A real-life case: teleradiology network Congo–France

Interview with Dr. Axel Kayembe, TéléradX

As a radiologist, I believe that access to high quality medical imaging should not depend on where a patient lives.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, imaging equipment is gradually becoming more accessible, but access to qualified radiologists and, above all, to highly specialized expertise remains limited in many regions.

My goal is to help bridge this gap by connecting Congolese healthcare facilities to a network of qualified radiologists, particularly specialists practicing internationally.

Teleradiology brings expertise directly to the patient rather than requiring the patient to travel to access it. For me, this project is therefore not just about technology: it is, above all, a project aimed at improving access to radiological expertise.

My connection to the Congo is both personal and professional. I am originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and for many years in my hometown, I personally experienced the difficulties associated with accessing advanced and highly specialized radiological expertise.

I therefore wanted to find a way to make this expertise available to my community in the Congo. Teleradiology then struck me as the most logical solution: rather than moving the experts, we can bring their expertise directly to the community.

One of the main challenges is the gap between the growing availability of imaging equipment and the number of radiologists available to interpret these exams quickly and consistently.

This challenge becomes even more significant when highly specialized expertise is required, such as in musculoskeletal imaging, neuroradiology, or women’s health imaging.

Added to this are practical and technical issues. In the absence of suitable solutions, the transfer of exams sometimes relies on consumer-grade tools such as WhatsApp or WeTransfer, which are not designed to support a true professional teleradiology workflow. This raises questions regarding the transfer of DICOM data, data security, the organization of the reporting process, communication between clinicians and radiologists, as well as the need to deliver results within timeframes compatible with patient care.

I was therefore looking for a solution capable of integrating these various challenges into a single, simple, secure, and structured workflow.

During my research, radiance365 first caught my attention because the solution wasn’t limited to offering just a PACS or a DICOM viewer. It offered a much more comprehensive approach to teleradiology, ranging from the transfer of images and clinical information to the management and assignment of exams, their interpretation, and finally the production and transmission of the report. In short, the entire teleradiology workflow could be managed within a single platform.

Another feature that particularly appealed to me was the simplicity of the architecture. I wanted to avoid deploying a heavy and complex IT infrastructure in each facility. With radiance365, the on-premises architecture could remain very simple: a computer serving as a local server and a gateway connecting the facility’s imaging environment to the cloud-hosted platform.

The integration of MedDream played a decisive role in my decision. I had already been using MedDream for about three years and was therefore familiar with its interface and features. Finding a viewer that I knew, liked, and already trusted directly integrated into the radiance365 workflow was particularly reassuring.

The combination of its simple architecture, DICOM connectivity, cloud capabilities, comprehensive exam management, reporting, and workflow automation, along with MedDream, finally convinced me that radiance365 was the best solution for our project.

radiance365 transforms what could be a fragmented process into a structured, unified digital workflow.

Thanks to the gateway installed on-site, images acquired locally can be securely transferred to the platform. When creating the interpretation request, the radiology technician enters the relevant clinical information, and the exam is then made available to the radiologist, who can interpret it remotely and send the report to the requesting facility.

This entire process is thus consolidated within a single platform, which was precisely what we were looking for.

Above all, the architecture of radiance365 allows us to draw on a pool of qualified radiologists, rather than relying on a single radiologist. Exams can thus be assigned based on their availability and, possibly, their various subspecialties.

For the requesting facility, the process had to remain as simple as possible—and it certainly is. Ultimately, the goal can be summarized as follows: perform the exam, transmit it, and receive a high-quality radiology report.

Rather than immediately presenting me with a standardized proposal, I was first asked to explain in detail exactly what I wanted to implement, the environment in which the solution would operate, our expected volume of business, and the constraints we were facing.

This was particularly important since our project is operating in a relatively low revenue environment, with an initially low-to-medium volume of business. The proposals I received were therefore tailored to the reality and scale of the project, rather than offering us an infrastructure that was oversized for our needs.

The process then unfolded step by step: presentation of the platform, definition of the technical architecture, configuration of the local gateway, connection to our PACS environment, securing communication with the cloud, training, and then testing with actual exams. I particularly appreciated this step-by-step and personalized approach.

This is one aspect of our collaboration with which I am very satisfied.

From the start, our interactions have been direct, personalized, and responsive. I never felt like we were simply purchasing a standardized software solution to which we then had to adapt our entire organization.

The team really took the time to understand our project, its objectives, and, above all, the specific constraints of our environment.

What probably pleasantly surprised me the most was how quickly the concept became a reality.

A teleradiology system connecting Africa and Europe may seem technically complex when you consider DICOM transfer, connectivity, security, cloud infrastructure, remote visualization, and reporting.

However, once the architecture was set up, we were able to see actual exams performed locally appear remotely within a structured workflow.

That moment was particularly significant because it demonstrated that the model was no longer merely theoretical, it actually worked in practice.