One Login, Eight Centres: How Prima Diagnostics Linked Its Bengaluru Imaging Network on an AI Radiology Platform

Bengaluru's Prima Diagnostics has moved all eight of its imaging centres onto a single AI-enabled radiology platform built by health-tech company Somatiq. Prima says the switch has made its radiologists nearly 30% faster at reporting, and that none of its centres had to pause work during the move.

Prima has been using Somatiq since 2025. According to the company, all eight centres went live in roughly the time it normally takes to bring a single centre online.

The problem: eight centres, eight systems

Diagnostic chains in India usually grow one branch at a time, and their software grows the same way. Each new centre often ends up with its own booking system, its own image archive and its own reporting style. A patient's earlier scan at one branch may be invisible at the next, so a chain that looks like one brand to patients can work like several separate businesses behind the scenes.

Three systems in one

A scan normally passes through three kinds of software:

• RIS (Radiology Information System) — registers the patient and books the slot
• PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication System) — stores and displays the images
• Reporting tool — where the radiologist writes and signs the report

Many chains buy these separately and then try to stitch them together. Somatiq combines all three in one platform, with AI-assisted dictation and structured report templates on the same screen. At Prima, every step — from registration to the report reaching the referring doctor — now runs on the same system at every centre. The radiologist still reads every image and signs every report; the software handles the paperwork around it.

What changes for doctors and patients

A Prima radiologist now signs in once and sees every case waiting across the network, with the patient's full history and previous scans in one place. Reports look the same whichever centre they come from. Referring doctors can also receive a link to a patient's scan on WhatsApp and open the full study straight away — a feature Prima's CEO and chief radiologist Dr. Gururaj Rao singled out as having changed how quickly the team works with clinicians.

Where the 30% came from

The time saving did not come from radiologists reading images faster. It came from removing the chores around the reading: searching for the right scan, chasing old reports, switching between programs, re-typing patient details and waiting for images from another branch.

Ready to grow

For Prima, opening a ninth centre should now mean simply adding it to the existing network rather than setting up yet another system. Somatiq co-founder and CEO Dr. Vishwanath R S, himself a radiologist, said Indian diagnostic chains are growing faster than the systems that run them, and that a network should be able to grow without becoming more complex.

The HealthBuzz take

India has far fewer radiologists than its scan volumes need, so every minute saved on admin is a minute that can go to reading images. The figures here come from the companies themselves, but the bigger idea — one shared record and one workflow across every branch — is one that many multi-centre chains are likely to follow.