How to read this page
Every entry below is one sentence, one number and one link. We wrote the page because most PACS statistics circulating on vendor blogs are copies of copies with the source lost along the way; here the source is the point. There are 60 facts in total: 47 verified, 11 directional and 2 single-source.
- Verified. We opened the primary source ourselves and the number on this page is the number on that page.
- Directional. A secondary source citing a primary we could not open (a paywalled analyst report, a slide deck no longer online, a portal that needs a login). The number is quoted faithfully from the secondary, but treat it as a signal, not a fact you would put in a regulatory filing.
- Single-source. Only one source exists for the figure and we found nothing independent to corroborate it.
Cite or reuse. The page and the CSV are CC BY 4.0. Cite as "MiniPACS, PACS statistics, accessed <date>" and link to this page, or better, cite the primary source each row names and use this page as the finding aid. Download all 60 rows as CSV (topic, fact, value, unit, year, verification, source title, source URL). Found a number that has moved, or a primary we should have opened? Write to contact with the row and the link and we will correct it and note the change.
Key numbers
- Imaging IT market. Signify Research sized the total imaging IT market at USD 5.2 billion in 2022. Source: Signify Research: Abundant Opportunities for Growth in the Imaging IT Market.
- Still on-premises. On-premises deployments still represented over 75 percent of the global imaging IT market in 2023, meaning cloud accounted for less than a quarter. Source: Signify Research: Which Cloud Adoption Strategy Should an Imaging IT Vendor Choose?.
- US hospitals. The United States has 6,100 hospitals in total, of which 5,121 are community hospitals, per the 2024 AHA Annual Survey. Source: AHA Fast Facts on U.S. Hospitals, 2026.
- Mammography facilities. The FDA lists 9,118 MQSA-certified mammography facilities operating 27,692 accredited units in the US as of August 1, 2026. Source: FDA MQSA National Statistics.
- CT volume. Approximately 93 million CT examinations were performed on 61.5 million US patients in 2023, projected to cause about 103,000 future radiation-induced cancers. Source: Projected Lifetime Cancer Risks From Current Computed Tomography Imaging (JAMA Intern Med 2025, PMID 40227719).
- DICOM footprint. NEMA states the DICOM standard is implemented in hundreds of thousands of imaging devices with billions of images in clinical use. Source: DICOM Standard - About.
- Breach growth. HHS reports that between 2018 and 2023 the number of large PHI breaches grew 100 percent and the number of individuals affected grew 950 percent, with ransomware-related breaches up 264 percent. Source: Federal Register: HIPAA Security Rule To Strengthen the Cybersecurity of ePHI (NPRM).
- Radiologist attrition. Annual radiologist attrition in the US more than doubled from 1.1% in 2014 to 2.5% in 2022, according to ACR Harvey L. Neiman Health Policy Institute data. Source: ACR Bulletin: The Radiologist Shortage - A Workforce Update from HPI.
DICOM standard 9 facts
| Fact | Value | Source | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| The American College of Radiology and NEMA formed a joint standards committee in 1983, which led to the ACR-NEMA 300 standard. | 1983 | DICOM Standard - History | Verified |
| ACR-NEMA 300 version 1.0, the point-to-point predecessor of DICOM, was released in 1985 and version 2.0 followed in 1988. | 1985 / 1988 | DICOM Standard - History | Verified |
| The third iteration of the standard was renamed DICOM and first published as NEMA Standard PS3 in 1993. | 1993 | DICOM Standard - About | Verified |
| DICOM is recognized by the International Organization for Standardization as ISO 12052. | ISO 12052, 2026 | DICOM Standard - About | Verified |
| NEMA states the DICOM standard is implemented in hundreds of thousands of imaging devices with billions of images in clinical use. | hundreds of thousands of devices; billions of images, 2026 | DICOM Standard - About | Verified |
| The current DICOM standard is published in 22 parts, from PS3.1 (Introduction and Overview) to PS3.22 (Real-Time Communication), with Parts 9 and 13 retired. | 22 parts, 2026 | DICOM Standard - Current Edition | Verified |
| The DICOM standard is updated and republished several times per year (the current edition is labeled 2026c). | several times per year, 2026 | DICOM Standard - Current Edition | Verified |
| IANA registers TCP/UDP port 104 as acr-nema, described as ACR-NEMA Digital Imag. and Comm. 300. | 104 port, 2026 | IANA Service Name and Transport Protocol Port Number Registry | Verified |
| IANA registers port 11112 as DICOM (registered 2005-08 by David Clunie) and port 2762 as DICOM TLS. | 11112 / 2762 port, 2005 | IANA Service Name and Transport Protocol Port Number Registry | Verified |
Imaging facilities and volume 7 facts
| Fact | Value | Source | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Approximately 93 million CT examinations were performed on 61.5 million US patients in 2023, projected to cause about 103,000 future radiation-induced cancers. | 93000000 CT exams per year, 2023 | Projected Lifetime Cancer Risks From Current Computed Tomography Imaging (JAMA Intern Med 2025, PMID 40227719) | Verified |
| Across 135.8 million imaging exams in US health systems, adult CT use grew 11.6% per year in 2000-2006 but slowed to 3.7% per year in 2013-2016, and adult MRI growth slowed from 11.4% to 1.3% per year. | 3.7% annual CT growth 2013-2016, 2019 | Trends in Use of Medical Imaging in US Health Care Systems and in Ontario, 2000-2016 (JAMA 2019, PMID 31479136) | Verified |
| ACR HPI projections cited in 2026 expect US imaging volume to grow between 17% (MRI) and 25% (CT) by 2055. | 17% to 25% growth by 2055, 2026 | ACR Bulletin: The Radiologist Shortage - A Workforce Update from HPI | Directional |
| The United States has 6,100 hospitals in total, of which 5,121 are community hospitals, per the 2024 AHA Annual Survey. | 6,100 hospitals, 2026 | AHA Fast Facts on U.S. Hospitals, 2026 | Verified |
| The FDA lists 9,118 MQSA-certified mammography facilities operating 27,692 accredited units in the US as of August 1, 2026. | 9,118 facilities / 27,692 units facilities, 2026 | FDA MQSA National Statistics | Verified |
| MQSA-certified facilities report performing 44,864,442 mammography procedures per year in aggregate, per FDA data as of August 1, 2026. | 44,864,442 procedures per year, 2026 | FDA MQSA National Statistics | Verified |
| The CMS NPPES downloadable file of National Provider Identifiers contains nearly 5 million records. | ~5 million NPI records, 2026 | NBER: National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES/NPI) | Single-source |
Market size 3 facts
Analyst firms define the market differently (VNA plus PACS, specialty PACS, all imaging IT), so the figures are shown as a range across firms rather than reconciled. The paywalled analyst reports are labelled Directional: we could open the press release, not the report.
| Fact | Value | Source | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| MarketsandMarkets sizes the global VNA and PACS market at USD 5.60 billion in 2026, reaching USD 8.57 billion by 2031 at a 8.9 percent CAGR. | 5.60 to 8.57 USD billion, 2026 | MarketsandMarkets: Vendor Neutral Archive (VNA) and PACS Market press release | Directional |
| Research and Markets values the specialty PACS market at USD 4.36 billion in 2026, projected to reach USD 6.23 billion by 2032 at a 6.06 percent CAGR. | 4.36 to 6.23 USD billion, 2026 | Research and Markets: Specialty PACS Market | Directional |
| Signify Research sized the total imaging IT market at USD 5.2 billion in 2022. | 5.2 USD billion, 2022 | Signify Research: Abundant Opportunities for Growth in the Imaging IT Market | Verified |
Cloud adoption 1 fact
| Fact | Value | Source | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| On-premises deployments still represented over 75 percent of the global imaging IT market in 2023, meaning cloud accounted for less than a quarter. | >75 percent on-premises, 2023 | Signify Research: Which Cloud Adoption Strategy Should an Imaging IT Vendor Choose? | Verified |
Storage and study size 3 facts
| Fact | Value | Source | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Typical digital breast tomosynthesis studies average about 450 MB and can reach 3 GB per exam. | 450 MB per study, 2016 | Purview - PACS Requirements for Digital Breast Tomosynthesis | Single-source |
| An uncompressed 20x whole slide pathology image can exceed 90,000 x 110,000 pixels (10 gigapixels) and require nearly 30 GB of storage, swelling to about 100 GB at 40x. | 30 to 100 GB per slide, 2022 | Whole slide image data utilization informed by digital diagnosis patterns (J Pathol Inform) | Verified |
| Microsoft states that medical imaging data represents approximately 80 to 90 percent of healthcare data growth, with global healthcare data forecast at 2.3 zettabytes in 2022. | 80-90 percent of healthcare data growth, 2022 | Microsoft Azure Blog: Cloud migration for medical imaging data | Verified |
Compression and transfer syntax 6 facts
| Fact | Value | Source | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| DICOM Supplement 61 added the JPEG 2000 transfer syntaxes and reached Final Text on 14 January 2002. | Supplement 61; 2002 | DICOM Supplement 61: JPEG 2000 Transfer Syntaxes | Verified |
| DICOM defines JPEG 2000 (ISO/IEC 15444-1) transfer syntax UIDs 1.2.840.10008.1.2.4.90 (lossless only) and 1.2.840.10008.1.2.4.91. | 1.2.840.10008.1.2.4.90 / .91 UID, 2026 | DICOM PS3.5 Section 8.2.4 JPEG 2000 Image Compression | Verified |
| DICOM defines JPEG-LS transfer syntax UIDs 1.2.840.10008.1.2.4.80 (lossless) and 1.2.840.10008.1.2.4.81 (near-lossless). | 1.2.840.10008.1.2.4.80 / .81 UID, 2026 | DICOM PS3.5 Section 8.2.3 JPEG-LS Image Compression | Verified |
| DICOM Supplement 235 added three High-Throughput JPEG 2000 (HTJ2K) transfer syntaxes and reached Final Text on 14 November 2023, explicitly to address shortcomings that prevented wider adoption of JPEG 2000. | Supplement 235; 2023 | DICOM Supplement 235: HTJ2K Transfer Syntax | Verified |
| DICOM WG-04 reported that classic JPEG 2000 saw low adoption partly because decoding is at least 5x slower than JPEG-LS, while HTJ2K's block coder speeds encode and decode by an order of magnitude at roughly 5 percent lower compression ratios. | 5x slower; ~5%, 2023 | Public Comment Overview: Supplement 235 HTJ2K Transfer Syntax (DICOM WG-04 slides) | Verified |
| AWS HealthImaging uses HTJ2K as its default storage format and transcodes most lossless frames to HTJ2K Lossless RPCL (1.2.840.10008.1.2.4.202) on import. | HTJ2K default, 2026 | AWS HealthImaging - Supported transfer syntaxes | Verified |
Security: breaches and ransomware 11 facts
| Fact | Value | Source | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| A 2019 Greenbone scan found 590 of 2,300 internet-reachable medical image archive systems freely accessible, exposing 24.3 million patient records from 52 countries. | 590 servers / 24.3 million records, 2019 | Help Net Security: Confidential data of 24.3 million patients discovered online (Greenbone report) | Directional |
| The exposed PACS archives found by Greenbone in 2019 were linked to about 737 million images, of which roughly 400 million were downloadable, and 13.7 million US records included Social Security numbers. | 737 million images, 2019 | Help Net Security: Confidential data of 24.3 million patients discovered online (Greenbone report) | Directional |
| A ProPublica and Bayerischer Rundfunk investigation identified 187 unprotected medical image servers in the US exposing records of more than 5 million US patients and more than 16 million scans worldwide. | 187 servers / 5 million patients, 2019 | ProPublica: Millions of Americans' Medical Images and Data Are Available on the Internet | Verified |
| A July 2021 HHS HC3 alert warned that exposed PACS servers at about 130 US health systems left 8.5 million case studies, 2 million patients and 275 million images open to unauthorized access. | 130 health systems / 275 million images, 2021 | HHS HC3 alert: PACS vulnerabilities | Directional |
| HHS reports that between 2018 and 2023 the number of large PHI breaches grew 100 percent and the number of individuals affected grew 950 percent, with ransomware-related breaches up 264 percent. | 264 percent increase in ransomware breaches, 2025 | Federal Register: HIPAA Security Rule To Strengthen the Cybersecurity of ePHI (NPRM) | Verified |
| In 2023 over 160 million individuals were affected by breaches of PHI involving 500 or more people, a record at the time, according to HHS. | 160 million individuals, 2023 | Federal Register: HIPAA Security Rule To Strengthen the Cybersecurity of ePHI (NPRM) | Verified |
| In 2022 approximately three-fourths of large PHI breaches reported to OCR resulted from hacking of electronic equipment or a network server. | ~75 percent, 2022 | Federal Register: HIPAA Security Rule To Strengthen the Cybersecurity of ePHI (NPRM) | Verified |
| Hacking and IT incidents accounted for 589 of the large healthcare data breaches reported to the HHS OCR portal in 2024, or 81.2 percent, exposing at least 259 million records. | 81.2 percent of large breaches, 2024 | HIPAA Journal 2024 Healthcare Data Breach Report (OCR breach portal data) | Directional |
| The Change Healthcare ransomware attack was reported to HHS OCR as affecting 192.7 million individuals, the largest healthcare data breach on record, after a USD 22 million ransom was paid. | 192.7 million individuals, 2025 | HIPAA Journal: Change Healthcare cyberattack (OCR breach portal figures) | Directional |
| IC3 logged 3,156 ransomware complaints in 2024 and 4,878 complaints from critical infrastructure organizations, with ransomware the most pervasive threat to critical infrastructure and complaints up 9 percent from 2023. | 3,156 ransomware complaints, 2024 | FBI IC3 2024 Internet Crime Report | Verified |
| The May 2021 ransomware attack on Scripps Health cost USD 112.7 million through the third quarter of 2021, including USD 91.6 million in lost revenue, and compromised data of 147,267 patients. | 112.7 USD million, 2021 | HIPAA Journal: Scripps Health ransomware attack | Directional |
Regulation 3 facts
| Fact | Value | Source | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| The HIPAA Security Rule requires covered entities and business associates to retain required documentation for 6 years from its creation or the date it was last in effect, whichever is later. | 6 years, 2026 | 45 CFR 164.316(b)(2)(i) via Cornell LII | Verified |
| MQSA regulations require facilities to keep original mammograms and reports for at least 5 years, or at least 10 years if the patient has no further mammograms at the facility, or longer if state law mandates. | 5 / 10 years, 2026 | 21 CFR 900.12(c)(4) via Cornell LII | Verified |
| The 2025 inflation-adjusted HIPAA civil penalty tiers range from USD 145 per violation for lack of knowledge up to USD 2,190,294 per violation and per year for uncorrected willful neglect. | 145 to 2,190,294 USD per violation, 2025 | HIPAA Journal: What are the penalties for HIPAA violations (2025 CMP inflation adjustment) | Directional |
Workforce and teleradiology 8 facts
| Fact | Value | Source | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| The AAMC projects a US shortage of up to 86,000 physicians by 2036 (range 13,500 to 86,000). | 86000 physicians, 2024 | AAMC press release: New AAMC Report Shows Continuing Projected Physician Shortage | Verified |
| Annual radiologist attrition in the US more than doubled from 1.1% in 2014 to 2.5% in 2022, according to ACR Harvey L. Neiman Health Policy Institute data. | 1.1% to 2.5% annual attrition, 2026 | ACR Bulletin: The Radiologist Shortage - A Workforce Update from HPI | Verified |
| HRSA projects radiology at only 90% workforce adequacy by 2038, with an overall US physician shortfall of 158,990 full-time physicians. | 90% adequacy, 2025 | ACR Bulletin: The Radiologist Shortage - A Workforce Update from HPI (citing HRSA Dec 2025) | Directional |
| The US radiologist workforce is projected to be 40.3% or 25.7% larger in 2055 than in 2023 depending on whether residency positions grow, with post-COVID attrition equivalent to 3,116 fewer radiologists in 2055. | 25.7% to 40.3% growth by 2055, 2025 | Projected US Radiologist Supply, 2025 to 2055 (J Am Coll Radiol, PMID 39952776) | Verified |
| Between 2014 and 2023 the average number of radiologists per practice rose 85%, from 9.7 to 17.9, while the number of practices employing radiologists fell 14.7%. | 9.7 to 17.9 radiologists per practice, 2026 | ACR Bulletin: The Radiologist Shortage - A Workforce Update from HPI | Verified |
| In the 2021 ACR/RBMA workforce survey, 82% of radiology practices allowed some form of remote work, 67% permitted daytime and 63% nighttime remote reading, and 36% of radiologists were working remotely. | 82% of practices, 2021 | The 2021 ACR/RBMA Workforce Survey (PMC10922265) | Verified |
| In a 2019 national ACR survey, 85.6% of 731 radiologists in non-teleradiologist settings had performed teleradiology in the past 10 years and 25.4% said teleradiology was a majority of their annual volume. | 85.6% of radiologists, 2019 | The Current State of Teleradiology Across the United States (J Am Coll Radiol 2019, PMID 31271736) | Verified |
| In the same 2019 survey the top teleradiology challenges were EHR access (62.8%), quality assurance (53.8%) and technologist proximity (48.4%). | 62.8% cited EHR access, 2019 | The Current State of Teleradiology Across the United States (J Am Coll Radiol 2019, PMID 31271736) | Verified |
Open source 9 facts
| Fact | Value | Source | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Orthanc is a Belgian open-source lightweight DICOM server written in C++ on top of DCMTK, created by Sebastien Jodogne at the University Hospital of Liege with copyright starting in 2012. | 2012 | Orthanc - About | Verified |
| The Orthanc core is released under the GPLv3+ license, a decision the University Hospital of Liege took in 2012, while scalability plugins such as PostgreSQL and Web Viewer use AGPLv3+. | GPLv3+ license, 2012 | Orthanc Book - Licensing FAQ | Verified |
| Orthanc exposes a RESTful API so imaging flows can be automated from any programming language. | REST API, 2026 | Orthanc - DICOM server | Verified |
| The OHIF Viewer is a zero-footprint web DICOM viewer released under the MIT license. | MIT license, 2026 | OHIF/Viewers on GitHub | Verified |
| OHIF is primarily funded by the NIH National Cancer Institute ITCR program via grant U24 CA199460 to Massachusetts General Hospital, with NCI grant periods 2015-2020 and 2023-2028 and CZI EOSS support in 2020-2023. | U24 CA199460 grant, 2023 | OHIF - Open Health Imaging Foundation | Verified |
| dcm4chee Archive 5 is a Java EE DICOM archive running on WildFly, licensed under the Mozilla Public License 1.1 and requiring Java 17 or newer. | MPL 1.1; Java 17, 2026 | dcm4che/dcm4chee-arc-light on GitHub | Verified |
| DCMTK, the OFFIS DICOM toolkit, carries an OFFIS e.V. copyright from 1994 onward and is distributed under a BSD-style license. | 1994; BSD-3-Clause | DCMTK COPYRIGHT file (GitHub) | Verified |
| Horos is a free macOS DICOM viewer derived from OsiriX, licensed under LGPL 3.0, and reports more than one million downloads. | LGPL 3.0; 1M+ downloads, 2026 | Horos Project | Verified |
| Weasis is a free DICOM viewer distributed under EPL 2.0 / Apache 2.0 and deployed in production at the Geneva University Hospitals (HUG). | EPL 2.0 / Apache 2.0 license, 2026 | Weasis DICOM viewer | Verified |
Where these numbers matter
The market and cloud-adoption rows are the backdrop for what a PACS actually costs a single practice; see the PACS cost guide and the PACS pricing index for the per-site numbers. The compression rows explain why the same study can be three different sizes on three archives; the DICOM transfer syntax reference lists every UID behind them. The breach and regulation rows are the reason the security page exists. If PACS itself is the unfamiliar term, start with what is PACS.
Method
Primary-source rule. A fact is on this page only if it can be traced to a named document: a standard, a regulation, a peer-reviewed paper, a government statistic, a vendor's own documentation, or a press release from the firm that produced the number. We opened each candidate on 2026-08-28 and recorded the sentence, the value as printed, the year the value refers to, and the URL we opened.
What was excluded. Any number whose only trail was a blog citing another blog. Any figure where the primary source could not be opened at all (no openable primary means excluded, not labelled Directional). Round "industry estimates" with no author. Vendor claims about their own market share. Anything about MiniPACS itself, which belongs on the product pages, not in a reference set.
Refresh policy. The set is re-checked when a source publishes a new edition (FDA MQSA statistics, AHA Fast Facts, the IC3 annual report, DICOM editions) and at least once a year. Each refresh updates the date on this page, the Dataset metadata and the CSV together; rows that a source has withdrawn are removed rather than kept with an old date.
MiniPACS is a standards-based DICOM archive and server; any scan opens in any browser in about 0.6 seconds with nothing installed.
FAQ
How big is the PACS market?
It depends on the firm and on what they count. MarketsandMarkets sizes the global VNA and PACS market at USD 5.60 billion in 2026, reaching USD 8.57 billion by 2031 at a 8.9 percent CAGR. Research and Markets values the specialty PACS market at USD 4.36 billion in 2026, projected to reach USD 6.23 billion by 2032 at a 6.06 percent CAGR. Signify Research sized the total imaging IT market at USD 5.2 billion in 2022. The two analyst-firm figures are labelled Directional on this page because their underlying reports are paywalled; the Signify figure is Verified.
How many imaging facilities are there in the US?
There is no single registry of imaging facilities, so we list what primary sources count. The AHA Fast Facts on U.S. Hospitals, 2026 report 6,100 hospitals in total, of which 5,121 are community hospitals, per the 2024 AHA Annual Survey. The FDA MQSA National Statistics list 9,118 MQSA-certified mammography facilities operating 27,692 accredited units in the US as of August 1, 2026, performing 44,864,442 mammography procedures per year in aggregate. NBER notes that the CMS NPPES downloadable file of National Provider Identifiers contains nearly 5 million records.
How much does a medical imaging study weigh?
It varies by modality by three orders of magnitude, and this page only lists figures with a source. Purview reports that typical digital breast tomosynthesis studies average about 450 MB and can reach 3 GB per exam (Single-source). A paper in the Journal of Pathology Informatics states that an uncompressed 20x whole slide pathology image can exceed 90,000 x 110,000 pixels (10 gigapixels) and require nearly 30 GB of storage, swelling to about 100 GB at 40x (Verified). Microsoft states that medical imaging data represents approximately 80 to 90 percent of healthcare data growth.
How often are medical imaging systems breached?
The primary sources describe exposure and breach counts rather than a rate. A ProPublica and Bayerischer Rundfunk investigation identified 187 unprotected medical image servers in the US exposing records of more than 5 million US patients and more than 16 million scans worldwide (2019). A July 2021 HHS HC3 alert warned that exposed PACS servers at about 130 US health systems left 8.5 million case studies, 2 million patients and 275 million images open to unauthorized access. HHS reports in the Federal Register that between 2018 and 2023 the number of large PHI breaches grew 100 percent and the number of individuals affected grew 950 percent, with ransomware-related breaches up 264 percent, and that in 2023 over 160 million individuals were affected by breaches of PHI involving 500 or more people.
How do I cite these statistics?
The page and the CSV are CC BY 4.0. Cite as: MiniPACS, PACS statistics, accessed <date>, and link to this page. Every row on the page names its primary source, so for a formal citation cite the primary source directly and use this page as the finding aid. The dataset was last refreshed on 2026-08-28; the date appears on the page and in the Dataset metadata.