HP Picks
In a move to strengthen its position as a provider of asset management software, technology solutions provider Hewlett-Packard Co., Palo Alto, Calif., is planning to buy San Diego-based, Peregrine Systems for an estimated $425 million. HP intends to integrate Peregrine’s portfolio with its OpenView business unit. HP has also agreed to buy AppIQ, Burlington, Mass., a storage management company, and intends to merge the AppIQ business into its Storage Works division.
Emageon Buys Camtronics
Emageon Inc., Birmingham, Ala., a provider of equipment used in the analysis and management of digital medical images, has acquired from health and security equipment designer Analogic Corp., Peabody, Mass., all the stock of Analogic’s wholly owned subsidiary Camtronics Medical Systems Ltd., Hartland, Wis. Purchasing the cardiology image and information management systems company and its assets will cost Emageon $40 million and give it entry into the cardiology market, the company said.
Zix Sells Dr. Chart
Dallas-based Zix Corp., which sells secure messaging software, has sold its Dr. Chart online lab ordering and results service to MITEM Corp., Menlo Park, Calif., a software developer and publisher of message-oriented middleware. MITEM agreed to assume all Zix customer contracts and obligations upon close of the sale, which is valued at $700,000. Zix Corp. said it plans to focus on its e-prescribing and secure email business.
WebMD Buys Content
Health information services company WebMD Health Corp., New York, a subsidiary of Emdeon Corp., announced plans to buy Montreal-based Conceptis Technologies Inc., a medical media and education products provider. The companies believe WebMD will claim a stronger presence in the cardiology community by adding the content of www.theheart.org to its Medscape cardiology site.
New Service from 3M
Salt Lake City-based 3M Health Information Systems, a provider of software and services to the healthcare industry, has launched 3M Terminology Consulting Services. The new program addresses data interoperability issues that confound clinical decision support and performance measurements. The goal is to encode, standardize and integrate data across multiple clinical systems and map the data to terminology standards, such as LOINC and SNOMED CT.
IBM Opens Patents
In an effort to support broad system interoperability and information access through open software standard development, the healthcare practice of IBM Corp., Armonk, N.Y., has declared its patent portfolio open to developers of selected software standards and applications. The royalty-free access to 45,000 software patents supports standards built around Web services, electronic forms and open document formats.
EMR Partners
GE Healthcare, Milwaukee, announced that it will develop its electronic medical record (EMR) on the Microsoft SQL Server 2005 from Microsoft Corp., Redmond, Wash. According to the companies, the development platform will integrate EMR and practice management solutions as well as offer new features, such as multiple active result sets, common language runtime integrations and snapshot isolation.
SNOMED and NHS Proposal
To encourage international participation in the development, ownership and maintenance of SNOMED Clinical Terms (SNOMED CT), SNOMED International, a division of The College of American Pathologists, Northfield, Ill., and NHS Connecting for Health, Leeds, U.K., plan to establish an international standards development organization. The proposal is being discussed with healthcare IT leaders worldwide to gauge the level of interest in establishing the standardized healthcare terminology solution as a global clinical terminology.
Update on Diabetes Initiative
Last year, Cerner Corp., Kansas City, Mo., launched an online program for managing type 1 diabetes. Cerner pledged to provide an online management tool within the next 10 years to every child in the United States with type 1 diabetes. As of Oct. 12, 2005, the company reported, 28 hospitals, 550 clinicians and more than 2,800 children are participating in the program.
Carecentric Teams with ProviderLink
ProviderLink Inc., Cary, N.C., a healthcare IT company, was selected as the technology provider for Atlanta-based CareCentric’s certificate of medical necessity communication manager. The integrated product will allow home medical equipment companies to collect electronic and faxed physician signatures through a single interface. CareCentric, a business operation and outsourcing services supplier for home-care providers, will market the product within its existing suite of applications.
