Radiology Associates of North Texas inks $29M enterprise imaging deal

Radiology Associates of North Texas, a Fort Worth-based private imaging group, recently inked a $29 million enterprise imaging deal. 

The five-year agreement is with radiology vendor Visage Imaging, which will provide a cloud-based storage platform and viewer, unifying interpretations across a single solution. Terms of such contracts are not typically disclosed, but Visage was required to do so since its parent company, Pro Medicus, is publicly traded on the Australian Stock Exchange. 

Practice President Kurt Schoppe, MD, said RANT signed the deal after conducting a two-year, industrywide search for a new picture archiving and communication system. 

“We took the unusual step of, if somebody wanted to participate in our PACS evaluation process, they had to install it in our environment,” Schoppe told Radiology Business in a recent interview. “If you're a group that covers a single hospital, even if it's multiple hospitals in the same health system, that's just one set of interfaces. We cover 14 hospital systems, 76 hospitals. It's a complex environment.”

RANT made the switch after previously using a different PACS product for around 15 years, with it also deployed by what was previously their largest hospital client. The practice is now aiming to make the complete switchover around April. While the price tag seems lofty, he said others had quoted a similar figure for comparable-sized cloud solutions. 

“We based our decision around business continuity and building for the future and saw it as an investment,” Schoppe told Radiology Business. “It is not the cheapest PACS. It is easily three times more expensive than what we have currently. But we don't see a version of the future where we can work with an on-prem solution.”

While conducting the assessments, RANT utilized metrics such as load times, efficiency, continuity and risk. One of largest radiology practices in Texas, the group has around 300 radiologists, 200 of whom are partners. Schoppe urged others considering PACS changes to try deploying the options in their own environments. 

“It's very hard to get usable experience and information from a demo, and it does depend on your size and what is the appropriate software for you. Some of those smaller cloud-based vendors, like New Lantern or Synthesis, may be fantastic for a smaller practice. I know at least three groups who use them and love them,” Schoppe said. “You have to make the right decision for you and your practice, which may require expense, but it also really requires due diligence and making sure that the product works for what you need it to do, because they are not all the same.”

He believes there is no cookie cutter, one-size-fits all advice for conducting a PACS-search process. But he urged others not to simply follow the crowd. 

“I think people tend to ride coattails. They tend to go with what’s most popular, or it can be easy to buy into marketing and sales,” Schoppe said. “Sometimes, statistically, that may work out. But for most of us, we put a really high strategic priority on trying to shape our radiologists’ work environment and their work satisfaction. The job is hard enough. You don't want to make it harder by having friction and static in your IT environment.”

RANT opted to sign a five-year deal, rather than reaching out longer into the future, because it wants to test the waters and see how things have changed by then.

“With the technology maturing as fast as it is, we came to a compromise with them on five years,” he said. “They could still be the top dog in five years, and then we would absolutely stay with them. But if the market materially moves, we don't want to be stuck.”