In order to take care of more patients, particularly more elderly patients, healthcare must become more efficient. The treatment of patients with cancer and skeletal diseases entails enormous challenges. These areas are dependent on medical diagnostic imaging—a niche market in which healthcare providers across the globe use Sectra’s expertise and solutions to increase productivity, improve the quality of care and coordinate their healthcare resources.
Imaging IT Solutions is the largest business area in the Sectra Group. The business area is one of the world’s leading providers of IT systems for managing medical images and patient information. More than 1,800 healthcare providers worldwide currently use Sectra’s systems and services.
The operating area’s long-term goal is to be a leading provider of complete solutions for managing and communicating all types of medical images for diagnostic purposes, with a particular focus on cancer diagnostics. The operations mainly focus on large diagnostic imaging units, such as radiology, mammography, pathology and cardiology. Improving the efficiency of diagnostics and monitoring in cancer care is a common thread that runs through our offering in Imaging IT Solutions.
”More and more prestigious hospitals around the world are choosing our solutions. We have begun important collaborations with new customers, while also succeeding in prioritizing product development and broadening our offering. An expanded customer base and continued confidence among existing customers have helped us create favorable conditions for positive long-term growth.”
Marie Ekström Trägårdh
President Sectra Imaging IT Solutions and Executive Vice President Sectra AB
Figures refers to fiscal year 2018/2019.
Medical IT systems and services that help customers care for more patients, while retaining or improving the level of quality. The operating area’s offering includes:
Public and private healthcare providers that offer medical imaging services. Customers normally include major hospitals, hospital chains and private clinic chains that are growing and being consolidated. These customers appreciate Sectra’s ability to deliver extremely reliable and scalable solutions for medical diagnostic imaging. They also have a need for communication and collaboration between hospitals, which Sectra can meet.
Own sales organization and/or partners in some 30 countries throughout Africa, Europe, the Middle East, North America, Oceania and South-East Asia as well as in Japan. The operating area’s largest markets are the Netherlands, Scandinavia, the UK and the US.
The company commands a market-leading position in the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and Sweden, and a prominent position in the UK. Sectra is also the market leader in other countries in the niche of breast imaging. In some countries, we command such a large market share that our growth in certain product segments is limited. However, this is not the case in the US, where we hold a relatively small, albeit growing, market share. A focus on high customer satisfaction has resulted in several prominent healthcare providers choosing Sectra’s solutions, and the US customer base is growing. In recent years, the operating area has also initiated direct sales in two new countries: France and Canada. We are seeing a positive trend in these markets, with initial orders from customers in the start-up phase, and these establishments are important from a long-term growth perspective.
We have held a strong position in IT systems for managing radiology images for many years, and for seven consecutive years we have won the industry’s most prestigious award, “Best in KLAS”, for our outstanding customer satisfaction in this product segment among major US healthcare providers. For the first time, the company was 2020 also ranked as number one in Canada and awarded ‘Best in KLAS’ Global PACS (Canada).
To enable healthcare providers to provide better, faster and more patient-centered care, Sectra offers systems and services for the management and archiving of all types of medical images, including non-radiology images. In recent years, we have further developed our offerings, including the fields of pathology and cardiology, which are important areas for the future. With components built on the same technical platform, customers can easily adapt and expand a departmental solution to create a multi-media archive (VNA) that supports all image management. Integration with the electronic medical record (EMR) and other relevant healthcare IT systems is an essential factor in our success. As more existing customers have taken the opportunity to expand their systems to include other areas beyond radiology, Sectra has strengthened its position as an enterprise imaging IT provider.
Medical image management in cancer diagnostics is a key part of the operating area’s strategy for the future. Most users are currently active in the fields of radiology and breast imaging. The use of medical images in other areas, such as pathology, is growing, partly as a result of more customers implementing systems for consolidated image management. Sectra’s IT solutions facilitate integrated diagnostics by allowing images and information from various diagnostic specialties to be archived and viewed in a single system. This enables easier collaboration between, for example, radiologists and pathologists, who play a key role in efficient cancer care. With a steadily growing number of customers having already digitized their pathology departments, Sectra has built a strong brand now that the market has begun to gain momentum.
Selling digital pathology solutions for primary diagnostics in the US requires approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Preparations for such an application are ongoing.
AI that contributes to real value in health- care is an underlying theme in several ongoing projects within our product development. These projects are currently concentrated on solutions that can be used in everyday diagnostics, reducing repetitive and time-consuming tasks while improving and streamlining workflow. To provide the healthcare sector with faster access to innovation, customers are also offered the option of vendor-neutral integration of external AI applications. Our strategy for being able to offer a complete solution is also built on a platform for AI applications.
Demand for IT solutions as cloud services continues to increase. The market is developing slowly, however, due to concerns over cybercrime and insufficient confidence concerning availability and the security of public data storage solutions. Several customers have chosen to purchase cloud- based services with Sectra’s own data storage. This delivery model offers cost and security benefits and enables customers to devote greater focus to their core business: delivering quick and efficient care. The service offering is on the cutting edge, and several customers in Europe are already operating with cloud services from Sectra. While cloud services will ultimately generate major cost and operational benefits for Sectra, they initially entail cost increases connected to investments in hardware, development and organization.
Activities being prioritized by the operating area in order to reach its long-term goals:
