MILWAUKEE, Oct. 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Merge eMed, a Merge Healthcare company and a leading medical imaging software and services company, today announced the release of Cedara I-ReadMammo(TM) digital mammography workstation software. This multi modality, vendor-neutral mammography workstation software product is designed to help organizations streamline breast imaging workflow and reduce costs in adopting digital mammography.
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A designated National Cancer Institute (NCI) Cancer Center, the University of California-San Diego (UCSD) Medical Center now uses the Cedara I-ReadMammo workstation to read digital mammograms as well as breast ultrasound and MRI studies produced by devices from a wide array of vendors. “The problem in the past has been that digital mammography sites were forced to work in multi-station environments,” Dr. Chris Comstock, UCSD’s Director of Breast Imaging, says. “This was inefficient because digital mammography workstations were not geared to multi-modality viewing, nor were PACS workstations optimized for mammography hanging protocols. The future of digital breast imaging is the creation of a one-workhorse reading station that increases the efficiency of the center. The workflow we have with I-ReadMammo is already there.”
I-ReadMammo was designed to help sites like UCSD achieve their goal of moving to a single workstation environment. By offering a multi-modality review environment for breast imaging, radiologists no longer have to purchase a multitude of workstations to read digital breast images. Providing a multi-vendor workstation software solution means imaging centers and hospitals that select I-ReadMammo as their mammography workstation software standard can avoid the cost and inefficiency of vendor specific workstations for each mammography modality.
The introduction of Cedara I-ReadMammo follows one of the largest breast cancer screening studies ever performed. Sponsored by the NCI, the four-year Digital Mammography Imaging Screening Trial (DMIST) showed that digital mammograms are better than analog x-ray mammography in detecting breast cancer in younger women and those with dense breasts. With digital mammography, a clinician uses technology to create an electronic image of the breast and store it directly in a computer, much like today’s increasingly popular digital photography. Digital mammography differs from traditional film mammography because the recorded digital data can be magnified, enhanced or manipulated for further evaluation.
“Based upon DMIST results, we anticipate digital mammography becoming a mainstay in the full spectrum of breast imaging services across organizations large and small,” says Sabrina Cannistraro, Cedara I-ReadMammo product manager. “As a new era of digital breast cancer detection emerges, organizations like UCSD will benefit not only from improved clinical results, but also from enhanced workflow and productivity.”
“We are pleased to begin the distribution of the Cedara I-ReadMammo workstation software to both our customers and the broader U.S. healthcare market,” says David Noshay, President of Merge eMed. “This is another example of how the medical imaging software innovation at Cedara Software, also a Merge Healthcare company, benefits our customers in the end-user market by providing clinical software applications that enhance patient care, accelerate productivity and expand the definition of RIS/PACS solutions.”
Cedara I-ReadMammo will be shown at RSNA in the Merge eMed booth, #1918. To schedule a demo at RSNA, call 1.877.446.3743 or visit our special mammography site at www.ireadmammo.com. For additional information about Merge eMed’s RIS, PACS, RIS/PACS and other clinical applications, go to www.merge-emed.com.
Editors: Additional Product Information
Cedara I-ReadMammo streamlines image viewing and comparison, with tools for cropping, spot brightening, synchronized magnification, pan and zoom. With automatic image display functionality, organizations save film-hanging time. Users optimize reading workflow by pre-configuring image layout, presentation and view order preferences. The system delivers Smart Load(TM) technology to load images as quickly as possible so users can start reading immediately. All the tools and information needed to make a diagnosis are accessed at the click of a button using programmable trackball and keypad functions, customizable toolbars, and right mouse button commands. I-ReadMammo can be interfaced with any existing DICOM-compliant PACS solution.
Merge Healthcare is a market leader in the development and delivery of medical imaging and information management software and services. With over twenty years of leadership in the medical imaging and healthcare information technology markets, Merge Healthcare provides innovative solutions for both OEM and the end-user healthcare markets. We custom engineer clinical and imaging applications and development tools that are on the forefront of medicine and its use of medical imaging for OEM and international customers. We develop innovative medical imaging software solutions that support end-to-end business and clinical workflow for radiology department and specialty practices, imaging centers and hospitals. Our innovative software solutions use leading-edge imaging software technologies that accelerate market delivery for our OEM customers, while our end-user solutions improve our customers’ productivity and enhance the quality of patient care they provide. For additional information, visit our website at www.merge.com.
Merge eMed, a Merge Healthcare company, is focused on accelerating productivity for radiology department and specialty practices, imaging centers and hospitals. By combining sophisticated RIS, PACS, advanced visualization and clinical imaging applications, Merge eMed delivers integrated end-to-end software solutions and professional services that are transforming the way our customers interact with referring physicians, manage their workflow, position their businesses in their markets and deliver imaging and information services to their customers. We ensure our customers’ success in today’s competitive healthcare environment by streamlining business and clinical workflow with digital image and information solutions and services.
Cedara Software, a Merge Healthcare company, is focused on the development of custom engineered software applications and development tools for the medical imaging OEM and International markets. Cedara Software is deployed in hospitals and clinics worldwide and is licensed by many of the world’s leading medical device and healthcare information technology companies. Cedara Software technologies and expertise span all the major digital imaging modalities including computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), digital X-ray, mammography, ultrasound, echo-cardiology, angiography, nuclear medicine, positron emission tomography (PET) and fluoroscopy. Cedara Software’s medical imaging offerings are used in all aspects of clinical imaging workflow including the capture of a patient’s digital image; the archiving, communication and manipulation of digital images; sophisticated clinical applications to analyze digital images; and the use of imaging in minimally-invasive surgery.
All trademarks appearing in this release are the property of Merge Healthcare.
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CONTACT: Beth Frost-Johnson, Sr. VP of Marketing, +1-414-977-4254, orbfrost@merge.com, or Richard Linden, President and CEO, +1-414-977-4000, orrlinden@merge.com, both of Merge Healthcare
