Candelis' ASTRA cloud-hosted services to augment Microsoft HealthVault's patient-centric services

Candelis announced today that it has reached a definitive agreement with Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) whereby Candelis' ASTRA cloud-hosted suite of services will provide for the secure transferring of patient digital medical images and studies to patients' Microsoft HealthVault accounts upon their request.

Microsoft HealthVault is a personal health application platform that lets consumers gather, store and share health information online.

These services benefit patients in a number of ways:

• Patients can obtain control of, archive and easily access their medical images stored in HealthVault from any Internet connection.
• Patients will have full control over their data and can grant access to family members or caregivers as they desire.  As an example, expectant couples can easily share Ultrasound images of their baby with loved ones.
• Patients can avoid unnecessary duplicate imaging procedures and associated healthcare costs.

The connection of Candelis' ASTRA Services with the HealthVault platform also benefits healthcare providers in the following ways:

• Access to past imagery can provide caregivers with more information to help improve patient care
• Costly CD/DVD publishing and distribution can be eliminated

"Medical images are a critical component of a patient's health record," said Khan Siddiqui, M.D., principal program manager, Microsoft Health Solutions Group. "We're excited to work with Candelis to bring patients an easy solution for managing and sharing their personal medical images online. ASTRA's cloud-hosted image management services provide an efficient and vendor-agnostic image transport mechanism."

"The combination of Candelis ASTRA and Microsoft HealthVault will help users of the two technologies lessen the need for duplicate medical imaging procedures and materially reduce healthcare costs. Patients will now be able to consolidate access, control their own medical images and provide images electronically to other providers on their care team" said Judy Hanover, Research Director at IDC Health Insights.

"We are pleased to work with Microsoft regarding the use of Candelis' ASTRA cloud services to augment HealthVault's patient-centric services via the seamless inclusion of medical images.  Microsoft's transformative vision empowers patients by enabling them to assemble - for the first time - a central repository consisting of all of their health records", said Steven Higgins, CTO of Candelis.

The connected Candelis ASTRA and Microsoft HealthVault solution is already in use at a number of imaging facilities in the United States.  "Our patients benefit greatly from online access to their consolidated medical imaging records. It truly empowers them; they can  provide their physicians with a more comprehensive view of their medical history, which in turn helps to facilitate better outcomes" said Yvette Almeida, CEO of Medical Park Diagnostics, a multi-location imaging practice in Miami.