Diagnostic imaging professionals across the NHS are being urged to help shape the next generation radiology information system by detailing their needs. Also known as the RIS, the core technology is used across the health service to provide service intelligence, schedule scans, and to report on patient images.
The call to contribute ideas comes as part of a new campaign set to be formally launched in June by technology provider Vertex in Healthcare to ‘re-invent’ the RIS. It aims to ensure the technology can help to reduce administrative burdens placed on radiologists and wider imaging teams, and enable them to release capacity, drive efficiencies, schedule more patients, and reduce waiting lists for scans.
Chris Goldie, CEO for Vertex in Healthcare, said: “We’ve been carefully listening to radiologists, radiographers, and other imaging professionals working in the NHS, and we believe there is an immediate opportunity to modernise the RIS, a system that sits at the core of how imaging teams manage their work, and how patients flow through diagnostic pathways.
“Since the radiology information system was first introduced to the health service decades ago, pressures facing radiology and imaging teams, including staffing, have intensified, whilst research has also found that many professionals are spending substantial time on administration.
“Platforms like the RIS urgently need innovation and investment from suppliers to help to tackle these challenges, and to ensure that healthcare professionals are able to spend their time on clinical priorities rather than working around IT systems. So today, I’m making a clear and simple promise to the NHS: Tell us what you need, and we will build it.”
Vertex formally launched the VRIS radiology information system for the NHS last year. Significant interest has since been expressed in the system, which has been used in radiology departments around the world to automate and create efficiencies in administrative processes, support more timely reporting, and increase patient throughput by 30% to 40%.
Reports by the Royal College of Radiologists have continued to point to the need to avoid consultant radiologists spending their time on administrative tasks, identifying “slow IT systems”, as part of the problem and at a time of a significant shortage of radiologists in the NHS.
The new campaign, Reinventing the RIS for the NHS, will be formally launched by Vertex at the UK Imaging and Oncology Congress in Liverpool. It aims to help trusts and NHS imaging networks respond to these challenges, by opening a clearer dialogue on the issues facing radiology teams and how technology must respond.
Chris Goldie, added: “Whether it’s tackling issues such as interoperability with NHS systems, enabling faster reporting, or providing better intelligence on bottlenecks, we want to hear from more imaging teams on ways in which we can help ease their pressures with reliable and responsive technology. It is important that key technology systems continually evolve for the people working to ensure timely diagnosis for millions of patients across the NHS.”
Imaging professionals that wish to contribute ideas and recommendations can do so at https://vertexih.co.uk/2025/
