Room for Smaller Players

Many medium-sized and smaller companies are optimistic about market growth in their PACS segments. Some feel that the DRA cuts in reimbursement to imaging centers have boosted the lower-end PACS market since small providers are seeking efficiencies.


"Last year was a slow capital purchase year due to the DRA," says Will Martinez, President, Trident Imaging Services, Santa Fe, TX. "Non-revenue producing systems are usually put toward the end of the list [of purchase priorities]; 2008 should be a stronger year for PACS since [the installed base] is one year older and adjustments to the DRA are normalizing." Trident sells Cedara and ComPACS systems.

"Even without DRA, who doesn't need efficiency?" asks Scott Wasson, President and CEO of Radiology Services LLC, Evansville, IN, which sells PACS, CR, DR and diagnostic imaging equipment. "PACS is efficient and film is not. The major [PACS selling] points are financial, ease of distributing images, space requirements and quality control."

"The primary driving factor we see for new PACS system adoption is smaller clinics and hospitals needing to become more efficient with their image management. They were unable to do this before because the PACS vendors in the past were too costly for their budget," says Jim Wheeler, Director of Business Development, QStar Technologies Inc., Mary Esther, FL. The company provides PACS and email capture systems for the medical market and archive storage management products that help meet HIPAA compliancy.

In addition to GE, other OEMs are also becoming more nimble in efforts to serve smaller customers. "Vendors used to require that you buy all the hardware from them because they would heavily mark up the margins," says Jim Morgan, Director of Marketing for Network Systems, FujiFilm Medical Systems USA. "We were the first full-sized vendor that offered software only. So we will give you a price with hardware if you want us to furnish it, or you can shop it on the open market and buy your own if you can get a better deal. We offer both." The company serves customers that do anywhere from 10 to 3,000 studies per day. "Our goal is to meet the needs of the single box, up to a large multi-site hospital chain."

Some Key Decisions

Not all PACS systems are web-based, although the internet predominates. Some use on-site networks and servers. An example would be a multi-specialty practice where the radiologists all come to work each day and just need access from computers within the facility. Other configurations are hybrids combining local and widespread resources.

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