Although industry experts agree that the U.S. market for dry imagers has been in decline for several years now, few believe that the modality will completely disappear in the near future.

"Our customers show that there is still a need for hard copy imaging, therefore requiring a printer on site," says Konica Minolta's Batory. "The actual volume of hard copies required may be declining as larger facilities, as well as the private practices, start moving more and more to PACS versus hard copy print. No doubt, the overall economy has also played a key role in budgeting, with customers squeezing another year out of existing equipment, rather than investing in something new," he says.


Kolberg compares the current state of the industry to digital cameras. Today, digital cameras are ubiquitous and people take many more photographs. However, people still print pictures for various reasons. Likewise, imaging modalities now take many more shots, like a CT scanner with a high number of slices. Although more images are taken and stored in a digital format, there is a need for occasional printing, he says.




Kolberg also points out that in some regions of the world, the use of film will be difficult to change.

"Film may never go away because in some countries, it's a cultural thing, the way film is distributed and the way that it's used," he says.

The digital takeover has begun in many sectors of health care but it is unclear when (or if) every facility will be outfitted with the same caliber of information sharing capabilities.

"As the technology improves and we get to the day where the images can be shared easily and everybody has the technology to do those images at the best quality, you wouldn't need printing," says Buttino. "But when will we get there?"

Although end-users are using less film today, the market won't go completely filmless for a long time because of physician and facility preferences, says Batory.

"As long as this need remains, the dry laser market will continue to fill the need for many years to come," he says.

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DOTmed Registered Laser Imagers Equipment Sales & Service Companies

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