CHICAGO, Aug. 29, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Merge Healthcare Incorporated (Nasdaq:MRGE), a leading provider of clinical systems and innovations that seek to transform healthcare, announced today that it was named the leading provider for vendor-neutral archive (VNA) solutions in both the world and in the Americas by IHS.
Merge's iConnect® Enterprise Archive accounted for 22.7% of all studies stored in a VNA in the world. Further, Merge was the market leader in the Americas with 32.6% of all studies archived in 2012. In total, Merge clients have stored over 37 million studies which equates to over 15 billion images.
IHS predicts that the market for VNA solutions will grow from 162.3 million studies in 2012 to 366.3 million studies by 2016, a 26.4% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR).
As the industry's first true standalone vendor-neutral archive, iConnect Enterprise Archive has been successfully integrated with over seventy third-party vendor PACS and archives at more than 350 sites. In the large majority of iConnect Enterprise Archive implementations, Merge's customers have integrated third-party PACS systems with iConnect Enterprise Archive.
"We are very proud to again be the global leader in VNA solutions. This recognition from IHS, combined with the recent Product Leadership Award that we received from Frost & Sullivan, confirms that our solutions are the mostly widely-used and the best in the market," said Justin Dearborn, CEO of Merge. "These two awards validate our credibility as a leader and our forward-thinking approach to healthcare."
iConnect Enterprise Archive consolidates, standardizes and archives images and data from disparate picture archiving systems, specialties and sites, giving clinicians a consolidated view of all diagnostic images. And, being vendor agnostic, it also provides the flexibility to add or replace storage systems as needed due to growth or outdated solutions.
iConnect Enterprise Archive is part of Merge's iConnect Enterprise Clinical Platform, the industry's only comprehensive solution for collecting, archiving, viewing, sharing and exchanging any type of image, anywhere, any time. It includes iConnect Access*, a zero-download DICOM image and XDS server, iConnect Share, a gateway for image sharing across the enterprise and iConnect Enterprise Archive, a vendor-neutral archive (VNA) 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. The iConnect platform also includes the Merge Honeycomb™ framework for sharing and archiving images in the cloud, and finally, iConnect Network, a national network for electronic image exchange.
*iConnect Access is not FDA-cleared for diagnostic use on mobile devices.
IHS is pleased to grant Merge permission on a one-time, non-exclusive basis, to reference IHS and its data in the form and content attached hereto solely for the purpose a press release, and subject to the attribution language attached. If use of the attached form and content varies at all, IHS requires pre-approval of the final use, and IHS reserves the right to revoke our consent if the approved content differs in content or medium at any time. Any other content or format in which Merge proposes to use IHS data or otherwise reference IHS requires separate permission from IHS
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 25 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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