E-Health Insider’s industry round up 19.03.09

This month’s E-Health Insider industry round-up covers new products, system deployments and other developments at leading healthcare IT suppliers.

SpeechMagic rolled out at HCA International

Nuance Communications has announced that its SpeechMagic technology is being rolled out across the private healthcare group, HCA International. With two-thirds of the roll-out complete, 96% of dictations are being processed using speech recognition. SpeechMagic is reported to have reduced average report creation times from 24 hours to two hours and 40 minutes. Kaye Bonython, imaging informatics programme manager at HCA International said: “The surprisingly high adoption level means that the profiles are good, that reports are turning around faster and that integration is optimal.”

Spire Healthcare calls on Azzurri

Spire Healthcare has signed a contract for a three-year, £4.5m managed telephony service with Azzurri Communications. The service will include fixed and mobile telephony and will be rolled out to Spire’s 36 hospitals in the UK. Spire acquired Bupa’s hospitals in 2007, and telecoms support manager Richard Eyley, says it decided to overhaul its entire telecoms infrastructure, instead of undertaking a “bit by bit” upgrade that would have cost more and delivered less.

Informatica takes on workload analysis tool

Informatica Systems has received the intellectual property and marketing rights to a workload analysis tool developed by the NHS Working in Partnership Programme. WiPP spent three years developing the tool, which uses Read codes extracted from clinical systems to give GPs insight into how they are managing their workloads and where they could make changes and efficiencies. It has been piloted in 33 practices within the Newham Health Partnership, with help from Apollo Medical Systems. Informatica has committed to increasing the WAT’s scope and making it more widely available to primary care in 2009.

Calculator determines ROI on bedside terminals

Irish company Lincor has launched a return on investment calculator to help hospitals calculate the savings that can be made by using bed-side terminals for clinical and hospital management services. The calculator enables trusts to see the efficiencies that can be generated by its MEDIVista solution, which provides access to patient data and images. Pat O’Donnell, operations director at Lincor said: “There is a tremendous need for hospitals to improve the efficiency of their clinical staff. At the same time, there is a great opportunity to increase patient safety through investment in computer technology.”

ExtraMed predicts ‘record breaking’ 2009

Edinburgh-based ExtraMed, which produces infection surveillance software, has announced that it secured sales worth more than £250,000 in February. The company, which produces the BEDS software, which tracks the history of each hospital bed, says it expects to close around £500,000 of deals this month, putting it on track to grow turnover by 80% in 2009. It has taken on new offices to cope with expansion and demand. Last month’s new clients include East Cheshire NHS Trust, North Cheshire NHS Trust, and Barnsley Hospital NHS Trust.

Increases in Manpower

Manpower Software has announced an increase in NHS trust customers in its third quarter. Fifteen trusts have awarded new contracts to MAPS Healthroster, which enables helps them to deploy the right staff with the and right skills, to the right place at the right time. The new customers include Queen Mary’s Sidcup NHS Trust and York Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. In total, 74 trusts now have contracts with MAPS Healthroster, as well as three private healthcare organisations.

BMS UK reseller of the year

BMS has been awarded the status of Imprivata NHS iPartner 2008 and UK Reseller of the Year 2008. BMS, an IT security solutions vendor that specialises in healthcare, is one of Imprivata’s key resellers. It investigates business problems for clients, proposes and implements solutions, such as Imprivata OneSign. Tina Tsoukatos, managing director at BMS said: “It is a tremendous achievement by everyone at BMS, and proof that our expertise in delivering Impriviata OneSign to NHS organisations is backed up by well implemented deployments providing real benefits to our customers.”

Avoca awarded skills and development award

Avoca Systems has won the Business Skills and Staff Development Award, which is given to companies that demonstrate excellence in their approach to workforce development. Avoca Systems provides data management and informatics solutions to the healthcare sector. It is best known for being selected to provide strategic data management solutions to the National Programme for IT in the NHS. Avoca’s director Shaun Regan, said that as a small business, it was important to know that “every single member of our team can directly impact on the ongoing success of the business.”