Rising infection rates and deaths, and a limited supply of testing kits, has led one country to turn to WhatsApp to secure second opinions on COVID-19 cases.

The Iranian Society of Radiology, which set up the private group, says it has allowed doctors to triage patients within two hours.

The society enlisted 11 volunteer radiologists — nine from Iran, one from Canada and one from the US — to triage patients based on CT scans taken by physicians and radiologists throughout Iran who were encouraged to use teleradiology for second opinions.

Anonymised CT Image files or video clips were uploaded to the WhatsApp group, according to the team’s report in the Journal of the American College of Radiology.