FDA approval sparks Radman PACS effort

Radiology Management Systems (Radman) received Food and Drug Administration510(k) clearance this month to market its Radman Image ManagementSystem. The company will seek to build its teleradiology/picturearchiving and communications systems business on the back of boomingradiology information system sales to U.S. imaging centers, accordingto Dennis Wyatt, vice president of sales and marketing.

Radman of Santa Monica, CA, was rated the top RIS supplierto imaging centers in 1991 and 1992 by consulting firm R.L. Johnson& Associates. Radman sold 13 RIS systems in the first quarterof this year, bringing its total installed base to 82, Wyatt said.

"We have already sold half of what we sold in the totalof last year," he told SCAN. Radman sold 22 RIS systems toimaging centers last year, according to the R.L. Johnson reportTrends and Assessments of 1992 Vendor Performance: Hospital SystemsIndustry.

Radman made inroads this year into the hospital and multicentermanagement segments of the RIS market. Imaging services firmsMaxum Health of Dallas and Diagnostic Health of Birmingham, AL,were both signed on as customers, as was the cardiology departmentof the University of California at Los Angeles, Wyatt said.

Radman should improve its hospital business as it builds interfaceswith hospital information systems. The firm joined the HL 7 standardgroup earlier this year, he said.

Wyatt, formerly worldwide sales manager for PACS with Siemens,joined Radman in September. Since that time, Radman has unifiedits RIS and IMS product efforts and launched a drive to expandfrom its imaging center base through the targeting of multihospitalnational accounts.

"Being a small company, I don't want to hire 15 or 20sales (representatives) and have them dispersed all over the country.I would rather contact the major (hospital) players and startto market our product that way," Wyatt said.

Radman's basic product package consists of the RIS, IMS andan accounts receivable management system. All three can run togetheror individually. Portions of the RIS can also be separated andlinked to the IMS database according to customer needs, he said.

In contrast to multimillion-dollar PACS offered by Siemensand other larger vendors, Radman keeps costs down by using industry-standardhardware and adds value through its software, Wyatt said.

The strength of Radman's PACS is in the interaction of imageswith the total flow of information at an imaging site, he said.When IMS systems are located at two centers, images can be transmitteddigitally, read by a radiologist and faxed to referring physiciansas part of the patient report. Efficient reporting to referringphysicians helps a center or center chain improve its marketingefforts.

Radman's first IMS beta site at Hollywood MRI in Californiauses T1 lines to transmit images among four sites. This providesgreater flexibility in scheduling patients and allows radiologiststo read more efficiently. Depending on the complexity of the cases,15 to 20 MRI images can be read in two hours using the RadmanIMS, Wyatt said.

"PACS has been around for a long time, but it has becomemore a concept of how to manage data. How can I cost-effectivelymanage my accounts and have better throughput and utilizationof my current equipment? That is what the major chains are lookingat right now," he said. "How can I keep that MR andCT fully loaded and fully staffed for an eight to 12-hour day?"

Radman's products are targeted at sites that operate with abacklog of scanning procedures. In these cases, improved efficiencyof scheduling and information flow can boost throughput. Sitesthat do only three or four MRI scans a day will not be helpedas much by the information system technology, he said.