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For the period from 1997 to 2002, there was a constantly increasing demand for CT, MRI and non-obstetric ultrasound procedures and a relatively slight demand growth for ultrasound, radiographs, fluoroscopy, nuclear medicine and obstetric ultrasound among English NHS hospitals. PACS has been widely implemented across hospitals all over the world. Global Data for example reported the total sales of the technology in 2008 accounted for 67% of the European radiology market.48 According to the UK NHS (National Health Service), under the NPfIT (National Programme for IT) initiatives, as of 2007, there were about 127 trusts in England with PACS. By early 2008, the UK Department of Health announced that the NHS had completed the installation of PACS across all UK hospital trusts under the NPfIT initiative.48 In the United States, some analysts were optimistic that 90% of the health care facilities in the country would be equipped with PACS by 2010.37 In the Asia Pacific region, Japan has been a leading player in PACS technological developments. Hence, it is not surprising that several studies mentioned the rapid growth of PACS installations in Japanese hospitals since the 1980s. As of 2002, it was reported that 1468 PACS units had been installed across Japanese hospitals.36 The same study also mentions the increasing diffusion of PACS among hospitals in Korea and Hong Kong, although in the context of Hong Kong public hospitals, 9 state that the utilization of PACS usually does not extend outside the radiology department. The growing diffusion of PACS is also reported in Taiwan and China estimated PACS accounted for 43% of the radiology informatics market in China in 2008.

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