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Change Healthcare (CHNG) Cloud-Native PACS Now in Clinical Use

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Change Healthcare Inc. recently announced that Stratus Imaging PACS-- a cloud-native, zero-footprint Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) -- has gone live in clinical use. This scalable, cloud-native platform is currently being leveraged by StatRad. Notably, StatRad is an award-winning teleradiology service with 90 radiologists who read around 1.5 million studies per year and serve hundreds of hospitals throughout the United States.

Per Change Healthcare management, with the launch of Stratus Imaging PACS in clinical use, the company continues to observe improvements in its ability to bring unprecedented speed, new functionality and focus on meeting the requirements of healthcare providers.

Few Words on Stratus Imaging PACS

Stratus Imaging PACS offers a seamless solution that allows radiology practices to read images from different hospitals on a single platform, at any time from any location, even at home and on mobile devices. Its proprietary streaming technology ensures high performance and speed in various network conditions.

The advantage of employing a cloud-native solution is scalability and significantly reduced downtime for upgrades or maintenance, which help keep security protection and functionality up to date.

Strategic Significance

Most radiology clinics currently use on-premise PACS platforms, which need expensive, difficult-to-maintain hardware and huge information technology (IT) departments to keep systems updated and running. With a cloud solution that Change Healthcare maintains, the Stratus Imaging PACS unburdens practices while also enhancing the security of patient data by being certified to comply with HITRUST and SOC2 security standards. The Stratus Imaging PACS solutions enable hospitals, integrated delivery networks, and radiology practices to focus on patient care rather than IT.

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Per StatRad management, the Stratus Imaging PACS system provides the industry with a cloud solution that meets the performance requirements of radiologists. The capabilities offered by Stratus Imaging PACS enhance radiologists’ productivity.

Industry Prospects

Per a report published by PR Newswire, the global medical imaging market is expected to see a CAGR of 3.99% from 2021 to 2027. Factors such as the rising prevalence of cancer and cardiac diseases, the increasing number of favorable government initiatives, growing trends of preventive healthcare and disease screening programs, several technical advancements and strategic partnerships are expected to drive the market.

Given the market prospects, the launch of Change Healthcare’s Stratus Imaging PACS in clinical use seems well-timed.

Another Notable Development

During its earnings call for second-quarter fiscal 2022, the company noted that its application programming interfaces (API)-related transaction volume tripled year over year. In the quarter under review, the company added 118 new products to the Change Healthcare marketplace. As a result, the Change Healthcare marketplace as well as other marketplaces such storefronts like the Amazon Web Services (AWS) marketplace and Microsoft Azure marketplace, currently have a total of 198 APIs software and hardware products from the company's portfolio.

Share Price Performance

The stock has outperformed its industry over the past year. It has grown 15.9% against the industry’s 42.9% fall.

Zacks Rank and Key Picks

Currently, Change Healthcare carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

A few better-ranked stocks in the broader medical space are Varex Imaging Corporation (VREX - Free Report) , McKesson Corporation (MCK - Free Report) and NextGen Healthcare, Inc. .

Varex, carrying a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), has a long-term earnings growth rate of 5%. The company surpassed earnings estimates in the trailing four quarters, delivering an average surprise of 115.3%. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Varex has outperformed the industry it belongs to in the past year. VREX has gained 72.5% versus the industry’s 6% fall.

McKesson, carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), has a long-term earnings growth rate of 8.9%. The company surpassed earnings estimates in the trailing four quarters, delivering a surprise of 19.9%, on average.

McKesson has outperformed its industry over the past year. MCK has gained 22.7% versus the 11.1% industry rise.

NextGen, sporting a Zacks Rank #2, has a long-term earnings growth rate of 8.5%. The company surpassed earnings estimates in the trailing four quarters, delivering an average surprise of 16%.

NextGen has outperformed its industry over the past year. NXGN has declined 9.8% versus the industry’s 42.9% fall.


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