This stands to be a big plus for radiologists to be able to use a single click to access patient records in Microsoft Amalga with a single sign on capability now being extended for imaging. Currently in many hospitals radiologists have to navigate 
several screens to view and read the additional patient information available and with the integration of Amalga, which has also at the point aggregated information from other technologies in use, this can make it easier for the imaging folks. Partnerships like this are important for ease of use in hospitals to bring the needed information to the screen quickly. Innovation without collaboration is messing up healthcare as I said a while back and this shows some great collaboration efforts being made here. A couple years ago I spoke with Steve Shihadeh from Microsoft about Amalga and where it was at that time and where it was headed in the future so the link below will add some additional history about Amalga and here you can find out more about the Amalga Medical Imaging module. BD
Steve Shihadeh, VP Microsoft Health Solutions Group – The Amalga Software Solution for Aggregating Hospital Information (Interview)
Press Release:
ANDOVER, Mass., and REDMOND, Wash. — Feb. 21, 2011 — Royal Philips Electronics NV (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI) and Microsoft Corp.
(Nasdaq “MSFT”) today announced the companies will collaborate to streamline the workflow of radiologists as they seek to build and understand the complete clinical context of a patient. The collaboration builds upon the companies’ existing commitment to work together to connect technologies that will help yield faster delivery of meaningful health information, improve healthcare efficiency and productivity, and reduce development and infrastructure costs.
The companies will connect Microsoft Amalga, a data aggregation platform, with Philips iSite PACS (picture archiving and communication system) to give radiologists the ability to view a complete set of a patient’s data stored across the health enterprise — e.g., admission, discharge and transfer (ADT) data, lab data, pathology reports and medications — alongside the patient’s images stored in the iSite PACS system. The ability to view digital imaging and communications in medicine (DICOM) and non-DICOM data in one place will reduce the time radiologists currently spend probing separate, disconnected information systems to build a comprehensive view of patient history and allow them to focus more time on case review, analysis and diagnostics.
“Philips and Microsoft have a unique opportunity to give radiologists a new level of insight about the patient while reducing steps in their workflow,” said Scott Burkhart, vice president of marketing, Healthcare Informatics North America, for Philips Healthcare. “Interoperability is one of our core strategies, and enabling our iSite PACS and Amalga systems to work together can enhance analytics capabilities, enabling the radiology department to gain a deeper understanding of performance and identify opportunities to improve throughput and efficiency.”
“To make strides in healthcare delivery, we need to break down the artificial walls around health data and enable it to flow to the right people at the right time throughout the care process,” said Nate McLemore, general manager of business development, Microsoft Health Solutions Group. “Our relationship with Philips is centered on this approach. We’re excited to combine the strengths of our technologies to help empower clinicians to drive improvements in the efficiency and quality of care.”
Under the agreement signed by the companies, Philips and Microsoft will collaborate to configure, market and sell a connected solution that enables radiologists using the Philips iSite Radiology viewer to make a single click within iSite to access a patient’s clinical data aggregated, delivered, and displayed within Microsoft Amalga. Today, in order to view a patient’s labs, medications and other data, a radiologist must start multiple clinical IT applications, log into each one, navigate to the specific patient and then click through multiple screens in each application to build a complete mental picture of the patient’s history. With the connected solution, Microsoft Amalga will aggregate patient data from the hospital’s multiple IT systems and deliver a unified view to the radiologist, eliminating the need to navigate separate applications.
Microsoft Amalga aggregates health data across disconnected systems in the health enterprise and empowers users to analyze and explore context-rich information about their patients or departments, on demand. Philips iSite PACS is an image management and distribution solution with unique technology that gives any physician in the enterprise access to full fidelity images within three seconds.
About Royal Philips Electronics
Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI) is a diversified health and well-being company, focused on improving people’s lives through timely innovations. As a world leader in healthcare, lifestyle and lighting, Philips integrates technologies and design into people-centric solutions, based on fundamental customer insights and the brand promise of “sense and simplicity”. Headquartered in the Netherlands, Philips employs 119,000 employees in more than 60 countries worldwide. With sales of EUR 25.4 billion in 2010, the company is a market leader in cardiac care, acute care and home healthcare, energy efficient lighting solutions and new lighting applications, as well as lifestyle products for personal well-being and pleasure with strong leadership positions in flat TV, male shaving and grooming, portable entertainment and oral healthcare. News from Philips is located at www.philips.com/newscenter.
About Microsoft in Health
Microsoft is committed to improving health around the world through software innovation. Over the past 13 years, Microsoft has steadily increased its investments in health with a focus on addressing the challenges of health providers, health and social services organizations, payers, consumers and life sciences companies worldwide. Microsoft closely collaborates with a broad ecosystem of partners and delivers its own powerful health solutions, such as Amalga, HealthVault, and a portfolio of identity and access management technologies acquired from Sentillion Inc. in 2010. Together, Microsoft and its industry partners are working to deliver health solutions for the way people aspire to work and live.
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