Opinion Article: Collaboration is the Future
By Shane Tickell, CEO, IMS MAXIMS.In the late 1980s, after the NHS started going through its largest period of change, I began working for a women and children's hospital, which was part of a larger group. At this time we were using a workflow system that was locally hosted on our site, however you could centrally report on all the individual hospitals. Despite being able to successfully administer our patients, manage our stock control, procedures and billing, we were missing the detailed patient notes - which were on paper.
Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) reports fourth-quarter comparable sales growth of 7%; operational results up by 20%; 2013 financial targets achieved. Healthcare comparable sales grew by 4% year-on-year. Customer Services recorded high-single-digit growth, while Home Healthcare Solutions achieved mid-single-digit growth. Imaging Systems and Patient Care & Clinical Informatics recorded low-single-digit growth. In growth geographies, comparable sales showed double-digit growth year-on-year, with strong increases in China, Central & Eastern Europe, Latin America and Middle East & Turkey. 
Agfa HealthCare and Worldline, acting as a consortium, have won the SIMRAL (Alsatian regional medical imagery services) project to provide a bundle of shared medical imaging services for the entire region of Alsace (France), following a 12-month competitive dialogue procedure.