iSOFT takes on US market following acquisition

Gordon Peters
Monday, 01 March 2010 14:16

IT Industry - Market

Healthcare solutions provider, iSOFT, is to enter the US market, announcing the move at this week's HIMSS health IT conference in Atlanta and revealing what it says is a suite of 'innovative solutions' which it will initially offer in the American market.

iSOFT, which is based in the UK, became part of the Australian-based IBA Health Group following a merger in October 2007, and the company now claims to be the largest healthcare information technology company outside the US.

In preparation for its move into the US market, iSOFT, last year acquired Boston-based technology developer BridgeForward Software - re-named iSOFT Integration Systems, and at HIMSS - the world's largest health IT conference and exhibition representing some 900 countries - the company says it is demonstrating solutions that are designed to address the requirements for 'meaningful use' under the US Government's US$34 billion health IT stimulus package.

According to iSOFT, executive chairman & CEO, Gary Cohen, a key differentiator of iSOFT in the US market is that it is 'ranks among the few global health IT companies whose existing portfolio of solutions meets the requirements for interoperability across the full spectrum of today's complex healthcare environments.'

Cohen says iSOFT has over 20 years of expertise and direct engagement with healthcare organisations in some 40 countries and has 'cemented its global reputation as an important agent of change as national healthcare systems around the world undergo transformation.'

'The US market makes up about half of the total global spending on health IT, which will balloon further as the government's stimulus package kicks in. As one of the biggest health IT companies in the world, with experience in connecting complex healthcare systems in Continental Europe and the UK, iSOFT has the expertise and the capacity to make a real difference as the US healthcare industry undergoes transformational change.'

The US Government's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) economic stimulus package passed into law in 2009 and is separate from the healthcare reform bill currently being debated in the US. The ARRA stimulus includes billions of dollars in incentive payments to healthcare providers for the "meaningful use" of certified health IT products, with incentive programme start dates of October 2010 for hospitals and January 2011 for eligible healthcare providers.