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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