News Release For Immediate Release

 

Investor Contact:
Julie Pekarek
Chief Marketing Officer
414.977.4254
ir@merge.com

 

MERGE HEALTHCARE CONTINUES DICOM LEADERSHIP WITH LATEST TOOLKIT RELEASE

Milwaukee, WI, November 20, 2009 – In fulfillment of its ongoing 20 year commitment to the medical imaging development community, Merge Healthcare (NASDAQ: MRGE), announced the release of MergeCOM-3™ Version 4.1, with the latest standard supplements to its industry-leading DICOM interface implementation toolkit. As a member of the DICOM Standards Committee, Merge has maintained a policy of incorporating all significant changes to the DICOM standard within 3 months of adoption by the Committee.

“This release of MergeCOM-3 further demonstrates the investment we are making into standards based interoperability and health information exchange.”, said Justin Dearborn, CEO of Merge Healthcare, “Driving early adoption of standards in specialized areas such as Ultrasound CAD is a critical first step in delivering a cost effective and relevant IT infrastructure for healthcare providers.”

Version 4.1 adds support for the following DICOM standard supplements:

Supplement 43 – Storage of 3D Ultrasound Images

Supplement 119 – Instance and Frame Level Retrieve SOP Classes

Supplement 126 – Colon Computer-Aided Detection SR SOP Class

Additionally, the MergeCOM-3™ HL7 Toolkit now provides full dictionary support for all v2 releases of the standard, giving customers the ability to implement interfaces for any HL7-enabled medical device or information system.

Because of its dedication to the advancement of open standards software development, MergeCOM-3 is widely used in medical devices and systems today. Earlier this year, Merge added support for the HL7 standard as well, making the MergeCOM-3 toolkits the only source for DICOM/HL7 development. MergeCOM-3 is available for a variety of operating systems and programming platforms, including Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows Vista, Linux and Unix operating systems; C/C++, C#/.Net and Java programming platforms; supporting both 32 and 64 bit run-time environments. The most recent version of MergeCOM-3™ toolkit and related documentation is available for download at www.mergecom3.com.

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Merge Healthcare Incorporated develops solutions that automate healthcare data and diagnostic workflow to enable a better electronic record of the patient experience, and to enhance product development for health IT, device and pharmaceutical companies. Merge products, ranging from standards-based development toolkits to sophisticated clinical applications, have been used by healthcare providers, vendors and researchers worldwide for over 20 years. Additional information can be found at www.merge.com.

The matters discussed in this news release may include forward-looking statements, which could involve a number of risks and uncertainties. When used in this press release, the words “will”, “believes”, “intends”, “anticipates”, “expects” and similar expressions, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, such forward-looking statements. Except as expressly required by the federal securities laws, the Company undertakes no obligation to update such factors or to publicly announce the results of any of the forward-looking statements.