MRS purchases software maker Woman's Image in cash deal

Mammography Reporting System, a leading developer of mammography reporting and tracking software, has purchased Tucson, AZ-based Woman's Image in what MRS officials described as primarily a cash deal.

MRS first approached competitor Woman's Image about purchasing that company six months ago but were turned down. The September buyout culminated six weeks of actual negotiations. It will likely result in the merger of technical support personnel from Woman's Image and MRS, said Stan Sieberg, president of Seattle-based MRS. He declined to reveal specifics of the purchase.

MRS is well known for its Mammography Reporting System, which enables breast centers to collect, report, track, and analyze breast imaging information. Woman's Image offers the Mammography Manager system, which has several features that MRS was in the process of developing. The purchase enables MRS to add those features to its own system more quickly than expected, perhaps as soon as the middle of next year.

"We first talked to them about six months ago, and they rejected us," Sieberg said. "We came back a little more earnest, discussed it further, and after we showed them a few things that we were up to, they decided maybe they should do this."

The agreement enables MRS to increase its client base by 18%, from about 1700 centers that perform breast imaging to an estimated 2000. MRS clients primarily include large-volume facilities, some of which complete several hundred mammograms per day, and the addition of Woman's Image adds some 300 smaller volume centers, Sieberg said.

"The Mammography Manager product is now one of our products and we intend to support it for some time," Sieberg said. "However, MRS is in the process of bringing out a completely reengineered product. We expect to show it at the RSNA (meeting)."

That version, 6.0, will facilitate a paperless workflow and will include a feature called one-touch reporting, which will allow radiologists to save templates for frequently encountered situations. However, that version will not include any of the Mammography Manager features, Sieberg said. MRS' version 6.1 probably will combine features from the two systems, he added.

The Woman's Image system includes scheduling, quality control, and film library management components that MRS found attractive and had hoped to add to its own system. Woman's Image's strong client base was also important, Sieberg said.

"We've tended to focus on the high-volume facilities," he said. "We've been concerned about improving efficiency in those environments. The Mammography Manager product tends to serve the lower volume center; it provides a broader array of utilities."

In addition to bringing the Mammography Manager features over to its own product, MRS will merge technical support personnel for both products, probably during the next year, Sieberg said.

MRS was established in 1987 to develop and deploy software solutions for breast imaging centers of all sizes. Additionally, it has expertise in interfacing with hospital and radiology information systems and billing and scheduling systems.

Woman's Image has provided software for breast imaging centers since 1987.