Multimodality Platforms Driving Cardiovascular Image Management Systems Market

Evolving standards in cardiovascular (CV) care have produced the need for a multimodality image-management platform that integrates patient images and related information. Providers of CV image management systems (CV-PACS [picture archiving and communication systems]) appear set to benefit from this growing need as their products integrate radiology and nuclear cardiology, and provide more sophisticated structured reporting capabilities.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan (Palo Alto, CA, USA), an international growth consultancy company, found that the market earned revenues of US$272 million in 2007, and estimates this to reach $670 million in 2014.

Although most cath and echo labs in North America have adopted digital X-ray technology, digital echo, or analog to digital converters, the image data from these core modalities are frequently managed independently. This causes their respective workflows to remain disparate, thereby offering many opportunities in the CV-PACS markets to replace stand-alone systems with multimodality platforms.

"Currently, single-modality image management solutions supporting each type of lab constitute silos of information, which prevents the exchange of information with other systems in order to create a unified view of the patient,” noted Frost & Sullivan industry analyst Nadim Daher. "By consolidating image management for several modalities onto a single platform, multimodality solutions can aid the formation of a single integrated system, and enable the use of advanced workstations that support the new standards of cardiovascular care.”

To find optimum uptake, the novel CV-PACS technology must be able to replace and/or integrate with the legacy infrastructure in cath and echo labs. Meanwhile, labs are encouraged to share common grounds with nuclear imaging and radiology by deploying enterprise-wide image management systems.

Moreover, cardiology information technology systems have to show further integration and interoperability to consolidate images from various sources and other enterprise systems. As such, they play a central role as integration platforms for larger facilities to help develop patient-centric CV care processes and records.

While offering innovative capabilities and integrated solution, CV image management system vendors will have to strategize to deal with the increasing levels of competition and more complex sales cycles. According to Frost & Sullivan, new business plans are crucial, as they must deliver on several fronts to help customers meet increasing challenges. Vendors must pay greater attention when assisting customers with improving productivity and departmental efficiencies by helping them support higher imaging procedure volumes while simultaneously reducing costs and turnaround times.

Apart from using these product capabilities to attract larger contract opportunities, vendors must also educate prospective customers about the benefits of enterprise-wide systems. Specifically, they should proactively help customers overcome political restraints, align the incentives of enterprise stakeholders, and cater to every CV subspecialty. Furthermore, vendors need to give top priority to service due to the complexity of their solutions.

"While CV-PACS solutions are much less hardware-based than in the past, they offer more sophisticated software components and require a larger professional service component,” noted Mr. Daher. "The CV-PACS market is fast becoming more service-oriented, thereby challenging vendors to increase profit margins by providing cost-effective implementation and support services to a growing customer base.”


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