Merge Healthcare said it would launch its new cloud-based platform in the first quarter of 2012, sending the medical device maker's shares up 22 percent.

The company unveiled its image-sharing product -- Merge Honeycomb -- at the Radiological Society of North America conference in Chicago.

The company also announced its first application in the cloud that would allow free sharing of medical images from any web-enabled device.

Shares of Merge, which rose as high as $5.40, later pared some of the gains to trade up 12 percent at $4.99 on Monday on Nasdaq.

(Reporting by Shailesh Kuber in Bangalore; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)

Cloud computing Launch