and corporate markets.

Nuffield Health Diagnostics is in the middle of a £50 million expansion of its CT, MRI and X-Ray facilities and operates out of over 30 centres nationwide in addition to expanding its  fleet of sophisticated mobile units.

Medica has spent nearly five years equipping consultant radiologists with the latest technology so they can acquire and report on scans from home. Between them, Medica and Nuffield Health work with almost every NHS acute trust in the country and many PCTs.

“The gold standard now across all UK healthcare markets is to deliver high-quality, lower-cost services that are much easier to access - and this partnership ticks all of those boxes,” said Andrew Allen, CEO of Nuffield Health Diagnostics.

“It no longer makes sense to have radiologists traveling into hospital, reporting on a couple of films and then going home. It is far more cost-effective to work from home, producing higher quality reports and delivering the electronic results rapidly to the hospitals.”

He added that using Medica’s remote radiology technology would also create a better quality of life for consultants as well as reducing their carbon footprint.

Medica was founded by Bob Harper, COO, and Simon Rasalingham, CEO.   Both agree that the partnership represents a key development in the UK’s changing health economy.

“Everyone involved both on the supply-side and the demand-side will gain from this new teleradiology landscape. All the benefits promised by the internet and those TV science programmes years ago are finally becoming reality.”

“Medica had already started working with many of the consultants within Nuffield Health and is looking to expand its reporting network further,” he added, “not least because it offers a huge potential social benefit for patients and their healthcare providers.”

“Our company has already made an impact in this field. Partnering with one of the biggest and best-known independent sector providers now creates an opportunity to fundamentally improve the speed, cost and availability of radiology reporting in this country.

“It also shows to market that outsourcing can be achieved by using UK resources rather than having to send work out to other countries which to date has been the norm for our competition. We have shown that our model delivers better patient outcomes cost effectively using UK resources and helps the development of radiology services in the UK”.

The agreement was announced on 2 June at UKRC, a three-day Congress in Birmingham covering all aspects of diagnostic imaging and oncology, as well as radiology informatics and service delivery.

Ends

Issued on behalf of Nuffield Health Diagnostics by Blue Planet Communications.

Further information from John V. Wright -T: 01782 711978. M: 07710 454214

Notes for editors

Medica is the first and leading UK provider of Remote Radiology Reporting Services.

Medica now works at over 20% of NHS Trusts in the UK delivering ultra fast high quality remote radiology reporting services by UK trained, UK based and UK practicing Consultant Radiologists.

These services are delivered securely exceeding the CfH security compliance requirements and managed according to strict service levels 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days and nights a year.

The business was founded Bob Harper, COO, and Simon Rasalingham, CEO and as of June 2008 is now part of the Nuffield Health Group.