Jake Bennett
Senior Analyst in Medical Imaging IT
November 6, 2024
In the month ahead of my first attendance RSNA, the imaging IT market has been busy. Everyone awaits a trip to Chicago with baited breath, with many companies announcing new partnerships, product releases and acquisitions ahead of the conference. I’ll explore some of the stories that caught my attention below:
Acquisitions Are Like Buses…
After a very quiet year for M&A, the last two months have seen a pocket of activity with October being no different. French imaging IT vendor EDL is to be acquired by investment firm DENTRESSANGLE, with previous owner Abenex looking for an exit. The move follows a similar story to the Animati netPACS acquisition announced last month, with a more focused regional vendor being picked up by a large investment company. In this latest example, Dentressangle’s investment is hoped to help push EDL into further European markets. A timely investment, with the French imaging IT market poised for strong growth short to mid-term, with a number of regional / GHD renewals anticipated.
Gestalt and Change are United, Optumistic Outlook
I’d apologise for the awful title, but I’m not sorry. Digital pathology specialist Gestalt has formally announced a partnership with imaging IT and healthcare giant Optum (Change Healthcare). The announcement is timed well, just ahead of RSNA, we can expect digital pathology to be a key theme on the Optum booth. Change Healthcare remained one of the last top 10 imaging IT vendors to announce a formal digital pathology strategy, this new partnership affords Optum the opportunity to compete in larger multi-speciality deals that are increasingly including digital pathology. Importantly for the two vendors, detailing the integration timeline and wider roadmap will be critical.
AI’d Like A Piece Of That, Say GE
GE HealthCare earlier this month announced a partnership with Blackford, whereby GE will integrate the Blackford Platform into its True PACS and Centricity PACS platforms. GE joins Philips, Intelerad and many other imaging IT vendors that also have a relationship with Blackford. GE is not at all unfamiliar with AI, and regularly totes its number one position for FDA AI regulatory approvals, but the strength here is more for modality integrated AI rather than image analysis AI, therefore this partnership is expected to round out GE’s imaging IT portfolio.
Enlitic Partnership Kick
Hot off last month’s acquisition of LAITEK Inc, Enlitic are back at it again in October, with a handful of new partnerships announced. The company eyed up radiology workflow newcomers NewVue.ai (who themselves have also been busy with partnerships of late) and have entered into a ‘bi-directional strategic partnership’ whereby the two will leverage each other’s AI algorithms to address data standardisation needs in radiology.
In October, Enlitic also inked two three-year distribution deals with pharmaceutical giant Bayer and Philips. Enlitic’s Endex will be distributed alongside Bayer’s radiation dose management software, initially to 50 sites, but potentially up to 200. And the Philips agreement will see Endex integrated into Philips’ PACS via its AI platform partner Blackford. The two agreements are expected to generate revenue anywhere between $150,000 to $430,000 a year for Enlitic, potentially boosting the company’s revenue by a significant portion.
RamSoft Go Hard on Reporting
RamSoft, like several other imaging IT vendors, has recognised the need to invest in a reporting solution. Off the back of an earlier announcement this summer, whereby Ramsoft partnered with RADPAIR (a generative AI reporting specialist), RamSoft’s latest agreement sees it integrate Augnito's voice recognition software into its OmegaAI VNA. Heading into RSNA, we are expecting to see more product and partnership announcements pertaining to reporting, as it inevitably becomes one of the key trends of the show.
InsiteOne Expands Workflow Ecosystem
InsiteOne continues to build out its radiology capabilities by partnering with ZettaHealth Solutions, LLC. The two companies have entered into a strategic reseller agreement. ZettaHealth offers a suite of data exchange, billing and analytics tools, which fit well with InsiteOne’s existing portfolio geared toward imaging centres and outpatient groups. InsiteOne has been building out its standalone capability as an imaging IT vendor post-acquisition of BRIT Systems in late 2023, and the partnership with ZettaHealth is another step in that journey.
Cloud Hosting Push Product Development Forward
It’s not all just partnerships and commercial updates, product development is integral to maintaining market share and not being left behind by technology. TeraRecon, Inc. announced an update to its advanced visualisation platform, Intuition 4.10. The latest update brings over 200 feature enhancements including a renewed focus on cardiac MR imaging and a new dedicated and optimised cardiac MR viewer. Excitingly, the vendor also reported that Intuition is now available as a cloud-based SaaS offering, affording increased flexibility for deployment and billing. The transition of AV to the cloud has lagged other parts of the imaging IT portfolio, given the modality sales channel and compute power required. This is not the first murmurs we’ve observed for AV in the cloud, however we are yet to note major traction. If TeraRecon are able to demonstrate the solutions optimisation for the cloud, it could create an interesting dynamic in the competitive market. Regardless, the move to cloud is inevitable across the imaging IT spectrum and is something we’ve discussed in depth in our recently-published Cloud Adoption and Business Model Evolution in Imaging IT report.
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If you have any questions about the announcements discussed here or have any research requirements for the wider Imaging IT market, please reach out. Feel free to message me on LinkedIn, reach out via email at jake.bennett@signifyresearch.net, or book a meeting with me here!
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