A battle is raging in imaging information technology today, according to a report from Signify Research. Titled “Imaging IT and Archiving & Management IT—World—2017,” the report goes on to say that enterprise imaging will account for 27% of the global imaging IT market by 2021.
While new market entrants from the content management, archiving, and informatics market are looking to disrupt the status quo, traditional PACS vendors have also been expanding their offerings, pushing enterprise imaging solutions as upgrades to their standalone PACS offerings.
The research firm anticipates that single-vendor, enterprise imaging IT will significantly increase its share of the market. Over the next 5 years, enterprise imaging revenue is forecasted to more than double globally, by far the fastest growing segment in the market.
Traditional PACS vendors have the largest installed base of standalone PACS, RIS, and CVIS software in the market today. This is a clear advantage as healthcare providers see many positives from upgrading their departmental solution to enterprise imaging, including:
- Perceived speed and lower expense of implementation with same vendor
- Less training required for staff and clinical disruption with similar user interface and system
- Perceived lower IT administration and professional service
- Single platform approach – perceived to aid workflow efficiency
- Relatively broad clinical coverage and capability
- Easier to work with single vendor
Additionally, the core strengths of enterprise imaging solutions fit the needs of the largest addressable market segment, the mid-size hospital market. Combined with many providers in the large and small hospital segment as well, these customers form the core of traditional PACS vendor installed base.
Today, there is far greater focus on efficiency, workflow, and speed of implementation given the current pressures on healthcare funding in this sector. With a single vendor enterprise imaging platform, it is perceived that these core needs can be better addressed than with a multi-vendor, best-of-breed model.
The report provides market estimates for 2015 and 2016 with annual forecasts for radiology IT (PACS, RIS), cardiology IT, enterprise imaging, standalone vendor neutral archives, and standalone image exchange to 2021. Each product market is further segmented by revenue component (software, services (implementation, maintenance, consulting, etc.) architecture, provider scale, and business model, in 23 geographic markets. Competitive market data is provided by sub-region in each major product category.
