DR Systems, the privately held supplier of PACS, RIS and EHR systems based in San Diego—a highly regarded fixture in the radiology IT space for close to a quarter-century—has been acquired for $70 million by publicly traded Merge Healthcare.
Following the acquisition, support for DR Systems’ core platform will remain in place, according to a Merge news release. Current implementations will continue, and Merge plans to support and advance all DR product lines going forward, the company stated.
The acquisition “greatly expands our market share, which we believe is extremely important given the provider consolidation that is underway,” said Justin Dearborn, Merge’s CEO, in prepared remarks.
As the name “DR Systems” becomes history, Murray Reicher, MD—founder, chairman and recently appointed CEO of his company—becomes chief medical officer of Merge Healthcare.
“Together, we will enable our customers to connect to consumers and healthcare providers in ways that promote service, patient compliance and improved population health,” stated Reicher.
Earlier this month, when he was named DR Systems’ new CEO, Reicher told imagingBiz to watch for changes in the radiology vendor world wrought by the growth of unified healthcare-delivery systems.
“I would say that, by 2025, we’ll see a significant plurality of integrated delivery networks,” he said, “with one or two imaging IT vendors providing enterprise systems, dealing with all the imaging ’ologies and all of the workflows associated with medical imaging.”
Click here to read all of Reicher’s exclusive remarks to imagingBiz—they’re several weeks old but even more interesting now than they were then—and here for the full announcement from Merge.
Dave P. has worked in journalism, marketing and public relations for more than 30 years, frequently concentrating on hospitals, healthcare technology and Catholic communications. He has also specialized in fundraising communications, ghostwriting for CEOs of local, national and global charities, nonprofits and foundations.