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Asia-Pacific Picture Archiving and Communications Systems (PACS) Markets
Frost & Sullivan, Sep 2004
Asia Pacific - An Emerging Hub for PACS Solutions
The rising standards of patient care are driving PACS adoption among several top-quality medical facilities in Japan, South Korea, and China, making Asia-Pacific the third largest PACS market after the United States and Europe. A well-developed and highly digitized healthcare infrastructure in most large and medium-sized facilities also presents greater opportunities to both local and multinational PACS vendors. In addition, PACS implementation is likely to become several magnitudes simpler and cost-effective with the increasing acceptance of the digital imaging and communications in medicine (DICOM) standard. Asia Pacific is fast becoming the next hub for PACS development with the rise in ‘medical tourism’, whereby healthcare facilities hope to attract patients from neighboring countries in search of high-quality medical care.
This Frost & Sullivan original research analysis evaluates the current state of the Asia Pacific radiology PACS market and examines end-user and economic trends shaping its current and future demand. This analysis also identifies key drivers and challenges in each geographic region and provides strategic recommendations to overcome the obstacles to success.
Differentiated Strategies Key to the Success of Multinational PACS Vendors
Multinational PACS vendors that wish to successfully participate in the Asia-Pacific region must adapt their technology to meet the specific characteristics demanded by each country. For example, China, Southeast Asia, and South Korea typically use radiology information systems (RIS) and hospital information systems (HIS), which do not comply with the United States’ Health Level Seven (HL7) standard. Instead, these countries opt for a variety of local-language-based systems that operate on two-bit characters. Multinational vendors must either make significant changes to their platforms or else find a cost-effective means to custom-integrate the legacy HIS/RIS system with their PACS offering, explains the analyst.
On the other hand, the United States’ patient care model is already popular in areas such as Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, and Hong Kong. Multinational vendors would, therefore, find it more profitable to sell pre-integrated RIS/PACS solutions that require the end user to abandon the legacy RIS platform.
Rampant Intellectual Property Theft in Asia-Pacific Keeps PACS Vendors on Alert
PACS vendors looking to enter the Asia Pacific market need to seriously consider protecting their intellectual property rights. For instance, some Chinese competitors are notorious for selling pirated versions of PACS products, compelling vendors to safeguard intellectual property through software safeguards and license keys. Although PACS vendors are cautious regarding intellectual property issues they have come to accept the impossibility of instituting an exhaustive protection plan, since the potential opportunities in the Asia-Pacific market definitely outweigh the inherent risks, says the analyst.
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