Teleradiology for Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare

Saudi Aramco is one of the world’s leading integrated energy and chemicals companies, headquartered in Saudi Arabia. The company has been operating under this name since 1988, but its history dates back to 1933. Today, the company employs 70,000 people worldwide, producing, processing and exporting oil and gas.

Combining strengths and adding value

In 2013, the oil producing group entered into a partnership with Johns Hopkins University (JHU) – a top private university from the United States of America. Founded in 1876, this prestigious university combines research and teaching, particularly in the fields of medicine and health sciences, and also provides medical services. The purpose of the merger into Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare (JHAH) was to establish a healthcare service for Saudi Aramco employees and their families.

Seek and you shall find

In mid 2022 JHAH was searching for a new, solid teleradiology provider. The challenge: The teleradiology solution they were looking for had to be as deeply integrated into the system as if it were an in-house solution, including deep workflow integration with the hospital information systems EPIC and HIS. Johns Hopkins adheres to the world’s highest standards for data security, availability, and continuity. On this basis, Johns Hopkins developed a teleradiology concept to be supported by the future partner. However, several local vendors were unable to implement it.

Not so for Jeddah-based Vision Horizons Medical (VH). The MedTech company has been providing teleradiology services for more than 10 years and has established itself as a reputable and dynamic teleradiology provider in Saudi Arabia.

Radiologist analyzing images using iQ-VIEW reading software on dual diagnostic monitors.

The implementation

As described above, JHAH uses the world’s leading hospital information system, EPIC. Orders for radiology services are entered into EPIC as if it were an in-house radiology department. However, the data is not transferred internally to the radiology department, but via a VPN connection to the cloud in a data center in Saudi Arabia.

The web-based, customizable Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) iQ-4CLOUD from PLUM Medical Solutions is installed in this data center according to local rules and regulations. Studies will be performed and automatically transferred to the data center with complete case history. Vision Horizons radiologists access iQ-4CLOUD for reading and structured reporting.

Depending on the diagnosis, the radiologists send keywords/triggers specified by the teleradiology concept from iQ-4CLOUD to Johns Hopkins EPIC (e.g., urgent, further treatment/tumor findings/other critical findings, etc.). EPIC then schedules any follow-up visits automatically to ensure that no critical findings are missed.

Such a comprehensive approach with a deep integration into a hospital information system is out of the ordinary for a teleradiology solution. It follows the standard used by the world’s best hospital radiology departments.

With this installation, we have a win-win solution: Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare can improve its radiological diagnostic quality, i.e. obtain high quality diagnoses quickly for better patient care, and Vision Horizons Medical is proud to be able to provide these services in partnership.

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