Opinion Article by Richard Turner, Executive Director, Change Healthcare
Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA), a global leader in health technology, will showcase its latest scalable and interoperable health information management portfolio at the HIMSS and Health 2.0 European Congress, taking place June 11-13 in Helsinki, Finland. Philips integrated solutions, enhanced by adaptive intelligence across key areas of health information management, Delegates at the UK Imaging & Oncology Congress (UKIO) will be able to engage with global healthcare technology specialist Change Healthcare in June, around some of the biggest challenges facing diagnostic imaging and radiology in the NHS. 
Merck, a leading science and technology company, today announced that it has opened the next round of applications for startup companies to participate in the global Merck Accelerator program. Startups can choose to participate in one of the two programs, either at the company's Innovation Center at global headquarters in Darmstadt or at its China Innovation Hub in Shanghai. 
International medical imaging IT and cybersecurity company Sectra (STO: SECT B) has signed a five-year contract with North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust for the delivery of a regional digital pathology solution to the Northern Cancer Alliance. The solution will span the ten separate trusts of the consortium and aims to improve cancer care workflows through enabling pathologists to instantly access and share images and information between departments and locations. 
xt invest AG becomes the new majority shareholder of InterComponentWare AG (ICW). This investment and the resulting close cooperation of the firms x-tention, soffico, and ICW will create the strongest eHealth provider in the Germany/Austria/Switzerland markets. The companies already have numerous clients in common, with proven success e.g. by recently winning contracts for AOK's Digital Health Network. 