GE imaging orders nosedive in 4Q
The future for the U.S. diagnostic imaging marketplace looked bleak Jan. 23 with a report from GE Healthcare that its 4Q orders for imaging equipment fell 30% compared with the year-earlier period. Overall healthcare orders dropped 4% due to a 6% decrease in equipment orders partly offset by a 1% growth in service orders. Fourth-quarter revenues for GE Healthcare fell 3%, compared with the year-earlier period, as the company generated $4.8 billion in sales. Healthcare profit slipped 9% to $942 million. Overall, GE posted a 44% drop in quarterly profit to $3.72 billion on revenue of $46.21 billion, which was down 4.8% compared with the previous quarter. GE stock tumbled more than a point to $12.29 at the open before recovering about a half point by midday.
Nuance taps new VP
Victor Panza is the new vice president of imaging utilization solutions for Nuance Communications, a maker of speech recognition products widely used in radiology. In his new position, Panza will lead business development for the RadPort imaging decision support solution, which incorporates more than 14,000 clinical rules based on ACR appropriateness criteria.
QStar updates data management products
Revision 5 of the data management software QStar HSM, Data Director, and Master are now shipping from QStar Technologies. Its features are designed to manage online data archives in multiple formats. A new graphical user interface provides multiple language support and enables single-point, transparent access to storage technologies.
Atirix readies QC-Track software for Canada
Atirix Medical Systems can market its QC-Track software in Canada without clearance from the Medical Devices Bureau of Health Canada. The bureau has determined that the software, which automates quality control reporting and graphing for devices used in breast imaging, does not fall under Canada's medical devices regulations, freeing the company to sell the software in the country. QC-Track is sold exclusively through Hologic for quality control on its Selenia full-field digital mammography units as well as related modalities and accessories found in breast imaging centers.
