KLAS: Cardiovascular IS Market Not Healthy

Thirty percent of respondents are considering replacing their cardiovascular information system (CVIS) because of frustrations with product functionality and integration, according to a new report from KLAS — Cardiology IT: Has the industry missed a beat?

The high percentage is indicative of poor performance from most vendors in the space, according to KLAS. With the exception of Digisonics and Philips, every vendor in the study received a lower client-satisfaction score than in the 2009 report, resulting in one of the lowest-rated market segments that KLAS monitors.

The report notes that “a comprehensive, truly integrated IT platform for the entire cardiovascular department still eludes the industry,” with providers seeing little progress from what was reported in last year’s study. Though Agfa, Merge (AMICAS) and GE offer broad solutions, and providers praise LUMEDX’s and McKesson’s integrated systems, few providers can point to any one vendor as delivering the ultimate package to the market, states KLAS.

ScImage and Merge (AMICAS) “appear to be the vendors with the most to lose in this volatile market,” with roughly half of their customers that were interviewed by KLAS considering a replacement. However, those Merge customers were also quick to point out that replacement is not a definite plan, but they are anxious to see how the company addresses recent acquisitions.

Among the 10 vendors fully rated in the KLAS report, Digisonics earned the highest performance score of 83.6 out of 100 with its DigiView product, followed by Philips Xcelera at 75.4 and Merge VERCIS (AMICAS) at 72.3.

The report highlights CVIS solutions from Agfa, Digisonics, FUJIFILM, GE, HeartIT, LUMEDX, McKesson, Merge (AMICAS), Philips, ScImage, Siemens and Thinking Systems. It is based on interviews with 371 provider organizations that shared their experiences with a dozen CVIS software vendors.