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.