Agfa HealthCare's revenue decreased by 10.5 percent. On a currency comparable basis, the decrease amounted to 6.4 percent. A major adverse element was the economic weakness in most of the emerging markets. This particularly affected sales of the Imaging segment's traditional film products. In the segment's digital radiography business (consisting of Computed Radiography, Direct Radiography and the hardcopy business), the DR product range posted very strong sales growth. The hardcopy business also performed well. In the IT segment, the Healthcare Information Solutions division performed well, whereas Imaging IT Solutions continued to suffer from the challenging conditions in the US healthcare market.
Agfa HealthCare's gross profit margin im proved significantly from 34.7 percent of revenue to 37.6 percent. Targeted efficiency programs (e.g. in the field of service efficiency and procurement) and favorable raw material effects more than counterbalanced the adverse currency and mix effects. Recurring EBITDA reached 32.3 million Euro (or 12.3 percent of revenue). Recurring EBIT improved strongly to 23.5 million Euro (or 8.9 percent of revenue).
For Agfa HealthCare, a major highlight in the second quarter was winning Premier Inc.'s Supplier Legacy Award for operational excellence. With the award, Premier recognizes the business group's expertise in enterprise and departmental imaging IT. Premier is a leading healthcare improvement company uniting an alliance of approximately 3,000 US hospitals and 110,000 other care providers.
Also in the field of Imaging IT Solutions, Agfa HealthCare debuted its ICIS Mobile and Web Capture technology at the Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine (SIIM) meeting in Long Beach, California. The solution enables physicians and patients to securely upload medical images from a mobile device to an electronic health record. The technology builds on Agfa HealthCare's ICIS (Imaging Clinical Information System) platform.
In the US, Agfa HealthCare will unite its ICIS solution with Hyland's OnBase content management solution. By connecting patient medical records and medical images within the Electronic Health Record (EHR), the joint solution provides all authorized persons across the hospital enterprise with real-time access to a patient's full medical history.
In Brazil, FIDI (Imaging Diagnosis Research and Study Institute) will install the first Agfa HealthCare Global Remote Incident Prevention (GRIP) solution in Latin America. The FIDI foundation administers 57 radiology units in hospitals, laboratories and other care centers. The GRIP system will continuously monitor Agfa HealthCare’s RIS/PACS and teleradiology solutions used by FIDI to prevent incidents before they occur.
In the field of Imaging, Agfa HealthCare won an important tender for Direct Imaging (DR) systems in India. The business group will supply 29 DX-D 600 units to care centers in the state of West Bengal. Also in India, Agfa HealthCare will install 4 DX-M Computed Radiography (CR) solutions at PBM Hospital in Bikaneer, Rajasthan. The Ministry of Health of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will implement three Agfa HealthCare DR solutions in three of its hospitals: the Rafha Central Hospital in Arar, the Maternity and Children's hospital in Gassim, and the Maternity and Children’s hospital in Dammam. The Canadian St. Marys Hospital Site of Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance (HPHA) will install a fully motorized DX-D 600 DR unit. In the UK, Agfa HealthCare successfully implemented three of its DX-D 30C Retrofit solutions at North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust. With the solution, hospitals are able to upgrade existing CR-based imaging equipment to wireless DR.
Agfa HealthCare's imaging technology is also used by veterinary clinics around the world. In May, the business group announced that it is a technical sponsor of the Mobile Horse Vet Clinic for the annual Longines Global Champions Tour 2014, running from 24 April to 15 November. Agfa HealthCare's solutions will be used to screen the horses participating in the prestigious showjumping series.
Related news articles:
- Agfa HealthCare's Profile
About Agfa
The Agfa-Gevaert Group is one of the world's leading companies in imaging and information technology. Agfa develops manufactures and markets analogue and digital systems for the printing industry (Agfa Graphics), for the healthcare sector (Agfa HealthCare), and for specific industrial applications (Agfa Materials). Agfa is headquartered in Mortsel, Belgium. The company is present in 40 countries and has agents in another 100 countries around the globe. The Agfa-Gevaert Group achieved a turnover of 2,865 million euro in 2013.
About Agfa HealthCare
Agfa HealthCare, a member of the Agfa-Gevaert Group, is a leading global provider of diagnostic imaging and healthcare IT solutions. The company has nearly a century of healthcare experience and has been a pioneer on the healthcare IT market since the early 1990's. Today Agfa HealthCare designs, develops and delivers state-of-the-art systems for capturing, managing and processing diagnostic images and clinical/administrative information for hospitals and healthcare facilities, as well as contrast media solutions to enable effective medical imaging results. The company has sales offices and agents in over 100 markets worldwide. Sales for Agfa HealthCare in 2013 were 1,160 million euro.