Agfa HealthCare and ICW collaborate to integrate hospital software
12 May 2007 Mortsel, Belgium & Walldorf, Germany. Agfa HealthCare and
InterComponentWare AG (ICW) have announced a non-exclusive agreement to
cooperate in developing integration and interoperability between Agfa
HealthCare’s hospital information system (HIS) ORBISTM 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 ITLösungen für das
Gesundheitswesen), on the implementation of the medical information exchange
standard 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.”
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