ATLANTA, Mar 13, 2006 -- At this week's American College of Cardiology (ACC) conference, Siemens Medical Solutions showcased its Soarian(R) Cardiovascular Enterprise, a comprehensive healthcare information technology (IT) solution that will support the cardiovascular care continuum from admission to follow-up. This scalable solution integrates diagnostic image acquisition, image processing, and evidence-based reporting tools from syngo(R) Dynamics with Soarian(R) Cardiology to provide a single, longitudinal clinical repository that becomes a true cardiovascular electronic patient record (EPR).

"As a leader in fully uniting all cardiac information at the point of care, we are supporting clinicians with potentially life-saving details," said Tom Miller, president, Healthcare IT Division, Siemens Medical Solutions. "With Soarian Cardiovascular Enterprise, Siemens advances its trendsetting strategy of delivering end-to-end IT, imaging and workflow solutions - featuring unparalleled modality and IT integration."

Soarian Cardiovascular Enterprise: Revolutionizing Cardiac Care

With a complete clinical view of the patient, physicians are able to provide faster, more streamlined care. Soarian Cardiovascular Enterprise enables Web-based, real-time access to information virtually anywhere, anytime while linking clinical processes such as ordering, nursing, and reporting into logical workflows. In an environment where time is critical, Soarian Cardiovascular Enterprise provides a one-stop source for all relevant patient information.

"In a clinical environment where images are critical to the care of a patient, physicians need all images and data integrated within one workstation and available via a single longitudinal clinical repository," said Doug Colburn, CIO, Nebraska Heart Institute Heart Hospital. "In collaborating with Siemens to build a path to the future, Soarian Cardiovascular Enterprise will help enable us to achieve our goal of total integration and completely optimized workflow."

In addition to Soarian Cardiovascular Enterprise, other healthcare IT solutions supporting the integrated continuum for cardiac care to be featured at ACC include:

-- Soarian Critical Care: An emerging solution that will address the clinical, financial, and operational workflow challenges of the critical care team by proactively integrating medical devices and information. Soarian Critical Care streamlines processes by automatically collecting data from the bedside, including patient monitors and ventilators using standards-based interfaces, to create electronic documentation and near real-time patient information.

-- Soarian Disease Management: A comprehensive, interactive Web-based solution that provides patients with the guidance and support to manage and conveniently report on their daily health status. Soarian Disease Management's interactive capabilities help providers monitor chronically ill patients' adherence to care plans and provides a holistic picture of a patient's condition, pushing relevant information to clinicians. The solution is helping to reduce the hospital readmission rate for chronic heart failure (CHF) patients by at least 75 percent.

-- Soarian Operating Room: A fully integrated information system designed to support the complete peri-operative process, from the time the physician considers an operation, until the patient is received on the floor or discharged. Currently also an emerging solution, Soarian OR will streamline workflow processes such as scheduling, preference card management, preoperative preparation, and help the delivery of anesthesia.

Siemens Medical Solutions of Siemens AG (SI) with headquarters in Malvern, Pennsylvania, and Erlangen, Germany, is one of the largest suppliers to the healthcare industry in the world. The company is known for bringing together innovative medical technologies, healthcare information systems, management consulting, and support services, to help customers achieve tangible, sustainable, clinical and financial outcomes. Employing approximately 33,000 people worldwide and operating in more than 120 countries, Siemens Medical Solutions reported sales of 7.6 billion EUR, orders of 8.6 billion EUR and group profit of 976 million EUR for fiscal 2005. More information can be obtained by visiting www.usa.siemens.com/medical-pressroom.

The information about Soarian Critical Care and Soarian Operating Room is preliminary. The products are not yet commercially available.

SOURCE: Siemens Medical Solutions