Merge Healthcare, a provider of enterprise imaging, interoperability solutions and clinical trials software announced today it will partner with AG Mednet to offer life sciences companies tools to manage imaging clinical trials worldwide, according to a company press release.
AG Mednet is a global medical image collection and delivery service.
The solution the two companies have created integrates AG Mednet's image collection platform with Merge Healthcare's Clinical Imaging Management System (Merge CIMS) for higher quality images “and data flow directly into Merge's CIMS and electronic data capture (EDC) solutions,” allowing for the first time, according to the press release, a turnkey solution for imaging core labs and sponsors “to assemble, de-identify and deliver complete submissions to trial repositories, resulting in significant query reductions and increased submission quality.”
“This alliance creates the first complete infrastructure and feature set required by both commercial and academic core labs to carry out all the necessary logistics in support of clinical trials,” said Dr. Jeffrey Popma, associate professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and director, Angiographic Core Laboratory, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, in the press release.
“The market has been asking for a best-in-class, flexible platform that provides collection, delivery and trial management functions,” added Jeff Surges, CEO of Merge Healthcare. “We're excited to offer this solution to the market, and to already have five studies underway with large pharma companies utilizing the combined Merge/AG Mednet platform.”
Merge CIMS, an automated data and imaging workflow solution, enables radiology experts, sponsors and those who manage images (CROs) to perform the imaging portion of a clinical trial, according to the press release.
The solution allows radiologists and others to get access to images in “real-time,” along with a data about the scans and helps them come to decisions about further treatment, according to the press release. It does all this while integrating patient data, picture archiving and communications systems, image analysis and image transport technologies, the press release reports.
Using electronic data capture allows clinicians to have more control over their data, and makes it easier to review and resolve questions. This is vitally important in the life sciences sphere because of the mountains of data that must be stored, retrieved and analyzed. Life sciences covers anything having to do with life, including biology, botany, zoology, physiology, or biochemistry.
According to The Guardian, the UK life-sciences industry, which includes pharmaceutical, medical biotech and medical technology companies, is now contributing around £10 billion (almost $15 billion US) per year to the nation’s economy.
Imaging is the heart of clinical trials. As the Harvard Catalyst notes, “Imaging biomarkers serve as important endpoints for clinical trials in the approval process for therapeutic drugs,” as well as all other areas of medicine.
Edited by
Jennifer Russell
