PACS market impacted by consolidation, advanced visualization thrust

Attendees walking the exhibit hall at Chicago's McCormick Place will surely notice the effects of a particularly busy period of PACS industry consolidation. Big deals completed in 2005 included blockbuster announcements such as Philips Medical Systems' acquisition of Stentor and Merge Healthcare's purchase of Cedara Software (which had itself purchased eMed Technologies in late 2004).

Other big announcements included GE Healthcare's September bid to pay $1.2 billion for IDX Systems, which in turn had purchased RealTimeImage in July. Deals involving cardiac PACS were also trendy this year, with Agfa HealthCare buying Heartlab, McKesson acquiring cardiac image management firm Medcon, and Emageon purchasing Camtronics Medical Systems from Analogic.

Other noteworthy mergers and acquisitions included SmartPACS' joint venture with Infinitt, StorComm's pending merger with Creative Computer Applications (CCA), and Mercury Computer Systems' acquisition of German PACS provider SoHard.

On the RSNA show floor, PACS vendors will emphasize their sharpened focus on advanced visualization technology, as they endeavor to assist radiologists in managing increasingly complex image datasets. For additional details on advanced visualization developments at the RSNA show, stay tuned for our Advanced Visualization Road to RSNA section on November 17.

Vendors are also increasingly tackling women's imaging digital image management, with several debuting PACS configurations for breast imaging at the show. Also drawing attention: increased levels of systems integration, image distribution improvements, radiology "dashboard" functionality, and workflow enhancements such as integrated document scanning.