Ophthalmic device usage and production are projected to witness an exponential growth in the near future due to the growing prevalence of eye conditions. Various pharmaceutical firms across the world are increasingly turning towards the usage of ophthalmic devices while bigger firms are passing their customers to other firms having usage of these devices.    

One such instance was observed when, Topcon Healthcare Solutions, a leading manufacturer of ophthalmic devices and software solutions for eye care, reportedly announced that it is collaborating with IBM Watson Health, an IBM subsidiary committed towards creation of smarter health ecosystems, to support the formation of a transition plan for their web-based image management platform Merge Eye Care PACS™ and Merge Eye Station™, a digital fundus imaging platform.

Both products that fall under IBM’s global eye care division which are being EOL (end-of-lifed) as announced by the firm earlier. 

The move comes ahead of IBM plans to stop its consumer support for Merge Eye Station and Merge Eye Care PACS users by 2020 end, Topcon would offer a safe transition path to its customers, enabling them to migrate the information to its signature data management system, Harmony.

Topcon’s Harmony system lets customers automatically import reports and images from various diagnostic devices integrated to one web-based viewer. Topcon Harmony would offer seamless information migration from Merge and would also support all users of Eye Station irrespective of existing hardware.

Additionally, Topcon would also provide a trade-in support program which provides IBM’s existing Merge customers the capability to upgrade to the Topcon’s latest imaging technology. 

President at Topcon Healthcare Solutions, Akifumi Baba stated that the company is thrilled to welcome all IBM’s Merge consumers to its software ecosystem. Topcon’s team has been diligently working for the development of a suite of applications that would allow Merge Eye Station and Merge Eye Care PACS users to effortlessly transition to Topcon Harmony.

Akifumi added that the Topcon Healthcare Suite has various applications that integrate a core array of technologies that would support Merge users during this transition and would provide them a safe future as their software requirements evolve along with the continuously changing healthcare landscape.

Source credit: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/topcon-healthcare-selected-ease-transition-140000952.html