Siemens initiated a restructuring of its U.S. medical operationslast week that will eventually centralize all corporate unitsunder Siemens Medical Systems in Iselin, NJ. The German vendorpreviously had U.S.-based medical businesses with worldwide

General Electric maintains that it sold its Aerospace Divisionto Martin Marietta because of negative business trends in thedefense industry. But Infact, a self-styled corporate accountabilitygroup, declared victory last week at the closing of the

Medical film digitizer suppliers Lumisys and Vision Ten brokeoff their merger discussions last month. One problem with theunion was apparently Vision Ten's involvement in litigation, theliabilities of which could have carried over to an expanded Lumisys.

The growing trend toward ultrasound networking promises hospitalsimproved flexibility and efficiency. But unless connectivity problemsare resolved, having equipment from different ultrasound vendorstalk to each other will be like building a Tower of

ATL this month began shipping ultrasound scanners armed with AspectElectronics cameras, following a sole-source supplier agreementinked between the companies. The deal is a vindication for Aspect,which has carved out a medical imaging niche for its

Good timing isn't everything in capital equipment purchasing,but it helps. Two hospitals owned by Johns Hopkins Universityrealized significant savings by bundling a large imaging equipmentpurchase and sourcing it to a single vendor. More purchasers are

Health-care cost containment has dampened demand for expensive,high-end imaging equipment and forced multimodality vendors tocut costs and refocus product strategies. Slackening demand forbig-ticket scanners cut annual revenue growth at industry leaderGE

Leadership in MRI market share around the globe is neatly divided,with General Electric holding sway in the U.S., Siemens in Europeand Toshiba in Japan. But GE is looking to upset that balancewith a new 1.5-tesla platform to be marketed exclusively in

Toshiba America Medical Systems has increased staff in its ultrasounddivision and rearranged the organization's structure to providea clearer focus on specific market requirements. The vendor alsohas launched an effort to build clinical alliances and

Total PACS remains stuck in the future despite technological promiseand ongoing advances in digital medical image standards. Untilthe future arrives, vendors have tuned their marketing strategiesto focus on smaller picture archiving and communication

Diasonics plans to separate its worldwide ultrasound businessfrom profitable OEC-Diasonics later this year, establishing ultrasoundas an independent company in an increasingly hard-fought market.The move will allow shareholders to realize the full value

X-ray vendor Gendex continues to march on the acquisition warpath.In December, it announced plans to merge with Dentsply, a dentalsupplies vendor three times Gendex's size, and last month it purchasedthe mammography line of Finnish vendor Soredex.

Picker International, an early leader in low-field MRI, will returnto that niche in a joint venture with Instrumentarium of Helsinki.Upon finalization of the agreement expected later this month,Picker will take over sales of Instrumentarium's 0.1-tesla

Otsuka Electronics is gearing up for growth in sales of its low-cost,high-field MRI scanner this year. The MRI developer, based inFort Collins, CO, started selling the OE 1.5 SL system in 1992,bringing on the first two sites: De Kalb Magnetic Resonance

Cemax purchased Virtual Imaging last month and gained a leg upin a race to develop the next generation of medical imaging software.The merger will allow Cemax to jump immediately onto IBM platformsand tap into that computer vendor's leading position in

Operating-lease financing has provided Maxum Health with the flexibilitynecessary to upgrade its mobile MRI fleet, while keeping the totalnumber of systems steady. The Dallas imaging services firm, oncea major Diasonics MRI customer in its previous life

Conventional wisdom holds that the cost of full-blown digitalmedical imaging presents an insurmountable obstacle for mid-sizedprivate and community hospitals. Think again. There may be a financiallogic to investing in total picture archiving and

Laser film digitizer supplier Lumisys continued due diligencelast week as it considered a merger with Vision Ten, accordingto Stephen J. Weiss, Lumisys president and CEO. Vision Ten isa specialist in charge-coupled device (CCD) digitizing technology.The

Talks broke down this month on the proposed merger of picturearchiving and communications systems firms Image Data and Genesys(SCAN 12/30/92). James M. Karlak, Image Data executive vice presidentand COO confirmed the termination of the talks. The logic

When the U.S. Army and Air Force asked for bids on their giantmedical diagnostic imaging support (MDIS) program, Advanced VideoProducts was the only company that made it to the final competitionagainst the heavyweight partnership of Siemens and defense