Philips acquires second Brazilian clinical information systems company

17 Sept 2010

Philips Healthcare is to acquire a second Brazilian clinical systems supplier, Wheb Sistemas. It follows the March 2010 acquisition of Tecso Informatica, one of Brazil’s leading radiology information systems (RIS) suppiers, and continues its strategy to expand in different markets around the world. Philips also took over Israeli PACS supplier CDP Medical Ltd in August.

Founded in 1999, Wheb, headquartered in Blumenau, has approximately 190 employees and installations in more than 230 hospitals. Wheb will become part of Philips Healthcare’s Patient Care and Clinical Informatics business.

The recent acquisitions of both Tecso and Wheb now make Philips one of Brazil’s leading clinical informatics companies. Philips has already expanded its healthcare business in Brazil in recent years with the acquisitions of Dixtal Biomédica e Tecnologia, a manufacturer of in-hospital patient monitoring, in 2008 and VMI-Sistemas Medicos, an imaging diagnostics company, in 2007.

Steve Rusckowski, CEO for Philips Healthcare said, “The acquisition of Wheb, the third clinical informatics acquisition in recent months, is another important step on our journey to complete our global portfolio of clinical informatics and patient care solutions that simplify clinician workflow, improve financial outcomes for our customer and help improve and save lives. As with the other recent deals in this space, also the acquisition of Wheb helps us to further strengthen our offering especially geared towards facilitating high-growth markets such as Latin America.”

Clinical informatics systems integrate information among various hospital departments. They they serve an increasingly crucial role in today’s healthcare environment as the need to streamline workflow and manage costs, all while providing high-quality care, is universally top of mind for governments, insurers, hospital administrators, and medical teams.