Secondary Care

Telemedicine Clinic’s innovative Fellowship programme launched

Telemedicine Clinic (TMC), Europe’s largest provider of teleradiology and pathology services has just launched its enhanced Fellowship programme

The innovative course is part of the TMC Academy programme and builds on Telemedicine Clinic’s 14 years of practical experience and learnings from last year’s trial programme.

 A group of hospitals from Sweden were the new programme’s first participants and were motivated by the prospect of trialling a new way of training, as debate continues over the best way to expand radiology capacity across the EU.

Across the hospitals in Vastra Gotaland, Sweden consultant radiologists looking to enhance their MSK subspecialised knowledge learned from hospital workstations via Telemedicine Clinic’s Optemis technology platform and in the enhanced programme they were then given specific cases to read. Their readings are then checked by Szabolcs Hetenyi, TMC’s Head of Musculoskeletal Radiology who automatically refers any discrepancies back to the trainee for further review and discussion.

This remote work is then complemented with a one week residential course at TMC’s office in Barcelona, Spain, where trainees work on anonymised cases as well as studying specific material tailored to each Fellow’s individual needs.

Once they return to their hospital, second readings continue for a further 50 cases, after which each trainee gets a written report on their performance. The TMC Fellowship programme has major benefits, since it combines a high quality, personalised approach to training with the minimum effort required on the part of each hospital.

One of the participants, Dr. Nikola Gavrilov said: “I had an intense week working on the Fellowship programme in Barcelona. Before we went there, we reported examinations ourselves on the Optemis system, which were then second read by the programmes mentor. In Barcelona, along with the three other radiology specialists, we reviewed and reported related cases using TMC’s Optemis RIS, which we then discussed as a group. It was all really well organised and it managed to get right down to the detail without over complicating the issues. We also got lots of practical advice on how to avoid common pitfalls. I don’t think you could have packed more into a 5 day course and I’m really looking forward to the next one.”

Szabolcs Hetenyi, TMC’s Head of Musculoskeletal Radiology said: “We’re delighted at the response we got to this course. We believe that it’s one of the best ways of learning out there and while it was hard work and very intense, it’s great to hear such positive feedback from the participants. We think this is a very powerful model, which combines remote learning with real “hands on” practical experience and we can’t wait to deliver the next course”.

TMC’s Chief Executive, Alexander Boehmcker added: “With the current crisis in capacity in the EU radiology market, it’s more and more important that radiologists are equipped with the right skills in an efficient way”.

“That’s one of the reasons we started the TMC Academy and our Fellowship programme is typical of the innovative thinking that we apply very day to the radiology challenges that are facing the UK and Europe. Congratulations to the team at TMC and especially to the participants who were really able to get the full value out of this immersive experience – we’re already looking forward to the next one”.