NEWTON, MASS. – February 18, 2016 – lifeIMAGE, the nation’s most adopted medical image exchange platform across health care networks, providers and patients, today announced it has joined CommonWell Health Alliance, an industry consortium of health information technology-focused companies that use their diverse, collective experience across the care continuum to break down the barriers that have stood in the way of nationwide data exchange. The alliance includes market leaders and technology innovators that support care settings such as post-acute, imaging, perinatal, laboratory, retail pharmacy, oncology, population health, emergency services and more. lifeIMAGE will champion the expansion of CommonWell services to include access to medical images directly in a provider’s electronic health record (EHR), regardless of where those images were captured.

“Provider access to patient imaging records, regardless of where exams were ordered, performed or stored, is crucial to ensure the best patient care possible,” said Matthew A. Michela, CEO and president of lifeIMAGE. “Because of the broad adoption of our image exchange network in the United States, we believe we have an obligation to advance interoperability and look forward to working with CommonWell and its members to accelerate that outcome.”

In today’s health care continuum, patients often receive care from multiple health care systems, which drives the need for improved provider access to a complete EHR. Access to a patient’s imaging history is paramount in diagnosis and treatment among specialists such as cardiology, oncology, pediatrics, emergency medicine, radiology and burn care. In fact, imaging data is often the deciding factor as to whether or not a patient requires a second opinion, additional testing or an advanced medical procedure.

The reach of the lifeIMAGE network and its commitment to ensuring hospitals, physicians and patients can securely connect and exchange exams makes it a valuable addition to our team,” said Jitin Asnaani, executive director of CommonWell Health Alliance. “We look forward to working with lifeIMAGE as we continue to promote higher quality health care by making interoperability ubiquitous.”

A proponent for standards-based image exchange since its formation, lifeIMAGE brings deep domain expertise to CommonWell Health Alliance. Leading health care systems in the United States have implemented its interoperable platform because it provides a comprehensive and integrated approach to enterprise image sharing. By collaborating with CommonWell and its members, lifeIMAGE intends to bring the value of image access to more providers and their patients across the country.

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