Medical imaging vendors are operating in a "churn" market, according to a new peer60 report, as hospitals experiment in finding which image sharing features mean the most to them.
The peer60 report finds volatility in the medical image sharing market, one in which hospitals often switch vendors due to a variety of reasons including delivery method, technology and convenience. That makes the market highly susceptible to change, especially when vendors are not meeting providers' expectations.
Among image sharing providers, McKesson is making deep inroads in the market, besting competitors IBM and Nuance, the study shows.
Nuance, meanwhile, provides a counterbalance to fellow vendor LifeIMAGE: Both companies are maintaining a relevant share of the market but have a different approach to image sharing. Two years ago, Nuance acquired cloud-based Accelerad, while LifeIMAGE continued to commit to point-to-point sharing via virtual private networks.
According to peer60, cloud-based solutions are still "all the rage," but point-to-point delivery methods will likely be relevant for the foreseeable future, particularly in trauma situations in which the speed of sharing images is vitally important.
McKesson, realizing this, recently partnered with OneMedNet to resell its BEAM point-to-point offering; the report credits this move as being partially responsible for McKesson's large market share.
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A hospital's size has some impact on which vendors were favored, the analysis found. General Electric, Philips and Agfa have strongholds among hospitals that have between one and 250 beds, but beyond that, McKesson, Nuance and Sectra begin to take over.
LifeIMAGE was found to be especially popular among very large hospitals, in the 501-1,000 bed range. Also noteworthy was Sectra's dominance among outpatient facilities.
The concept of image sharing as part of a true enterprise imaging solution strategy was the most important reason for considering a new image sharing vendor, according to the report. And additional data suggests that superior technology, while important, is not all-encompassing. Having a strong regional presence was the top reason given for considering a vendor, followed closely by a single-source imaging strategy.
A trend among reporting hospitals was that sharing images with the patient was considered low-priority; sharing them within the network, and with providers outside the network, was considered more important. The only exception to this trend was among C-suite executives, who ranked sharing images with patients as their second highest priority. And as the size of a care facility increases, in-network sharing became less important.
"Perhaps as the size of (a) hospital increases, the number of facilities referring patients, becomes akin to herding cats," the authors wrote, "whereas smaller hospitals don't deal with this potential madness and simply want an easy solution for sharing in network."
The authors interpret the data as meaning that current methods for sharing images are ineffective. CDs can be lost, creating a security problem for sensitive patient information; they also have to be processed, which takes time. Some facilities use the VPN connection, but setting one up with multiple non-affiliated organizations can pose some technical issues. There's also a need for better storage as the quality of the images, and thus their file size, continues to increase.
Because of those factors, cloud-based sharing tends to be the most popular option, especially with imaging directors. Even 50 percent of LifeIMAGE clients believed the cloud was ideal, despite the company's point-to-point framework. However, point-to-point, for its part, remains popular among trauma specialists, due primarily to its speed.
In examining the volatility and flux of the imaging market, researchers identified three core factors that could drive a provider to switch vendors: superior technology, peer recommendations, and a single source solution as part of an enterprise imaging package. The authors said they expect further consolidation in the market as the landscape tends toward more simplified systems.
