Northeast Georgia Healthcare Providers Select Merge Healthcare iConnect Solution to Strengthen Health Information Exchange (HIE) Strategy

Image interoperability to provide patient-centric view of images across a multi-county region

CHICAGO–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Merge Healthcare (NASDAQ: MRGE), a leading provider of enterprise imaging and interoperability solutions, announced today that Northeast Georgia Health System, Inc. (NGHS), including Northeast Georgia Medical Center and Northeast Georgia Physicians Group; The Longstreet Clinic, P.C.; Northeast Georgia Diagnostic Clinic, LLC; and Northeast Georgia Heart Center, P.C. will incorporate iConnect into their overall community HIE strategy.

With more than 500 physicians, serving over 700,000 people across northeast Georgia, this collaboration of community providers is leading its state’s efforts to improve care by implementing a health information exchange strategy. iConnect will play a pivotal role in that strategy by enabling access to and sharing of medical images and information from any location, at any time.

“With iConnect, we can prevent delays in care as a result of images from other facilities not being readily accessible,” said Allana Cummings, CIO, Northeast Georgia Health System. “We now have a gateway to access images that improves care, and we can offer a physician-friendly viewing tool to support patient referrals within our community and abroad.”

Merge’s iConnect suite of solutions includes a vendor neutral archive that enables physicians to manage and store content from disparate departmental solutions. iConnect provides access to medical images from any approved Web-enabled device and facilitates the sharing of images between referring centers without the need for additional equipment or software.

“We are excited to partner with innovative organizations such as these in the northeast Georgia community collaborative,” said Jeff Surges, CEO of Merge Healthcare. “They understand the critical role images play in providing a complete patient electronic health record, and equally how important it is to be able to share those images.”

About Merge Healthcare

Merge Healthcare is the leading provider of enterprise imaging and interoperability solutions. Merge solutions facilitate the sharing of images to create a more effective and efficient electronic healthcare experience for patients and physicians. Merge provides enterprise imaging solutions for radiology, cardiology and orthopaedics; a suite of products for clinical trials; software for financial and pre-surgical management, and applications that fuel the largest modality vendors in the world. Merge’s products have been used by healthcare providers, vendors and researchers worldwide to improve patient care for more than 20 years. Additional information can be found at www.merge.com.

About Northeast Georgia Health System, Inc. (NGHS)

NGHS is a not-for-profit community health system dedicated to improving the health and quality of life of the people of Northeast Georgia. The Health System offers a full range of healthcare services through its hospital in Gainesville, Northeast Georgia Medical Center, which was named one of the country’s 100 Top Hospitals for 2009 by Thomson Reuters.

About The Longstreet Clinic, P.C. (TLC)

TLC is an integrated multi-specialty group owned and managed by physicians. The Longstreet Clinic, P.C. is ranked by the Atlanta Business Chronicle as the eighth largest medical group in Georgia, as well as the third largest group in the State, not affiliated with or owned by a medical school or managed care organization.

About Northeast Georgia Diagnostic Clinic, LLC (NGDC)

NGDC is a multi-specialty clinic dedicated to providing compassionate, innovative, high quality healthcare to the adult population of Gainesville and the surrounding communities of the Northeast Georgia region.

About Northeast Georgia Heart Center, P.C. (NGHC)

NGHC is the state’s leader in cardiac care, with physicians who are consistently recognized as some of the top cardiovascular physicians in the country. It is through their leadership and collaboration that Northeast Georgia Medical Center has been recognized as the #1 heart hospital in the State of Georgia for the last six years running, according to HealthGrades®.

   

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