Evaluation of Teleradiology Services and Their Impact on Diagnostic Turnaround Time at Federal Medical Centre Jalingo, Taraba State

Teleradiology enables remote image interpretation by radiologists, addressing the critical shortage of on-site radiological reporting capacity in North East Nigerian federal and state medical centres where radiologist staffing is inadequate. Federal Medical Centre Jalingo in Taraba State operates a teleradiology reporting arrangement that offers an opportunity to evaluate the impact of this service modality on diagnostic turnaround time and clinical decision-making. This study evaluates the teleradiology service at Federal Medical Centre Jalingo and assesses its impact on diagnostic reporting turnaround time. A retrospective comparative design reviews 240 cases: 120 managed under the teleradiology service arrangement from 2022 to 2023 and 120 historical cases from the pre-teleradiology period in 2020 to 2021. Data extracted include examination type, time from examination completion to report availability, report quality rating by referring clinicians, and clinical management changes attributable to imaging reports. Turnaround time comparisons are made using independent samples t-tests in SPSS. Literature from North East Nigerian radiology telemedicine contexts identifies CT brain reporting and abdominal ultrasound interpretation as the highest-value teleradiology use cases, with turnaround time reductions of 40 to 60 percent documented in comparable implementations. The WHO Digital Health Strategy and the Royal College of Radiologists teleradiology standards provide the analytical framework. Findings are expected to demonstrate significant turnaround time improvement alongside residual connectivity and report standardisation challenges. Recommendations address bandwidth infrastructure, report template standardisation, and expansion of the teleradiology service scope at FMC Jalingo. Keywords: teleradiology, diagnostic turnaround time, Federal Medical Centre Jalingo, Taraba State, North East Nigeria.