Mach 7 and QStar Sign Agreement

Mach 7 Technologies, a provider of flexible, PACS-neutral healthcare image management solutions, and QStar Technologies have signed an agreement to provide a combined PACS- neutral archive solution through their common US distribution partner, Data Distributing, provider of digital image distribution and archiving solutions to the medical industry.

Under the agreement, Data Distributing will be able to provide healthcare enterprises in the fast growing PACS-neutral solution marketplace a complete end-to-end solution for PACS-Neutral Archiving, from image acquisition to technology-neutral storage management.

Employing software from both QStar and Mach 7 enables healthcare institutions to liberate their imaging data from a traditional PACS environment that locks them into a single vendor. A PACS-neutral strategy provides image archive continuity as older PACS systems are replaced. The combined Mach 7 and QStar solution eliminates the need for complex and costly image data migration, and also enables the sharing of archived images between multiple PACS systems.

Mach 7 Technologies’ flagship software is the Keystone Suite Enterprise Image Management Platform. Keystone Suite is a groundbreaking solution that enhances existing PACS investments by enabling healthcare enterprises to more efficiently move and store image data using PACS friendly / PACS neutral software solutions. PACS neutral solutions lower PACS switching costs when replacing an existing PACS and enable users to create a cost effective, common clinical image viewing solution when multiple medical PACS exist.

Keystone Suite is comprised of four scalable components: Keystone Archive, Keystone Engine, Keystone Management Console and Keystone Clinical Viewer. This robust product suite delivers PACS-Neutral Archiving, Intelligent Image Navigation, DICOM Attribute Normalization, Open EMR Image Enablement, and Monitoring of the Enterprise Image Continuum.

QStar provides technology-neutral archive management that sits behind the Mach 7 Keystone suite. Delivered as an enterprise class archive platform, (SntrySTR) or an Operating System independent software solution (HSM), QStar manages the lifecycle of images across multiple levels of physical storage. SntrySTR / HSM create the foundation for a resilient 3-2-1 archive strategy by combining fast RAID backed by a secure optical, tape or CAS archive and complete offline media management. For more advanced redundancy and management requirements, SntrySTR / HSM also offers real-time mirroring and client / server data migration functionality. QStar provides a very cost effective archive platform with the performance, resilience and longevity essential for demanding medical image archive environments.

“We are excited to be representing a leading-edge, complete PACS-Neutral Archive solution to the market, regardless of the incumbent PACS or storage hardware vendor present at the healthcare institution,” notes Nancy Fisher, President and CEO of Data Distributing. “Mach 7 Technologies’ Keystone Suite and QStar SntrySTR or HSM are uniquely positioned to reduce the lifecycle cost of securing and managing archived image data while freeing the healthcare institution to make good clinical and business choices as it selects its PACS software and storage hardware vendors going forward.”

“Our combined PACS-neutral archive solution is helping healthcare organizations overcome a major operational and financial headache,” said Dave Thomson, Sr. VP of Sales and Marketing at QStar. “Hospital and clinics need the flexibility to change and adapt their PACS environment without major consequences and we make this possible. The Mach 7 team is expert on all things DICOM, QStar contributes enterprise storage management, and Data Distributing provides the consulting and integration expertise. It’s a very compelling proposition.”

“Healthcare institutions need to make sound decisions about archiving their imaging data,” said Doug Schwab, VP and GM of Mach 7 Technologies. “Too often they turn to vendor choices that lock the image data into proprietary file formats on suboptimal storage hardware, increasing the cost of managing that data and limiting their future options. We are excited to partner with QStar and Data Distributing to bring this combined solution to market.”