Konica Minolta Acquires Panasonic Healthcare Ultrasound Diagnostic Equipment Business

                            

Konica Minolta and Panasonic Healthcare have been jointly developing ultrasonic systems. The existing OEM-supply business relationship between Panasonic Healthcare and its customers will also be transferred to Konica Minolta.

“The acquisition of Panasonic Healthcare ultrasound business represents additional growth opportunities for our company in the primary imaging solutions market,” says David Widmann, President and COO, Konica Minolta Medical Imaging. “Panasonic has a rich, 50-year history in ultrasound with a reputation for high-quality products.  The combination of Panasonic with our parent companies optics business, we are excited at the prospect for developing new, innovative probes for our ultrasound business unit.”

Ultrasonic diagnostic equipment has advantages such as enabling real-time diagnostic imaging at the point-of-care. It is a non-ionizing radiation imaging device that translates to immediacy of care, increasing patient satisfaction and, in many cases, providing a primary diagnosis that can help avoid the need for more costly imaging studies, such as MR or CT. Continued growth is expected in the market in the future.

Konica Minolta continues to enhance its growth strategy in the healthcare business by expanding digital X-ray diagnostic imaging systems, including the AeroDR, its current mainstream products, fostering Healthcare IT services business and driving growth of business for new ultrasound diagnostic equipment with benefits based on Konica Minolta's innovative strength through the business transaction announced.

Source: Konica 

4 December 2013