IBM’s Watson Health Unit Announces Planned Acquisition of Merge Healthcare for USD 1 Billion

Leading medical image handling, processing, interoperability, and clinical systems leader Merge Healthcare will be acquired by IBM’s Watson Health unit in late 2015, pending Merge shareholder approval, regulatory review, and other standard closing conditions.

This is IBM’s third and largest major health-related acquisition and is intended to combine data and images from Merge Healthcare’s (Chicago, IL, USA) medical imaging management platform with IBM Watson Health’s (New York, NY, USA) advanced image analytics and cognitive capabilities.

Merge’s technology platforms are used for medical image management by most leading clinical research institutes and pharmaceutical companies worldwide. Watson Health Cloud platform could provide a consolidated, patient-centric view of current and past images, Electronic Health Records (EHR), and medical data from other sources, in a US Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)-enabled environment.

John Kelly, senior vice president, IBM Research and Solutions Portfolio, said, “As a proven leader in delivering healthcare solutions for over 20 years, Merge is a tremendous addition to the Watson Health platform. Healthcare will be one of IBM’s biggest growth areas over the next 10 years, which is why we are making a major investment to drive industry transformation and to facilitate a higher quality of care. Watson’s powerful cognitive and analytic capabilities, coupled with those from Merge and our other major strategic acquisitions, position IBM to partner with healthcare providers, research institutions, biomedical companies, insurers and other organizations committed to changing the very nature of health and healthcare in the 21st century. Giving Watson ‘eyes’ on medical images unlocks entirely new possibilities for the industry.”

Related Links:
Merge Healthcare
IBM Watson Health Unit