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MedCommons HealthURL, a New Unified Clinical Viewer Appliance, Is Integrated with EMC Open Systems Archive Solution for Healthcare Organizations

Posted on: Tuesday, 2 December 2008, 07:10 CST

CHICAGO, Dec. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- MedCommons announces integration of its HealthURL Appliance with the EMC Open Systems Archive Solution for Healthcare Organizations. The EMC Open Systems Archive Solution for Healthcare Organizations provides a modular DICOM-compliant management platform that aggregates and reconciles patient information, including medical images from clinical and business applications into a patient-centric archive. The integration with the MedCommons appliance unifies the presentation of the most important healthcare documents including legacy documents, structured and coded XML documents and diagnostic imaging. The unified presentation is available both inside and outside the enterprise via modern Web browsers and iPhone.

Progress in health information technology challenges clinicians to assimilate and understand the information on file about a given patient. The rush to "digitize" paper and film has brought first-generation applications, each focused on a single document type and file format: digitized paper, database and imaging, which tend to be processed and presented separately. As connectivity costs continue to drop and patient mobility increases to include home care, medical travel and personal health records, the information triage and presentation problem gets worse. The risks of uncoordinated decisions and the costs of repeated procedures are well understood.

The introduction of the MedCommons HealthURL Viewer into the EMC Open Systems Archive Solution provides a new step in the direction of user-centered information. First, the HealthURL Viewer interfaces to the broadly scalable EMC Documentum database and the powerful EMC storage platform catalog to create a standard XML document in Continuity of Care Record (CCR) format with links to relevant PDF and DICOM documents. Then, the HealthURL Viewer presents a unified screen that makes structured data, legacy documents and diagnostic imaging accessible over the new generation of browsers and smartphones.

As the user clicks on links and thumbnails in the HealthURL viewer, MedCommons fetches, transforms and displays documents or images using the OSA protocols. The application is FDA-cleared for diagnostic imaging and provides the most common interpretation tools such as zoom, pan, window/level presets, informational overlays and anatomic orientation markers. For maximum speed, security, compatibility and ease-of-use, all of these features are managed natively in the Web browser without any proprietary plug-ins to install. Documents appear in whatever PDF viewer the user has selected, including the Adobe Reader or equivalent on PC, Mac, Linux and iPhone platforms.

In addition to the unified viewer features, each MedCommons HealthURL provides many options in support of emerging Web 2.0 applications that allow users to connect personal health records, personally controlled health records, HIPAA-compliant electronic health records and a growing catalog of patient-centered services and social networks.

"Unified, structured presentation of patient-centered information will transform both primary care and specialist interpretation in the years to come," says Adrian Gropper, MD, Chief Science Officer of MedCommons. "Open Systems Archive provides the enterprise-class automation and performance that clinical users expect. We are pleased to work with EMC as we introduce clinicians and patients to the new generation of Web-connected information systems."

Scott Filion, General Manager - EMC Global Healthcare, said, "We are excited to be working with MedCommons on the HealthURL Appliance. The integration of HealthURL with our Open Systems Archive Solution for Healthcare Organizations provides a unified, seamless presentation of critical and confidential information in healthcare environments, while meeting regulatory requirements."

Bill Donner, CEO of MedCommons, says, "We are excited to be working with EMC to build a scalable, high-performance storage and application delivery infrastructure for healthcare. MedCommons provides a bridge from the EMC Open Systems Archive to emerging, advanced Web-based patient-centric services such as search, clinical trials enrollment and patient-self-help social networks."

About MedCommons

MedCommons is a healthcare software vendor supplying packaged radiology and electronic health record systems to hospitals, regional health organizations, governments, employers, insurance providers, and system integrators for next generation Web 2.0 / Health 2.0 applications including Personal Health Record portals, telemedicine, HIPAA release of information fulfillment, convenient care clinics, imaging centers, sports medicine and disease management. The common denominator, a MedCommons HealthURL, is a secure patient-centered portfolio of private health information on the Internet. HealthURL appliances are designed to reduce barriers to communication and collaboration in healthcare by integrating records, communications, privacy and security features while bridging the policy and workflow requirements of diverse institutions. For more information about our on-site appliances and "in-the-cloud" services, please visit http://www.medcommons.net.

For more information, contact: Judy Fallows, 617-395-6744 (jfallows@medcommons.net) and visit http://www.medcommons.net

This release was issued through eReleases(TM). For more information, visit http://www.ereleases.com.

SOURCE MedCommons, Inc.

Source: PR Newswire

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