With the possible exception of diffusion-tensor MRI for concussion in athletes, no clinical imaging procedure stands a chance of bumping information technology-with its attendant ripple effects on regulatory compliance and business performance-off radiology’s figurative front page in 2016.

Industry watchers seemed intrigued but not especially surprised when Konica Minolta Medical Imaging announced its acquisition of 100 plus-employee Viztek in early October. The response was understandable, as the fusing was equal parts bold and sensible.

Achieving unprecedented clinical and business efficiencies. Winning new business. Brandishing vanguard-level technology prowess while employing zero IT staff. Such are the returns mid-size radiology practices are realizing from their selection of the cloud-based, hardware-agnostic IRP/Plexus Imaging Workflow Management system.

The time has come for the profession of radiology to embrace a label it has been furiously trying to beat back for years: commoditization. The battle against those who wield it as a pejorative is not just futile, it's also counterproductive.

The pace of consolidation in the medical imaging industry, which could be accurately described as feverish from 2010 to 2013, has cooled.

The question in the headline is not open-ended and philosophical. It is multiple-choice and strategic, as any given hospital or multi-hospital system now inevitably perceives its contracted radiology practices as occupying ground in one of only three possible capacities.

We’re only halfway through the current calendar year, and already radiology practice in the U.S. has been jolted by not one but two major transactions.

Apple used to push the world to “think different.” Today, the profession of radiology is being driven to think differentiation. And the impetus is issuing not from a single corporation, but rather from myriad market forces—from commoditization to consolidation to, perhaps most pressingly, ever-narrowing profit margins.