🇳🇵 South Asia · Backend AI & clinical services

Backend radiology support for Nepal — your registered practitioner holds clinical authority

Nepal’s telemedicine guidelines put cross-border consultation alongside a local registered practitioner who bears the ethical and legal liabilities. 5C is built for exactly that structure: expert-reviewed preliminary reads and AI workflow behind the Nepal-registered practitioner who issues every final report — 15 minutes of time difference away.

What does 5C Network offer in Nepal?: 5C provides Nepali hospitals and imaging centres with AI-assisted workflow orchestration, structured preliminary reads by NMC-registered Indian radiologists, and an automated QC pipeline — as backend support to your Nepal Medical Council-registered practitioners. The Nepal-registered practitioner reviews every study and issues and signs the final report, holding clinical responsibility throughout.
Who signs the final report?: The signing practitioner is registered with the Nepal Medical Council and practises within their facility’s governance. Consistent with Section 9 of the NMC telemedicine guidelines, the ethical and legal liabilities of the consultation rest with that Nepal-registered practitioner; 5C’s preliminary reads are expert input to their judgment.

Talk to 5C about Nepal All countries

How the backend model works

The Nepal Medical Council’s Telemedicine Guidelines (2020) address cross-border consultation directly: Section 9 provides that it may take place only in the presence of a local registered medical practitioner in Nepal, with the ethical and legal liabilities borne by the medical practitioner in Nepal. 5C does not claim this is an express authorization of its model; rather, the engagement is built to map onto that liability structure — the Nepal-registered practitioner requests the expert input, reviews the expert-reviewed preliminary read, and issues the final report, holding the clinical and legal responsibility the guidelines assign. Engagements are structured with local counsel.

1
The engagement is structured with local counsel, with patient consent and contractual data safeguards documented under the Individual Privacy Act 2075 framework before any study moves.
2
Your PACS or modality connects to 5C over a secure DICOM integration, typically live within 72 hours.
3
Your Nepal-registered practitioner routes studies for expert input; AI-driven triage and orchestration prioritize urgent cases.
4
An NMC-registered Indian radiologist produces a structured preliminary read, passed through 5C’s automated QC pipeline before release.
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Your Nepal Medical Council-registered practitioner reviews the expert-reviewed draft, forms their own interpretation, and issues and signs the final report — holding the clinical and legal responsibility the NMC guidelines assign locally.

Two experts behind every study — and honest regulatory status

Bionic, 5C's clinical AI engine, is approved for clinical use in India. Outside India it operates as workflow and quality infrastructure, not as a cleared medical device. What travels with every study instead is human expertise: an NMC-registered Indian specialist reads each case as structured decision support, so the clinician who signs in Nepal starts from an expert-reviewed draft — human-in-the-loop support for every radiologist, on every study.

Radiology capacity in Nepal

Nepal has roughly 150 radiologists — about 1 per 200,000 people — a figure from a 2012 baseline that a 2023 commentary in the Indian Journal of Surgical and Global Health restated while noting that no updated national radiology workforce data has been published in over a decade. However the current number has moved, the structural reality it describes — scarce specialists, concentrated in Kathmandu, with most of the country far from a subspecialty opinion — is what backend support addresses.

The India time-zone advantage

Nepal runs on UTC+5:45, just 15 minutes ahead of India — effectively the same working day. A study routed from Pokhara mid-morning is on an Indian specialist’s worklist the same hour, and an expert-reviewed draft can be back with your practitioner well within the day.

Data protection & compliance

Nepal’s Individual Privacy Act 2075 (2018) treats information about a person’s health condition as sensitive personal information, requiring consent and notice for its collection and processing, and the Act has no explicit cross-border transfer regime. 5C therefore anchors each engagement in documented patient consent and contractual safeguards that bind 5C to defined security, confidentiality and use obligations — named instruments rather than a blanket compliance claim. 5C’s security and privacy management is certified to ISO 27001 and ISO 27701.

ISO 27001, 27701, 13485 and 9001 certified — security, privacy and quality management audited to international standards.

20M+ studies reported and 15,000+ studies handled per day across 2,000+ hospitals and diagnostic centres in India.

Around 400 NMC-registered radiologists — subspecialty depth Nepal’s roughly 150-strong radiology workforce cannot cover alone.

Automated QC pipeline on every study before any preliminary read is released.

Full audit trail on every study, giving your facility documentary evidence of every step behind the signed report.

Secure DICOM/PACS integration in about 72 hours, with 24/7 operation behind it.

Frequently asked questions

Does Nepal’s regulation allow cross-border radiology support?

The Nepal Medical Council’s Telemedicine Guidelines (2020) speak to it directly: Section 9 provides that cross-border consultation may take place only in the presence of a local registered medical practitioner in Nepal, with the ethical and legal liabilities borne by the practitioner in Nepal. 5C does not claim this is an express authorization of its service; it builds the engagement to fit that structure — the Nepal-registered practitioner requests the input, reviews it, signs the final report, and holds the responsibility — and structures each engagement with local counsel.

Who holds clinical and legal responsibility for the report?

Your Nepal Medical Council-registered practitioner — which is exactly where Section 9 of the NMC telemedicine guidelines places it. 5C’s contribution is a structured preliminary read produced by an NMC-registered Indian radiologist and checked by an automated QC pipeline; it arrives as expert decision support. The interpretation issued to the patient is your practitioner’s own, made and signed under their Nepal registration.

How is patient data protected when it moves for the expert read?

Nepal’s Individual Privacy Act 2075 (2018) classifies health-condition information as sensitive personal information requiring consent and notice, and it has no explicit cross-border transfer regime — so 5C engagements are anchored in documented patient consent plus contractual safeguards binding 5C to defined security, confidentiality and use obligations. 5C names those instruments in the engagement documents rather than asserting blanket compliance, and its own security and privacy management is certified to ISO 27001 and ISO 27701.

What does the India-only approval of 5C’s AI mean for a Nepali hospital?

It means the AI is decision-support infrastructure here, not a cleared device. Bionic is regulator-approved for clinical use in India; in Nepal it operates as workflow and quality infrastructure — triage, orchestration and QC. Every study is also read by an NMC-registered Indian radiologist, so your practitioner receives an expert-reviewed structured draft, never raw AI output, and makes the clinical call themselves.

How quickly can a district hospital get a subspecialty opinion?

Within the same working day, in most configurations — Nepal is only 15 minutes ahead of India, so both countries work identical hours and there is no overnight offshore lag. Against Nepal’s baseline of roughly 150 radiologists (about 1 per 200,000 people — a 2012 figure a 2023 commentary restated while noting no updated national data in over a decade), that is the difference between referring a patient to Kathmandu for an opinion and having an expert-reviewed draft on your practitioner’s desk before evening rounds.

Also serving

🇧🇩 South Asia

Bangladesh

Bangladesh has roughly 700 radiologists for 170 million people, concentrated in Dhaka. 5C brings AI-driven workflow and expert-reviewed preliminary reads from next door — same working day, 30 minutes apart — behind the BMDC-registered clinician who issues every final report.

🇸🇬 Asia-Pacific

Singapore

Singapore is the rare market where the regulator has put the model in writing: MOH’s HCSA FAQ on radiological services confirms reporting can be outsourced to qualified persons, with the licensee remaining responsible. Bengaluru-based teleradiology has served Singapore since 2005 — 5C runs the modern version.

🇦🇪 Middle East

United Arab Emirates

The DHA telehealth standards expressly allow a UAE-licensed physician to consult an expert physician licensed in another jurisdiction. 5C builds on exactly that footing: AI-driven workflow and expert-reviewed preliminary reads that support your DHA, DoH or MOHAP-licensed radiologist — who issues every final report.

Sources

Every regulatory and workforce claim on this page traces to a primary or peer-reviewed source.

Bring 5C's AI and clinical backend to your imaging operation in Nepal

Your clinicians keep clinical authority. 5C brings the AI, the preliminary reads, and the quality infrastructure behind them.

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