European RIS and PACS integration on the rise

A report by Frost and Sullivan has found that the integration between Radiology Information Systems (RIS) and Picture Archiving and Communications Systems (PACS) is becoming increasingly popular in Europe.

In its latest research report, titled European RIS Markets, Frost and Sullivan found that the trend towards RIS-PACS integration in Europe is fast gathering pace, but says there still remains a highly fragmented market with too many players.

The Frost and Sullivan report covers eight different chapters and looking at the differing RIS markets in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Benelux countries, Scandinavia and Spain.

The report concludes that the European RIS market had earned revenues of US $125m in 2006, and estimated that this would rise to US $181m by 2013.

Frost and Sullivan research analyst, Ranjit Ravindranathan, told E-Health Europe: “We contacted many leading market players from Europe such as Agfa and Carestream Health and we also collected evidence from different healthcare locations throughout the continent.
“What we found was that more and more healthcare organisations are now looking to put the two systems in together and check for integration at the same time, rather than one step at a time. Integrating RIS with PACS saves both time and money in the long run.”

Ravindranathan told EHE: “Certainly, there is a large demand for radiology information systems, which has been very consistent for the last few years, but in order to progress into the realm of digital imaging, organisations must invest in PACS and integrate the two systems as soon as possible. This is beginning, but should be taken up faster in some places. The integration of imaging modality through PACS/RIS appears to be a certainty in the future and this is just beginning to progress.”

The report examines why RIS/PACS integration is important, including looking at how PACS/RIS integration will eventually need to be compatible with new hospital information systems.

“RIS is a transaction-oriented system using HL7 coding, whilst PACS works on large sets of fixed-content image data using DICOM coding. The challenge across Europe is to get systems in which both are compatible with each other and provide a smooth administrative platform which will interface with each other. Programmes such as the UK’s National Programme for IT are doing this, but other countries are still in the process of learning,” Ravindranathan said.

He added: “Despite these challenges, vendors are exploring different ways of addressing the issue of integration since healthcare IT customers are increasingly expressing their preference for RIS/PACS integration.”

“RIS vendors will have to make customers aware of their strengths in these areas. Customers will need to perceive their services as strong value additions for vendors to be able to charge higher profit margins. The ability to rapidly and efficiently execute projects and contain costs as much as possible will be a significant competitive advantage.”

The report is part of Frost and Sullivan’s Medical Imaging Growth Partnership Service program and can be purchased from http://www.medicalimaging.frost.com.