Agfa HealthCare, a leading provider of IT enabled clinical workflow and diagnostic imaging solutions, and InterComponentWare AG (ICW), the eHealth specialist, announce today that they are intensifying their co-operation efforts. The non-exclusive agreement covers the development of seamless integration and interoperability between Agfa HealthCare's Hospital Information System (HIS) ORBIS(TM) and ICW's eHealth Framework. eHealth solutions are aimed at improving the overall quality of care by allowing healthcare providers to share all relevant patient medical data for an individual in treatment (highlighting allergies, medication history and so forth). This allows each treating physician to see the total medical record of the patient, regardless of location, and supports them in their diagnosis and treatment planning.
The ICW eHealth Framework is an open platform for the development of service-oriented solutions for the healthcare market. It offers standardized interfaces for the integration of existing applications of other manufacturers with solutions from ICW. The eHealth Framework enables seamless integration, allowing different existing systems to be combined into one consistent solution.
The non-exclusive agreement will strengthen Agfa HealthCare's expanding position in the eHealth market. The company has already successfully linked its ORBIS solutions amongst different facilities of hospital groups in Europe, and offers the possibility for integration of its applications with general practitioner software vendors. Agfa HealthCare's ORBIS has currently been deployed in over 750 institutions across continental Europe with more than 450,000 daily users, making it one of the leading healthcare IT providers.
The agreement is an extension of an ongoing co-operation between the two companies on homogeneity issues in the hospital sector. Agfa HealthCare and ICW, amongst others, have already actively co-operated in various working groups in Germany, including the VHitG (Verband der Hersteller von IT-Lösungen für das Gesundheitswesen), on the implementation of HL7 (Health Level 7) in Germany and on the development of an electronic case record.
The many years of experience of ICW developing and using its own eHealth solutions have been incorporated into the eHealth Framework. It is the foundation for all product developments at ICW and is offered to interested partners for their own development purposes.
Philippe Houssiau, President of Agfa HealthCare, explains: "The solutions of Agfa HealthCare and ICW supplement each other optimally. Agfa HealthCare has outstandingly positioned HIS (Hospital Information System), RIS (Radiology Information System), and PACS (Picture Archiving and Communications System) solutions. ICW contributes its many years of know-how in networking existing systems and its personal health record LifeSensor to the partnership".
Peter Reuschel, Chief Executive Officer of ICW agrees: "The collaboration of Agfa HealthCare and ICW offers the customers of both companies a unique added value, because existing systems can be integrated more effectively."
About InterComponentWare
InterComponentWare AG (ICW) is a leading international eHealth specialist with locations in Germany, the United States, Austria, Switzerland, and Bulgaria. Its solutions for networking the various players in the healthcare system lastingly improve process-oriented communication and data integrity, and therefore also the quality of healthcare. Among other things, ICW develops and distributes software and hardware components for the healthcare IT infrastructure for electronic health cards, the LifeSensor personal health record as well as networking solutions for hospitals and physician offices. As part of the bIT4health consortium, ICW provided important consulting services for the implementation of the electronic health card in Germany, is involved in the Austrian eCard project and has recently won the pilot project for the national health card in Bulgaria.
For further information, please visit:
About Agfa HealthCare
Agfa HealthCare, a member of the Agfa-Gevaert Group, is a leading provider of IT-enabled clinical workflow and image management solutions, and state-of-the-art systems for capturing, processing and printing images in hospitals and healthcare facilities. The company has over a century of experience in diagnostic imaging and has been a pioneer on the healthcare IT market since the early 1990's. Agfa HealthCare today employs 5,700 staff members, with sales offices and representatives in over 100 markets worldwide. Sales for Agfa HealthCare in 2006 were 1452 million Euro, accounting for 43% of total group sales.
For more info on Agfa please visit: www.agfa.com