Royal Philips has acquired the U.S. startup Analytical Informatics for an undisclosed sum, it reported Friday.

The deal will help expand its own initiatives and speed its plans to build up Philips Radiology Solutions.

“Integrating Analytical Informatics’ software tools and applications into our current offerings will enable us to accelerate the delivery of next-generation technology, software and services, to bring the power of operational intelligence and decision support to radiology,” Sham Sokka, General Manager of Radiology Solutions at Philips said in a statement. “We’ll be in an even stronger position to provide our customers with a host of solutions and help them maximize opportunities to do more with less, while delivering patient-centric care.”

The acquired firm began life in 2011 as a University of Maryland, Baltimore, startup. It is based on technology licensed from the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

Analytical Informatics workflow tools and applications will be integrated into PerformanceBridge, which allows imaging departments to make better decisions concerning performance – specifically it helps organizations to “optimize assets, uptime, utilization, practice, compliance and staff at the imaging department and enterprise level,” according to the company.

PerformanceBridge implementation is aided by a team of advisors. “With an understanding of your workflow and evidence-based practices, our advisors will analyze your data regularly to understand which processes are working well and which processes are in need of improvement. Their analyses will help identify gaps and include recommended actions that can help drive improved performance outcomes,” advises Philips.

Another of its applications, PerformanceBridge Practice, a data-driven management system that leverages Philips' integrated suite of technologies, will also see enhancements through integration of Analytical Informatics tools.

It offers in-depth analysis of a client's organization, which includes personalized assessment that maps out strategic goals, comparisons and performance benchmarking against like networks and systems, data insights, and continuous monitoring of performance, and tailors solutions to the specific challenges faced by individual clients.

When Analytical Informatics products launched at RSNA in 2016, they included:

Checklist – which identifies and manages follow-up recommendations and critical results.
Sweep – which keeps tabs on exam status across multiple PACS and RIS vendors.
Reflect – which is an image quality control system.
Advanced Peer Review – which provides radiologist peer review to go beyond just tracking compliance.

Other Analytical Informatics products include the data aggregation and EMR middleware platform AI Bridge.

Philips, which is showcasing its new portfolio of intelligent and comprehensive connected radiology solutions at the 2017 RSNA meeting in Chicago, noted in a statement that the need is growing for such solutions to meet the challenges faced by radiologists to deliver better outcomes, simplified data and insight gathering, and to lower health care delivery costs.

“As radiologists navigate the road to value-based care, they face a simultaneous shift to a patient-centric model and a greater volume of cases,” said Robert Cascella, chief business leader, diagnosis and treatment businesses for Royal Philips. “By addressing these burdens using artificial intelligence, Philips continues to develop new and intelligent technologies designed to augment the radiologist’s expertise. Our ultimate goal is to enable them to obtain high quality images the first time.”