Gmatek builds low-cost technology for range of PACS implementations

Gmatek builds low-cost technology for range of PACS implementations

French company can provide up to 1.2-terabyte storage

Consolidation may be the watchword in today's PACS industry, but that's not stopping small companies from coming into the market. One such firm is French startup Gmatek Informatique, a software company that has developed PACS offerings it hopes to sell to OEM companies as well as end users.

Formed in June, Gmatek has developed a PACS server, a radiology information system server, and a series of DICOM toolkits. Although the current offerings are based on Windows 95/98 or NT, support for other operating systems such as Solaris and Linux is available on demand.

Future plans call for the development of Web servers as well as review stations. The company plans to sell its technology either as stand-alone products or as development kits for OEM customers to mold into their product lines, said Philippe Marzin, chief executive and co-founder of Gmatek, based in Rueil-Malmaison, France.

Gmatek believes its technology is appropriate for PACS applications ranging from small-scale PACS implementations to large enterprise storage situations, all priced at competitive levels. A 54-gigabyte capacity PACS network from Gmatek, including a server and storage media, would start at $35,000, while a large one-terabyte PACS with four servers would begin at $400,000 to $500,000.

In archiving, Gmatek is partnering with Lexias, which provides enterprise storage solutions ranging up to 1.2 terabytes of storage with access speeds of up to 100 Mbytes/sec. Lexias subsystems can support multiple host connections, which facilitates multi-facility PACS. In this model, servers located at different sites can all be connected to the same storage system in a manner that's transparent to users, he said.

Gmatek is ready to sell its products to OEMs, but is looking for venture capital and partners to form another company to market to end users. When ready, end-user sales are expected to begin first in France and then expand into other European companies.

Ultimately, sales in the U.S. could take place, depending on the type of installation, he said. Larger configurations will require U.S. partners.

"If we sell a very small PACS, it's easy to install and maintain," he said. "But if we want to sell large PACS, then we have to have project management and maintenance locally based."

In addition to distribution partners around the world, the company will also probably choose another company for compression technology, he said.

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