[caption id="attachment_218188" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Delaware Imaging Network has bought a Dover practice, as a first step to expand in southern Delaware. | PHOTO COURTESY OF RADNET[/caption] DOVER — Delaware Imaging Network, a growing diagnostic imaging provider, has acquired Mid-Delaware Imaging in Dover as a first move to expanding operations to southern Delaware. The terms of the deal closed on Dec. 1 were not disclosed. Mid-Delaware Imaging’s office on Queen Street is just half a mile from Bayhealth’s Kent Campus. As an arm of RadNet, Delaware Imaging Network plans to retain the roughly 35 employees and will rebrand the facility in March. With the acquisition of Mid-Delaware Imaging, DIN will grow its patient base substantially while targeting the Dover, Milford and Smyrna markets. The patient base will grow to roughly 6,000 a week, or a 20% increase. Over the next two years, DIN plans to add another two or three locations in southern Delaware, officials said. “Our goal is to be the premiere full-service imaging center for all of Delaware, and the next step was to make our first investment in Dover,” RadNet Mid-Atlantic Operations Senior Vice President Kenneth Ames said. “It’s at the center of Delaware, it’s the capital of the state and it puts us in a good position for future expansions in Smyrna, Milford and even Millsboro. We are excited to start delivering our expert care to the community.” Formally established in 2018, DIN offers diagnostic imaging services such as MRI, CT, digital and 3D mammography, ultrasound, nuclear medicine, fluoroscopy, X-ray, DEXA for bone density measurement and more. It is the Delaware arm of RadNet, a network of 350 centers in Maryland, Delaware, New York, New Jersey, Florida, California and Arizona, which handles around 8 million annual outpatient procedures. In 2009, RadNet acquired Papastavros Associates Medical Imaging based in Pike Creek, which had served New Castle County for decades. Years after that, RadNet bought Diagnostic Imaging Associates, which had complementary locations in the northern end of the state and in Middletown. The two companies rebranded to DIN in 2018, and has eight offices from Brandywine Hundred to Middletown, employing about 250 people. Ames estimates that DIN currently conducts 150 outpatient procedures daily. “We’ve consolidated some of those offices where it didn’t make sense to have duplicates, but we aim to keep on the staff whenever we expand with acquisitions,” he said. “They’re the familiar faces in the community and they’re just as much a part of our investment.” DIN offers cutting-edge technology to medical services to screen and treat conditions early. For example, DIN centers offer risk assessment screening, aided by software, to help flag risk factors. DIN also uses artificial intelligence (AI) technology to reach out to patients to schedule annual and follow-up appointments, which has raised return visits by 20%. Most notably, AI is used to aid the mammogram process. Ames said that a program flags areas of concern or whether a patient is high-risk and asks for a second opinion. “This is to double-check the work, since women have a one in nine risk of getting breast cancer,” Ames said. “It’s that incredible quality of care that we’re proud to expand in Delaware.”