When hiring a consultant look for one who is independent

Henri ‘Rik’ Primo’s 40 years’ experience in healthcare IT and medical imaging spans the earliest development of PAC systems to the latest innovations in interoperability and enterprise imaging. His career parallels the digitization of healthcare information, and his pioneering contributions at the likes of Philips, AGFA and Siemens were key to major technology shifts in the digital imaging. He worked on the early implementations and product launch of Philips digital subtraction technology for angiography, the creation and launch of the Gyroview 2000 MRI advanced visualization system, and the first rollout of an archive CD product that featured “SPI” or standard product interconnect, a pre-DICOM interface that allowed Siemens and Philips MRI workstations users to share MRI images. At AGFA he worked on the creation and product launch of IMPAX the first PACS system that was using common off-the-shelf hardware (COTS). His 20-year career at Siemens included 10 years as chair of the Imaging Informatics Division for NEMA - (National Electrical Manufacturers Association) in addition to his work on strategic relationships with universities, consultants, and regulatory bodies in the realm of digital technology and transformation. Today, he is an independent consultant to major imaging informatics clients and serves on a number of HIMSS-SIIMS Enterprise Imaging collaborative workgroups. PARCA eNews spoke to Mr. Primo by phone about his remarkable career and  and what to look for in a consultant.