The Story Of Choice Health – Clinical Trial Imaging And Telehealth
Background And Formation
Back in 2015, Pauric Greenan worked at Clatterbridge Cancer Centre as the imaging systems lead and as chair of Cheshire and Merseyside imaging consortium, with Dr. Riz Basit joining as an oncology consultant radiologist soon after.
During their working lives, Pauric and Riz saw first-hand the capacity strains within clinical (oncology) radiology imaging and the many additional obligations and demands from medical research and clinical trial units, often resulting in pressures and delays.
These difficulties would also leave pharma, clinical research organisations (CROs), and national research organisations facing service-level agreement (SLA) breaches. ‘Choice Teleradiology’ was founded with the objective of freeing up clinical reporting time for the NHS and speeding up turnaround and access for pharma and CROs.
Observations Within Clinical Trials And Imaging
Pauric and Riz also observed that most second and third reads within UK clinical trials were sent to the US for reading, mainly as there weren’t any UK-based specialists providing that service.
With strong technical and medical backgrounds, the duo knew they held key attributes that could enable them to fill this gap; in-depth knowledge of the imaging systems and the technology required to manage imaging data, and a fantastic network of specialist consultant radiologists who trusted them, and were keen to work with them.
Motivation
One of the key motivators which drove the team behind Choice Health, was being witness to the tumultuous impact that cancer has on patients’ lives and the negative effect of drawn-out waiting times.
Pauric recalls one occasion when he worked with a family whose child was suffering from a rare form of cancer, where the family was desperately seeking to send imaging abroad to be reviewed by an expert as part of a clinical trial.
Unfortunately, they had missed the last in-hospital post that Friday, so Pauric vividly remembers getting up at 5am the next morning to drive to Liverpool Airport, in order to physically put the CD on the DHL plane himself. Such was the impact and desire to help when working with those directly suffering from chronic illnesses.
Emerging Issues In Research Imaging
The pair also noticed emerging issues, like specialist reporters becoming marginalised, due to their decision to put their specialism to use in trials and research, rather than endure the competitive NHS outsourcing system.
Pauric approached Professor Tony Young at NHS England’s Accelerated Access Collaborative, and he explained about the NHS England Clinical Entrepreneur Programme. Much to the delight, of Pauric and Riz, Choice Health was accepted on to the Programme in 2018.
More recently, immense pressures are being placed on imaging departments with yearly demand increases in clinical activity. It’s not unsurprising that participation in clinical trial research is often seen as a lesser priority, with requests to participate declining due to a mixture of personal, capacity, regulatory and logistical shortfalls.
As a result, NHS trusts are struggling to participate in drug development clinical trials, sadly with many of these research studies involving experimental investigational medicinal products with oncology applications that could really benefit patients across the globe.
Pauric and Riz distinctly recognised the severe strain clinical radiology was, and is, under and decided to offer an outsourced end-to-end solution including scanning, expert reporting, reader analysis, and medical physics support (MPE/CRE reviews) to help alleviate the pressure of delayed turnarounds and SLA breaches.
Telehealth
Having focused on international teleradiology, rather than the competitive UK teleradiology market, Choice Health has also worked on some amazing telehealth projects globally, including several CT scanners on private £100m+ yachts!
This venture quickly evolved into Choice Health expanding beyond radiology to work with consultants spanning a variety of different specialities. Now with probably just as many non-radiology consultants on the books, the team rebranded from ‘Choice Teleradiology’ to ‘Choice Telemed’ 3 years ago.
The COVID-19 pandemic was obviously a huge accelerant for telehealth across the entire healthcare sector, and served as a major catalyst for a digital transformation in healthcare.
Case Study – Greater Manchester Imaging Network
For the past 4 years, Pauric consulted as PACS imaging lead on one of the biggest imaging projects in Europe—Greater Manchester NHS.
This provided the fantastic opportunity to travel to on-site visits globally. Along with the opportunity to gain key insights into cutting-edge imaging and AI innovation, which Choice Health now incorporates within its own protocols and structure.
More information on imaging networks and PACS consulting can be found here.
Recently, it was decided that it was time for a fresh look and updated brand, to reflect the evolution behind Choice Health.
In February of 2022, the brand relaunched as ‘Choice Health’. Pauric and Riz have always wanted to keep the ‘Choice’ element within the brand name, but decided to move away from ‘TeleMed.’ The philosophy behind it being, that people go for a medical, but they invest in their health.
The Main Focus Of Choice Health
Now, the main focus of Choice Health is to continue growing its pharma and CRO client base, while also supporting the NIHR research and clinical trials units (CTUs) within the NHS with their capacity.
Another successful case study that Choice Health is proud of is that of a top 5 CRO, who was experiencing SLA and turnaround time breaches, where clinical (over)workload was impacting the completion of trial data returns. Faced with the prospect of pulling their trials out of the North West region, they enlisted the help of Choice Health.
The outcome was a much quicker turnaround whilst also being able to free up clinical time. This worked to great success, resulting in the CRO staying in the North West, and the NHS freeing up clinical time. Turnarounds reduced from a maximum of 55 days to an average of 5!
Choice Health also recently launched a new venture; PACs and imaging consulting. The aim is to help organisations build an effective digital imaging strategy, by working with them to formulate a plan, oversee the transition, and prepare their team for managing the system going forward.
‘Choice Health has a proven track record in the clinical trial imaging arena, working with global pharma, biotechnology and contract research organisations in delivering consulting, regulatory and image analysis to powering imaging endpoints in drug development’ – Dr. Riz Basit, Choice Health Medical Director
About The Author
Pauric Greenan is an experienced PACS consultant that has been PACS lead on several high-profile PACS projects in both the UK and Ireland. Pauric is internationally available for PACS consulting. Contact him here for more details.
Did you know that we are able to fulfil a variety of your imaging diagnostic needs?
Choice Health is highly experienced in clinical trial and research imaging, PACS consultancy, telehealth, imaging AI and medical physics.
Would you like a free consultation to see if we’re a match? If so, do not hesitate to reach out via our contact page.
