Merge Healthcare, a leading medical imaging software and services provider, today announced the release of Fusion PACS MX 3.0, featuring integrated Merge Mammo 7.10, Merge’s digital mammography application. Using Merge’s advanced integration technology embedded within Fusion PACS MX 3.0, radiologists can launch Merge Mammo right at the PACS workstation, significantly streamlining mammography workflow. In addition, Fusion PACS MX 3.0 introduces several new features designed to increase radiologist productivity, including study caching, viewing protocol enhancements and extended keyboard shortcuts.

"Merge Mammo is a multi-modality, vendor neutral digital mammography workstation that enables imaging centers to use a single workstation to display and read images from different vendors and different acquisition devices, including digital mammography, ultrasound, MR and CT," said Gary Bowers, President Merge Healthcare North America. "Now, with Fusion PACS MX 3.0, users can launch Merge Mammo 7.10 from the PACS workstation without having to deal with two separate worklists or sending mammography studies to a different workstation."

Additional Merge Mammo 7.10 features include:

    * Support for 12-bit printing: Enables enhanced display of grayscale images in the printed format – comparable to on-screen resolution.
    * Support for Microsoft Windows XP 64-bit architecture: Provides increased system
      responsiveness of integrated mammography and the memory to accommodate large
      dataset viewing.
    * Hanging Protocol matching feature: Permits hanging protocol selection to be matched by the number of studies loaded, as opposed to matching based on study description.
    * Customizable line measurements: Allow users to set line thickness for added visibility and better accuracy.
    * OptimumView tool: Improves visualization of subtle anatomic structures via user-defined zoom, enabling examination of paired images at increased resolution by clicking to zoom any section of the image using a customizable zoom factor.
    * Support for fanning view: Permits users to specify spatial orientation on each monitor
      separately – affording a fanned, chest wall-to-chest wall view of mammography images.
    * Window/level shortcut: Perform window/level adjustments using a new keyboard shortcut. Minimizing manual sequences – such as using a menu or typing commands – saves time while providing ergonomic benefits.
    * VGA for ultrasound images: Automatic VGA monitor support of ultrasound images provides agility and control when viewing multi-modality images across multiple monitors.


Fusion PACS MX 3.0
The ability to launch the Merge Mammo digital mammography application at the PACS workstation makes Fusion PACS MX 3.0 an even more powerful PACS solution, while streamlining the entire imaging department’s workflow.

Additional Fusion PACS MX 3.0 features include:

    * Study caching: Gives clinicians a way to select multiple studies and have them load locally, sequentially, in the background while they work, saving time. This improves on on-demand loading, which begins downloading images only when a study is selected.
    * Hanging protocol criteria and selection improvements: Added flexibility in protocol
      configuration, including support of viewing protocols with multiple views. Radiologists can configure a single viewing protocol for a CT abdomen and pelvis, for example, with their choice of a variety of different views: View 1) Soft tissue window presets, View 2) Lung window presents, 3) Bone window presents, Views 4-6) The preceding windows, but with prior studies added. Users may also now move forward and backward between views, and have the ability to:
          o Have prior studies influence hanging protocol selection.
          o Match prior studies based on the Laterality DICOM tag.
          o Launch a preset hanging protocols based on close matches to the user’s entered study description. Reduces the previous version’s sensitivity to minor spelling errors entered at the modality.
          o Create a virtually unlimited number of keyboard "hot key" shortcuts for frequently used PACS tools. Including the standard "F" keys, users now can harness the entire keyboard to create hot keys – as well as the Alt, Shift and Ctrl keys – and multi-key combinations, such as Alt-Shift-x and Ctrl-Shift-x. Hot keys can significantly increase radiologist productivity and decrease "mouse-fatigue" by reducing mouse clicks.
          o Save annotations in DICOM overlay files: These files are associated with images returned to the PACS archive. Annotations can be toggled on and off.

About Merge Healthcare

Merge Healthcare is a developer of medical imaging and clinical software applications and developmental tools that are on the forefront of medicine. We develop medical imaging software solutions that support end-to-end business and clinical workflow for radiology department and specialty practices, imaging centers and hospitals. Our software technologies accelerate market delivery for our OEM customers, while our end-user solutions improve our customers’ productivity and enhance the quality of the patient experience. For additional information, visit our website at www.mergehealthcare.com.

All trademarks appearing in this release are the property of Cedara Software Corp. and/or Merge Healthcare.

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