Avnet Introduces New Vendor Neutral Archive Solutions for Medical Images

To help value-added resellers and their healthcare-focused customers take advantage of funding related to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), Avnet Technology Solutions today announced new solutions and service offerings to assist in the storage and management of medical images as part of electronic health records (EHR). As a solutions distribution leader and an operating group of Avnet, Inc. (NYSE: AVT), Avnet Technology Solutions will enable its partners in the U.S. and Canada to offer complete Vendor Neutral Archive (VNA) solutions through its healthcare solutions practice – Avnet HealthPath™.

"Hospitals and medical facilities need trusted IT advisors who understand the industry and their technology pain points,” said David Hutchinson, director of healthcare solutions, Avnet Technology Solutions, Americas. "Healthcare organizations want to work with value-added resellers that are armed with solutions designed to centralize silos of patient health information — especially medical images — address unique industry storage and security requirements, and provide easy access and management of patient records. The Vendor Neutral Archive solutions and services now available through Avnet’s healthcare-trained reseller partners are designed to meet these challenges head on.”

As part of its VNA offerings, Avnet’s partners will now be able to provide Enterprise Medical Image Management Assessment services to their customers. These assessments analyze the medical imaging systems of departments and facilities based on quantifiable metrics, clinical processes and growth patterns. The resulting analysis provides a recommended technology roadmap based on study volumes, study sizes, growth rates and record retention policies. Medical facilities will also receive a personalized business case, focusing on the three-year cost savings through system centralization, data migration and resource optimization.

Additionally, Avnet has signed distribution agreements with three industry-leading VNA independent software vendors (ISVs), including:

• Acuo Technologies: developer of high-performance software for intelligent medical image management, standards based archiving, data migration tools and services. Acuo has installed over 475 implementations worldwide
• DeJarnette Research Systems, Inc.: developer of "best of breed” medical imaging workflow and medical image management software. The company’s 25 years in the PACS and medical informatics space makes it one of the oldest and most trusted names in the market
• TeraMedica Healthcare Technology: a medical informatics company that provides software to collect digital medical images from diverse data sources across healthcare systems and manage them in a single patient snapshot

The software available from these ISVs can be used in conjunction with Avnet’s extensive portfolio of storage products from suppliers such as EMC, HP, Hitachi Data Systems, IBM, NetApp and Sun Microsystems to create comprehensive VNA solutions.

"Our healthcare clients are seeking to improve patient care while reducing the cost of delivering quality care,” said Karen Burton, healthcare business development manager at Logicalis. "Incorporating vendor neutral archiving solutions provides a single interface for image-enabled electronic health records, and greatly reduces the cost of image data management, data migrations and business continuity. Avnet’s Vendor Neutral Archive partners and services, combined with Logicalis’ enterprise design, development, deployment and ongoing management, deliver a solid platform for image-enabled electronic health record solutions, and a cost effective long-term strategy for managing and securing patient health information.”

For more information, please visit Avnet’s booth, #4719, located in South Hall A at RSNA 2009 in Chicago. Additionally, Stuart C. Gardner, president and founder of SGA Consulting, will discuss the importance of VNA during his presentation, "Why and How Far Health Care IT Is Behind Our Non–Health Care IT Brethren,” at RSNA 2009. This session will be held on December 2, 2009 from 8:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. CT in E350.

For additional comments from the participants involved in Avnet’s VNA solution offerings, including David Stalder, executive vice president and co-founder, Abrio Healthcare Solutions; Michael J. Gray, President, Gray Consulting; Stuart C. Gardner, President and Founder of SG&A Consulting; Jeff Timbrook, CEO, Acuo Technologies; Wayne DeJarnette, CEO, DeJarnette Research Systems, Inc.; and Jim Prekop, CEO, TeraMedica Healthcare Technology, please visit VNA partner quotes on Avnet’s press room.

About Avnet Technology Solutions

Avnet Technology Solutions is an operating group of Phoenix-based Avnet, Inc. As a global technology sales and marketing organization, Avnet Technology Solutions has sales divisions focused on specific customer segments and a select line card strategy enabling an exceptional level of attention to the needs of its customers and suppliers. For fiscal year 2009, the group served customers in more than 30 countries and generated US $7.04 billion in annual revenue. The group’s Web site is www.ats.avnet.com.

Avnet, Inc. (NYSE:AVT), a Fortune 500 company, is one of the largest distributors of electronic components, computer products and embedded technology in the world. Avnet accelerates its partners’ success by connecting the world’s leading technology suppliers with a broad base of more than 100,000 customers and providing cost-effective, value-added services and solutions. For the fiscal year ended June 27, 2009, Avnet generated revenue of $16.23 billion. For more information, visit www.avnet.com.