Amicas First to Manage Medical Images Commercially Online; New Service To Give Physicians Real-Time Image Access Worldwide.

Technology Editors and Business/Health Writers

WATERTOWN, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 5, 2000

Harnessing the power of the Internet to meet healthcare's critical need for speed and efficiency, Amicas, Inc. is set to launch the world's first commercial Web-based service to manage and deliver medical images. The company will officially announce startup of the new service at the Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) conference in Dallas, April 9-13.

Amicas, Inc., a provider of Internet-based medical image management solutions, has completed testing of its AMICAS(TM) software and installed dedicated Web/Intranet servers in a number of hospitals. The company says it is now poised to make the service ubiquitous -- delivering real-time, Internet-standard services integrating teleradiology, PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication System) and electronic records from imaging facilities to physicians online everywhere. When asked what benefits to patients the new service will offer compared to present modes of image delivery, company executives leap at the opportunity to explain.

"Time is the critical difference," says Amicas CEO Hamid Tabatabaie. "Let's say an eight-year-old child falls off his bike and is rushed to the local emergency room. Attending physicians there order x-rays immediately for the orthopedic surgeon, whose office is across town. If the emergency room has to produce the film for several pictures, package them all up, arrange a courier, and hand-deliver them to the surgeon, it could easily take an hour or longer. With an Amicas server at the hospital, all the surgeon needs is a PC and a Web browser. He'll be looking at the child's x-rays in seconds."

"Not only that," adds Chief Technology Officer and co-founder Dr. Adrian Gropper, "the child's parents could get a second opinion just as easily -- using an x-ray, a CT-scan, an MRI, or any other diagnostic image. This is the power of the Internet put to its best use -- instant delivery of critical information."

Use of the Internet, according to company officials, also makes possible cost-efficiencies mandated by managed care today. "We can realize savings that are simply impossible to achieve under traditional systems of image management," says Dr. Gropper. "The addition of AMICAS(TM) -- especially where we can link images across a multi-site enterprise -- can mean savings of as much as $2 million in a typical installation." AMICAS(TM) service subscribers then pay $2 to $4 for capture and unlimited distribution of a patient's images -- versus $20 to $40 for delivery of the same images on film. (Today, digital image management systems cost roughly $1 million per 100 hospital beds.)

The AMICAS(TM) service not only includes linking imaging centers, radiologists and clinicians online, but offers total image management, with built-in utilities for record matching, data security and privacy. "The system employs true Internet standards to address guidelines set for security and privacy that are of great concern to the healthcare industry," says Tabatabaie. "We see no reason why record management, security and privacy shouldn't be enhanced while providing instant access to physicians who don't have time to wait."

The technological backbone of the AMICAS(TM) system within medical facilities is the Web/Intranet Image Server, featuring an interface that can integrate to RIS (radiology information system) workflow with existing DICOM (Digital Image Communications in Medicine) workstations to link technicians, administrators and radiologists. Physicians viewing medical images from any other location need only a Web browser (Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.01 or higher, Netscape 4.7 or higher), the AMICAS(TM) viewer software, and an Internet/Intranet connection.

According to company plans, the upcoming launch represents only the first phase of development, introducing a per-study (per imaging session) service model to be followed by the commercial release of an AMICAS.NET Internet portal later this year. The portal will allow Amicas customers to securely connect to added services such as logging and tracking of all studies and user access; access to offsite archives; report generation on number of patients seen; cost analysis; dictation, transcription and integration with medical records; and a 24-hour, instant-access help desk.

To date, Amicas systems have been installed at 67 facilities, ranging from imaging center chains to some of the largest teaching hospitals in the country. Installation is also scheduled at numerous new sites.

Amicas, Inc. is a privately-owned company that has developed a Web-based set of software and services for diagnostic-quality medical image management. The company has secured a first round of financing for AMICAS. NET with a select number of healthcare-specific venture capital firms.

Amicas, Inc. will present the AMICAS(TM) system at the upcoming HIMSS conference, Booth 3329, in Dallas from April 9-13. For information about the HIMSS Conference, call 312-664-4467 or visit www.himss.org. For further information about the AMICAS(TM) service, call 1-800-490-8465 or visit www.amicas.com.

Editor note: Radiology images transmitted by AMICAS(TM) are available on disk upon request.