MILWAUKEE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Merge Healthcare (NASDAQ: MRGE), a leading medical imaging solutions provider, today announced that its Merge China business unit has signed a Distribution Agreement with PANGAEA Technology Limited, a distributor of CCD detectors, which are an economical alternative to digital detectors, for DR systems in the Greater China area. PANGAEA will provide the Chinese DR market with a bundled solution consisting of Merge CIE™ (Cedara Image Enhancement) and CCD through their eight offices and wide distribution channels in China.

“After the healthcare reform plan was announced in China early this year, we recognized that there would be large demand for economical DR solutions in the rural healthcare market. Many local modality manufacturers have since switched their product lines to address a cost conscious, big volume market. We believe the CCD sensor and Merge CIE is a solution that will fit into this market perfectly,” explains Mr. Richard Fung, CEO and President of PANGAEA (HK) Limited, which is the parent company of PANGAEA China. “During this preliminary stage of work with Merge China, our customers are quite happy and satisfied with the enhanced images filtered by CIE, the flexibility of the tuning tools, and the timely response through Merge’s local technical team. With Merge’s extensive knowledge and advanced technologies in the medical imaging domain, we expect to dramatically grow our CCD shipment during 2010, and we are looking at the healthcare industry as our key growth market in the future.”

“PANGAEA is a very important distributor in China for our CIE solution,” says Justin Dearborn, Merge CEO. “The quality and cost of the CCD has been well recognized by the market, and PANGAEA’s wide distribution channel and existing customer base has already shown significant interest in the bundled solution. This is a perfect combination of technologies and marketing channels, and we look forward to bringing more of our technologies to their solution in the future.”

PANGAEA, headquartered in Hong Kong, was founded in 1990 as a distribution company offering sophisticated solutions for telecommunication, healthcare, industrial and consumer electronics. It offers a whole range of vertically integrated value-add services which can facilitate its business partners to achieve higher efficiency and cost effectiveness. PANGAEA has a broad customer base in China and is currently having 8 offices in China offering sales and technical support to customers. PANGAEA is committed to continuous service improvement. The Company also maintains a strong principle on achieving a high standard of business ethics by protecting the intellectual property of business partners. Additional information can be found at www.pangaea.com.hk.

Merge Healthcare develops software solutions that automate healthcare data and diagnostic workflow to create a more comprehensive electronic record of the patient experience. Merge products, ranging from standards-based development toolkits to fully integrated clinical applications, have been used by healthcare providers worldwide for over 20 years. Additional information can be found at www.merge.com.

The matters discussed in this news release may include forward-looking statements, which could involve a number of risks and uncertainties. When used in this press release, the words “will,” “believes,” “intends,” “anticipates,” “expects” and similar expressions, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, such forward-looking statements. Except as expressly required by the federal securities laws, the Company undertakes no obligation to update such factors or to publicly announce the results of any of the forward-looking statements.