IBM And Merge Healthcare Join Forces For Better Development Of Advanced Medical Imaging Technology

Main Category: MRI / PET / Ultrasound
Also Included In: Radiology / Nuclear Medicine;  Medical Devices / Diagnostics;  IT / Internet / E-mail
Article Date: 05 Dec 2008 - 2:00 PDT

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With the help of IBM (NYSE: IBM), Merge Healthcare (NASDAQ: MRGE) is providing doctors, radiologists and other medical professionals easier access to medical images including x-rays, MRIs and CT scans. Medical professionals can now view medical images using a mobile device or desktop computer without waiting for medical imaging films, accessing a specialized system or downloading cumbersome files. Merge Healthcare's new technology can help medical professionals quickly view emergency cases, consult with colleagues and forward critical findings.

Merge Healthcare is making this technology breakthrough possible with Cedara WebAccess(TM), a new solution created with the help of software from IBM.

Announced in conjunction with the Radiological Society of North America conference in Chicago this week, the first applications based on Cedara WebAccess will include systems that deliver medical images to an iPhone or iPod touch, physician portals and other web-based solutions that promise to decrease the medical profession's reliance on traditional image delivery methods.

Although healthcare professionals have invested in ways to expedite access to medical images and reduce waste associated with paper reports and film, today's imaging requires specialized systems or computers that can accommodate large file downloads. Merge Healthcare's Cedara WebAccess technology furthers this initiative by eliminating the need for specialized systems and additional computer storage capacity.

Breakthroughs in medical technology are achieved every day. To remain competitive, medical device manufactures and services providers must react quickly with new products. These companies rely on Merge Healthcare to provide everything from essential software and development platforms, to custom product development initiatives. Over the past 20 years, Merge Healthcare's OEM division has developed software and systems for some of the world's leading providers of medical imaging products and services.

To manage these development efforts, Merge Healthcare uses two of IBM's software change and configuration management products, IBM Telelogic Synergy and IBM Telelogic Change. The relationship with IBM allows Merge Healthcare to simplify the process of managing changes throughout the life of software products and helps get the greatest value out of the software they develop. With their unifying central change and release management repository, Telelogic Synergy and Change ensure that all processes for the development and delivery of software can be defined, implemented, automated, visualized and managed collaboratively.

According to Merge Healthcare OEM Division President Toni Wells, the communication and management capabilities of the IBM software products allow Merge Healthcare to maintain the product integrity, regulatory compliance and time-to-market needs its customers demand. "The medical field is highly dependent on software, which significantly enhances delivery of patient care. Merge Healthcare OEM provides our customers with the software functionality that differentiates their products from their competitors," Wells explains. "We rely on Telelogic Synergy and Telelogic Change to manage the complexity of the software we develop, and to ensure that our global development teams operate as one, for the best result to our customers. This software from IBM is part of our livelihood. It's our DNA."

About Merge Healthcare

Merge Healthcare's solutions solve mission-critical issues for radiology practices, outpatient imaging centers, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and device manufacturers worldwide. For additional information, visit http://www.merge.com.

About IBM

For more information about IBM visit
www.ibm.com/software/rational/welcome/telelogic

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