– Portal Provides Web
Access to Images, Reports and Exam Status To Referring Physicians; Company
To Grow Referring Practice Web Capabilities –
Milwaukee, WI, May 3, 2005 – Merge eFilm (NASDAQ: MRGE), a leading global
healthcare software and services company, today announced the release of
the FUSION Referring Practice Portal™, a web portal module integrated
within Merge eFilm’s FUSION RIS and RIS/PACS solutions. This portal
provides real-time access to reports and their associated images from
within FUSION RIS/PACS or just reports from FUSION RIS via the Web.
Additionally, the Referring Practice Portal gives imaging referral
practices instant access to the Exam / Appointment Status, as well as
offering an Emergency / Referral Access for hospital and clinic referrals
in emergency situations. The portal has HIPAA supportive security and
auditing features, and can be customized with a facility’s brand identity
and service information. The referring practice portal is an optional
module that can be purchased with FUSION RIS/PACS or FUSION RIS.
The 1.0 version of Referring Practice Portal was developed by Center for
Diagnostic Imaging (CDI), a FUSION RIS/PACS customer with 32 imaging
centers throughout the U.S. The 1.0 version currently has over 2,600
referring office staff and physicians nationwide who have expressed
positive feedback on the ease of navigation, convenience of knowing instant
exam status without having to call the radiology practice and fast access
to reports and images. The portal’s intuitive user interface was designed
and tested with input from referring practices, and they continue to be
involved in the product road map development process. Merge eFilm’s
Referring Practice Portal 2.0 leverages CDI’s 1.0 version with enhanced
capabilities and a tighter integration with FUSION RIS and RIS/PACS.
Unlike other RIS or PACS web capabilities, the Referring Practice Portal
provides referring physicians with real-time exam status, images and
reports directly from the RIS, ensuring the most accurate up-to-date
information possible.
“We are pleased that our relationship with Merge eFilm has resulted in such
an innovative and productivity-enhancing product,” said Steve Fischer,
Center for Diagnostic Imaging Chief Information Officer, “For Merge eFilm
customers, the Referring Practice Portal 2.0 helps improve referring
physician satisfaction and increase our referral streams, because of the
ease and efficiencies it affords us,” said Fischer.
Leveraging FUSION’s web-based imaging technology, the Referring Practice
Portal eliminates the need to fax reports or courier hard-copy films to
referring practices, greatly reducing inefficiencies and costs for imaging
centers, hospitals and clinics that utilize FUSION RIS and RIS/PACS to
support their business and clinical workflow. Unlike other portal
applications, FUSION’s Referring Practice Portal is “exam centric,” giving
the user secure web access to live information within the RIS. This live
approach provides important, immediate real-time information on patient
information such as the status of their exam. In addition, this product
provides FUSION customers with a competitive advantage in the marketplace
by providing their referrers with access to images, reports and exam status
from any location at any time, which enhances the productivity and
profitability their referrers’ practices. Merge eFilm supports this key
marketplace advantage by providing a Referring Practice Portal Marketing
Toolkit to its customers along with the software. This toolkit includes
electronic templates that can be customized for the imaging center,
hospital or clinic, and ordered via the Web on a print-on-demand basis.
“Our customers’ revenue generation is contingent upon their ability to
attract and retain referrers,” said Tim Kulbago, Merge eFilm Chief
Technology Officer. “In addition to the high quality of their diagnostic
services, our customers are committed to bringing ever-increasing value to
their referrers, and we will continue to provide solutions that deliver
efficiencies to their referrers so that they, too, experience accelerated
productivity. We will continue the development of our Referring Practice
Portal to create even more capabilities for the referring physician.”
“The Referring Practice Portal is another example of our strategy to
position Merge eFilm as a business partner with its customers, far beyond
the typical ‘software vendor’ relationship,” said Richard Linden, Merge
eFilm President and CEO. “We are very excited about the Referring Practice
Portal strategy, and with the involvement of our customers, will continue
to create capabilities that help them better serve their referrers, while
simultaneously reducing our customers’ costs. This is consistent with our
core strategy of bringing ever-increasing value to our customers,” said
Linden.
About Merge eFilm
Merge eFilm is a global healthcare software and services company focused on
accelerating the productivity of imaging centers, small- to medium-sized
hospitals and clinics with a suite of RIS/PACS products that more
efficiently streamline, integrate and distribute image and information
workflow across the healthcare enterprise. Since 1987, Merge eFilm has
leveraged its healthcare integration and connectivity experience to create
workflow solutions that improve our customers’ productivity and enhance the
quality of care they provide.
