Expand Networks Selected by Radiology Associates of South Florida for WAN Application Acceleration; Compass Platform Accelerates Transfer of Large Medical Imaging Files across the World Reducing Average Transfer Time from 53 Minutes to 7 Minutes

Business Wire, June 1, 2006

ROSELAND, N.J. -- Expand Networks (www.expand.com), a leading provider of application acceleration solutions over the WAN, today announced that Radiology Associates of South Florida, a Miami-based healthcare practice specializing in radiology, selected the Expand Networks' Compass Platform to boost large file transfer rates between geographically dispersed locations. Radiology Associates of South Florida is affiliated with Baptist Health Enterprises, which covers the emergency rooms of three regional Miami hospitals: Baptist Hospital, South Miami and Homestead along with five outpatient centers owned and operated by Baptist Health Enterprises.

Medical-related imaging files are noted for being heavily laden with relevant data that can capture the history or identify an illness or malady. In today's fast-paced medical environment, the importance of a quick turnaround with an accurate diagnosis or analysis is imperative for effective patient care. Many hospitals rely on outside agencies like Radiology Associates of South Florida to read these imaging files which can include CAT Scans, MRIs and other types of medical images and provide a timely report to hospital doctors. If an organization depends on transferring large files of a sensitive nature over the Internet, it becomes imperative to have the fastest upload and download speed - without bottlenecks or latency while ensuring quality of service.

To take advantage of 24-hour care without exhausting their internal physician's time and bandwidth, Radiology Associates of South Florida opened an office in Israel and hired a doctor to do readings for the local midnight to 7 am shift (which is 7am to 2 pm Israel time). When the process started, the files would be sent overnight to Israel and after a reading, the doctor would analyze and report back the findings and recommendations back to Florida in real-time. What was thought to be an easy process turned into a major hurdle - each file transfer from Florida to Israel was taking an unacceptably long time - on average, 53 minutes. This countered the original strategy of improving the responsiveness and having files interpreted utilizing global support via various time zones.

"We identified that files were taking too long to get to their destination for analysis in Israel," said Dennis Wiseman, practice manager, Radiology Associates of South Florida. "The reality was we were paying a doctor basically to wait for each file to painstakingly come through. Between the three hospitals we averaged 70 images a day - all ER-related. And unlike most teleradiology companies, our own employee interprets these images and provides final reports, with few exceptions. Consequently, the work load was bogged down and readings were not able to be accomplished in the desired time frame. After investigating several options we found Expand had the right technology that could accomplish what we needed - application acceleration over the WAN. Immediately we regained speed and data transfer which enabled our overseas doctor to get the images rapidly and turn the analysis around in just a matter of minutes."

The results were noticeable. After deploying Expand's technology, Radiology Associates of South Florida went from a 53 minutes per file transfer down to an average of seven minutes each. This improvement put them back on the business track they envisioned.

"An alternative solution that involved utilizing a private IP link from a well known ISP would have been costly over the long run, and, more than likely would have come short of matching the throughput Expand has been able to provide. The private ISP link would have only improved the quality of the transmission versus public Internet transport," said Chris Ranno, IT consultant, Radiology Associates of South Florida. "Data traveling over 6000 miles is subject to a higher latency, which would decrease throughput considerably, due to the nature of the TCP/IP. Expand changed the rules of the game by improvising and greatly enhanced the method of transport, thereby overcoming the limitations on data caused by distance."

Even with adequate bandwidth, network congestion can significantly impede the speed of data transfer. With diagnoses, treatments and actions required by doctors based on the image analysis, any latency could spell trouble for both patients and doctors. The Expand Compass platform provided Radiology Associates of South Florida cost-effective WAN optimization and increased the power of the network for high business availability without sacrificing time.

"We are confident we made the right choice," said Wiseman. "In the first two weeks, we saw our file transfer increase 8-fold and the turnaround time by the doctors stationed overseas is now a streamlined process. Getting the files to the doctors was the most important thing we needed to do. Our problem was slow technology speeds that put the doctors in a perpetual waiting mode. Our solution enabled quick access from send to receive. Now the analysis and report is turned around in rapid fashion. In the end, we all win."