Medical imaging vendors in Europe are developing cardiology information systems (CIS) with advanced functionality and integration capabilities. New analysis from Frost & Sullivan suggests that this trend will spur revenue growth in the image management systems market.

The report, titled Clinical Information Systems in Europe – Cardiology, finds that in 2010 the market earned $54.5 million – a number that's estimated to reach $104.8 million by 2017.

“The increasing cardiology workload and insignificant reimbursements are driving the need for enhanced productivity systems,” said Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Simone Carron-Peters. “The emergence of enterprise image and information management solution will bring greater workflow benefits.”

A CIS can increase efficiency and streamline workflow, while handling various tasks such as order management, patient management and sharing of clinical information. Enterprise-wide image management allows cardiologist to access their images from any DICOM-enabled location.

The high cost of installing CIS and PACS does present a purchase barrier, since the cardiology department does not serve the rest of the hospital. “Therefore, hospitals are skeptical about investing in cardiology IT,” said Carron-Peters.

Research in the networked hospital environment shows that cardiology PACS modules can be integrated into the existing radiology PACS infrastructure, which makes it more appealing to hospital management.

"On the other hand, vendor consolidation is spurring the development of integrated solutions, which is allowing end users to adopt the single-vendor approach and purchase an integrated solution in which all the technologies are compatible and can communicate with each other," noted Carron-Peters. "Vendors are constantly faced with the challenge of finding and executing the most workable core architecture and portfolio to facilitate integration capabilities between modalities and optimize workflow."