ALI Introduces Enterprise DICOM Data Repository -- A High Performance Scalable Image Archive for All Types of Medical Images --.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 28, 1999--

A.L.I. Technologies Inc. ("ALI")(TSE:ALT), announces the introduction of ALI DataSTORE, a high performance, enterprise scalable repository for all types of medical images.

ALI DataSTORE represents a significant new paradigm in medical image archiving system architecture. It's a highly scalable and open DICOM data repository that meets the needs of large healthcare institutions requiring seamless integration with existing HIS/RIS, third party PACS diagnostic workstations or image management modality clusters. ALI DataSTORE is available now.

ALI DataSTORE is a comprehensive Windows NT-based medical image management solution for healthcare institutions requiring integrated DICOM and HL7 connectivity support and enterprise scalability to handle all digital image archiving. Healthcare IT departments will appreciate ALI's native HL7 interface which eliminates the need for costly additional brokers and interface engines resulting in direct cost savings for the institution and avoiding needless integration complexity. ALI DataSTORE's ability to exchange HL7 messages directly with leading HIS/RIS products has already been successfully demonstrated at several hospitals and multi-site imaging centers.

With affordable product configurations ranging from multi-site distributed workgroups to centralized data center grade server clusters with database replication and failover, ALI DataSTORE provides the scalability required by hospitals, clinics, and imaging centers for DICOM data repositories capable of storing from half a terabyte to over ten terabytes of data annually. As with all of its image management solutions, ALI leverages open standards such as Internet network protocols and SQL relational database technology to ensure full integration with existing and future network and computing environments.

OEMs will find ALI DataSTORE to be an ideal Windows NT systems platform for highly integrated image management services to complement their image acquisition and diagnostic workstations. ALI will make an open workstation integration SDK available to OEMs who want to integrate their imaging workstations with ALI DataSTORE. With its open architecture, scalability, and flexible configuration capability, ALI DataSTORE can provide cost effective image management and connectivity for a broad array of solutions offered today by imaging workstation companies.

With its embedded hierarchical storage management, ALI DataSTORE provides fast online access to images and reports using high performance network attached storage devices as well as economical near-line long-term storage. Both optical and DLT tape media are supported through archive jukebox configurations ranging from 500 Gigabytes to well over 50 Terabytes in near-line storage capacity. With the ability to manage aggregate data over several devices and multiple facilities, the data repository's system architecture allows for virtually unlimited storage.

Similar to ALI UltraPACS, users can access patient images and reports over the hospital's computer network or by using an existing remote access server to the hospital. The hospital can also restrict access on a per user basis to images of a particular modality or for cases in which the accessing user is the referring physician. As an option, the ALI DataSTORE can also be easily integrated with ALI's web server option to provide secure web access to images and reports stored within the DICOM data repository.