The Best in KLAS Awards are always useful, not because they tell us who has the most ambitious roadmap, but because they reflect what health systems actually reward once software is implemented, workflows are stressed, and departments are back under daily operational pressure.
This year’s imaging winners feel less like a celebration of novelty and more like a signal of where procurement and workflow gravity are moving. Radiology is not buying technology for its own sake. It is buying stability, consolidation, and systems that fit into a much broader enterprise operating model.
The category leaders were familiar names. INFINITT Healthcare led cardiology, Merge by Merative e won hemodynamics, Microsoft topped image exchange, Epic Beacon again led oncology, Sectra won large PACS, AGFA HealthCare dominated across smaller PACS environments, universal viewing, and VNA, and Jacobian Fluency for Imaging led front end speech recognition.
On paper, it is simply a list of winners.
In practice, it reflects what is being valued in the current radiology economy.
The PACS market has been mature for years, but maturity does not mean the stakes are lower. It means the basis of competition has shifted. Departments are not choosing platforms because of marginal feature differences. They are choosing based on whether systems can absorb volume, support growth, and remain dependable through staffing shortages and rising imaging demand.
Sectra winning the large PACS segment reflects that reality. In high volume environments, reliability and execution matter more than disruption. These departments are buying infrastructure, not experimentation.
AGFA’s sweep across PACS for smaller volumes, universal viewing, and VNA is not just a strong year for one vendor. It reflects something broader: health systems are losing patience with fragmented imaging architecture.
For years, enterprise imaging has been discussed as an inevitability, but many organisations still operate with separate archives, separate viewers, and separate governance across radiology, cardiology, and the rest of the hospital.
What these awards suggest is that consolidation is becoming an economic decision. Fewer vendors, fewer integrations, fewer failure points, and clearer accountability are increasingly attractive in a constrained environment.
Microsoft PowerShare winning image exchange highlights another shift. Image sharing used to sit in the background, treated as plumbing.
Today it is tied directly to patient leakage, referral relationships, speed of treatment, and the ability of systems to operate across networks rather than within walls.
In a more competitive provider landscape, imaging exchange is not simply an IT function. It is part of how health systems maintain continuity and defend market share.
Epic Beacon’s position in oncology continues to reinforce a wider pattern across healthcare software: high acuity specialties want workflows embedded into the broader clinical ecosystem.
Oncology is protocol heavy, safety critical, and deeply longitudinal. The more complex the specialty, the more valuable integration becomes.
Radiology has historically been somewhat separate, but the direction is clear. Imaging is becoming inseparable from care pathways, whether in cancer, cardiology, surgery, or AI driven screening.
The speech recognition category is easy to overlook, but Jacobian Fluency for Imaging leading front end recognition speaks to something important.
Radiology reports are no longer simply dictated impressions. They are increasingly treated as structured clinical data that feeds downstream decision making, quality programs, and AI models.
Speech technology is evolving from transcription toward standardisation and intelligence capture.
Across these categories, the market is rewarding vendors that reduce complexity, support operational throughput, and align imaging more closely with the enterprise.
The next phase of radiology informatics looks less defined by isolated departmental tools and more by consolidation, interoperability, and workflow systems that function as long term infrastructure.
That is what this year’s Best in KLAS winners quietly reflect.