SGS Life Science Services Selects Merge eClinical

CHICAGO, July 23, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Merge Healthcare Incorporated (Nasdaq: MRGE ), a leading provider of clinical systems and innovations that seek to transform healthcare, today announced that SGS Life Science Services , a contract service organization with over 35 years experience in clinical research, has selected Merge's eClinical OS ™ to streamline data management across Phase I-IV studies.

"SGS sought a comprehensive EDC solution that would still be cost-effective for our biotech and smaller pharmaceutical clients," explained Joris De Bondt, Head of EDC and Data Standards of Clinical Research at SGS Life Science Services. "More specifically, we needed a system that included interactive response and drug dispensing in addition to data capture functionality. We were pleased to find that Merge's eClinical OS includes such a broad set of capabilities. Using one system for everything needed maximizes efficiency and improves timelines across all our studies."

"We were most impressed with the ability to tailor the system for each study depending on the features needed. The unique pay-as-you go model provides us with more cost efficiencies that we are then able to pass along to our clients," explained De Bondt. "Another benefit was how straight-forward the system was to use. Our team was able to learn the system, build a complete trial and have the trial validated and pass user acceptance testing faster than with previous systems."

"As one of the premier global CROs in the industry, we're very pleased to have SGS as a partner," said Zaher El-Assi, General Manager of Merge eClinical. "We find that our CRO partners benefit greatly from training and ongoing support through the Merge Certified Designer program. Our goal is to empower our CRO partners to better serve their customers by developing internal expertise to quickly build, test and deploy trials for their organization regardless of trial complexity and size."

Merge eClinical OS provides end-to-end study support through a single, easy-to-use interface allowing clients to manage and run studies more efficiently than ever before. It delivers built-in study templates, libraries and reports to help users create studies quickly and manage them effectively without technical assistance. Merge eClinical OS works for the largest and smallest studies, has the flexibility to support trials in any phase, and captures any type of data, from any source, from any modality.

About Merge Healthcare

Merge is a leading provider of clinical systems and innovations that seek to transform healthcare.  Merge's enterprise and cloud-based solutions for image intensive specialties provide access to any image, anywhere, any time. Merge also provides health stations, clinical trials software and other health data and analytics solutions that engage consumers in their personal health. With solutions that are used by providers and consumers and include more than 25 years of innovation, Merge is helping to reduce costs and improve the quality of healthcare worldwide. For more information, visit merge.com .

About SGS Life Science Services

SGS Life Science Services is a leading contract service organization providing clinical research, biologics characterization, biosafety, and quality control testing. Delivering solutions for bio-pharmaceutical companies, SGS provides Phase I-IV clinical trial management services encompassing clinical project management and monitoring, PK/PD Simulation & Modeling services, data management, biostatistics, and regulatory consultancy. For a qualitative and faster patient recruitment across Americas and Europe, clients can also count on SGS' large data base of investigators and key opinion leaders with a high therapeutic expertise in Infectious Disease & HIV/HCV, Vaccines, Oncology and Respiratory.

For more information, visit sgs.com/CRO .

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