Competition Intensifies in the Vendor-Neutral Archives Market

5/21/2013

Competition Intensifies in the Vendor-Neutral Archives Market

Vendor-neutral archives (VNAs) have finally moved to the forefront of healthcare IT spending after years of debate of the value of keeping image data separate from picture archiving and communications (PACS) applications. As demand for VNA grows, the market is attracting a host of suppliers with a range of product types and strategies. This is according to new VNA thought leadership paper from InMedica and media website plus, recently acquired by IHS, Inc (NYSE: IHS) and is based on InMedica’s report, World Market for Medical Enterprise Data Storage – 2012.

PACS Vendors

A challenge for PACS suppliers in the VNA market is to prove the ability to deliver a non-proprietary, standards-based approach to archiving that gives healthcare providers control of their data without being locked in to their PACS.

Agfa Healthcare, Carestream Health, GE Healthcare and Merge Healthcare have all developed VNA products, either in-house, or through acquisitions. These suppliers were earlier-to-market with their VNA products, driving market leadership. Of these, GE Healthcare has the largest share of departmental archives in North America, while Merge, Carestream and Agfa have established a stronger position in cross-departmental, multi-PACS enterprise archives.

Other PACS vendors tend to partner with VNA providers: Fujifilm and Philips Healthcare have partnered Acuo Technologies; Siemens Healthcare has partnered with Dell.

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