InstantRad

InstantRad operates an enterprise teleradiology and medical imaging platform aimed at hospitals, diagnostic centres and radiologists in Africa, with a stated presence in Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon. The product set combines a radiology information system (RIS), a cloud or on-premise PACS, a DICOM server and archive, an image exchange, an HL7 integrator and a web-based diagnostic viewer, described by the company as FDA cleared for diagnostic use and CE Class IIb certified for primary diagnosis. The viewer supports MPR/MIP/3D reconstruction and a range of DICOM transfer syntaxes including Implicit and Explicit Little Endian, JPEG, JPEG-LS, JPEG 2000, RLE, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4, and runs across desktop, tablet and smartphone browsers.

The platform connects to CT, X-ray, MRI, mammography and other modalities, and adds single sign-on with role-based access for physicians, radiographers, patients and IT staff; billing and invoicing based on CPT codes or body parts; and 24/7 training and technical support via tickets, chat, call, email and WhatsApp. Integration options include HL7, FHIR, API and DICOMweb connections to EMR and telemedicine systems, plus white-labelling on a customer's own domain. Workflow features described by investor Microtraction include priority flags on studies, granular audit history of who uploaded, viewed or retrieved a study, and a second-opinion option that routes cases to specific radiologists locally or abroad. Radiologists can also use the system to build their own part-time or teleradiology consulting practice across multiple hospitals.

The company positions the software as an alternative to Western-designed systems whose setup and storage costs are prohibitive in West African markets; Microtraction cites US figures of up to $15,000 setup per centre and $5,000-$9,000 monthly storage as the comparison point.

Founding story

Co-founder and CEO Seth Quansah previously served as Ghana Director for RAD-AID International, an NGO focused on radiology, and earlier founded Alchemy Alternative Energy, which converted plastic waste into fuel. Co-founder Ernest Appiah brings more than ten years as a senior software engineer building health, restaurant, farming and fintech products, including work with Farmlogs in the US and Sidra Medicine in Qatar. The founders targeted the shortage of radiology capacity in West Africa, where Microtraction cites a radiologist-to-population ratio of roughly 1:500,000 in Ghana and report turnaround times of 3 to 30 days.

Business model

InstantRad sells a Teleradiology-Platform-as-a-Service (TPaaS) to hospitals, diagnostic centres and radiologists, either cloud-hosted or deployed in-house. Customers can also run their own teleradiology business on the platform: they onboard their own hospitals and diagnostic centres, set their own charges, and pay InstantRad transmission and storage fees rather than software or hardware installation costs. White-labelling on the customer's own brand and domain is offered, and the platform includes billing and invoicing tooling for customers to collect payments.

Fees charged to platform customers for data transmission and storage, in place of upfront software and hardware installation costs, alongside platform-as-a-service provision of RIS/PACS/viewer capabilities.

Traction

The company reports its platform being used by 300 hospitals and diagnostic centres, over 500,000 patients processed, 1,300 medical professionals and 600,000 diagnostic reports generated, alongside 180 million DICOM files received and 90 TB of medical images stored. Other site figures cite 570+ radiologists, 540+ radiographers, 30+ cities and 12+ countries. The Org lists an 11-50 employee band with 11 tracked positions and offices in Accra and Lagos.

Latest developments

Microtraction announced an investment in InstantRad in June 2023, describing the company's TPaaS offering and marketplace for healthcare centres.