Image sharing is slowly gaining wider acceptance among healthcare systems as technology continues to advance, according to a new survey from software provider peer 60.
As technology improves so do processes. Reducing repeat imaging is one of the driving factors for facilities to adopt image-sharing technology, as when patients are re-imaged, they are exposed to unnecessary radiation, which also drives up the cost of healthcare. As such, 67 percent of hospital decision-makers consider imaging sharing a critical function, while just 1 percent said it is not critical at all. These decision-makers rate picture archiving and communication system (PACS) vendors and cloud networks as the two most viable solutions to meet their image-sharing needs. Vendor neutral archive (VNA) vendors are a distant third place, according to the report.
Among the many hospital departments, radiology was viewed as having the greatest need for image-sharing capabilities (96 percent), followed by orthopedics (78 percent) and trauma (75 percent). Further, the report lists the top vendors with the greatest mind and market share according the hospitals across the country. Nuance, a stand-along image-sharing vendor is the overall market share leader, followed by Merge Healthcare and GE Healthcare at number two and three, respectively. Nuance also occupies the greatest space in the minds of the hospital administrators, followed again by Merge Healthcare and GE Healthcare, the survey found.
Jerermy Bikman, peer 60 CEO, said in a statement, “We found an interesting anomaly in conducting this study. Vendors that provide an image-sharing solution as their only offering were not viewed as the ideal fit by most health systems. However, Nuance, a stand-alone image-sharing vendor leads in both mind and market share.”
