Merge Healthcare and Omnicare Clinical Research Partner for Clinical Trial Win

Merge CIMSTM to provide imaging capabilities for five-year global oncology study

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Merge Healthcare Incorporated (NASDAQ: MRGE), a global corporation dedicated to health IT interoperability solutions, today announced that Omnicare Clinical Research, a full service Contract Research Organization (CRO) and subsidiary of Omnicare, Inc. (NASDAQ: OCR), will work with Merge's clinical trial solutions in a major new clinical trial. A long-standing user of the Merge EDCTM clinical trials application, Omnicare Clinical Research will now will implement Merge CIMSTM as a part of its end-to-end solution for image management of oncology, cardiology and ophthalmology clinical trials.

Omnicare will use this integrated imaging solution paired with Merge EDC to conduct an upcoming study for a leading pharmaceutical company specializing in molecular diagnostics for oncology research. This global colorectal cancer trial will collect and review 2,750 exams from 550 patients at 40 sites over 5 years. This streamlined solution, built on Merge CIMS, was selected for its ability to lower costs, reduce the time to deliver results by up to 10 times relative to industry standards, and provide complete transparency to all of the stakeholders in the trial.

"We needed a comprehensive image management solution to support our customer's imaging requirements for this new clinical trial, as well as for upcoming studies," explained Mark Penniston, Senior Vice President, Biometrics, Data Management, Clinical Writing and eTechnologies at Omnicare Clinical Research. "The Merge CIMS solution is a critical component of this because it provides a completely new level of workflow efficiency to a clinical trial. We feel we can now offer best-of-breed solutions to our Sponsor organizations, particularly those in image-intensive studies such as oncology."

Along with Merge CIMS, Omnicare plans to leverage AG Mednet's image transfer technology and leading radiology expertise from Intrinsic Imaging to build a complete virtual imaging core lab solution. The Merge CIMS role is to automate the full workflow of image submission, image storage in a vendor-neutral DICOM archive, and image review and analysis. This allows the imaging component of any study to be completed more efficiently and economically, while also integrating fully with any EDC system to provide end-to-end visibility to all data in a clinical trial.

Merge CIMS was recently awarded the North American Healthcare Innovation of the Year Award for use in clinical trials and medical research from Frost and Sullivan.

"Merge Healthcare's CIMS solution is the industry's most advanced workflow management solution for imaging trials, owing to enabling technology that unlocks the use of imaging in clinical trials," noted Nadim Daher, Senior Industry Analyst at Frost and Sullivan.

"Merge is delighted to be selected as the enterprise imaging partner by a forward-thinking CRO such as Omnicare Clinical Research," said Jeff Surges, CEO of Merge Healthcare. "The role of imaging in clinical trials is accelerating, and Merge CIMS leverages our core expertise in both imaging and clinical trials to bring this market needed workflow tools. We anticipate that this upcoming study will be the first of many joint projects with Omnicare."

Merge Healthcare develops software solutions that automate healthcare data and diagnostic workflow to create a more comprehensive electronic record of the patient experience. Merge products, ranging from standards-based development toolkits to fully integrated clinical applications, have been used by healthcare providers worldwide for over 20 years. Additional information can be found at www.merge.com.

Omnicare Clinical Research was established in 1985, as a full-service CRO, with diverse therapeutic expertise and comprehensive clinical service offerings, supporting the pharmaceutical industry throughout every aspect of a clinical project. Furthermore, the Company features specialized expertise in phase I-III clinical services, clinical supplies packaging, labeling, storage and distribution services, and functional service provider relationships from its office locations in over 30 countries worldwide. Omnicare Clinical Research is a subsidiary of Omnicare, Inc. (NYSE: OCR), a leading provider of pharmacy services to long-term care facilities and other chronic care settings comprising approximately 1.4 million beds in 47 states, the District of Columbia and Canada. www.omnicareCR.com.