MILWAUKEE, April 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Merge Healthcare (Nasdaq: MRGE; TSX: MRG), a leading medical imaging software and services provider, today announced that it will showcase its recently-released Merge Mammo(TM) version 7.0 at the 8th Postgraduate Course of the Society of Breast Imaging, April 14-17, 2007 in Hollywood, Florida. One of the industry’s first multi-modality, vendor-neutral digital mammography workstation applications, Merge Mammo(TM) will be available for demonstration to event attendees, including more than 550 breast-specialized clinicians from around the world.
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Merge Mammo enables organizations to display and read images from different systems simultaneously (digital mammography, ultrasound, MR, CR, etc.), and to read all breast studies on a single workstation, regardless of which vendor’s acquisition device is used to secure the images. The solution helps eliminate challenges associated with changing or adding digital mammography acquisition devices across an enterprise, and with pulling in prior studies for comparison from various modalities. Automation and customization features enable radiologists to read with the same throughput as hardcopy. In addition, Merge Mammo can be interfaced with any existing DICOM- compliant PACS solution. Merge Healthcare recently participated in the IHE North America 2007 Connectathon in the Mammography Image Profile, and passed for both Image Display and Image Manager/Image Archive.
“In an era of declining reimbursement, imaging organizations must identify opportunities to achieve new efficiencies while also staying current with the latest techniques. Merge Mammo is a one-stop solution for breast imaging software in a digital environment,” says Chris Keefe, chief financial officer for Metro Imaging, with five locations in the greater St. Louis area. “With this single workstation, we duplicate our hard-copy review best practices, streamline workflow, and enhance clinical reading capabilities. This supports our organization’s priorities to ensure both clinical excellence and organizational efficiency. Our transition to digital is saving us money.”
Merge Healthcare is replicating these results at other sites as well. In fact, Merge is now offering a new ROI tool to help organizations calculate the hard and soft cost savings of moving to digital mammography within their single site or enterprise environment.
“We are pleased to participate in this year’s Society for Breast Imaging,” says Gary Bowers, President of Merge Healthcare’s North America division. “We look forward to sharing our newest mammography workstation solution with clinicians and administrators, and to hearing their feedback about current challenges and opportunities in today’s rapidly changing world of mammography.”
Merge Healthcare is a market leader in the development and delivery of medical imaging and information management software and services. Our innovative software solutions use leading-edge imaging software technologies that accelerate market delivery for our OEM customers, while our end-user solutions improve our customers’ productivity and enhance the quality of patient care they provide. Merge Healthcare’s North American business unit is focused on accelerating productivity for radiology departments and specialty practices, imaging centers and hospitals. By combining sophisticated RIS, PACS, advanced visualization and clinical imaging applications, Merge Healthcare delivers integrated end-to-end software solutions and professional services that transform the way our customers interact with referring physicians, manage their workflow, position their businesses in their markets and deliver imaging and information services to their customers. For additional information, visit Merge Healthcare’s website at http://www.mergehealthcare.com/.
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