Philips Buys Teleradiology Platform Vendor Direct Radiology

Seeking to address the increasing shortage of radiologists, Amsterdam-based Royal Philips has acquired teleradiology platform vendor Direct Radiology, which Philips plans to scale to support radiologists globally.

Philips said the acquisition of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho-based Direct Radiology complements its organic innovation initiatives to expand its radiology solutions portfolio. Founded in 2012, physician-owned and -operated Direct Radiology’s business currently provides services for more than 300 hospitals, imaging centers, mobile imaging services, and doctors’ offices across the United States. Philips has acquired Direct Radiology’s teleradiology platform and business operations, including its employees. The medical practice part of Direct Radiology (the independent contractors physician group) will continue to operate independently through managed-service agreements. 

 Philips said its new telehealth services will build on its cloud-based radiology informatics portfolio of Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS) and Vendor Neutral Archive (VNA) solutions, combined with analytics, visualization and workflow applications, to now also include teleradiology viewing and reporting capabilities, on-call radiologist services, and related exam workflow enhancement applications.

Teleradiology includes remotely storing, retrieving, viewing and analyzing medical images by clinical experts anywhere, so that patients can receive optimal treatment via their local caregivers, wherever they are. The global teleradiology market is among the fastest growing segments in the radiology and clinical services outsourcing market, and is expected to be a sizable part of the imaging interpretation market within the next few years, Philips said. 

"We see imaging as a system and deliver innovation to support the needs of all the people behind the images by seamlessly integrating technology and data,” said Sham Sokka, business leader of Radiology Solutions at Philips, in a prepared statement. “Our new teleradiology services address a pressing need, while providing a strong platform for Philips’ future growth in the telehealth market.”