Case study: Prima Diagnostics

Most multi-centre diagnostic chains in India run each branch on its own software, chosen when that branch opened. That is a sensible way to grow, because each centre can start quickly with whatever works locally. Its disadvantage shows up later, when the chain wants radiologists to report across centres, patients to be recognised at every branch and the owner to see the whole network in one place. This case study looks at how one Bengaluru chain dealt with that, in the words of the people involved where we have them.

PRIMA DIAGNOSTICS, a leading diagnostic chain in Bengaluru, unified eight of its centres and helped its radiologists report nearly 30% faster.

• Client: Prima Diagnostics, Bengaluru
• Footprint: 8 imaging centres
• On SOMATIQ since: late 2025, starting on an early version
• Scope: registration, scheduling, billing, images, reporting and report delivery on one platform, from patient registration to signed report

The challenge

Growing a diagnostic chain comes with the complexity of adding technology systems to manage the now seemingly steep workflow and operating processes - scheduling patients, billing, getting it reported by radiologists, sharing with patients and having unified visibility to ensure patient care is seamless.

Most chains grow one centre at a time, and their software grows the same way. Digital Health News put it well in its write-up of Prima: each branch ends up with its own booking system, its own image archive and its own way of reporting. "A patient's previous scan sits at one centre, invisible at the next. The chain looks like one network from the outside and works like eight small ones inside."

For a radiologist reading across that network, it means separate logins, hunting for the right scan, chasing previous reports and retyping patient details between applications. None of that is reading, but all of it takes time, and it is the part of the day that rarely shows up in a turnaround report. (We break turnaround into its stages in Radiology turnaround time.)

What changed

In late 2025, Dr Gururaj Rao and his exceptional team of radiologists began using an early version of SOMATIQ's unified radiology platform comprising RIS, PACS and reporting modules. Their feedback shaped SOMATIQ around their daily work. Things that took them a long time, or were hard to do, suddenly became easy.

Today, their eight centres use the same unified system, from patient registration to a signed report from the radiologist. All eight went live in about the time usually needed for one centre. The entire upgradation and integration process was seamless. Their daily work didn't get impacted even for a single second.

Radiologists at Prima now have a shared workflow:

As Digital Health News described it, a Prima radiologist now signs in once and sees every case waiting across the network, and can work through all of it or focus on one centre, with the same patient records and previous scans either way. AI-assisted dictation and structured reporting sit inside the same screen. The radiologist still reads every image and signs every report. The front desk works on the same platform too: a patient is registered, scheduled and billed in the same system that later carries the images and the signed report, so nothing has to be retyped between the desk and the reading room. We describe how a central worklist and archive work across branches in Running a diagnostic chain on one system.

There is a quieter change for referring doctors too. A report from any Prima centre now looks and reads like a report from any other, and the study link that reaches the doctor opens the images in a browser rather than as a photo of a monitor (see Sharing scans with referring doctors).

Results

What	At Prima today
Centres on the platform	All eight, on one system
Scope	Patient registration to signed report
Radiologist logins	One login across eight centres
Priors	Previous scans and reports across the network
Referring doctors	Study links through WhatsApp
Go-live	All eight in about the time usually needed for one
Disruption	Daily work not interrupted
Reporting speed	Nearly 30% faster, as reported by Prima

Prima reports nearly 30% faster reporting, with a very fast search and minimal to no retyping or switching across tens of applications. Radiologists focus their time on reading and reporting the images and not on fighting IT systems.

That last point deserves a closer look, because it is easy to misread. The gain did not come from anyone reading faster. It came from what disappeared around the reading: hunting for the right scan, chasing previous reports, switching applications, retyping patient details and waiting for images from another branch. The clinical judgement is the same. Priors are a good example; when a patient's earlier study from another branch is already on screen, the comparison takes seconds instead of a phone call (Priors on screen covers why that matters).

In their words

What's next

When Prima expands to another centre, it automatically gets added to the existing system, without any overhead time for implementation. For most chains, a new centre means another round of setting up systems and wiring them back to the rest. For Prima, the ninth centre will simply join the network already running at eight.

Thank you, Dr Gururaj Rao and the Prima team, for helping shape SOMATIQ.

What this means for a multi-centre chain

If you run more than one centre, a few questions are worth asking about your current setup:

1. Can a radiologist see every pending case across your centres from one login?
2. When a patient who was scanned at your other branch walks in, does their previous study show up without a phone call?
3. Are registration, billing and the report in the same system, or does someone retype details between them?
4. When you open your next centre, is that a new installation, or does it join what you already have?

Prima's answers to all four changed when the whole chain moved onto one platform. The practical upshot for other chains is that the gains come from removing hand-offs, not from asking radiologists to work faster, and that is something you can check in your own centres before you change anything.

Related reading

• Running a diagnostic chain on one system — how a shared patient index, archive and worklist work across branches.
• Radiology turnaround time — the seven stages of TAT, and where the time actually goes.
• Priors on screen — why previous studies decide reporting speed.
• Sharing scans with referring doctors — study links versus photos of the monitor.
• SOMATIQ at one year — what the first year looked like from inside.
• What "AI-native" RIS + PACS means — the idea behind putting RIS, PACS and reporting on one platform.

FAQ

How many centres did Prima Diagnostics move to SOMATIQ?

All eight of its imaging centres in Bengaluru, which now run on one system from patient registration to the radiologist's signed report.

How long did the rollout take?

All eight centres went live in about the time usually needed for one centre, and daily work at the centres was not interrupted.

How much faster is reporting at Prima?

Prima reports nearly 30% faster reporting. The time came back from fast search, less retyping and not switching between applications, not from radiologists reading faster.

What happens when Prima opens a new centre?

It is added to the existing system without a separate implementation, so the ninth centre joins the same network as the other eight.