GE Healthcare wins 2015 North American Frost & Sullivan Market Leadership Award in Cardiology Informatics

Cardiology informatics constitutes a complex and historically siloed environment. Yet, a new generation of solutions is going beyond just supporting individual service lines, and now more efficiently integrates and manages the diverse care area workflows of the cardiology enterprise.

Frost & Sullivan recently conducted an analysis of the cardiovascular image and information management systems (CIIMS) market, and recognizes GE Healthcare with the 2015 North American Frost & Sullivan Market Leadership Award in Cardiology Informatics.

As part of this market research effort, the group gathered input from 120 clinical, IT and enterprise-level decision-makers in cardiology informatics. In addition to sharing their perspectives on the future of cardiology informatics, the health organizations evaluated vendors based on its product quality, product differentiation, brand perception and growth strategy.

Demonstrating excellence at capturing the highest share in the North American cardiology informatics market, GE Healthcare ascended to the top of the leaderboard with the highest gains in installed base market share, particularly among the mid-to-large hospitals and integrated delivery networks. Frost & Sullivan found that 36 percent of hospitals and integrated delivery networks chose GE Healthcare as their primary vendor of cardiology image management solutions, well ahead of other competitors.

"Frost & Sullivan's competitive benchmarking indicates that GE Healthcare has the highest vendor ratings among suppliers of CIIMS solutions," said Frost & Sullivan Principal Analyst Nadim Daher. "Of the 77 percent who expressed strong customer satisfaction with GE Healthcare, 33 percent of users rated it 'excellent', and an additional 44 percent rated it 'very good'."

Among the imaging modalities used in cardiovascular care, diagnostic and interventional catheterization (Cath) and echocardiography (Echo) were ranked the most popular. According to Frost & Sullivan's research, GE Healthcare is the vendor that is most likely to be considered by customers for both the Cath and Echo components of the CIIMS solution. This top ranking for the two anchor modalities of the cardiovascular service line contributes to GE Healthcare's strong position as a vendor of choice for the entire cardiology enterprise.

In the highly demanding academic segment, the GE Healthcare brand stands out for being the most closely associated, or very closely associated, with different aspects of a customized CIIMS solution. When mapping out the brand perception, Frost & Sullivan found that hospitals and integrated delivery networks associated GE Healthcare with:

• a best-of-breed nature of its solution's integral components,
• a close understanding of specific customer requirements, and
• an ability to articulate a forward-looking product strategy that they feel confident investing in for the long haul.

To satisfy the needs of various stakeholders and cardiology practitioners across the service line, CIIMS solutions need to have considerable cardiovascular care area breadth and depth. The Frost & Sullivan survey revealed that GE Healthcare is ahead of the competition on the two main factors necessary to address this demand. First, it is the most highly rated vendor for providing a turnkey, end-to-end, single-vendor solution; and second, it is the most highly rated vendor for helping customers create a best-of-breed, multi-vendor CIIMS solution.

Another significant finding in the independent Frost & Sullivan research is that over the past few years, the enterprise, business and IT C-suite have played an increasingly prominent role in the CIIMS vendor selection and decision-making processes. This switch is radically different from earlier methods, when cardiology department administrators and clinical end users were the primary stakeholders and decision makers.

"GE Healthcare's ongoing development efforts toward enhancing the cardiovascular imaging capabilities of Centricity™ Cardio Enterprise with its Universal Viewer offering are perfectly in line with this need to align stakeholder incentives with a well-rounded CIIMS solution," observed Daher. "The company achieves this goal by catering to the mobility needs of remote users and referring physicians."

Market leadership in cardiology informatics today implies that the customer relationship must be nurtured at all levels. GE Healthcare leads in market perception as well, due to its efforts to enhance customer value through its consulting services, which are vital for the customization and refinement of vendors' proposed solutions.

Frost & Sullivan's Best Practices Awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for outstanding achievement in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research.