McCay says that in any service contract negotiation providers should question service providers on, “how they would handle a down system and if they and their external resources are both ISO certified.” They should also ask them to “describe their service call escalation process, and any specialty coverage they have that is unique to the market.”

While ISOs will continue to be limited to servicing MR systems produced by specific companies, the scope of those services is likely to expand over the next few years due to growing debates and lawsuits around right-to-repair laws, says Knight. Evidence, such as the 2018 FDA report which found no evidence to suggest that work by ISOs pose safety risks to patients, have led the FDA to establish new laws and provide clarification on different activities that make it easier for qualified ISOs to service equipment.


“We're going to see a trend that makes it easier for ISOs to get the information to do the service in conjunction with that,” Knight said. “We're going to see a trend by the OEMs to make the software more available to third parties. I think it's going to be easier for an ISO while putting a much greater focus on the OEMs to prove and do service in an upstanding way.”

No matter how servicing changes in the future or how advanced scanners become, negotiating a good maintenance and repair agreement will always require providers to know how much risk they can take on based on what they can and cannot do, and research, ask questions about, and compare the offerings of different service organizations. Only then will they be able to determine which one can meet their individual MR servicing needs best.

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