Spending on medical imaging in Europe is set to grow by over 50% in the next decade, according to GE Healthcare. Add to that the fact that many small and mid-sized hospitals are set to outsource their imaging departments (companies like Alliance Medical say they can normally cut public sector costs by 30-40%) and it looks like a great investment opportunity.

Interestingly, in most markets it also remains a deeply fragmented – outside of the Nordic region in very few countries does the market leader have more than a 15% share of privately owned imaging services. Take France, where Christian Le Roux who heads up Group du Mail, the €25m leader in Grenoble with 45 radiologists. He reckons there are ten other companies around his size in France and 100 smaller players with between 40 and 5 radiologists.

The added plus is that teleradiology means that sooner or later the interpretation of images can be centralised bringing additional savings, as well as quality improvements.

But it is not all plain sailing. Outsourcing can be fiercely competitive – many Spanish players tell us that margins have plummeted over the last two years. So do players in the Nordic region. Much hangs on equipment costs and there is a real danger of overcapacity in markets like the Netherlands and Germany.

Our next report Opportunities in Diagnostics in Europe, Markets and Reform will be published in January and will cover the lab and imaging sectors across Europe. Please contact max@healthcareeuropa.com for more details.