Swissray enters Asian imaging market

Asia is the latest foreign healthcare market to embrace digital x-ray. Swissray International, which has sold its ddR-MultiSystem to hospitals in the U.S., South America, Western Europe, and Eastern Europe, now counts Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital in Taiwan as a customer. Sales figures were not disclosed.

Taiwan would like to advance its radiological practices, said Dr. Yang Chien-Fang, Kaoshiung Veterans General Hospital’s superintendent, in a written statement. Chien-Fang said he was impressed with the system’s ability to store information and display Chinese characters on its console.

This is the first time Swissray has sold x-ray equipment—film or digital—to Taiwan. Taiwanese hospitals commonly use film systems, said Dr. Pan Huay-Ben, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital’s director of radiology.

The U.S. medical community has been slower to accept digital x-ray than overseas medical communities.

For example, fewer than 100 digital radiography systems have been sold worldwide, and only about half of these have gone to sites in the U.S. Both Swissray and GE Medical Systems report rising DR sales, although many are to overseas customers.

In the last four years, Swissray has taken orders for 65 digital units. Of these, 32 will be delivered this spring to sites in Romania (SCAN 2/1/00). GE claims to have sold 23 Revolution XQ/I digital chest systems last year, with about half of these going to U.S. sites (SCAN 10/27/99).