I-Health has inked a deal for its web-based “linking” software to be rolled out across Otago Health.
It is the second deal to be made public for i-Health, a start-up spun off Auckland-based Galen Group, and is the beginning of many lined up, i-Health chief executive Brian Allen says.
The maturity of the Australian health market and the strength of i-Health’s distribution partner Cap Gemini Ernst & Young there means big opportunities across the Tasman, he says. “We’re short-listed for two big projects there; that’s where our marketing push is.”
Allen also points to potential work as Australia’s national health network, HealthConnect, gets rolling.
I-Health’s web-based software sits above a hospital’s IT systems and links them by creating a browser-based “view”. Users can then access and enter information in multiple applications while logged in as either an organisation, a clinician, a community practitioner or a patient.
Cap Gemini Ernst & Young has been advising Otago Health for some time. Senior manager Steve Brookes says i-Health’s document management module and web-enabled tool kit was first chosen for Otago’s new document management system. But Otago has decided to roll out i-Health’s products throughout the hospital, starting with laboratory and radiology results and clinical messaging, he says.
I-Health, which was developed in conjunction with its first client, Lakeland Health, plans to take advantage of a cost-driven trend in the sector to link existing systems rather than replacing them from scratch, Allen says. The i-Health range is built on Microsoft VB. It is investigating XML, Biztalk and other languages including the health standard HL7.