Medical-Imaging Firm Gets Another $9MMedical-Imaging Firm Gets Another $9M

One of the biggest trends in health care during the past year has been the move to make medical records available online, so physicians can easily retrieve patient data anytime and any place.

The growing importance of this technology is demonstrated by the fact that medical-imaging company Amicas Inc. recently secured $9 million in a third round of funding led by Canaan Partners and has raised more than $21 million since May 2000. The 6-year-old Newton, Mass., company's image-management software makes medical images (such as from CAT scans or MRIs) directly available on the Web.

CEO Hamid Tabatabaie says the product addresses logistical concerns created by the more than 400 million imaging procedures performed each year. "A CT scan or an MRI can produce as many as 1,500 images," he explains. "It's literally impossible to read or print all those." The Amicas software suite takes data directly from the scanning device and makes it available online, he says, thus cutting out printing costs.

Tabatabaie says his company's software stands out among competing systems from industry heavyweights such as Kodak, Fuji, and General Electric because the Amicas system makes images available at any time, in any department, of any site. "Those guys have always sold departmental solutions," he explains. "But a few years ago, the industry decided that 'it's the enterprise, stupid.' "