From: Scoopy Sales “Re: Janet Dillione’s resignation. I see HIStalk scooped everyone on this and the ‘news professionals’ are just now reporting the story.” Ha! Mr. H will like that comment. Thanks again to the reader who tipped us off last Friday about Dillione’s resignation as CEO of Sieman’s HIT division.

From: PACSMan “Re: Dillione. I know you had run this yesterday but this confirmation came across just now. The timing is beyond strange- she gives a press conference 3 weeks ago, speaks at HIMSS and even has the damn thing podcast and now eaves to ‘pursue other opportunities’ after 27 combined years at SMS and Siemens. Something gives here- and I bet it ain’t pretty a ’tall….”

From: Mrs. Kravitz “Re: McKesson report.The recent Leerink Swann HC equity research report reads badly for McKesson. After talking to a CIO at a large client base they are pessimistic on McKesson’s ability to get to Stage 1 meaningful use; HEMR and Horizon Clinicals v10.3 still not GA despite representation to the contrary.” I don’t have access to the report. If you have an opinion, chime in.

I noticed that ComputerWeekly also  picked up a reader-supplied rumor, this one about a recent director-level resignation at iSoft. ComputerWeekly actually quoted HIStalk, then added iSoft’s confirmation that Keith Kirtland left for “personal reasons.”

Five Alegent Health hospitals implement Design Clinicals’ MedsTracker for electronic medication reconciliation. The CMO claims that an impressive 100% of the hospitals’ admissions and discharges were reconciled electronically on day two of the go-live.

The ONC publishes its proposed rule establishing two certifications programs to test and certify EHRs. CCHIT will not be granted grandfather status for testing, though they will likely be one of only a few organizations ready and able to qualify under the new program. Organizations wanting to qualify as an “ONC-Authorized Certification Body” for the “temporary” program would be required to submit an application and demonstrate its competency to test and certify EHRs. The temporary program could make it possible for full EHRs and EHR modules to secure certification as early as this summer. The temporary program would expire the first quarter of 2012 and replaced with a permanent program run by an outside certifying organization.

Children’s National Medical Center (DC) plans to implement Streamline Health’s Audit Integrity Manager Solution.

St. John’s Hospital – Eureka (CA) deploys Order Optimizer’s web-based clinical platform, allowing physicians to use evidence-based protocols at the point of care.

I see the folks at EHRtv have begun posting their vendor executive interviews from HIMSS. Dr. Eric Fishman poses some great questions to leaders from Nuance, M*Modal, Allscripts, Eclipsys, and NextGen in these face-paced and engaging spots.

The 17-physician Mountain Region Family Medicine (TN) completes its installation of Greenway’s Prime Patient EMR, with deployment assistance from BCTI and OnePartner.

Detroit Medical Center awards MedQuist a contract for transcription outsourcing services. Medquist will provide ED documentation at six of the health system’s facilities.

Rush University Medical Center (IL) agrees to pay more than $1.5 million to resolve a federal lawsuit. The suit alleges Rush violated the False Claims Act in connection with improperly designed leasing arrangements with several physicians.

DR HITECH live at Max Lagar’s in Atlanta, rapping about Meaningful Use. Doesn’t get better than this!

Weird News Andy sends over this story, which is actually more disconcerting than weird. The NHS, as it continues to create its national database of patient medical records, is suppose to give patients an opt out option before their information is added. Instead, doctors claim the government is rushing the project through and  patient information is being uploaded before  patients have a chance to object. Doctors also claim the government is not adequately educating patient on the database project, nor making the opt out option easy enough for patients to select.

The VA is busy working on Aviva, the next-generation version of its 20-year-old VistA EMR. Aviva is designed to be Web-enabled, modular in design, and capable of easy data exchange with other EMRs. Peter Levin, CTO for the VA, compares the project to “trying to replace a tin can on a string with a cell phone system.”

A former MedAssets contract employee, who used a fake identity to get her job, is accused of accessing the financial information of up to 2,400 patients. UTMB was a MedAssets billing service client at the time and Katina Rochelle Candrick is believed to have gathered social security numbers, dates of births, and credit card information on UTMB patients. Candrick has since been arrested.

In case you missed the actual HISsie Awards presentation, check out the presentation we ran at the reception last week. It’s loaded on SlideShare and apparently the transitions only work if you download it to your system. You’ll want to download it to fully experience the fun – as well as identify the winners and see the pie hit the face of a certain CEO. There is likely some way to post the slide show and have the transitions work correctly, but I am too lazy and too short on time to figure it out.

Provena Health (IL/IN) signs a seven year agreement with ARAMARK Healthcare. ARAMARK will provide clinical technology services for Provena’s six hospitals.

The folks at Surgical Information Systems asked me to let readers know they’ll be at the AORN meeting next week in Denver. If you’re attending, check out their session “Creating a Unified PeriAnesthesia Medical Record to Improve Clinical, Operational, and Financial Outcomes.”

Inova Health System (VA) names Ryan Bosch, MD, FACP, MBA its first Chief Medical Information Officer. Before joining Inova, Bosch worked as Director of General Internal Medicine at George Washington University Medical Faculty Associates.

Stemp Systems earns Preferred IT Vendor status from eClinicalWorks.

The public continues to weigh in with opinions on the latest meaningful use definitions. CMS posted a few additional comments last week and folks are still concerned that the bar is set too high, especially in the early years. The note below questions the exclusion of CPOE in the ED when measuring the total percentage of electronic order entry in a hospital:

The current proposed definition of meaningful use seems to exclude the use of CPOE in the ED as a measure of determining the current percentage of electronic order entry within the hospital setting. That doesn’t make a lot of sense if the purpose of the graduating meaningful use criteria are intended to promote and reward a hospital’s progress in deploying CPOE. Many hospitals will start with the ED to deploy CPOE because of it’s complexity and workflow. The current proposed definition will not recognize those organizations who are making good progress with CPOE simply because they may have started in the Emergency Department. That seems counterintuitive and not within the original spirit of advancing CPOE deployment to 100% within several years. In other words, who cares where an organization starts its deployment as long as progress and total percentages are actually achieved.

Mr. H is back home sometime this weekend. As gratifying as it is to know that HIStalk can stay afloat a few days without him, no one will be happier than me to have him back in charge, especially since he makes HIT so much more fun.

E-mail Inga.

From: Sioux Supporter “Re: Janet Dillione. I can confirm that Janet Dillione has resigned from Siemens. No announcement of new role or firm, but the announcement was made Friday.” Still unconfirmed, though a few readers have sent note with similar messages.

From: Big Mouth “Re: iSOFT. iSoft loses another senior executive from it’s flagship business unit. Just confirmed from internal source that Keith Kirtland, UK&I Commercial and Sales Director resigned earlier this month. This is the 4th sales director in as many years and is expected to have a destabilising effect on both the Wales Lab deal and overall sales in the UK for this troubled NPfIT supplier. In February,  iSOFT reported significant drops in both revenue and profit.  This resignation will certainly impact 2nd half results.”

From: Beauty “Re: Press Releases. To Beastly – I see you are putting the spin on the negative. Any which way you slice it – too many press releases = too little bang…leaving out ‘for the buck’ cuz we know you are still pulling down the bucks. Too much noise at HIMSS…and those who would be interested are too busy ‘doing’ HIMSS. As for me – I deliberately launched product before HIMSS…with press release…specifically to avoid the noise and being one of the 100 needles lost in the haystack. Hmmm – opinion of the those who are in the business of press releases…or those of us targeted by the press releases?  Listen to your audience. Let’s have a HIStalk vote on this one!” Personally I am just happy that it took less than a week for me to finally weed through all those releases.

From: William Tell “DoD and VA disconnect. Nice to know CPOE and electronic records are going to solve everything . . . as if.”

From: Curious “Re: Promise Healthcare. I am curious about your opinion of them.” Alas, I have no opinion since I know nothing about them. In the absence of the ever-wise Mr. H, perhaps readers can weigh in.

From: Emily Dickinson “Re: Medical Manager execs guilty. Two former executives of Medical Manager Health Systems Inc. have been convicted of federal securities fraud after a two-month trial in U.S. District Court in Charleston, SC.” The company’s former VP and COO John P. Sessions and former president John H. Kang were found guilty of conspiracy to commit mail, wire and securities fraud for their part in a scheme to inflate Medical Manager’s earnings by more than $16.8 million between 1997 and 2003. Sentencing will occur at a later date.

From: Mr. H “Re: Charles McCall heading to prison.That news made my day.” Really? I get one email from Mr. H in four days, and this is all he has to say. What’s up with that?

Quest Diagnostics and Surescripts team up to form an integrated service that combines lab and prescription information available to connected physicians. I suppose that means that if my grandmother in Washington goes to a doctor in Florida, the Florida doctor might be able to access Grannie’s lab and prescription data. Now we are getting somewhere.

Surescripts, by the way, reports that e-prescribing rates tripled from 2007 to 2009, with an estimated 18% of all eligible prescriptions now being sent electronically. The number of prescribers routing prescriptions doubled from 2008 to 2009, and now includes 25% of all office-based physicians.

Huntington Memorial Hospital (CA) plans to offer HuntingtonRx, a branded version of Allscripts stand-alone e-prescribing solution, to its 1,000 affiliated physicians.

Five hospitals select Summit Healthcare as their sole integration partner to assist with migrations from current Meditech platforms to Meditech 6.0.

Annapolis Pediatrics selects Sage Intergy suite to automate its clinical and financial operations. Annapolis Pediatrics is a four-location, 21 provider group.

Trinity Health (MI) deploys Medicity’s Novo Grid solution, establishing an HIE between almost 1,000 affiliated physicians. The headline of the press release claims this first stage took “9-1/2 weeks,” which happens to be the same amount of time it took Kim Basinger’s Elizabeth to walk away from Mickey Rourke’s John.

Sisters of St. Francis Health Services (IN) select Epic for its 13-hospital system.

Northwest Hospital & Medical Center (WA) contracts with dbMotion to create an interoperable patient record for both in-hospital and ambulatory care providers.

UPMC introduces an EHR application that runs on a BlackBerry smartphone. The program leverages the interoperability platform created by dbMotion and provides a single view of key patient data from multiple information systems.

Henry Schein launches ConnectHealth, which partners companies in the EHR, medical device and computer services sectors. Specifically it sounds as if the new program leverages Henry Schein’s partnerships with several vendors to implement EMR in physician offices. Partner vendors include Allscripts, Midmark, Welch Allyn, Siemens, Dell, and Medline.

The nice folks at Bridgehead Software have invited me to visit their booth at the World of Health IT event in Barcelona, March 15-18. Bummer that I have a manicure scheduled during that time so I will have to miss the event. If you are attending, visit the Bridgehead team at Stand #841 and sign up to win an iPad.

Speaking of Spain, Gestion Sanitaria de Mallorca in Palma selects Orion Health technology to serve as the backbone for its EHR. The EHR solution will be the first for community care in Spain.

We have a new interview on HIStalk Practice with Dr. Joel Feinman of Valley Medical Group in Massachusetts. He’s an EMR proponent on many levels, but especially in terms of providing patient care: “I don’t see how you can do that anymore without some kind of electronic system that actually works.” Check it out and sign up for e-mail updates while you are there.

Today I joined a conference call with the wonderful sponsors of last weeks HIStalk reception. After accounting for walk-ins and a few no shows, total attendance was about 430, making it our biggest bash ever. Thanks again to Encore, Evolvent, and Symantec for making it such a great event.

General Dynamics Information Technology hires Raymond Sullivan to serve as VP of HIT Solutions, tasked with business development for the federal government and commercial health organizations. Sullivan was previously executive director of the VA’s Office of Information and Technology.

Hospital nurses estimate they spend a quarter of their 12-hour shift on indirect patient care. Wow. While not providing direct patient care, nurses are working on regulatory requirements, handling lots of paperwork, and securing needed equipment and supplies. Solutions recommended by surveyed nurses include more ancillary staff support, better hospital-wide communications technology, and reductions in redundant regulatory requirements.

Anne Arundel Medical Center (MD) implements Corepoint Integration Engine to facilitate a migration to Epic’s HIS and improve clinical data exchange with community physicians and patients.

In what could be the greatest news of the decade, a report in the Archives of Internal Medicine finds that normal-weight women who drink a light to moderate amount of alcohol appear to gain less weight and have a lower risk of becoming overweight and obese than non-drinkers. On that note, I’m off to find a cocktail.

E-mail Inga.

Non-compete agreements (NCAs) are designed to prevent individuals from leaving a company with valuable information and then using that information in a new job with a competitor of the company to the detriment of that original company/employer.

Sounds reasonable on its face. On the other side, what if you are the employee that with no malicious intent whatsoever, elects to change jobs and move on to bigger and better things? You should be free to do so, right? If on exiting your current job you are presented with the NCA that you signed when starting (and may have forgotten or misplaced) and you are a valuable developer, your soon-to-be former employer may be dropping more than a subtle hint in your lap.

So what is fair and reasonable in light of the two justifiable yet opposing positions?

This is the essence of the determination that courts must make in cases involving NCAs. In general terms, in order for an NCA to be “reasonable” it must protect an employer’s legitimate business interests while not unduly restricting the employee’s ability to work elsewhere. Other key considerations are length of time and geographical area (historically). The first part, protecting legitimate business interests, is satisfied if the employee involved had access to trade secrets of the former employer. Further, if the employer uses NCAs for only certain employees that have access to confidential material or trade secrets, they strengthen greatly their likelihood of support from the courts. As for length of time, six months to two years depending on the situation, is usually found to be acceptable. Anything longer than that would require a stiffer business reason for the restriction. Finally, geographic scope is considered. In the technology industry however, geographical area could include the entire US market. There has been some relaxing of the geographical scope restriction, which is why I used the parenthetical “historically” above.

Note that the NCA is a contract. All contracts must have “consideration”, or something of value, offered by each party and consequently accepted by the other party in order for the contract to be valid. If the NCA was a condition of employment at the point of hiring, then the promise of a job fills the consideration requirement. Introducing the NCA in an existing employer/employee relationship is different. Some courts have held that continued employment is sufficient consideration. In other cases, the execution of the NCA in conjunction with a raise or promotion has served to establish that sufficient consideration is present to enforce the NCA. An employee faced with the new (post-hiring) NCA requirement may not have any reasonable opportunity of negotiation. Some may however. If the employee is a valued software scientist, then ideally that individual could seek a severance package, providing an amount of money sufficient to offset the period of time in which they are prevented (by the NCA) from working in the same field for a competitor. As a general statement, the employee should always review the NCA carefully, even seek legal advice, in order to determine the restrictions imposed and the reasonableness of those restrictions.

The employer should make sure it is seeking to protect a legitimate business interest, and NOT just that it does not want competition. Lack of a justifiable business reason could be argued in the case of an employer having all employees sign an NCA, regardless of position, from receptionist to software engineer. Limited duration and geographical area are also helpful. An NCA of unlimited duration, where the employee can never work for a competitor, would work against the employer. In short, if the employer is careful to make the NCA as tight in scope as possible, in order to make the burden on the employee as little as possible, then they are in much better shape if the NCA is contested. If an NCA is too broad and lacks a sound business reason, its enforceability is strongly suspect.

Where a valid NCA exists, the new employer may also be susceptible to legal action by the former employer. Employers that lose key personnel to competitors often bring action against both the former employee (for violation of the NCA) and the new employer (for tortious interference with the prior relationship evidenced by the NCA). It is not unheard of for a new employer (that lures the key employee away) to belly up and take care of the employee’s anticipated defense, legal bills, and settlements with the former employer. I am not trying to scare people, but it should be understood that if an NCA is valid and you breach it, you are potentially liable for damages to your former employer. In addition, the former employer could seek an injunction preventing you from working for the new employer while the case is decided. Finally, if everything goes the former employer’s way, you could still be prevented from working for the competitor into the future. If you are the employee considering a job change and you asked directly if you signed and NCA, then obviously you must reveal the fact. If not asked and you do not volunteer the information, and the former employer sues the new employer, then the easiest way for the new employer to reduce its exposure is to terminate you. Not a welcome thought.

An interesting twist to consider is the situation where the employer terminates the employment relationship. Assuming that the NCA is valid and reasonable (see above), and would probably be upheld if the employee were the one terminating the relationship, then the issue really comes down to a restriction on the employee’s ability to make a living when the employer terminates employment other than for cause. Keeping in mind that we started with the assumption of a valid NCA, then strictly speaking, the employee is not free to ignore the NCA and the former employer could sue the employee, but then the court would have to look at the fact that the employee did not leave voluntarily and determine the reasonableness of limiting that individuals livelihood. My point is that being “let go” does not nullify the NCA, but enforcement by the former employer will be more difficult than if the employee left on their own.

Note that NCAs should not be feared, but they must be understood. In the HIT industry companies invent things and they try to sell more of these things to the industry than their competitors. They have a right to protect their inventions, know-how, trade secrets and customer bases. Anyone seeking to join such a company really should understand this going in. That said, it is not reasonable to expect a person to work for only one company in a given industry for their entire career. Some do, most do not. There is also the consideration of the type of work that the employee performs. The software scientist should have far more expectation of restriction on the ability to switch to a competitor than an administrative staff member.

Final Comments:

NCAs are not bad. If a company has something worth protecting, something essential to its business that if shared with a competitor would be damaging to its business, then they should be able to protect it. I don’t know how an employee would consider it “OK” to take that information elsewhere. I know it happens, but that does not make it right. Separately, we are all free to work wherever we choose. Absent the malicious factor, people should not be restricted from working for a competitor.

The problem is that you cannot unlock the brain of a software scientist, extract all they have learned at your company, then let them go on their way. Knowledge is retained and there is nothing we can do about that. I once saw it referred to by a BIG hardware/consulting company as “intellectual capital” (and I knew it was time to put that file down for the day). So even if nothing is physically removed, the secrets go right out the door in the scientist’s gray matter. Keeping them from using that knowledge to a competitor’s advantage is fair. Keeping them from earning a living doing what they like is unfair. It is a balancing act, a weighing of the consequences to each side, and a determination of fairness that the courts must perform when ruling on NCAs.

Please understand that even though I expound on valid or enforceable NCAs above, you must note that certain states basically do not permit NCAs (like California), others do but only in limited circumstances (New York and Virginia), while in others enforceability depends on the circumstances. This article has focused mainly on the individuals involved in the technology aspect of healthcare. Many states (like Massachusetts) clearly prohibit by law NCAs for physicians and nurses due to the fact that such agreements restrict a medical professional’s right to practice and also limit the patients’ right to choose their caregivers.

The NCA issue is heating up. Legislation has been proposed here in Massachusetts that would dramatically restrict NCAs by instituting strict guidelines, brightline determinations (clear “black & white” language) as well as safe harbor provisions. One very interesting aspect of the proposed legislation is that it would protect the employee residing in Massachusetts, even if the employer is not located in Massachusetts. I am watching closely as the bill winds its way through the legislature.

Finally, if you are faced with a situation involving an NCA and have serious concerns, please consult with an attorney or your local US Department of Labor office.

William O’Toole is the founder of O’Toole Law Group of Duxbury, MA.

From: HIS user “Re: Rumor. (The CEO for the HIT business unit) of a (large, international technology company) has resigned. Heard from multiple direct sources at the company. Was announced there Friday.” The CEO was at HIMSS and had a press conference as recently as Monday. I sent a note over the weekend to the company but not heard back. If it’s true, I suspect the company will share the news Monday.

From: Bean Town Gal Re: Highlights. “We attended the HIStalk party and it was a highlight of HIMSS. Nice to be in the fishbowl; surrounded by friends and competitors — and truly enjoying it. Great vibe — thank you to the sponsors — the spinach & artichoke dip was yummy, GREAT to sit down and rest the paws after a very long day …. but most of all, the intrigue and credibility that you & Mr. HIStalk create, will keep us coming back again.  Truly appreciate what you both do. Kudos and …. Love the shoes.”

From: Beastly “Re: Press Releases. As PR professionals we are compelled to issue press releases when our companies bring new products to the market that are worthy of acknowledgment. A true PR professional knows the difference between newsworthy and wasting a journalist’s time. We also have an ethical responsibility to advise our clients if and when their perception of news doesn’t merit coverage. Issuing press releases about non-news compares to the ‘boy who cried wolf,’ syndrome. For many within the healthcare industry, HIMSS is our Super Bowl. The opportunity to showcase the products we developed, believe in and are proud of. The media and most importantly our customers expect to see us with our best game. Companies don’t indiscriminately issue press releases – they plan product releases so that they coincide with HIMSS. If a product is ready two months before HIMSS, the HIMSS exhibitor companies traditionally wait for HIMSS to show and announce it.  And if the product won’t be consumer ready until a few months after HIMSS, the exhibitor will often develop a mock-up or engineering sample so it can be shown to the audience at HIMSS. The majority of us aren’t trying to waste your time; we’re inviting you to share our exuberance.”

From: Pat Avatar “Re: HITmen event. I was unimpressed with the “boys club” HITmen event. I think it was very unimaginative. Same people named over and over. A while back, Colin Powell was quoted along the lines of if any area was in need of imagination, it was healthcare. If we keep trotting out the same handful of people – we are truly in trouble. Enough of Tullman, Bush, the government appointees who are elevated only by title and not by progress, Halamka, and the usual short list. Why not have someone meet the challenge of recognizing the worker-bees – the ones really getting the job done – while the same people are the headliners. Besides, Inga and I are going to take over the world of healthcare and get something done.”

Note sure that I am going to take over the world of healthcare (or that I want to) but I am taking over HIStalk for the week. An exhausted Mr. H is taking took some well-deserved time off and hopefully cleansing his mind of the HIT world. If you have any news to share, be sure to send it my way since Mr. H is avoiding e-mail this week.

Last week MS HUG and Microsoft announced four winners of its annual Innovation Awards. SingHealth earned honors for the best use of inpatient clinical records use for levering its implementation of  Eclipsys Sunrise Patient Flow and CADI Scientific. Other winners included Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Doylestown Hospital, and Premera Blue Cross/Get Real Consulting.

Former McKesson Charles McCall is sentenced to 10 years prison and ordered to pay a $1 million fine for his part in a $8.6 billion fraud scheme.

Medicity and Emdeon collaborate to create the first “converged national HIE, leveraging Emdeon’s network of payers, providers, and pharmacies and Medicity’s iNexx Health 4.0 platform.

The Advisory Board Company enters an agreement to acquire Concuity, the healthcare-focused RCM software and services division of Trintech Group. Price: $34.5 million.

The Wall Street Journal reports that shares of Nuance Communications rose 5.7% Friday on rumors that Google is interested in buying Nuance Communications. There are lots of reasons why such a marriage would not make sense, but an acquisition of Nuance would certainly help Google increase its presence in the healthcare space.

McKesson is named the “World’s Most Admired” company in healthcare wholesalers sector in a survey by FORTUNE magazine and the Hay Group.  McKesson also made Corporate Responsibility Magazine’s list of 100 Best Corporate Citizens.

Start queuing up at your local Apple store: the Wi-Fi-enabled iPad goes on sale April 3, with pre-ordering starting March 12th. Suggested retail prices will range from $499 for the 16B model to $699 for the 64GB. The 3G equipped models will hit the market in late April, though you can also pre-order starting March 12th.

Lumetra PSO agrees to provide iSOFT’s AIMS incident management software to US healthcare organizations.

Bridgehead software unveils preliminary results of its Data Management Healthcheck 2010, reporting that only 6.5% of respondents use cloud storage as the destination media for their organization’s data. Only 33% say they are planning to adopt a cloud storage strategy for any data over the next 12-24 months. The biggest concern is security and availability of data using a cloud strategy.

A couple HIMSS education sessions I missed: “A Big, Hairy Audacious” CPOE Goal, and, It’s More than Pizza! Improving House Staff Adoption of CPOE. I wonder if the presenter for the second one got any snack tips from Mr. H.

Former RelayHealth COO Jeff Bairstow joins Journal Register Company as CFO.

RWJF awards over $2.4 million to five research teams studying how patient-recorded observations of daily living can be captured and integrated into clinical care.

Wellmont Health System (TN) names Kent Perry CIO and VP and Dr. Troy Sybert chief medical information.

Verizon Business launches The Verizon Medical Data Exchange, a platform that gives transcriptionists an interoperable tool for sharing digitized patient notes.

A fan files suit against the Kansas City Royals after being hit in the eye – by a hot dog. The team’s mascot (Sluggerrr) regularly fires hot dogs into the crowd, but one last year hit John Coomer in the eye, resulting in a detached retina and cataracts.So far his medical costs have exceeded $25,000. It’s unclear whether Cooner actually ate the errant hot dog.

E-mail Inga.

AMICAS has agreed to terminate its previously announced agreement with Thoma Bravo and instead has entered into a merger agreement with Merge Healthcare, the company announced this morning. Merge will acquire all outstanding shares of AMICAS in an all-cash deal valued at $6.05 per share, a 35% premium to Thoma Bravo’s offer and a 39% premium to the average monthly share price.

"We are very pleased with this significant positive step toward successfully combining these two great companies," said Justin Dearborn, Merge CEO.  "Merge and AMICAS have strong histories of innovation in medical imaging software, experienced employees and engaged customers.  As a combined company, our suite of health IT solutions will encompass a broad range of medical and biopharmaceutical imaging solutions to meet the needs of today’s medical imaging providers.  In addition, Merge’s OEM and CAD technologies, international and eCommerce distribution channels, and additional market segments such as clinical trials provide new opportunities for AMICAS products and customers. On behalf of everyone at Merge, I look forward to welcoming and working closely with the AMICAS team."