The Road To PACS....Or Ruin

Image courtesy of http://www.auntminnie.com

Every year, my friends at AuntMinnie.com review the various radiological offerings to be found at RSNA. Since I seem to make the trek to Chicago every year for this extravaganza, I appreciate AM's attempt to distill the thousand plus booths down to the hundred or so that I can actually visit. I actually do attend the education sessions at RSNA, which can be quite a frustrating experience with literally 50 of them going on simultaneously.

I have taken the liberty of copying AuntMinnie's PACS Preview and posting it below:

Agfa HealthCare(Booth 4106) Agfa HealthCare will highlight six suites of its Impax portfolio, each targeted at specific healthcare segments, at the 2007 RSNA conference.

Amicas(Booth 2583) Amicas will feature version 5.5 of its Vision Series PACS network and introduce version 2.0 of its Vision Reach module in its RSNA booth this year.

Ashva Technologies(Booth 6421) Ashva Technologies of Plymouth, MN, plans to showcase version 2.0 of its iMagic ultrasound image management software at this year's RSNA conference.

Aspyra(Booth 3307) Aspyra will feature new versions of its AccessRad RIS/PACS and AccessNet PACS software at the 2007 RSNA meeting.

Brit Systems(Booth 3503) Brit Systems will highlight a workflow package for outsourced radiology reading applications at the upcoming RSNA conference.

Carestream Health(Booth 2513) Carestream Health of Rochester, NY, plans to showcase the latest version of its Carestream PACS offering in its RSNA booth this year.

Cedara Software(Booth 1316) Cedara Software will feature its C4 integration platform and development tools for software developers at the 2007 RSNA conference.

Cerner(Booth 1365) Cerner of Kansas City, MO, will showcase developments with its ProVision Workstation at this year's RSNA meeting.

CoActiv Medical Business Solutions(Booth 5741) CoActiv of Ridgefield, CT, will emphasize its Paperless-PACS concept, which adds paperless capability to its Exam-PACS line, in its RSNA booth.

Connect Imaging(Booth 6551) Connect Imaging of Honolulu plans to debut PACS Dashboard in its booth at this year's RSNA conference.

DR Systems(Booth 2165) DR Systems will highlight new mammography features on its Unity RIS/PACS platform at the upcoming 2007 RSNA show.

Dynamic Imaging(Booth 4765) Dynamic Imaging will feature upgrades to its IntegradWeb line at this year's RSNA conference.

EBIT AET(Booth 3339) Italian vendor EBIT AET will present enhancements to its Risolution RIS/PACS portfolio at the 2007 RSNA meeting.

Eclipsys(Booth 6959) Expect Atlanta-based Eclipsys to focus on enhancements to its Sunrise PACS line at this year's RSNA show.

Emageon(Booth 8508) Emageon of Birmingham, AL, will spotlight its RadSuite Express PACS offering at McCormick Place in Chicago.

Empiric Systems(Booth 5738) Empiric Systems of Morrisville, NC, plans to demonstrate version 5.0 of its Encompass.Net RIS/PACS network in its 2007 RSNA booth.

Fujifilm Medical Systems USA(Booth 1129) Fuji will highlight the latest version of its Synapse PACS software at this year's RSNA conference in Chicago.

GE Healthcare(Booth 1729) Expect GE to feature its recent acquisition of PACS vendor Dynamic Imaging. On the product side, version 3.0 of Centricity Imaging-PACS will be highlighted in the company's RSNA booth.

Healthy Information Technology(Booth 8938) Healthy-IT of Newport Beach, CA, will feature upgrades to its TelePax offering on the RSNA show floor.

Heart Imaging Technologies(Booth 3588) HeartIT of Durham, NC, will bring its WebPax VS package to this year's RSNA meeting in Chicago.

IMCO Technologies(Booth 4183) IMCO Technologies of Pewaukee, WI, will highlight software upgrades on its IMCO-PACS at the 2007 RSNA show.

Infinitt North America(Booth 8520) Infinitt of Phillipsburg, NJ, plans to direct RSNA attendees to its Cardiology PACS offering.

Integrated Modular Systems(Booth 3204) Integrated Modular Systems (IMSI) will feature its ImageWebGate service, as well as several upgrades, at this year's RSNA show.

Intelerad Medical Systems(Booth 4759) InteleRad Medical Systems of Montreal will come to McCormick Place in Chicago armed with new features for its IntelePACS and InteleViewer software.

Intuitive Imaging Informatics(Booth 3965) Intuitive Imaging Informatics (I3) of Los Angeles will feature enhancements for its Rational Imaging and ImageQube PACS lines at the upcoming RSNA show in Chicago.

McKesson Provider Technologies - Medical Imaging Group(Booth 2542) McKesson will present the latest releases of its Horizon Medical Imaging and Horizon Cardiology packages at the 2007 RSNA meeting.

Medicor Imaging(Booth 3295) Medicor Imaging of Charlotte, NC, plans to introduce its MiPACS MedView image distribution software at this year's RSNA meeting.

Medsynaptic(Booth 1051) Medsynaptic of Pune, India, will feature its Web-based MedSynapse PACS line in its RSNA 2007 booth.

Medweb(Booth 3959) Medweb highlights for this year's RSNA meeting include upgrades to its Dashboard application and a 3D/4D WebPACS offering.

Merge Healthcare(Booth 1122) Merge Healthcare of Milwaukee will display a range of RIS/PACS offerings at the 2007 RSNA conference in Chicago.

Meta Fusion(Booth 6456) Meta Fusion will feature upgrades to its Helium RIS/PACS application at the upcoming RSNA meeting.

MIMvista(Booth 4174) MIMvista of Cleveland will present its RT-PACS offering in its RSNA booth this year.

Neurostar Solutions(Booth 3582) Neurostar of Atlanta will focus on enhancements to its Virtual Radiology Network (VRN) at the RSNA conference this year.

NovaRad(Booth 3202) NovaRad of American Fork, UT, will spotlight version 7.0 of its NovaPACS software in its RSNA booth.

Philips Medical Systems(Booth 4129) Philips Medical Systems of Andover, MA, will demonstrate versions 3.6 and 4.1 of its iSite PACS line of PACS software at this year's RSNA meeting.

Radlink(Booth 4711) Radlink of Redondo Beach, CA, will tout its ThinPACS network for single or multilocation office practices.

RamSoft(Booth 4303) RamSoft will show new versions of its One RIS/PACS and PowerServer PACS offerings at the 2007 RSNA meeting.

Rogan-Delft(Booth 6908) Rogan-Delft of Veenendaal, Netherlands, plans to showcase a range of additions to its View Pro-X (VPX) viewing application.

ScImage(Booth 2551) ScImage of Los Altos, CA, will emphasize updates to PicomEnterprise, as well as mammography and advanced visualization tools, at this year's RSNA show.

Sectra(Booth 6513) Swedish PACS vendor Sectra will feature version IDS7/dx of its PACS diagnostic workstation software in its RSNA 2007 booth.

Siemens Medical Solutions(Booth 7713) Siemens will direct RSNA attendees to developments with its syngo platform, as well as a range of advanced visualization software.

Thinking Systems(Booth 4583) Thinking Systems of St. Petersburg, FL, will debut new PET/CT and cardiac imaging functions for its ThinkingPACS line at this year's RSNA meeting.

Visage Imaging(Booth 2591) Visage Imaging, a subsidiary of Mercury Computer Systems, will place its Visage PACS/CS into the limelight at the 2007 RSNA conference.

Visus Technology Transfer(Booth 8401) Visus Technology Transfer of Bochum, Germany, will present new enhancements for its JiveX system on the RSNA show floor at McCormick Place.

Voyager Imaging(Booth 4050) Voyager Imaging of East Hawthorn, Australia, plans to focus on the benefits of its Voyager PACS image data prefetching technique.

I'm not seeing many new names this year, but perhaps the good news is that the vast majority of this rogue's gallery were present last year. I'm personally thrilled that Jive-X PACS made it another season.

To give Mike Cannavo, the One and Only PACSMan some fodder for his annual awards, just look at the names of some of the other systems. iMagic? Is that how it works? Carestream? Sounds like something a urologist might prescribe. MedSynapse? Uh, Fuji, are you taking note of this? Oh, Medsynaptic is based in Pune, India, and is likely out of the reach of trademark infringement suits. I notice Visage/Mercury doesn't mention their acquisition of SoHard software from Germany anymore. Helium PACS? Does it float, or do we talk funny after inhaling it? Eclipsys has Sunrise PACS; isn't that somewhat of a contradiction in terms?

I always thought the name "Freedom PACS" would be great; freedom from tyranny, freedom from bloatware, freedom from things that get in your way, and so on. The title is for sale, cheap.

The roadmap naturally notes the acquisition of Dynamic Imaging by GE, and we're all anxious to see how the booths merge. The sad fact is that if everyone who has ever been associated with DI (including users, potential buyers, lookie-loo's like me, etc) gathered in a corner of the GE booth, they might well take up about 5% of GE's massive plantation on the exhibit floor.

The way things are going, the 2015 RSNA PACS roadmap will probably be a lot shorter: GE, Siemens, Philips, maybe one or two others. These behemoths will have gobbled up everybody else. I have the feeling, though, that open source PACS, or at least vendor-neutral archives might reinvigorate the smaller operators in this game. We'll see. In the meantime, I really think Connect Imaging needs to bring me out to their place in Honolulu to have a look at their PACS Dashboard and other offerings....