Mitchell O’Gorman
Chief Executive Officer, xWave Technologies
A new technology platform is helping to ensure the right tests are administered to patients quicker, avoiding unnecessary radiology scans.
The US Food and Drug Administration has highlighted that up to 50% of radiology scans are unnecessary and do not benefit the patients that they are performed on. This can result in long waiting lists and poor patient outcomes, including delayed diagnoses, missed diagnoses and unnecessary radiation exposure. It costs health systems the substantial sums of money spent annually on unnecessary radiology scans.
In early 2021, a new smart radiology referral platform was created by xWave Technologies. xRefer has been developed in partnership with the world’s largest radiological society, the European Society of Radiology and uses market-leading evidence to support clinicians in ordering the most appropriate radiology scan for their patient.
There is huge momentum to move Ireland into a leadership position in global health technology.
Reducing referral times
The company has already demonstrated the positive impact of xRefer through working in partnership with the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital where it has reduced the average time taken to create, send and have a referral reviewed by a radiologist from 7.5 working days to just 14 minutes, a reduction of 99.6%. Importantly, use of xRefer’s clinical decision support system has also resulted in 96% of referrals being considered appropriate for the patient.
The support of the HSE Digital Transformation Team has been absolutely vital to the success of the platform to date. The HSE Digital Transformation Team’s “Stay Left, Shift Left” strategy perfectly encapsulates the benefits delivered by the platform, in the areas of improving patient and clinician experience, improving patient outcomes and quality of life and reducing costs.
Mitchell O’Gorman, CEO at xWave Technologies, says: “There is huge momentum to move Ireland into a leadership position in global health technology. The supports that we have received have enabled us to build on our successes in Ireland by moving into overseas markets, including the UK and Northern European countries.
“Our mission of ensuring that patients always get the best test first will be enhanced by our on-going AI and machine learning research as we build the next generation of medical diagnostic referral tools, with a greater focus on personalised and predictive medicine.”