Digital Healthcare Saving Sight Around the World

Baltimore, MD – Baltimore-based Digital Healthcare, Inc. is pleased to announce that it has secured a contract for its diabetic retinopathy detection software, OptoMize® iP®, that is being used in the largest systematic screening program in the world.

Coordinated by the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust Diabetic Retinopathy Screening Center at the Birmingham Heartlands Hospital, the program will cover nearly 170,000 diabetic patients that will be screened for the early signs of diabetic retinopathy. Patients will be able to visit their local ophthalmologist where high quality images are taken of the eye and then assessed for disease. These images and data can then easily be shared between local physicians and reading centers, reports quickly generated and patients instantly referred to appropriate specialists. OptoMize® iP® creates an automatic flow of patient communication, while meeting the standards of patient confidentiality.

OptoMize® iP® aids in the early detection of diabetic retinopathy by screening patients with diabetes during routine visits to their optician or ophthalmologist. Combining an advanced digital imaging system, that captures digital images of the retina, with a fully-automated electronic patient administration system, OptoMize® iP® proves to be an imperatively useful tool in the fight against this debilitating disease.

"Diabetic Retinopathy is the single largest cause of blindness in the working age population. We estimate that 27 million people are at risk and the only way to successfully prevent blindness is to have eyes checked for signs of sight threatening disease. With such a large problem, the responsibility is in part on the shoulders of software developers to design high throughput systems like this and hence why we have developed the OptoMize® technology to beat this disease" said Gerry Skews - Executive Director of Digital Healthcare, Inc.

The software is also currently being used in the United States by Vanderbilt, U.S. Army (Madigan, Washington State, BAMC, Texas), Wills Eye Institute and Wake Forest University.

Mr. Skews added "The program in England will manage the care of tens of thousands of diabetic patients simultaneously from first diagnosis to intervening treatment and surveillance of the outcomes. The problem is the same here in the US just a little more than 20 times bigger".

Digital Healthcare, Inc.’s OptoMize® iP® software won the prestigious MSHUG Award earlier this year for “Best 2006 Best in Class Partner Award in the Acute Care – Clinical/Patient Information Systems Category”.
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About Digital Healthcare, Inc:
Based in Baltimore, Maryland with a Midwest office in Madison, Wisconsin, Digital Healthcare develops advanced imaging and workflow technologies for a range of healthcare applications. Digital Healthcare designed a rapid applications development platform based on Microsoft .NET connected technologies framework called iP® and the company now offers products in Clinical Ophthalmology, Remote Retinal Diagnostic Imaging and Digital Reading Centers. The company counts several major US Defense organizations and several leading academic institutions among its early adopters. Digital Healthcare’s parent company is based in Cambridge, England, and was formed as a management buyout from Perkin Elmer Life Sciences (NYSE: PKI) in 1999.

For more information, please contact the following:
Media Contact: Monica L. Bush - mlb@digital-healthcare.com
Executive Director: Gerry Skews - gns@digital-healthcare.com
Website: www.digital-healthcare.com