Agfa and Acuson collaborate in PACS

PACS vendor Agfa and ultrasound developer Acuson showed the results of their ongoing collaboration in PACS at last week's Society for Computer Applications in Radiology meeting in Baltimore. The companies are working to integrate their respective digital image management systems via the DICOM 3.0 standard, and may cooperate in co-bidding on PACS contracts in the future.

Agfa of Ridgefield Park, NJ, and Acuson of Mountain View, CA, are working at the University of Maryland Medical Center to develop DICOM-based interfaces between Agfa's Impax PACS network and Acuson's Aegis ultrasound miniPACS. In the first phase of the collaboration, Agfa is pulling Aegis ultrasound images over to be viewed and archived on the Impax system.

At the SCAR meeting, Agfa and Acuson demonstrated the ability to use Web-based interfaces to view images on the other company's system. Acuson was able to use the Web interface on Aegis to view CT and MR images stored on Impax, for example.

The firms do not have a signed business relationship, but are considering more integration of their sales and marketing efforts, with each firm recommending the other's products to customers in certain sales situations.