“Conventionally, the system within radiology departments was reflected as a locked system; the work was paced from the point of receiving of film-based results to the point of delivery of paper-based report. The advent of picture archiving and communication system (PACS) changed the perception of the radiological industry, as the instant availability of images was a very important aspect of radiological interpretation. In today鈥檚 scenario, most of the radiology departments have shifted from paper film-based workflow to the instant image-based database. The demand for paper-based reports has been substituted by electronically generated image database, due to the increasing acceptance of RIS and electronic medical record (EMR) systems. Several tools are now available for decision making in healthcare, which are used to determine the flow and impact of a surgery and help the surgeon choose the most suitable one. The increasing influence of EMR systems has affected the workflow of the radiology department, as now the tasks in radiology departments originate from EMR systems and end when images and reports are uploaded to the same EMR system.
Radiology information system (RIS) is considered to be one of the basic systems in electronic management of imaging departments. RIS is used in various functions in the radiology department, such as scheduling patient appointments, managing resources, tracking examination performance, examination explanations, proper distribution of the results, and procedure billing.
The global radiology information systems market was valued at $501.1 million in 2014, and is estimated to reach $722.7 million by 2019, at a CAGR of 7.6% from 2014 to 2019.
The key players in this market are Cerner Corporation (U.S.), McKesson Corporation (U.S.), Merge Healthcare (U.S.), Allscripts Healthcare Solutions, Inc. (U.S.), GE Healthcare (U.K.), Philips Healthcare (The Netherlands), and Epic Systems (U.S.).
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