Widening Dependence on Digital Imaging in North America and Europe Seen

Such is its growing popularity that a new report by independent market analyst Datamonitor (London, UK), predicts the PACS market in Europe and North America will reach a value of US$8.6 billion by 2011 compared to an estimated $4.9 billion today, providing increasing opportunities for technology vendors.

The study reported that PACS is proving a success in North America, the United Kingdom, and the Scandinavian countries. According to Datamonitor, with PACS technology evolving from being merely radiology-centric, it is not only moving into different healthcare departments but also other industry sectors, including academic institutions and pharmaceutical companies.

Cost-savings, time efficiency, and higher degree of patient care which PACS brings to healthcare and beyond, is driving market growth. With PACS installed, clinicians can have access to large quantities of medical history at their fingertips, enabling fast cross-referencing, saving valuable time in dealing with complicated cases. For radiologists, PACS enables a far faster turn-around with each patient, creating a more efficient system.

In the past, if an academic institution or a pharmaceutical company wished to perform studies on images, a trial would have had to have been conducted involving the manual acquisition and reviewing of the images. This would have been from a comparatively small sample size and would have been time-consuming and costly. In the era of digital imaging, however, this is being transformed. It is now possible for an academic institution or pharmaceutical company to conduct research on earlier cases. With metadata attached to the images, it is possible to compare previous results to find commonalities.

Keeping the cost of PACS down will continue to play a significant role in penetrating smaller institutions and immature markets. The adoption of PACS within immature markets will continue to grow. There is, however, still apprehension within these markets towards the technology. While France and Germany have been slower than other western economies in installing PACS, Datamonitor believes clinical benefits will prove a strong selling point and expects both markets to develop well, with a compound annual growth rate of 12% and 11%, respectively, from 2006-2011.

Datamonitor plc is a world-leading provider of online data, analytic, and forecasting platforms for major vertical sectors.


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