Good timing isn't everything in capital equipment purchasing,but it helps. Two hospitals owned by Johns Hopkins Universityrealized significant savings by bundling a large imaging equipmentpurchase and sourcing it to a single vendor. More purchasers are
Health-care cost containment has dampened demand for expensive,high-end imaging equipment and forced multimodality vendors tocut costs and refocus product strategies. Slackening demand forbig-ticket scanners cut annual revenue growth at industry leaderGE
Leadership in MRI market share around the globe is neatly divided,with General Electric holding sway in the U.S., Siemens in Europeand Toshiba in Japan. But GE is looking to upset that balancewith a new 1.5-tesla platform to be marketed exclusively in
Toshiba America Medical Systems has increased staff in its ultrasounddivision and rearranged the organization's structure to providea clearer focus on specific market requirements. The vendor alsohas launched an effort to build clinical alliances and
Total PACS remains stuck in the future despite technological promiseand ongoing advances in digital medical image standards. Untilthe future arrives, vendors have tuned their marketing strategiesto focus on smaller picture archiving and communication
Diasonics plans to separate its worldwide ultrasound businessfrom profitable OEC-Diasonics later this year, establishing ultrasoundas an independent company in an increasingly hard-fought market.The move will allow shareholders to realize the full value
X-ray vendor Gendex continues to march on the acquisition warpath.In December, it announced plans to merge with Dentsply, a dentalsupplies vendor three times Gendex's size, and last month it purchasedthe mammography line of Finnish vendor Soredex.
Picker International, an early leader in low-field MRI, will returnto that niche in a joint venture with Instrumentarium of Helsinki.Upon finalization of the agreement expected later this month,Picker will take over sales of Instrumentarium's 0.1-tesla
Otsuka Electronics is gearing up for growth in sales of its low-cost,high-field MRI scanner this year. The MRI developer, based inFort Collins, CO, started selling the OE 1.5 SL system in 1992,bringing on the first two sites: De Kalb Magnetic Resonance
Cemax purchased Virtual Imaging last month and gained a leg upin a race to develop the next generation of medical imaging software.The merger will allow Cemax to jump immediately onto IBM platformsand tap into that computer vendor's leading position in
Operating-lease financing has provided Maxum Health with the flexibilitynecessary to upgrade its mobile MRI fleet, while keeping the totalnumber of systems steady. The Dallas imaging services firm, oncea major Diasonics MRI customer in its previous life
Conventional wisdom holds that the cost of full-blown digitalmedical imaging presents an insurmountable obstacle for mid-sizedprivate and community hospitals. Think again. There may be a financiallogic to investing in total picture archiving and
Laser film digitizer supplier Lumisys continued due diligencelast week as it considered a merger with Vision Ten, accordingto Stephen J. Weiss, Lumisys president and CEO. Vision Ten isa specialist in charge-coupled device (CCD) digitizing technology.The
Talks broke down this month on the proposed merger of picturearchiving and communications systems firms Image Data and Genesys(SCAN 12/30/92). James M. Karlak, Image Data executive vice presidentand COO confirmed the termination of the talks. The logic
When the U.S. Army and Air Force asked for bids on their giantmedical diagnostic imaging support (MDIS) program, Advanced VideoProducts was the only company that made it to the final competitionagainst the heavyweight partnership of Siemens and defense
Despite a buffeting by the winds of recession and cost-control,the medical equipment business sails in the right general direction.The business remains profitable for the most part, and as theU.S. population ages, it faces an upbeat future. Varian
AFP Imaging would like to be selling mammography systems rightnow, but it has no product. The Elmsford, NY, firm dropped itsmammography distribution agreement with Finnish supplier Soredexlast year in anticipation of selling systems provided by
Independent service organization R Squared Scan Systems capitalizedon the settlement of litigation with GE last year to enter thenewest frontier of third-party maintenance: MRI service. The Corona, CA-based company spent two years and $2.5
Clinical development of positron emission tomography could behampered by an ongoing shortage of oxygen-18, the raw materialfor a widely used PET tracer. The shortage is forcing PET researchersto ration isotope supplies and cut back on studies just as
Shifting alliances in intravascular ultrasound compose a dancechoreographed by companies with an eye on a market that just mightbe something--someday. Catheter firm Boston Scientific partedwith ultrasound vendor Diasonics in July to jump on the back
Siemens will reduce its worldwide medical work force by 1800 jobsin fiscal 1993 (end-September). Half the reductions in force willtake place in Germany and half elsewhere. The move reflects bothsluggishness in medical equipment sales worldwide and the
Business in the picture archiving and communications systems marketis tough all over, but the smaller PACS companies sometimes haveit the toughest. They must clear a higher hurdle when potentialcustomers show concern about their staying power in the
Esaote Biomedica of Genoa, Italy, will reestablish itself as acommercial MRI manufacturer next month with the introduction ofa small-bore 0.2-tesla permanent magnet scanner dedicated to jointimaging. The midsized imaging vendor chose to focus on niche
Gendex continued its acquisition drive with the purchase of EurekaX-ray Tube from Siemens last month. The Des Plaines, IL, manufacturerof dental and medical x-ray systems paid $10.3 million for thebusiness, with $4 million of the price financed
Niche MR may be an emerging market, but it is not a totally newfocus of corporate attention. Metriflow Medical Systems of Milwaukeeobtained Food and Drug Administration approval of its AFM-100blood flow scanner five years ago. The firm is just now
Toshiba has revamped service training and launched a remote scannerdiagnosis and service program to help boost its position in theU.S. medical imaging market. Key to Toshiba's new service regimewas the establishment last month of the Toshiba Medical
Toshiba America Medical Systems has found a way to mix marketingwith a social conscience. The Tustin, CA, vendor launched a nationalprogram last year to screen high-school athletes for heart abnormalities,using Toshiba's SSH-140A portable color Doppler
Seven years of turmoil in the picture archiving and communicationsystems market has led to greater emphasis on productivity andcost-effective equipment. But radiology departments often assumethat adding new technology in PACS will automatically
A former Siemens top medical executive with a reputation as aturnaround specialist has assumed the reins of struggling fluoroscopyimage enhancement firm Fidelity Medical. Werner J. Haas replacedFidelity's previous chief, Efraim Landa, who resigned
Cytocare squelched a class action suit in May that had been promptedby the firm's declining fortunes in the lithotripsy market anda corresponding drop in stock price. A Santa Ana, CA, federaldistrict judge granted the firm's summary motion to dismiss
