The software is real although I have not seen it in action (nor have I for Visage or any peer product). When I did DD into PME I never came across it but I think that is more because when you look at PME, you only focus on the US market. Even in the US market there are dozens of small providers but the market is dominated by a big few. I found a
brochure from 2013, some pics of them at
radiology events in Latam (this example dated 2014, page 31, pic 29 Andres Vanegas, CSO who is reference in ASX announcements) as well as
budget document (page 7, Hiruko comes up 4 times in a text search) supporting that customers have bought it. Google translate is a god send at times, searching in Spanish ain't easy when you don't speak it. The distributors seems real as well. KLD Peru is one of their 2 Previuan distributors who only sell Hiruko. The business seems to have been around for at least 4 years. Earlier this year they set up at a large stand at a local medical conference, pushing Hiruko. See images on their
FB. Scanning through linkedin I found their recent
support and engineer hires used to set up Carestream installs, whilst I found the IME itself has
local commercial managers supporting distributors. Similar case with some other distributors I found.
As for specs and comp advantage, you'll have to comp Hiruko against those yourself and make a call as you would have had to do for PME. One thing I'd like to find but haven't (which I have for Visage and a few others) is a user manual, that would help a lot with a comp to PME and others. IME's
new website does have a section with tutorial videos and such that might help. The site seems to be a work in progress though.
What is important to note is that its Agfa, CS, GE et al (the machine makers) that are losing share to PME, Sectra and IME in various regions. I know for sure that PME doesn't win all its tenders/deals and often Sectra pips them with price when Sectra works out they're against PME. PME will tell you themselves they win about half the time as rule of thumb (which equates to 2 to 4 contracts p.a.). Better tech doesn't mean you win all deals in this space and IME isn't wining deals because PME or Telerad aren't around (I note, the later markets heavily in latam) imo. As per the latest IME call, they win about half of deals, taking it at face value, that suggests they have a quality of product and price point that is compelling in the region. An offering they are looking to take to APAC and the US. As for the local pilot, I haven't found anything about it and IME offer nothing in details.
