A new paradigm in medical imaging systems for hospitals, clinics and professionals in spite of their size

Project Information

MD-PACS

Grant agreement ID: 650690

DOI

10.3030/650690

Project closed

EC signature date 25 September 2014

Start date 1 October 2014

End date 31 March 2015

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

MEDICAL DEV SL
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MD-PACS (A new paradigm in medical imaging systems for hospitals, clinics and professionals in spite of their size)

Reporting period: 2014-10-01 to 2015-03-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

MD-PACS has analysed the opportunity of providing a new product and business concept within the growing market for Medical Imaging Information Systems (which includes PACS and HISE). This market is estimated in €2.7 billion for 2014, with a 10% CAGR for the next years. Europe, together with North America account for over 60% of the world market. The market is dominated by large players which impose costly contracts: their implementation and maintenance costs into an average-size hospital are estimated in 3M€ for a 10 years period. This represents about 2% of hospitals budget: savings could be allocated to quality of medical service. Furthermore, only medium and large hospitals can afford PACS and HISE. Small hospitals, clinics and diagnostic freelancers are ignored by industry leaders. There is a clear market opportunity for offering a comprehensive PACS-HISE solution under a new cost-effective business model.
The goal of our project is to open and lead this market by reducing PACS and HISE costs for healthcare organizations by 65%. MD-PACS, our flagship product, is a cost-effective and fully reliable PACS with embedded HISE for radiology, laboratory and cardiovascular specialties. Based on cloud computing and automation technologies, MD-PACS is able to cover the needs of hospitals and clinics of any size, under a coherent and cost-effective business model: 1) Costs are automatically adjusted depending on capacity needs 2) automated maintenance tasks cut significantly maintenance costs; 3) It integrates PACS and HISE functionalities into a single product. We have undertaken the detailed studies for identifying key actions points for the internationalization and fine tuning of MD-PACS to make it a global success.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

During the development of Phase 1 of the SME Instrument we have evolved our business model, comparing the different players in different markets and the potential clients, as well as our full business plan, carrying out an extensive market analysis at international level, which has resulted into really relevant information detecting wider opportunities for business. We have fully processed these results, outlining a product evolution plan and a business diversification strategy. We have also reached key partnerships for implementing this plan. With all this, we have finally projected longer term financials, which demonstrate high potential in terms of company competitiveness and growth, underpinned by a strategic business plan.

Concrete objectives that have been achieved during this phase, the related results and how are we going to use them are summarised in:
• We have been continuously gathering and analysing feedback from hospitals already using our product, in order to detect opportunities for product fine-tuning. Six of the main hospitals in Spain are included amongst them, some of which are also references at European level. Results allow us delivering a world class product.
• As already explained, we contracted an extensive market study that identified key opportunities for market diversification and increasing growth potential. We also reached key alliances for developing this new business area.
• We worked with our EEN coach in revisiting our business model and in a gap analysis focused into identifying barriers for growth. Ideas, plans and alliances on how to develop in phase 2 the new business opportunity detected were shared with the coach, who became very positively impressed.
• We also contracted a specialist firm to carry out a deep analysis of patents and intellectual assets, to assess our freedom to operate at international level and define our IP strategy. Results were quite relevant, and they showed us the convenience of implementing strict secret knowhow procedures and means. A PCT filling is also foreseen for the end of Phase 2.
• With all this information, we revised certain aspects in our business model, especially in terms of internationalization, and evolved our business plan, including long-term financials.
• We also reinforced our financial capability by signing a loan agreement with an international bank, for which the Instrument for SMEs backup was influencing. We are now fully ready for high growth at global level.

Because of this promising results, we will enter international markets with two different versions of our product, one focused into radiology information and another one devoted to cardiology information. Accelerating this strategy and related plans will be the purpose of Phase 2.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

We have ideated MD-PACS as a global product, able to cope with the expectations and requirements of customers from the European and international markets. In addition, our product has a clear impact and contributes to the achievement of some European key strategic objectives:

- MD-PACS contributes to accelerate the European up-take of ICT and Cloud Computing technologies by industry and public sector: Accelerate the up-take of cloud computing solutions in the private and public sector, which includes private and public hospitals, has been identified as a key objective within the Digital Agenda for Europe (DAE) towards year 2020, for which a specific European Cloud Computing Strategy has been put in place.

- MD-PACS is part of the actors carrying out the implementation and wider deployment of interoperable Electronic Health Records (EHR) in Europe, which has been identified as one of the highest priorities in the European eHealth action plan 2012-2020. To this end, the implementation of interoperable PACS and HISE are essential components.

- MD-PACS makes and help medical organizations make and efficient use of resources and achieve a better value for money, in line with the objectives stated in different EC Communications which encourage more cost-effective provision of health services by adopting technologies with potential to improve efficiency and productivity.


MD-PACS is addressed to 3 main user groups: 1) Public hospitals, 2) Private hospitals and 3) Clinics and specialized freelancers with diagnostic imaging equipment. One main difference between them is that for clinics and specialized freelancers price of most existing solutions has become the main barrier to implement PACS. Therefore, our market strategy for medical institutions which already have a PACS implemented (mostly public and private hospitals) will differ from those for what MD-PACS would be its first PACS (clinics and specialist freelancers).

These 3 user groups are considered worldwide. According to a study from Companies and Markets the global market for medical imaging information systems (which includes PACS and HISE) is estimated in €2,7 billion for 2014, at a 10% CAGR to €3,6 billion by 2017. North America and Europe, owing to their sophisticated healthcare infrastructures and high healthcare expenditures account for over 60% of the world market.

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