Planar's Dome Dashboard Provides Significant Savings for Xtria and La

    Business Editors/Health Editors/High-Tech Editors

    BEAVERTON, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 22, 2005--Planar Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:PLNR), a worldwide leader in flat-panel display systems, has released Dome Dashboard(TM), a software console application that simplifies the centralized management, monitoring and control of medical imaging displays for administrators of picture archiving and communications systems (PACS).
    Xtria Healthcare Solutions division, a managed services provider for the implementation and management of PACS, reports early success after utilizing Dome Dashboard as part of its service offerings to the Lahey Clinic. Xtria uses Planar's Dome Dashboard to centrally manage, monitor and report on the display characteristics and performance of the Lahey Clinic's 65 Dome C3i diagnostic displays and 20 Planar PX191 clinical displays located in Burlington, Lexington and Peabody, Mass.
    Prior to Dome Dashboard, Xtria's PACS support staff copied information, such as serial numbers, software versions, white and black levels, and calibration data from each individual display to their PDAs, then carried this data back to their office PCs for data upload. Because this information can now be accessed from a central location using Dome Dashboard, Xtria's staff has gained considerable time and cost savings for managing the Lahey Clinic's portfolio of Dome and Planar displays, which are spread throughout Lahey's distributed campus.
    "Planar's Dome Dashboard is much simpler than other console applications I've worked with previously -- I didn't even need to consult the manual to get started," said Dr. John Weiser, Chief Scientist at Xtria Healthcare and an acknowledged leader in the development of PACS. "Planar understands that PACS administrators need software tools that will make their jobs easier and less costly, while assuring radiologists and clinicians that their display systems are performing optimally."
    In conjunction with Dome CXtra(TM) software, the monitoring and calibration software included with all Dome medical imaging display systems, administrators use Dome Dashboard to set up alerts for immediate pages when a display changes in any unexpected way, such as when a display goes down, if the white level of the display changes, or if a display is out of DICOM calibration conformance.
    Though Dome displays are self-calibrated through Dome CXtra software, before Dome Dashboard, Xtria's staff would have to evaluate each display at the Lahey Clinic every six months to ensure they were in optimal working condition. When calibration or luminance issues arose, clinicians would often be the first to detect problems, usually during display use. With Dome Dashboard, Xtria's PACS administrator is now alerted to issues before hospital staff experience performance problems.
    "As PACS expands outside the radiology reading room and flat-panel display technology emerges in new areas like operating rooms, doctors' offices and even physicians' homes, the need to ensure quality images is even more prevalent," said Rhoda Alexander, director of monitor research at iSuppli. "Quality assurance software and network management applications are critical variables in the PACS equation."
    In 2004, Planar announced a strategy to enable hospitals to deploy medical imaging in all areas of the hospital -- from the radiology suite, to the OR, to doctors' offices -- by providing high performing and cost-effective display solutions which are tailored to the unique needs of the particular hospital environment. A study by iSuppli found that Planar led the North American market last year in unit sales of grayscale medical imaging display (2 megapixel to 5 megapixel).

    About Planar

    Planar Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:PLNR) is a leading provider of flat-panel display hardware and software solutions for demanding medical, retailing, industrial and commercial applications. Hospitals, shopping centers, banks and businesses of all sizes use Planar display technology to help connect people, information and ideas. Founded in 1983, Planar is headquartered in Oregon, USA, with offices, manufacturing partners and customers worldwide. For more information, visit www.planar.com.

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CONTACT: Planar Systems, Inc. Linda Ferguson, 503-748-7280 (Media) linda_ferguson@planar.com Scott Hildebrandt, 503-748-5972 (Investors) scott_hildebrandt@planar.com or GolinHarris Keith Wiley, 213-438-8823 (Media) kwiley@golinharris.com

KEYWORD: OREGON INDUSTRY KEYWORD: HARDWARE PHARMACEUTICAL MEDICAL DEVICES MEDICAL BIOTECHNOLOGY PRODUCT SOURCE: Planar Systems, Inc.

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