U.S. PACS market rides on replacement sales

With more than 99% of hospitals with 100 beds or more already using PACS, market growth will need to come from sales of replacement systems. Fortunately, nearly two-thirds of these hospitals plan to expand or upgrade their PACS during the next three years, says a new report from IMV Medical Information Division of Des Plaines, IL.

In 2010, 85% of PACS implementations will be replacement systems, said Lorna Young, senior director of market research at IMV.

IMV's new report includes data from 314 PACS and radiology administrators nationwide who work at primary hospitals of 100 or more beds. The firm has projected these responses to the universe of 2,420 short-term general hospitals with 100 beds or more.

Today's uncertain economic and healthcare environment has been thought to delay some PACS spending in 2010, but IMV found divided opinions on this question. Respondents were almost as likely to agree or disagree that the uncertainty was causing some PACS expenditures planned for 2010 to be delayed or slowed.

The top three planned investments in PACS included expansion of image storage capacity, PACS workstations, and flat-screen monitors, IMV said.

Regarding image distribution technology, IMV found that 93% of the PACS sites have a Web-based image distribution system. IMV also found growing interest in using mobile devices for viewing images. While only 7% are currently using PDAs, smartphones, or other mobile devices in this manner, 26% are planning to adopt this technology over the next two to three years.

In archiving trends, 63% said their long-term archive is managed internally, while 27% have their archive managed by their primary PACS provider, according to IMV. A third-party firm manages the archive for 4%, while 6% utilize other sources.

In radiology information system (RIS) developments, 93% of hospitals have a RIS; 95% of these are integrated with a hospital information system (HIS), 62% are integrated with an electronic medical record (EMR) or electronic health record (EHR), and 35% are integrated with a dedicated mammography module, according to IMV.

"While there are some who advocate an integrated RIS/PACS, others believe in integrated RIS/HIS or RIS/EMR," she said. "That's where RIS is migrating to, in some hospitals."

In advanced visualization trends, 79% of the hospitals with 100 or more beds have advanced visualization software available in their organization, according to IMV. Larger hospitals were more likely to have advanced visualization than smaller hospitals.

Nine percent had their own dedicated 3D lab, with an additional 3% planning to implement one between 2010 and 2012, according to IMV. The radiology department performs its own 3D reconstructions in more than half of the surveyed sites.

In other PACS trends, IMV found that 59% of the surveyed hospitals have a cardiology PACS. The cardiology PACS market seems to have significantly ramped up in 2008, according to IMV: 13% of sites are expecting to purchase their first cardiology PACS some time between 2010 and 2012.

By Erik L. Ridley
AuntMinnie.com staff writer
June 25, 2010

Disclosure notice: AuntMinnie.com is owned by IMV, Ltd.

Related Reading

Procedure volume grows for noncardiac angiography, July 21, 2009

Cardiac cath lab procedures fall 11% over past 2 years, May 26, 2009

Mammography procedure volume drops 16% since 2000, March 17, 2009

Growth rate for PET procedure volume slows to single digits, February 17, 2009

CT installed base triples in cardiology practices, December 23, 2008

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