Pro Medicus - Agfa Alliance Set To Revolutionise Australian Radiology

Leading medical IT and e-health provider Pro Medicus Limited [ASX: PME] today announced a strategic, multi million dollar alliance with global medical imaging giant Agfa-Gevaert Limited. The alliance is aimed at capturing a significant share of the Australian PACS (digital radiology) market estimated to be worth in excess of $100 million over the next three years.

Agfa's investment will result in the development and marketing of a new interface integrating the Pro Medicus Radiology Practice Management system currently used by over 70% of Australia's private radiology practices, with Agfa's world leading range of digital imaging (PACS) products.

"This deal brings together two of the market leaders which we believe will be of significant benefit to the radiology industry as a whole" said Pro Medicus CEO Dr Sam Hupert. "The vast majority of X-rays are still printed to film despite the fact that most diagnostic modalities such as ultrasound, CT and MRI are digitally acquired. This is both expensive and lacks the flexibility that a fully digital solution provides. By combining the strengths of our two companies we will be able to provide Australian radiologists with a world class, seamless solution that will allow practices to effortlessly transition from film to a fully digital, film-less environment. We are delighted to join forces with Agfa. They are the undisputed world leaders in this field."

"We have confidence in the Pro Medicus technology and their positioning as market leaders," said Mr David Chambers, General Manager of Agfa Healthcare Asia Pacific. "If the US and European trends are any indication, we believe the market in film-less technology is about to explode and we want to have Australian partners who have a proven track record. "This is an exciting alliance for Australian Radiology, one that will embrace the industry standards of DICOM and HL7."

The benefits of this technology will also flow through to both referring doctors and patients. With PACS, a patient's previous X-rays and results are stored digitally in the one central archive and can be made accessible throughout a hospital or clinic or remotely via the Internet. Information is available to those people who need it - referring doctors, hospitals, diagnostic practices - all at the same time, whereas a film can only be in the one place. This means better quality of care for patients.

This alliance with Agfa has the potential to open the door to new growth areas in the healthcare market as well as provide Pro Medicus with the opportunity to take the technology overseas. "Like Australia, the use of PACS in the Asia Pacific region is set to explode. This will help position us to take advantage of this growth," said Dr Hupert.

"This deal is also significant for our e-health offering, Promedicus.net, which is a secure network connecting over 6,000 doctors throughout Australia. This will be the conduit through which both the result and access to the diagnostic images will be delivered in future, allowing practices to offer a fully digital service to their referrers. This brings the product and Internet sides of our business neatly together. It's state-of-the-art technology. We don't know of anyone else in Australia successfully doing this kind of seamless integration."

For more information:

Dr Sam Hupert Managing director Pro Medicus Limited	Jane Cotter Monsoon Communications Phone: + 61 3 9620 3333
Email: hupert@promedicus.com.au Phone: +61 3 9429 8800 Facsimile: +61 3 9429 9544