Microsoft muscles in on healthcare IT

Sentillion, which provides a range of clinical, business and personal productivity applications for hospitals and healthcare firms, will combine its products with Microsoft Amalga Unified Intelligence System.

The move will enable healthcare professionals to easier access multiple IT programs and electronic patient records, Sentillion claims.

Corporate vice president of Microsoft Health Solutions Group Peter Neupert says that the deal will promote “a connected health system in which the free and rapid flow of information, coupled with streamlined access to a hospital’s myriad healthcare applications, empowers doctors and nurses to perform their roles with greater insight, speed and effectiveness”.

Financial details of the purchase were not disclosed by either of the involved parties.

The acquisition signals Microsoft’s intent to capitalise on President Barack Obama’s policy of digitalising all US patient records by 2014, which could lead to a string of healthcare IT outsourcing deals in the country.

In the UK, earlier this year the Conservatives revealed plans to transfer responsibility for NHS patients’ records to third party websites offered by providers such as Google and Microsoft, a proposal which raised serious concerns regarding data security among the country’s healthcare professionals.

The government’s own NHS IT modernisation scheme, which is said to be heavily over budget, is to be significantly scaled back, it was confirmed this week at the annual pre-budget report.

Peter Done

Peter Done is managing director of Peninsula Business Services, the personnel and employment law consultancy he set up having already built a successful betting shop business.

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