LiveData OR-Dashboard Passes Connectathon 2009,

Confirming Expanding Role in Medical Device Integration

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., March 13, 2009 – LiveData (www.livedata.com), a leading innovator in real-time data integration and display technology, today announced that the company’s OR-Dashboard has successfully completed the 2009 IHE North American Connectathon, a proving ground for medical device integration. LiveData OR-Dashboard captures, synchronizes, and integrates all relevant data from any medical device or system, transforms and presents it as meaningful information on easy-to-read graphic displays, delivering a complete, fully integrated view of the surgical case as it progresses.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) funds a national mandate for dramatically improved healthcare interoperability. The Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) process plays an important role in this effort by bringing together users and developers of healthcare IT systems to address interoperability issues that impact clinical care. The full range of profiles defined in the IHE Technical Frameworks is tested in a carefully organized and supervised environment. Each profile represents an aspect of patient data that needs to be shared electronically. The end result of the process turns communication standards into effective recipes for real-world use.

The Connectathon is the healthcare IT industry's largest interoperability testing event. The goal of IHE is to ultimately ensure that a patient’s data is securely authorized and transferred to the right physician or system at the right time in the correct format.

During a Connectathon, participants' systems exchange information with systems from many other participating organizations, performing all of the transactions required for the roles they have selected, in support of defined clinical functions. This year, more than 70 vendors (including such companies as GE, Philips, Philips Emergin, Draeger, SIS, Capsule, Cardinal Health, B. Braun, and Hospira) tested more than 130 healthcare IT systems.

“The healthcare industry needs to become more like a community in order for our country to overcome some of the major cost and quality challenges facing us. The direct contacts we make at the Connectathon with the engineers and management of other major healthcare vendors are an invaluable part of building this community,” said Jeffrey Robbins, LiveData CEO. “We have been able to meet and brainstorm integration plans for both existing and potential installations with other cooperating vendors, in meetings that otherwise might take months or longer to schedule. There are always hurdles to overcome with integration plans, but thanks to the Connectathon event, when it comes down to the technical details, we will be way ahead of the game.”

Successful completion of the Connectathon is a prerequisite for participating in the IHE Interoperability Showcase, an industry demonstration of medical device collaboration that takes place each year at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) conference. At this year’s HIMSS conference, LiveData OR-Dashboard will be working live, demonstrating the forwarding of alarms from medical devices to a wearable Polycom phone often found in the hospital setting. This takes important messages and delivers them to the people who need to see them right away, using an effective standard so that a hospital’s implementation costs are lowered by using phones already deployed.

Whole-hearted support of IHE interoperability is one important plank in LiveData’s strategic partnership with KARL STORZ Endoscopy America (www.karlstorz.com). Last year, the two companies announced that KARL STORZ is adding LiveData’s data integration and display capabilities to the KARL STORZ OR1® system, bringing hospitals a true Patient-Aware Operating Room™, where the surgical team can focus more fully and effectively on the patient.

Added LiveData’s Robbins: “By combining Karl Storz's proven presence and device connectivity in the OR with LiveData's IT interface expertise, our partnership will be able to leverage this new IHE profile to bring a new, comprehensive level of patient-aware intelligence to the operating room. For example, it will become possible to ensure that all patient safety checklists are complete before the surgical instruments allow a case to begin."

About LiveData

LiveData is a leading innovator in real-time data integration and display technology. The company’s solutions gather data from any number of sources, coordinate it with team workflow, and present it as meaningful information on easy-to-read graphic displays. Leading medical institutions, including Massachusetts General Hospital, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, have selected LiveData OR-Dashboard to improve patient safety, team communication, and perioperative efficiency. Founded in 1991, LiveData is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

NOTE: OR-Dashboard is a trade mark of LiveData. All other marks are the property of their respective owners, and are used for identification purposes only.

Contact: Ed Bride, 413-442-7718 [ This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ]