PACS software drives ISG's growth

ISG Technologies continues to move forward from its proxy fight of a year ago. The Mississauga, Ontario-based medical imaging software developer reported an 8% increase in revenue for its 1998 fiscal first quarter, bringing sales to a company record for the period.

ISG reported revenues of $5.8 million (U.S.) for the period (end-September), compared with $5.4 million in the first quarter of 1997. Net income was $6400, compared with a net loss of $780,000 in the same period last year. No extraordinary charges were reported during the quarter. The company increased its backlog during the period by more than $6.3 million, representing multiyear agreements for licensed software and contract engineering work, according to the firm.

While revenues from the company's image-guided surgery line were down significantly, substantial gains in sales of ISG's Viewing and Reading Station (VRS) PACS software offset the loss, resulting in overall flat revenues of $2.8 million for the company's licensed software efforts. Contract R&D revenues rose 48% to $2.8 million.

The company also reported favorable developments in its IAP medical imaging console software business. In other quarterly developments, ISG released a Windows NT version of its VRS product line. Previously, VRS was based exclusively on the Unix operating system.