Carestream Health of Rochester, NY, today announced the acquisition of radiography equipment vendor Quantum Medical Imaging of Ronkonkoma, NY, bolstering its product portfolio and extending its reach into the small hospital and imaging center market segments.
The acquisition of Quantum fills a void in Carestream's product line, which includes digital radiography (DR) technology, computed radiography (CR) systems, the DRX-1 line of wireless digital detectors, and the DRX-Evolution suite. Carestream also offers RIS/PACS software, archive products, and medical film printers. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.
Much of Carestream Health's products target major universities and major hospitals, while Quantum targets hospitals, imaging centers, orthopedic facilities, and medical clinics for its DR and conventional x-ray systems, CR systems, and x-ray system components.
"We realized that we have to complement our product portfolio with entry-level products that are going into smaller hospitals and into imaging centers and doctors offices," said Markus Lusser, Carestream Health's senior vice president of global medical sales and services.
"From our perspective, we were able to get a portfolio in the U.S. and internationally that goes to a segment of the market that we don't fully serve today," added Diana Nole, president of Carestream Health's Digital Medical Solutions business. "We only had some limited products, primarily our lower-end CR and film products. This allows us with a full portfolio of digital radiography to reach that [market segment]."
Wholly owned subsidiary
Carestream Health plans no immediate changes for Quantum. The plan is to bring Quantum into the fold as a wholly owned subsidiary, to be called Quantum Medical Imaging, a division of Carestream.
The company's headquarters, employees, and management team will remain at its current location on Long Island in New York. Quantum recently extended the lease on its headquarters and manufacturing facility through 2018, with an option to expand the current operation in the future.
Quantum Medical Imaging CEO Scott Matovich will continue to head the company's operations in Ronkonkoma and will manage Carestream Health's U.S. dealer channel business.
The company has approximately 70 employees worldwide. Carestream declined to disclose Quantum's revenues or its installed product base.
Since its spin-off from Eastman Kodak three years ago, Carestream has been working to build its own brand identity globally. "Outside the U.S., the intent is to more strongly use the Carestream brand, because Carestream has a much stronger brand presence," Nole said. "Approximately 70% of Carestream's business is outside of the U.S., while Quantum's business is only about 10% outside of the U.S."
Future technological collaborations between Carestream and Quantum Medical Imaging will be the first working relationships between the two companies. For example, Quantum will have access to Carestream's new DRX-1C wireless, cassette-sized detector, which uses a cesium iodide scintillator to enhance image quality and provide greater detective quantum efficiency compared to DRX-1.
Wireless technology
"The wireless detector is something that we can use as a joint company in their products," Lusser said. "There are also synergies in the computed radiography arena, where we will be able to utilize our own products, but also come up with new products exactly targeted to the market segments where we have not been so strong in the past."
Canon U.S.A. of Lake Success, NY, has supplied its CXDI-40G Compact digital receptor for Quantum DR systems in the past, and it recently introduced its own CXDI-70C wireless portable DR detector. Will there be a potential conflict between Canon's products and Carestream's DRX-1 wireless digital detector?
"The DRX-1 product is a key ingredient to our long-term growth strategy, because you can virtually build a product around it. We can, with this partnership, add the DRX-1 to the product portfolio of Quantum, as it becomes a Carestream company," Lusser said. "We are still keeping certain products from the former portfolio; it's not one or the other. It is basically using the best components we can get access to, because we want the broadest portfolio to serve our customers the best."
The Quantum transaction is Carestream's second acquisition this year. In April, Carestream's PracticeWorks Systems division in Atlanta bought the Richardson, TX-based Windent dental business of HealthSoft of Scottsdale, AZ. Since then, PracticeWorks Systems has changed its name to Carestream Dental.
Windent provides oral and maxillofacial surgery and dental practice management software under the brand names Windent OMS, Windent SQL, Windent Enterprise, and Windent Platinum.
By Wayne Forrest
AuntMinnie.com staff writer
September 7, 2010
Related Reading
PracticeWorks changes name to Carestream Dental, September 1, 2010
Quantum signs Shands, August 31, 2010
Carestream announces price increases, August 10, 2010
Carestream completes DRX install, August 3, 2010
Quantum completes Wis. installation, July 2, 2010
Quantum wins x-ray contract in Vt., June 24, 2010
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