Businessweek

Merge Healthcare Incorporated develops software solutions that facilitate the sharing of images to create an electronic healthcare experience for patients and physicians. The company’s solutions optimize processes for healthcare providers ranging in size from single provider practices to large health systems, to the sponsors of clinical trials and medical device manufacturers. These solutions are licensed by approximately 1,500 hospitals, 6,000 clinics and labs, 250 medical device manufacturers, and by pharmaceutical companies world-wide. Product Portfolio The company provides a range of products and services to its customers, including the following: Image Interoperability Platform iConnect: This interoperability and connectivity platform enables hospitals, imaging centers, Integrated Delivery Networks and Health Information Exchanges to create information exchanges within their environments and with other entities. This platform provides access to imaging and diagnostic data across disparate sites, geographies, specialties and providers. This solution enables providers to expedite care, reduce duplicate exams, consolidate infrastructure, and limit the expenses associated with moving, managing and storing diagnostic content and results. Clinical and Financial Information Systems Digital Imaging Solutions: Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS), specialty workstations and related applications manage the image workflow of a medical enterprise. PACS can be used by medical imaging providers at a hospital or outpatient imaging site. The company offers PACS solutions for general image review and management, specialty solutions for cardiology, orthopaedics, ophthalmology, mammography and oncology, and add-on modules like referring physician portals and critical test results reporting. The company also offers its eFilm Workstation for general radiology reading and CADstream workstations for specialty reading of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) breast, liver and prostate studies. Clinical information systems: These systems provide an electronic record of a medical procedure across various specialties, including Merge OrthoEMR for orthopaedics, and Merge RIS for radiology. Revenue Cycle Management: The company offers software and services for the revenue cycle management of physician practices. These solutions can be used across physician specialties, but its solutions are used by radiology practices, imaging centers and billing services. Software Development Toolkits, Technologies and Platforms Merge toolkits, technologies and platforms provide software developers with the necessary resources to assist in the timely development of new products and enhance existing products. They can be used by original equipment manufacturer (OEM), medical device manufacturer, RIS/PACS or general healthcare IT vendors. The company offers development toolkits in the basic standards of medical imaging and information interoperability, as well as advanced toolkits and unfinished applications for specialized medical image review and distribution. Hosted Software Solutions for Clinical Trial Data Management The company provides hosted software solutions for the collection, aggregation, analysis, reporting and overall management of clinical trials information. These solutions can be sold to sponsors of clinical trials, including pharmaceutical companies, contract research organizations (CRO) or imaging core labs. The company’s solutions include electronic data capture (EDC), interactive voice/web response (IVR/IWR) and electronic patient reported outcomes (ePRO) software and devices. Sales and Marketing The company’s executive sales and marketing management is located at its innovation center in Chicago, Illinois, while its sales team is deployed across the United States. Competition The company’s principal competitors in the healthcare solutions and services market include General Electric Company (Healthcare), McKesson Corporation, Fuji, Philips, Carestream, and Agfa. Its CAD solutions compete with iCAD, InVivo (Philips) and Hologic. History Merge Healthcare Incorporated was founded in 1987.