Frost & Sullivan: U.S. Medical Imaging Informatics Industry Reconnects with Growth in the Enterprise Image Archiving Market

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Nov. 1, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Notwithstanding the recent flattening of growth in medical imaging procedure volumes in the U.S., the growth in image data volumes continues to accelerate. Increasing average study volumes, evolving regulatory guidelines, a growing imaging patient population, and continuing reliance on imaging by the clinical enterprise all contribute to mounting image data volume requirements. In fact, the volume needs for the incremental and cumulative storage and archiving of primary and secondary image copies are creating no less than a "Big Data" explosion in imaging.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan's (http://www.medicalimaging.frost.com) U.S. Enterprise Medical Image Archiving Market research finds that the vendor-neutral archive (VNA) market earned revenues of $110.5 million in 2011 and estimates this to reach $210.0 million in 2018.  The VNA market consists of third-party vendors that provide PACS-neutral archives.  Furthermore, Frost & Sullivan projects that the enterprise picture archiving and communication system (PACS) archive market, comprised primarily of incumbent PACS vendors, earned revenues of $77.4 million in 2011, which will grow to $168.2 million in 2018. The current traction in various customer segments of the market and proactive investment by industry participants suggest that revenues will sustain double digit growth rates in both of these markets during the next seven years.

If you are interested in more information on this research, please send an email to Britni Myers, Corporate Communications, at [email protected], with your full name, company name, job title, telephone number, company email address, company website, city, state and country.

Paralleling these data volume increases is the complexity of management (including, but not limited to, radiology) as well as the heightening diversity of image data sources across the enterprise, including image using and image producing clinical stakeholders. This evolution of the medical imaging data landscape has placed enterprise medical image archives at the center stage of the much needed transformation of the traditional imaging informatics ecosystem.

"Providers no longer view the continuance of expanding monolithic and disparate image archives for each imaging department as a sustainable approach, as storage volume requirements for the diversifying imaging enterprise continue to increase exponentially," said Frost & Sullivan Principal Analyst Nadim Daher.  "Our forecast model projects that even if diagnostic imaging volumes continue to plateau around the 600 million procedures per year mark, overall storage and archiving volume requirements for U.S. medical imaging data will cross the 1 exabyte mark by 2016.  That is 1,000 petabytes or 1,000,000 terabytes, which marks medical imaging's definitive entry into Big Data territory."

In sharp contrast with the unfavorable growth landscape that continues to prevail in the radiology information system (RIS) and PACS market space, enterprise medical image archiving constitutes a comparatively small, yet dynamic growth area for medical imaging informatics vendors. Providers are primarily taking one of two approaches to implement such an enterprise-oriented storage and archiving strategy: utilizing PACS-neutral archives from VNAs or relying on enterprise PACS archives, mainly provided by entrenched PACS vendors.  In both cases, the new technology paradigm that these technologies allow consists of a centralized archiving infrastructure on the back end, combined with distributed viewing via enterprise viewers on the front end.

"Although they have been around for about 10 years, VNAs have been expanding only gradually into the marketplace – mostly following top-down expansion. However, market adoption is accelerating with the major PACS vendors moving more decisively and proactively into enterprise archives," concluded Daher.  "In the wake of ongoing IT consolidation of distributed hospital organizations, enterprise medical image archives are making their way into the marketplace, creating a sizeable growth segment for imaging informatics."

Transitioning to a new PACS vendor or platform has often forced imaging providers to undertake a complex and expensive data migration effort, caused by the use of proprietary mechanisms in most of the legacy PACS systems. In this context, IT departments have considerably increased their influence over decision making for imaging IT. While radiology remains the major contributor to any enterprise imaging IT strategy, most recent deployments now have a broader scope than Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) images from radiology alone.

U.S. Enterprise Medical Image Archiving Market is part of the Advanced Medical Technologies as well as the Connected Health Growth Partnership Services programs, which include research in the following markets: medical imaging modalities and services, contrast and radiopharma, surgical and orthopedic solutions, video telemedicine, remote patient monitoring, healthcare IT, and mHealth.  All research services included in subscriptions provide detailed market opportunities and industry trends evaluated following extensive interviews with market participants.

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, works in collaboration with clients to leverage visionary innovation that addresses the global challenges and related growth opportunities that will make or break today's market participants.

Our "Growth Partnership" supports clients by addressing these opportunities and incorporating two key elements driving visionary innovation: The Integrated Value Proposition and The Partnership Infrastructure.

• The Integrated Value Proposition provides support to our clients throughout all phases of their journey to visionary innovation including: research, analysis, strategy, vision, innovation and implementation.
• The Partnership Infrastructure is entirely unique as it constructs the foundation upon which visionary innovation becomes possible. This includes our 360 degree research, comprehensive industry coverage, career best practices as well as our global footprint of more than 40 offices.

For more than 50 years, we have been developing growth strategies for the global 1000, emerging businesses, the public sector and the investment community. Is your organization prepared for the next profound wave of industry convergence, disruptive technologies, increasing competitive intensity, Mega Trends, breakthrough best practices, changing customer dynamics and emerging economies?

Contact Us:     Start the discussion

Join Us:           Join our community

Subscribe:       Newsletter on "the next big thing"

Register:         Gain access to visionary innovation

U.S. Enterprise Medical Image Archiving Market
NB80-54

Contact:
Britni Myers
Corporate Communications – North America
P: 210.477.8481
F: 210.348.1003
E: [email protected]

http://www.frost.com

SOURCE Frost & Sullivan