Digital fluoroscopy firm InfiMed hopes to find a niche in upgrading conventional radiography rooms to flat-panel digital technology. The Liverpool, NY, company is planning to launch its Stingray DR flat-panel digital upgrades next year after getting Food and Drug Administration clearance for the detectors in November.
Infimed has already carved out a successful market segment by providing digital upgrades to fluoroscopy rooms with products like its GoldOne line. But the company sees an even bigger potential market in the worldwide installed base of 150,000 analog radiography rooms, according to Timothy Stevener, vice president of the firm's radiology business.
Stingray is an attempt to tap into that opportunity. Its detectors are based on 17 x 17-in amorphous silicon/cesium iodide panels produced by French digital detector developer Trixell. InfiMed has added image processing algorithms and a DICOM-based workstation for image review. The company first displayed the detectors as a work in progress at the 1998 RSNA meeting, and reprised the exhibit at this month's show.
To date, companies selling brand-new systems have generated most of the attention in the digital x-ray market. The problem with this approach is that new digital systems can cost up to $400,000. In some cases that's as much as three times the price of the analog systems they are designed to replace. For the most part, the major OEMs have been reluctant to offer digital x-ray on a retrofit basis.
But InfiMed believes the digital retrofit option could provide the right mix of price and performance that imaging facilities will need to join the digital revolution, according to Stevener.
"I've seen rad rooms as old as 40 years old. It's not like they lose their usefulness after 10 years," he said. "There are (radiography) rooms out there between five and 20 years old that are likely candidates for a retrofit, rather than going in there and throwing (out the equipment). People hate to do that when it's perfectly good equipment."
InfiMed plans to sell a single-detector room upgrade for under $200,000, and a two-detector upgrade for under $300,000. Commercial installations will probably begin in mid-2000, Stevener said.
By Brian CaseyAuntMinnie.com staff writer
December 15, 1999
