Elscint parent forms center company

Elscint stands to reap increased imaging equipment sales throughits indirect corporate link to Elbit Medical Services, an internationalcenter development firm. EMS is another subsidiary of Elscint'sparent Elbit, an Israeli computer company.

EMS has already brought two imaging centers into operationsince its creation in May. The centers are located in Texas andBudapest, Hungary. The firm has formed a third partnership fora center under development in California, according to EMS managingdirector Moshe Ben-Porath. Ben-Porath was a founder of Elscintand served as president of the vendor's U.S. subsidiary untillast December.

EMS centers will use imaging systems supplied primarily byElscint, according to Emanuel Gill, Elbit president and CEO.

Scanner vendors have shied away from direct involvement withimaging centers, although they provide financing to individualimaging equipment users. Fonar, a Melville, NY, MRI manufacturer,has relied on equipment service revenue and development of itsown imaging centers after virtually closing down direct marketingof its equipment as a cost-cutting measure (SCAN 2/14/90 and 1/30/91).

Health Images of Atlanta is an imaging center firm that hada secondary business of servicing old Johnson & Johnson TeslaconMRI systems. It then purchased the right to manufacture its ownsystem based on J&J technology. HI does not actively marketits MRI equipment for use outside its own centers.

Elscint, on the other hand, is a multimodality imaging vendorthat has made a strong comeback from continuing losses severalyears ago. The company is now profitable and expanding. Formationof EMS was part of parent Elbit's plan to develop nonmilitarybusiness by building on its existing technology base, Gill said.

EMS is negotiating center partnerships in Italy, Greece, Singapore,Eastern Europe and the U.S., Ben-Porath said.