Merge Healthcare Incorporated (NASDAQ: MRGE), a leading provider of innovative enterprise imaging, interoperability and clinical systems that seek to advance healthcare, today announced that Eurotrials, a full-service clinical research organisation with expertise in Europe and Latin America, has selected Merge as its technology partner of choice to focus on expanding their presence in Europe and the burgeoning Latin American market.

As part of the agreement, Merge will create a data centre in Brazil to serve Eurotrials’ researchers in the region and train them as certified providers of the company’s solution, Merge eClinical OS™ (eCOS), a unified platform utilising a pay-as-you-go, selfrun environment to manage and run studies.

Dr. Maria Queiroz, Global CEO with Eurotrials, said the partnership makes sense on a number of levels. "First and foremost, both our firms thrive on cultivating a climate of collaboration and innovation to serve the needs of a fast-evolving market. eCOS enables Eurotrials to help our clients stay on top of new trends in risk assessment such as remote and risk-based monitoring."

According to Dr. Queiroz, the integration of functions such as embedded translation, automatic medical coding and electronic patient reported outcomes in eCOS significantly boosts her firm’s ability to manage studies across borders seamlessly. "!nd the fact that eCOS empowers data managers with no programming experience to design studies on their own is extraordinarily valuable," she said.

"One of our primary goals in 2014 is to expand our international business, and we couldn’t have found a better partner for this effort. We are honored and excited to partner with a company of Eurotrials’ profile and prestige," said Zaher El-Assi, president of Merge eClinical. "Our eCOS solution has a strong presence in the US and European markets and we certainly expect to see continued growth in those regions."

Justin Dearborn, CEO of Merge, continued, "A key strategy for us is penetrating markets where advanced clinical study management technologies such as eCOS are not yet commonplace. Joining forces with a prominent CRO that is universally recognised for its expertise in Latin America is a huge benefit for Merge and will allow us to continue to expand our global footprint."