Healthcare Business News spoke with Matthew Andersen, executive director of product management, Healthcare IT at Konica Minolta Healthcare Americas, to discuss the evolution of the Exa Platform, its unique PACS/RIS architecture, the company’s partner-driven strategy, and how AI is reshaping imaging workflows.

HCB News: Can you walk us through the original vision for the Exa Platform and how it has evolved over time?
Matthew Andersen: Exa originally launched as an on-premise, client-based integrated PACS/RIS system — one of the very first of its kind. At the time, most vendors offered PACS and RIS separately, often on separate databases. Exa was unique in delivering both within a single unified database, with each function able to be turned on or off without breaking that unified architecture. That tight integration was a differentiator from day one.


As the imaging world shifted, Konica Minolta HCIT shifted with it. We moved to a zero-footprint, server-side–rendered PACS viewer and ultimately transitioned the entire monolithic application into a zero-footprint architecture. Most deployments moved to the private cloud, and the platform saw some of its strongest market growth during that period.

About two years ago, we made another strategic pivot. We stepped away from trying to build “everything” — billing, transcription, cardiology,— and refocused the Exa Platform exclusively on what it does best: delivering a powerful, deeply integrated PACS/RIS core. Instead of trying to be all things to all customers, we built an ecosystem of best-in-class partners.

That shift has resonated enormously in the market. Customers value that we vet those partners, that we stand behind the integrations, and that they can still rely on a “single throat to choke,” even though they’re getting best-in-class capabilities from multiple vendors.

We then extended our cloud strategy even further by becoming the first major PACS vendor to partner with Amazon Web Services through the Amazon HealthImaging (AHI) platform. The Exa Platform serves as a core PACS/RIS component for AHI deployments, and our first major customer has already gone live — also an industry first — with excellent results.

HCB News: What sets Exa apart from competing platforms, both operationally and technologically?
MA: The single-platform PACS/RIS architecture is still a major differentiator. Customers benefit from a seamless workflow because the systems aren’t stitched together — they’re one.

But our other big differentiator is the strength of our partner ecosystem. With Exa Enterprise, we now integrate with roughly 15 best-in-class vendors across the enterprise imaging landscape:VNA, workflow orchestration, generative AI reporting, study sharing, patient self-scheduling, attorney portals, analytics, cardiology, and more.

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