Merge Healthcare Expands Distribution in South America

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Merge Healthcare (NASDAQ: MRGE), a leading Health IT solutions provider, today announced a new distribution agreement with Salumed, a large healthcare equipment distributor in Ecuador. Salumed has licensed Merge software technology for image management, specialty image review in orthopedics and mammography, and practice management.
“We believe that the Merge solutions fill an important gap in our product line,” says Jose Andrade, CEO of Salumed. “We have historically focused on medical equipment, but software solutions are becoming critical to the management of a hospital. We are happy to work with a respected partner like Merge.”

Salumed, a subsidiary of Vienatone, has been in business in Ecuador for over 30 years. Salumed has spent the last 12 years providing medical imaging solutions to healthcare providers throughout the country, and has also built a support infrastructure that allows these solutions to reach other South American companies.

“Our agreement with Salumed is another positive step in expanding our solution availability throughout South America,” noted Justin Dearborn, Merge CEO. “We have a wide variety of products that can be localized to fit the needs of this market , and our eFilm Workstation® is already recognized as an economical image viewer. We look forward to working with Salumed to bring quality imaging solutions to Ecuadorian hospitals.”

Merge Healthcare develops and integrates information technology to create a better electronic healthcare experience. Merge products, ranging from standards-based development toolkits to sophisticated clinical applications, have been used by healthcare providers, vendors and researchers worldwide for over 20 years. Additional information can be found at www.merge.com.

The matters discussed in this news release may include forward-looking statements, which could involve a number of risks and uncertainties. When used in this press release, the words “will”, “believes”, “intends”, “anticipates”, “expects” and similar expressions, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, such forward-looking statements. Except as expressly required by the federal securities laws, the Company undertakes no obligation to update such factors or to publicly announce the results of any of the forward-looking statements.