Global Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS) Market to See Significant Growth

Oct. 2, 2014 - PRLog -- The global PACS market was valued at $2.9 billion in 2013 and is forecast to exceed $1 billion by 2020, growing at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 9%. Government initiatives will continue to encourage the digitization of healthcare systems and promote technical advances in imaging informatics. Moreover, the awareness of the importance of digitizing image storage, retrieval and sharing has led to expansion of the use of PACS to other medical specialties such as oncology and endoscopy. This expansion will further result in increased usage of PACS in cardiology imaging, which will in turn drive revenue growth during the forecast period.

An increasing need for upgrades to conventional PACS systems to new, feature-rich PACS that enable interoperability and flexibility in image viewing will drive future growth in the developed world. Developed economies such as the US and Europe will primarily be replacement markets for PACS systems as penetration is already high. However, companies are shifting their focus to developing economies, where penetration is low. A lack of reimbursement and affordability, however, means that countries such as India and China will require low-cost PACS units. There is therefore an urgent need for companies to develop affordable PACS systems that do not compromise on features such as integration with Electronic Medical Records (EMR) and Radiology Information Systems (RIS). This will allow them to sustain revenue growth during the forecast period, as intense competition will continue to drive down the prices of PACS systems.

Government Efforts towards Healthcare IT Implementation and Technical Advances will Continue to Drive Future Growth

Technical advances in PACS in combination with initiatives from both the public and private sector have contributed to the increasing adoption of PACS by healthcare providers. Rising healthcare cost burdens and demographic changes have forced governments worldwide to improve healthcare delivery services while also reducing costs. This has placed increasing pressure on governments to address financial constraints and improve efficiency and affordability in healthcare. The global population is forecast to reach 9.1 billion by 2050 and the population aged 65 years and above is expected to double by 2050 (United Nations News Centre, 2013). Aging populations will result in an increase in the prevalence of chronic diseases worldwide, which will be accompanied by growing image volumes for diagnosis. These trends have forced governments to initiate efforts in increasing the adoption of PACS to improve hospital productivity and clinical outcomes.

Governments in the developed world have announced several economic and legislative incentives to promote the adoption of healthcare Information Technology (IT) in their countries. The Chinese government has spent close to $500 billion since the launch of its healthcare reforms in 2009, with a significant portion of this investment being made on the adoption of healthcare IT in China (gbtimes, 2014).

Supply-side initiatives to improve PACS systems have spurred technical advances in the recent past. Cloud-based PACS and web-based PACS solutions are some of the examples of advancements that have led to increasing adoption of PACS in recent years. These Software-as-a Service (SaaS) models have expanded the use of PACS in small- and medium-sized hospitals. Other technical advances such as speech recognition capabilities and decision support systems will continue to drive the demand for PACS.

Technical advances have transformed PACS from being a mere storage and viewing tool to being a decision support system that helps in accurate diagnosis of chronic diseases. The ability to integrate EMR and other information systems to PACS has led to companies developing one-stop PACS solutions that can store, retrieve and share images within various hospital departments such as cardiology, oncology and mammography. This is another factor that will help companies to exploit the market potential for PACS over the forecast period.

The US is the Largest Market for Picture Archiving and Communication Systems

The US market for PACS was valued at $1.7 billion in 2013 and is forecast to reach $3.3 billion by 2020, growing at a CAGR of 8%. It is the largest market for PACS and accounts for 58% of global revenue. The US is followed by Japan, which accounted for 23% of the global market. Europe and Asia-Pacific contributed the remaining shares of the global market. The penetration of radiology PACS is already high in US hospitals, and therefore future growth is expected to be subdued. However, the penetration of PACS in other major applications such as cardiology and oncology is significantly lower. This provides an opportunity for the leading companies in this market to develop feature-rich PACS products that can not only store and retrieve diagnostic images but also help as part of the clinical decision support system. Many hospitals in the US are also considering upgrading their conventional PACS systems with new systems that are web-enabled and support interoperability with different vendors for integration with EMR and other information systems. The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, with its three staged meaningful adoption mandates and significant financial incentives, will continue to increase the adoption of PACS in the US. Increasing preference for mobile IT applications, SaaS based services and standardization of data archiving will further drive the growth of PACS during the forecast period.

Top Four Companies Account for More than 50% of the Global Market

In 2013, the top four companies accounted for more than 50% of the global PACS market. The global market is a fragmented one with no company having a dominant position in 2013. GE Healthcare (16.4%), Fujifilm (14.1%) and Philips Healthcare (12.4%) were the leaders in the PACS market in 2013. Agfa Healthcare (10.2%), McKesson (9%), Merge Healthcare (7.1%), Carestream Health (6.5%) and Siemens Healthcare (5.6%) also had significant presence in this market. Fujitsu (3.5%) had a minor presence in the global PACS market. GE Healthcare dominates the global market due to its widespread geographical presence. GE Healthcare is the leader in the North American region and has the second largest presence in terms of revenue in the Asia-Pacific region. GE Healthcare’s presence in the Asia-Pacific region is expected to benefit the company as it stands to gain from the rapidly growing economies of countries such as India and China in the Asia-Pacific region. GE Healthcare has a strong portfolio of PACS systems with specifications catering to imaging centers of all sizes.

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