For now, no immediate change in resources for customers is anticipated. But in the future, Olympus envisions that clients will be able to expand their systems integration implementations.

At present, Image Stream Medical “will continue to operate as a wholly owned subsidiary under the existing name.”


The market for hybrid operating rooms is growing, according to an Image Stream Medical-Philips white paper on the former's website. It noted that, “it is projected that 75 percent of cardiovascular surgeons will be working in hybrid operating suites by 2018, and the hybrid market is expected to grow at 16.1 percent per year from 2016 to 2022.”

This surge in growth for hybrid ORs does raise the issue of a correlative rise in HAIs, according to Robert Dewey, writing in the April 2017 issue of Healthcare Business News magazine.

“Anxiety over HAIs extends to the hybrid OR, where minimally-invasive procedures are performed routinely in a growing number of hospitals. With the global market for minimally-invasive procedures expected to double between 2012 and 2019, likely giving rise to a commensurate increase in those procedures, interest in HAIs in the hybrid OR won’t abate anytime soon. How can facilities combat infection in this surgical environment?

“The most significant way in which hospitals can help curb infection within the hybrid OR is to consider the physical orientation of the room’s angiography system,” he continued, adding that “a system that is fixed to the floor of the hybrid OR, as opposed to mounted on the ceiling or moving across the floor, is the best design choice to help reduce HAIs. Because infection in hybrid ORs is frequently attributed to an obstruction of air flow from the ceiling, a ceiling-mounted angiography system is not desirable. Floor-moving angiography systems also are problematic, as they can spread infectious material across the floor.”

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