CHICAGO -- Merge Healthcare Incorporated (Nasdaq:MRGE), a leading provider of innovative enterprise imaging, interoperability, and clinical systems that seek to advance healthcare, today announced Duncan Regional Hospital, a 145-bed progressive, not-for-profit community hospital in Duncan, Okla., has extended its partnership with Merge through enterprise-wide cardiology management and real-time documentation. Merge Hemo(TM) and Merge Cardio(TM) will support Duncan Regional's launch of a new cardiology program and cath lab with long-term scalability and better patient care.

Duncan Regional is a rural facility in an area with traditionally high heart health issues, leading to an organizational focus on solving critical population health issues to enhance care delivery. Building on the successful deployment of Merge's radiology and enterprise imaging solution with Duncan, the extended collaboration on the cardiology side was a natural next step. Duncan will now have the ability to consolidate cardiology information and patient data, as well as automate cath lab processes.

These functions ultimately help staff meet operational, financial, and clinical goals, while removing initial administrative and business hurdles. This relationship also prepares the organization to manage the changing healthcare environment by driving interoperability initiatives.

"Our initial workflows were proving to be inefficient, and bringing a  strong cardiology department to our community was critical. As the importance of population health increases, we're pleased that we can offer more proactive care to our community," said Roger Neal, Vice President and CIO at Duncan Regional. "Extending our partnership with Merge fits well into our existing infrastructure, contributing to even more improved workflow and cost savings."

"We're honored to partner with Duncan Regional as they bring essential heart health support to this rural area of the country," said Justin Dearborn, CEO at Merge Healthcare. "Cardiology is a key component to interoperability between specialties, and innovators like Duncan Regional are helping set the stage for better patient care based on value, rather than volume. We look forward to partnering with Duncan   Regional as their cardiology program grows and collaborating with them  to continuously find new ways to enhance operations."

To learn more about Merge's cardiology solutions, visit merge.com/Solutions/Cardiology.

About Duncan Regional Hospital

Serving Stephens and the surrounding counties since 1977, Duncan Regional Hospital has a state-wide reputation as one of the premiere Oklahoma hospitals for medical excellence, advanced technology and nationally recognized high levels of patient satisfaction and is a 145-bed, nationally accredited hospital.

About Merge

Merge is a leading provider of innovative enterprise imaging, interoperability and clinical systems that seek to advance healthcare. Merge's enterprise and cloud-based technologies for image intensive specialties provide access to any image, anywhere, any time. Merge also provides clinical trials software with end-to-end study support in a single platform and other intelligent health data and analytics solutions. With solutions that have been used by providers for more than 25 years, Merge is helping to reduce costs, improve efficiencies and enhance the quality of healthcare worldwide. For more information, visit merge.com and follow us @MergeHealthcare.