Konica Minolta expands Exa Enterprise platform with cloud-based teleradiology and partner ecosystem
Konica Minolta Medical Imaging USA recently expanded its Exa Enterprise imaging platform with new cloud-based teleradiology capabilities and a broader ecosystem of technology partners, positioning the company to compete across outpatient imaging centers, hospitals and enterprise health systems.
The new Exa Teleradiology platform builds on the Exa Enterprise system picture archiving and communication system (PACS) introduced in 2024. It adds workflow orchestration, AI-assisted reporting and cloud infrastructure through strategic partnerships, rather than developing those capabilities internally. This allows the company to focus on development of its core PACS/RIS rather than reinventing the wheel with ancillary systems.
"We really doubled down on focusing on Exa PACS RIS. That is what we do," said Tim Kearns, director of marketing, healthcare IT, at Konica Minolta Medical Imaging USA. "What we market now is not just Exa PACS RIS, but the total solution."
Historically, Konica Minolta has focused on independently owned outpatient imaging centers, but the company is expanding into larger hospitals and health systems by combining its core PACS and RIS platform with partner technologies.
Among the key partnerships is AWS Health Imaging, which provides cloud infrastructure designed to accelerate image access while reducing long-term storage costs. Konica Minolta also integrates Apollo for vendor-neutral archive (VNA) and universal viewing capabilities.
To address hospital demand for heart imaging, the company recently added a partnership with Ascend Cardiovascular.
"When we sell a PACS into a hospital, they first ask for a PACS, but then the second question they ask is, 'What do you have for cardiology?'" Kearns said. "So we now have a total solution there."
The latest addition to the portfolio is Exa Teleradiology, which is designed to give radiologists a unified reading environment despite incorporating multiple third-party applications.
The platform combines workflow orchestration from NewVue, image viewing through the Exa viewer, and generative AI reporting tools from RADPAIR. Kearns said the goal is to make the integrated workflow appear seamless to users.
"When the radiologist sits at their workstation, they have an orchestrator that gets the right study to the right physician at the right time," he explained. "When they click on a study, the Exa viewer comes up to view the images and another click and you have generative AI. Even though that's three systems, it looks and feels like a single system."
The workflow orchestration component is designed to automatically route imaging studies to the most appropriate radiologist, helping improve efficiency for practices managing large reading volumes across multiple facilities.
Konica Minolta also is emphasizing deployment flexibility. The platform is browser-based, allowing radiologists to access the same interface through standard web browsers rather than requiring dedicated workstation software. The company said the architecture is cloud-based and scalable from single-physician practices to hospital systems with up to 500 beds.
Another differentiator is pricing. Rather than charging separately for each software component, Konica Minolta is offering the complete teleradiology platform at a single per-study fee.
"We're not going to nickel and dime," Kearns said. "It's one single price. That's what the market told us they wanted."
Underpinning the platform is the Exa architecture, which handles image archiving and connectivity with customer hospitals. Because many teleradiology groups interpret studies for multiple health systems, the platform includes DICOM and HL7 integration through partner DataFirst to connect with hospital information systems.
Kearns said the company's broader strategy is to remain focused on its core PACS and RIS expertise while relying on specialized partners for complementary technologies such as patient self-scheduling, workflow orchestration, cloud infrastructure, AI reporting and cardiovascular imaging. That approach allows Konica Minolta to offer a comprehensive enterprise imaging platform without developing every component in-house while responding more quickly to evolving customer requirements.
Dave Fornell has covered healthcare for more than 17 years, with a focus in cardiology and radiology. Fornell is a 5-time winner of a Jesse H. Neal Award, the most prestigious editorial honors in the field of specialized journalism. The wins included best technical content, best use of social media and best COVID-19 coverage. Fornell was also a three-time Neal finalist for best range of work by a single author. He produces more than 100 editorial videos each year, most of them interviews with key opinion leaders in medicine. He also writes technical articles, covers key trends, conducts video hospital site visits, and is very involved with social media. E-mail: [email protected]