Lawson Snaps Up Workforce Management Provider
St. Paul, Minn.-based Lawson Software is acquiring Annapolis, Md.-based VasTech, a provider of workforce management software and services with 45 employees, for an undisclosed sum.
With this acquisition, Lawson will offer customers in healthcare a workforce management staffing and scheduling solution to complement its Lawson Human Capital Management offerings, according to the company. Lawson states that its new workforce management solution will also help healthcare organizations manage a variety of compliance and reporting challenges associated with safety initiatives, labor productivity and staffing levels.
The transaction should not have a material impact on the company's fiscal 2008 fourth quarter or fiscal 2009 results, Lawson stated.
InferMed/Siemens Collaborate on EMR/EDC Data Transfer
London-based InferMed Ltd. says it has successfully completed the first year of study — in conjunction with Munich-based Siemens AG and researchers at the Technical University of Munich — into a method of transferring data from an EMR to an electronic data capture (EDC) system.
The pilot implementation was designed at the Technical University of Munich to create an automatic electronic data transfer platform for two studies focusing on women's health. The company says that by using this solution, clinicians and research staff were able to automatically view, retrieve and disseminate clean data, while reducing the effort of manually collecting and entering trial data.
Preliminary results of the study show an increase of efficiency for all involved parties, says the company.
HLTH Sells off Remainder of Emdeon
Elmwood Park, N.J.-based HLTH Corporation has sold its 48 percent minority interest in Emdeon Business Services to General Atlantic (Greenwich, Conn.) and Hellman & Friedman LLC (San Francisco) for $575 million in cash. General Atlantic previously acquired a 52 percent majority interest in the company from HLTH in November 2006.
HLTH Corp.'s businesses are comprised of WebMD Health Corp., ViPS and Porex. WebMD provides health information services for consumers, physicians, healthcare professionals, employers and health plans through its public and private online portals and health-focused publications. ViPS provides healthcare data management, analytics, decision-support and process automation solutions and related information technology services to governmental, Blue Cross Blue Shield and commercial healthcare payers. Porex is a developer, manufacturer and distributor of proprietary porous plastic products and components used in healthcare, industrial and consumer applications.
GE Healthcare Teams With CenTrak on RFID
Waukesha, Wis.-based GE Healthcare is partnering with CenTrak Inc. of Newtown, Pa., on a predominantly battery-operated Radio Frequency ID (RFID) tracking system.
According to GE, the new asset optimization solution — DualTrak — will enable healthcare facilities to reduce installation barriers and costs. In addition, the solution's ability to accurately view locations at the room-level will enhance a hospital's operational efficiency and improve overall patient care, the company states.
The solution is designed to accommodate an unlimited number of tags and does not consume high amounts of bandwidth, according to the organizations.
Hong Kong Hospital Authority Commercializing Assets
The Hong Kong Hospital Authority (HKHA) has enlisted IBM Global Business Services and the Dorenfest Group to conduct a market research study in an effort to determine whether it will commercialize some of its IT assets.
The authority planned to issue a request for Expressions of Interest (EoI) in to assess the most appropriate models for partnerships.
HKHA manages 41 public hospitals with 27,742 beds and provides medical services in 74 primary care clinics through its network of healthcare facilities.
