Strategies can limit imaging fungibility

November 1, 2008 Diagnostic Imaging. Vol. 30 No. 11 Strategies can limit imaging fungibility Bundling, branding, and segmentation and customization will help radiologists By Bruce Reiner, M.D. Dr. Reiner is director of research at the Baltimore VA Medical Center in Maryland. Whether we would like to admit it or not, medical imaging is slowly on its way to becoming a commodity, which has been defined by Wikipedia as "anything for which there is a demand, but which is supplied without qualitative differentiation across a given market." In the original, simplified sense, commodities are described as things of value (e.g., pork bellies, oil) that are produced in large quantities by multiple manufacturers, the products of which are considered equivalent. A critical factor in determining what is a commodity is the consumer's perception that the products or services being defined are of uniform quality. When the products and/or services provided by one company are perceived to be supplied equally well by other companies, then that product and/or service becomes undifferentiated and commoditization occurs. Cost becomes the principal factor in determining supplier selection.

See full article and related articles at DiagnosticImaging.com
This article was republished with permission from CMPMedica, LLC