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

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 merge.


About IBM


For more information about IBM visit

www.ibm/software/rational/welcome/telelogic

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