Merge Healthcare Incorporated , a leading provider of clinical systems and innovations that seek to transform healthcare, today announced that Franciscan Alliance, Inc. has selected Merge Healthcare's iConnect® Access* to image-enable their EMR and provide real-time access to radiology and cardiology images and information across its network of 13 hospitals in Indiana and Illinois.
"As part our ongoing EMR implementation, we knew that to ensure physician adoption of the EMR, we needed to also provide easier access to patient images," explained Bill Laker, Sr. Vice President of Information Services and CIO of Franciscan Alliance, Inc. "Our physicians, like all physicians, are incredibly busy and mobile, so it was important that they could access images from any workstation within the clinic as well as through their mobile devices, including iPads and iPhones, without having to manage software."
"Additionally, while we were looking for a way to improve our image-enabling capabilities, we were pleased to realize that not only could we provide anywhere, any time access to radiology images – our original goal – but that iConnect Access could also connect to our archive of cardiology images," Laker continued. "This was not something that we initially expected but was one of the factors that we used in deciding to purchase iConnect."
"With the proposed Stage 2 requirements that focus heavily on the viewing of diagnostic images, large health systems will need to look at image-enabling their enterprise EMRs," said Jeff Surges, CEO of Merge Healthcare. "The fact that Franciscan Alliance, Inc. is providing access to both radiology and cardiology images not only ensures that they are prepared for Stage 2, but will also help to facilitate high physician adoption of their EMR."
iConnect Access provides a true "zero-footprint" image viewing capability and can be embedded into many third-party products. iConnect Access is part of the iConnect suite, which is the industry's only comprehensive solution for collecting, archiving, viewing, sharing and exchanging any type of image, anywhere, any time. It also includes iConnect Share, an Internet-based gateway for imaging sharing between enterprises, and iConnect® VNA, a vendor-neutral archive to create an enterprise imaging strategy. It works with existing applications, leveraging widely-used web and healthcare technology standards, to provide a vendor neutral interoperable environment.
*iConnect Access is not FDA-cleared for diagnostic use on mobile devices.
About Merge Healthcare
Merge is a leading provider of clinical systems and innovations that seek to transform healthcare. Merge's enterprise and cloud-based solutions for image intensive specialties provide access to any image, anywhere, any time. Merge also provides health stations, clinical trials software and other health data and analytics solutions that engage consumers in their personal health. With solutions that are used by providers and consumers and include more than 20 years of innovation, Merge is helping to reduce costs and improve the quality of healthcare worldwide. For more information, visit merge.com.
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