Intelerad Medical Systems and Life Image are merging in an agreement – undisclosed terms – that the companies say will create the largest medical imaging exchange network.
Enhancing the interoperability of medical images is the main data exchange goal of 21st Century Healing Act.
Intelerad, an enterprise imaging provider based in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Montreal hopes to enhance access to digital health information by combining two of the largest image-sharing networks. and ensure open access between networks.
Last year, Intelerad acquired Ambra Health, a step that Morris Panner, Intelerad president and former Ambra CEO, said quickly achieves a shared vision of a nationwide electronic imaging network in an announcement.
Connecting 13,000 facilities with more than 160,000 U.S. providers and 58,000 global clinics, Life Image is the only medical evidence network that provides large-scale, heterogeneous sets of indeterminated images that have Linkable to longitudinal data for medical research.
Together, Intelerad and Life Image manages more than 80 billion images worldwide and is used by blue chip health systems such as Cleveland Clinic, Mayo Clinic, and NewYork Presbyterian.
“Bringing together two of the industry’s leading imaging exchange providers further reinforces Intelerad’s commitment to helping doctors and patients lead the imaging revolution from the closed PACS world. unique to a future of interoperable image exchange,” Intelerad CEO Mike Lipps said in a statement.
“As a supporter of the vital role radiology plays in health equity, I am encouraged by the announcement of this extensive network and its commitment to interoperability,” said Dr. McGinty, President of the American College of Radiology added in a statement shared by the companies.
The consolidation lays further ground for continuing to phase out expensive CD-ROMs as the primary means of image transmission and helps support the healthcare industry’s interoperability goals.
Andrea Fox is the senior editor of Healthcare IT News.
Email: [email protected]
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS publication.
