Acuo Technologies Announces Implementation and Acceptance of Acuo's DICOM Services Grid(TM) With Lancaster General Hospital

BLOOMINGTON, Minn., June 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Acuo Technologies, developers of high-performance medical image management software, data migration tools and services, today announced the successful implementation and acceptance of Acuo's DICOM Services Grid™ at Lancaster General Hospital.  The new Vendor Neutral Archive (VNA) will provide the foundation of image storage across the Lancaster network, clinics and affiliates, enabling Lancaster's plan for community outreach.

Acuo Technologies worked with EMC Corporation through EMC's Open Systems Archive (OSA) Initiative to implement an archiving solution based on Acuo Technologies DICOM Services Grid™ software in combination with EMC's solution. The EMC OSA solution archives medical images from sources throughout the Lancaster enterprise, enabling system-wide efficiencies, improving access to critical medical imaging, and increasing system reliability, resulting in lower total cost of ownership, quicker response time, and improved patient care.

The EMC and Acuo Technologies' integrated medical imaging solution, allows Lancaster to gain control of more than 100 terabytes of existing medical imaging data through an automated data migration software and services solution, as well as providing a flexible image management layer managing all future DICOM medical imaging content. The power of the solution provides Lancaster a standards-based automated system with robust business continuity and eliminates the expense of multiple proprietary systems and storage platforms.

"In combination with EMC we are extremely pleased to launch this relationship with Lancaster through the successful implementation of Acuo's leading middleware solution," said Jeff Timbrook, CEO of Acuo Technologies. "We are looking forward to building on this relationship through ongoing collaboration with Lancaster and EMC thought leaders.  This vision combines knowledge of the industry and solution requirements enabling an image enabled electronic medical record initiative."

"Vendor Neutral Archiving is a central component to the EMC Information Infrastructure for Healthcare," said Ken Waldbillig, EMC Director of Clinical Informatics. "Through a strict adherence to Open Systems and IHE standards based technologies, leading healthcare organizations like Lancaster General Hospital achieve improved clinical effectiveness, enhanced operational efficiency and a financially attractive total cost of ownership over the life of the data. This approach is critical because information outlasts both applications and infrastructure."

The solution selected by Lancaster will ensure that all patient studies are safely stored, and can be accessed from any Lancaster location in a consistent and reliable fashion. Lancaster will also be using the Acuo DICOM Assisted Migration (ADAM) software to move data from the existing proprietary archive into the Acuo/EMC vendor neutral archive, ensuring that Lancaster will be able to gain control of their data and never pay for a migration again. This standards based approach will enable Lancaster to grow the utilization of the Acuo archive without expensive and complex integrations to existing and future PACS.

"Lancaster is impressed with the scalability and flexibility of the Acuo software," added Chuck Eimer, Manager, Servers and Network. "Their ability to work with the Lancaster team, along with Lancaster strategic partners like EMC, to enable a flexible and scalable architecture is key to achieving our archiving strategy while also lowering our total cost of ownership."

About Acuo Technologies

Acuo Technologies, with headquarters in Bloomington, MN, was founded in 2000 with the objective of developing the first enterprise-wide collaborative asset management solution for medical DICOM images residing in a Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS). The market leading DICOM Services Grid™ software solutions for vendor neutral archiving has been contracted for and implemented in over 550 systems worldwide.  For more information, visit www.acuotech.com.

About EMC

EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) is the world's leading developer and provider of information infrastructure technology and solutions that enable organizations of all sizes to transform the way they compete and create value from their information. Information about EMC's products and services can be found at www.EMC.com.

About Lancaster General Hospital

Located in Central Pennsylvania, Lancaster General Hospital is a 604-bed acute-care hospital that serves as the keystone of the Lancaster General Health system, a not-for-profit system that includes more than 50 healthcare facilities and physician practices throughout Lancaster County. A Magnet hospital for clinical excellence and one of America's 100 Top Hospitals 10 out of the past 13 years, LGH is a recipient of several regional and national awards for clinical and operational excellence. More about Lancaster General Health can be found at www.LancasterGeneralHealth.org.

DICOM is the registered trademark of the National Electrical Manufacturers Association for its standards publications relating to digital communications of medical information.

SOURCE Acuo Technologies