A group of American and British healthcare IT vendors have banded together to package their products for overseas use.
The One Health Alliance, officially launched May 12, offers a “one-stop-shop single point of advice that takes away the risk and challenges of dealing with multiple suppliers,” said John Smith, the group's chairman and an executive with St. Paul, Minn.-based Lawson Software.
“When commissioning an IT system, healthcare providers are faced with a time-consuming and complex process,” he added in a press release. “Having to deal with a number of different suppliers can magnify the issue. The One Health Alliance helps to effectively alleviate this problem.”
Originally aimed at healthcare clients in the EMEA region, which consists of Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the alliance consists of:
- Lawson Software, which provides enterprise resource planning and business software applications;
- Perceptive Software, based in Shawnee, Kan., which develops enterprise document management, imaging and workflow software under the ImageNow brand;
- Perot Systems, a Plano, Texas-based provider of IT solutions and services;
- Sun Microsystems, a Santa Clara, Calif.-based provider of interoperable, secure and scalable network computing hardware and software infrastructure and solutions;
- SciQuest, a Cary, N.C.-based developer of procurement automation and supplier enablement solutions;
- Ardentia, based in Stafford in the United Kingdom, which provides business intelligence and Web-based information management solutions;
- Clinical Solutions, a global company with headquarters in Basingstoke, Hampshire, in the United Kingdom, which offers evidence-based decision support and clinical software solutions; and
- System C. Healthcare, based in Kent in the United Kingdom, which offers healthcare information systems and implementation and consulting services.
"What's key is that all members' products are based on current industry standards and standardized interfaces to enable interoperability between the solutions being offered," said Smith. "For the healthcare provider this means they will get a single set of connected solutions to remove the problem of dealing with multiple suppliers (and) integrating multiple systems."
The alliance was officially launched at the HIMSS Middle East 09 conference, held May 5-7 in Bahrain.
