eMed refiles IPO, acquires Trilix

eMed Technologies is moving ahead with plans to expand its portfolio of Internet-based products and services, fueled in large part by the prospect of a pending $46 million initial public offering. The Lexington, MA-based company originally filed for an IPO last August (SCAN 9/1/99) but postponed the offering just one month later, citing “market volatility” with regard to health-related IPOs (SCAN 10/27/99).

Apparently sensing a more positive climate on Wall Street these days, eMed refiled its IPO with the Securities and Exchange Commission Feb. 25 (SCAN 9/1/99). If the public offering goes through, the company will trade on NASDAQ under the symbol “EMDT.”

Founded in early 1992, eMed (then known as Access Radiology) had a modest beginning, generating just $139,000 in revenue. But the company has experienced strong growth in the last three years, with revenue increasing from $1 million in 1996 to $23.6 million in 1999. The bulk of its current revenue stems from its Framewave product line.

eMed has been unable to translate its skyrocketing revenue into profitability, however, although its losses are decreasing annually. The company posted a loss of $5.6 million in 1997, $5.1 million in 1998, and $2.6 million in 1999. In addition, eMed expects to see revenue and profit increases in the coming year from its growing stable of Internet- and Web-based products and services (SCAN 1/12/00). These include eMed.net, a subscription-based Internet Web site development and hosting service, and Images by eMed, a brand name under which the company will offer its technology to other vendors, enabling them to distribute medical images through their Internet-based applications.

eMed’s recent acquisition of Trilix Information Systems, a systems integration software developer founded by several former Cemax-Icon engineers, is also expected to boost the company’s bottom line in the coming year. Trilix, headquartered in Pleasanton, CA, provides integration technology that allows the exchange of information among different healthcare imaging and information systems, both within a hospital’s network and via the Internet.

The addition of Trilix’s technology to eMed’s image-management products and services should help facilitate an organization’s move toward electronic patient records, providing clinicians with connectivity to diagnostic images, as well as to laboratory, pathology, and other diagnostic reports, according to Howard Pinsky, chief technology office for eMed.

eMed also plans to make Trilix’s interface technologies available to other vendors on an OEM basis. Trilix already has OEM relationships with Kodak and Canon, according to company sources. eMed acquired Trilix in a straight stock deal.