For hospitals, the top three priorities over the next three years related to the service management of imaging equipment, are to reduce the mean time to repair imaging equipment, manage the service needs for imaging on a 24/7/365 basis and improve the cybersecurity of imaging equipment and networked healthcare information equipment.  

Looking more closely at the importance of cybersecurity in medical imaging device maintenance, 78% of survey respondents indicated they expect the importance of cybersecurity to increase, 19% to stay the same and 3% to decrease in importance in 2024 and beyond, according to the recently published IMV 2023 Diagnostic Imaging Equipment Service Outlook Report. 

The top two concerns noted by survey respondents regarding cybersecurity are ensuring the privacy of patients protected health information (PHI) and ransomware attacks. These concerns reflect the high importance of protecting the data stored on hospital networks and connected systems, because the consequences of data breaches or data corruption are so high and directly impact patient care and safety. 

According to survey respondents, the hospital IT department is the entity that has the most responsibility for ensuring the cybersecurity of medical imaging devices. 

Looking at service expenditures for diagnostic imaging equipment in 2022, the top modalities covered by service contracts were CT, X-ray, MRI and Ultrasound. Regarding the service provider type, in 2022, 49% of service-related spending was with an OEM, 41% with a third-party provider and 10% outside of contract coverage, such as for time, labor & materials or parts only expenditures. 

Service Provider	Percentage of 2022 Service-related Spending
OEM	49%
Third-Party	41%
Outside of Contract	10%

The top 3 diagnostic imaging service providers in 2022, by share of expenditures were GE, Siemens and Crothall Healthcare. 

Service and maintenance have long been important aspects of managing diagnostic imaging equipment, now with the increase in equipment connectivity and hospital networking, cybersecurity is a new and important aspect of diagnostic imaging equipment management. 

Want to share your knowledge of medical imaging? Click here to sign up for the IMV Survey panel today. 

Davin Korstjens is a Senior Market Research Program Manager at IMV Medical Information Division, part of Science and Medicine Group. 

IMV’s 2023 Diagnostic Imaging Equipment Service Outlook Report explores market trends related to service contracts for diagnostic imaging equipment in U.S. hospitals. The report was published in August 2023 and is based on responses from 292 radiology and biomedical managers and administrators who participated in IMV’s nationwide survey from May 2023 -June 2023. Vendors covered in this report include Agfa, Aramark, BC technical, Canon, Carestream, Crothall Healthcare, Fujifilm, GE, Hologic, Konico Minolta, Philips, Renovo Solutions, Samsung, Shimadzu, Siemens, Sodexo, TriMedx, Unisyn, United Imaging, Ziehm.   

For information about purchasing IMV Market Outlook Reports, visit the corporate website at https://imvinfo.com/ or call 703-778-3080 ext. 1033 to speak with a representative. In addition to the report, all purchases will include a complimentary recording of an executive summary presentation of findings conducted by IMV’s Senior Program Manager.