A national Radiology Information System (RIS) for Scotland: perceived benefits and constraints to implementation

Key Findings

• There is broad support for the concept of a national RIS across the majority of health boards and the clinical user base. The existing heterogeneity of local systems is considered problematic for the sustainability of radiology in Scotland.
  
  
• The perceived benefits associated with a national RIS include efficiency gains, greater levels of standardisation, automation, seamless cross-boundary working and access to national-level data.
  
  
• There is strong support amongst clinical users of RIS for improvements that could be implemented on a national basis, including requesting system functionality (that is, for requesting scans and analysis), cross-site operations, reporting capabilities and communication features.
  
  
• The main barriers to the introduction of a national RIS were the lack of a mandate for change, the perceived loss of local control, potential for short-term disruption and resource constraints.
  
  
• Several plausible routes to achieving a functionally national RIS exist. A route which preserves the autonomy of health boards, minimises short-term disruption and limits the technical complexity of migrating to a new system would be favoured by stakeholders.

What were we asked to look at

What are the perceived benefits and constraints to implementing a national radiology information system (RIS) in Scotland?

Referred by

Scottish Radiology Transformation Programme (SRTP)