Calgary Scientific Inc. has updated its flagship visualization platform to let multiple users work simultaneously on software applications regardless of the end user device.
The visualization software maker said PureWeb 3.0 can now sync up geographically distributed users on an iPhone or Android device as well as any tablet or PC. All users can collaborate and make changes to the natively shared software without additional conferencing or collaboration tools.
For example, a hospital can work with PureWeb 3.0 to enable a piece of medical imaging software to be accessed and manipulated by multiple doctors across the country at the same time. In this use case, one specialist can invite other physicians via an e-mail link to view and collaborate on their application.
The previous PureWeb release did not allow for simultaneous changes.
Dan Pigat, director of product management at Calgary Scientific, said the new update will lead to an expansion of the company’s customer base to new verticals outside of the medical space.
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He said organizations in military simulation, banking, and retail spaces are interested in using PureWeb to open up new collaboration opportunities with their software. Linking up mortgage experts across different bank locations is just one potential use case that could be in the pipeline, Pigat added.
In the future, the company plans to work with the HTML5 standard to make it even easier to have an application work effectively across a variety of different mobile devices.
Aaron Lange, director of software engineering with Minneapolis-based Virtual Radiologic Corp., said his organization works closely as a partner with Calgary Scientific because of how easily PureWeb integrated with its existing software.
“The health care industry, when it comes to scalability via the Web, is really far behind,” he said. While shopping for an application and collaboration platform, Lange said, most partners were looking to integrate VRad’s software with tools from Citrix and WebEx.
“Integration into software like that is painful and now what we were envisioning, so we looked at other players,” he said.
The radiology practice, which has more than 350 radiologists that serve a few thousand medical facilities across the U.S., said Calgary Scientific was as “Web-based as advertised” and gave its radiologists a consistency when they were using software in the hospital and at home. This is important, Lange said, as its radiologists all work out of their homes throughout the entire country.
The PureWeb 3.0 client works as a layer that sits on-top of VRad’s existing software and can be accessed with any device that is capable of opening up a Web browser.
Going forward, VRad said it is now working on a productive app that will take advantage of PureWeb 3.0’s collaborative feature. Radiologists currently exchange instant messages or e-mails when working with other physicians or specialists, Lange said.
“We’d love to have a real-time mobile app,” he added.