The U.S. ultrasound market reached an all-time high of $1.44 billion in 2013 — a growth of almost 3 percent over 2012, according to Klein Biomedical Consultants’ “The Medical Diagnostic Ultrasound Market in the USA: Challenges & Opportunities in the New Millennium” 2013 report. Areas that contributed to market growth included musculoskeletal ultrasound and point-of-care ultrasound, which saw double-digit growth in 2013. “In spite of the uncertainties caused by the Affordable Care Act, continued declines in reimbursement and slow economic growth, we saw an uptick in ultrasound purchases,” said Harvey Klein, Ph.D., market analyst and author of the report.

In an era of increasingly personalized medicine, patients are expecting more tailored approaches to care from their physicians. Mammography, long the gold standard for routine breast cancer screening, is no longer enough for a majority of women who find themselves at higher risk for breast cancer due to breast density. The issue of density, which limits the benefits of mammography, has been making its way to the forefront of breast cancer discussion in recent years, and advocates are pressing many in the healthcare community to reconsider their routine annual screening programs in order to save more lives.

In the healthcare organization of today, picture archive and communication systems (PACS) are a mainstay. Introduced to the healthcare world in the early 1990s, these systems have given providers a solution for storing, viewing and sharing patients’ medical images. In recent years electronic medical records (EMRs) and other health information systems have also gained popularity for storing and transmitting patients’ healthcare information. These systems, for the most part, have been specific to each hospital, practice and even department. As healthcare becomes more interactive and connected, with a focus on efficiency, healthcare organizations around the country are investing in ways to make these systems interoperable within the facility and across the enterprise.

Over the last decade, the field of medical imaging has evolved from analog technology toward the digital age. This shift in medical imaging has seen the emergence of flat panel detector (FPD) technology in everything from cardiology systems to portable X-ray equipment. Digital solutions have already begun to revolutionize medical imaging by offering improved image quality, faster processing time and dose reduction advantages over their analog predecessors. Those who have already adopted digital imaging are part of a market that continues to grow, expected to reach a sum of more than $35 billion by 2019.