by
Gus Iversen, Editor in Chief | January 03, 2018
Looking back at 2017 there was no shortage of high impact headlines for the medical imaging industry.
Over the last week or so we have highlighted some of the
top news in MR, as well as
breast imaging and
company mergers — three topics which saw particularly consequential shake-ups over the last 12 months. Now, we take a few big steps back and turn our attention toward the overall top five stories of the year.
These were the stories our readers read and shared more than any others. These are the stories that altered the landscape of an entire industry and promise to set the stage for 2018, (and although artificial intelligence — as a concept — didn't make the cut, it deserves an honorable mention for the way it
completely took over RSNA).
Canon picks up Toshiba Medical, setting the stage for bigger imaging footprint
The winning bid was announced in March of 2016, but
a lot of dust cleared in 2017 regarding the details of how Toshiba Medical would look under the umbrella of Canon, which acquired the imaging giant in a $5.9 billion deal.
The transaction itself was not without controversy, and what followed was a lengthy regulatory approval process to complete the integration of the unit, necessitated by the global nature of the company that demanded it follow a variety of national or regional laws covering both pharmaceuticals and medical devices.
At RSNA 2017, Toshiba and Canon exhibited side-by-side
The two are slated to completely merge under the Canon brand on January 4, (today) and an even bigger investment into the health care sector is expected from the combined entity in the years to come.
Regulatory drama unfolds between OEMs and the ISOs who work on their machines
Ever since the FDA opened its docket investigating the safety impact third-party stakeholders have on medical equipment in early 2016, the debate has roiled people with a range of different viewpoints.
At its core, the argument boils down to OEMs believing that third-parties lack adequate oversight and thus, put patient safety in jeopardy, while third-parties assert that there is no evidence of a safety issue and that if there
were any issues could be attributed to the unwillingness of OEMs to share necessary manuals and passwords with them.
