Acquisitions & Agreements
Acquisitions & Agreements
• AutoData Systems (Minneapolis), a unit of Electro-Sensors, has formed a partnership with 3M Home Health Systems (St. Paul, MN) to provide automated data collection solutions for home care agencies. 3M will sell scanning solutions created by AutoData, which allow home care agencies to continue to meet regulatory requirements, and it integrates the AutoData Software Development Kit (SDK) into the 3M Datacron Home Care Management System software recently acquired from Datacron. This combined solution is designed to allow home care agencies to use AutoData’s premier scanning technology directly within 3M’s software. The combination will enable home care agencies to take initial steps toward fully automated patient data entry, in addition to allowing automated processing of reports required by regulatory agencies. Initial applications will include OASIS and Clinical Pathways. 3M Home Health Systems is a business of 3M, a diversified, international company with a healthcare business consisting of more than 10,000 medical, surgical, consumer, home healthcare, dental and pharmaceutical products.
• Healthway Online (Austin, Tx) producers of the www.healthanswers.com healthcare information and web site, has signed an agreement with Microsoft to become a headliner for health care content on the upgrade launch of Microsoft Networks’ Web Events Internet streaming media portal. HealthAnswers.com’s video and other health care content will now be immediately accessible to the 1.5 million users every month that visit the Web Events site at webevents.microsoft.com site. HealthAnswers.com will provide streaming video using the latest version of the Microsoft Windows Media Player used for viewing video over the Internet and on intranets. Healthway Online is a part of Healthway Communications International.
• Kinetra (Golden, CO), a health information network and electronic business services company, has reached an agreement with Merck-Medco Managed Care (Montvale, NJ) to connect participating physicians to a secure, national information network. The arrangement is for a 90-day pilot to measure the value for Merck-Medco of using the Kinetra network for electronic prescribing, online formulary management and prescription renewal requests and responses. Kinetra’s network represents nearly 75,000 physicians, and, with it, Merck-Medco said it is attempting to achieve both quality improvement and cost savings in its prescription drug benefit management services. As a result of this agreement, Kinetra’s prescription services will expand to give physicians the ability to transmit electronic prescriptions to designated Merck-Medco Rx Services mail service pharmacies, in states where electronic transmission of prescriptions is permitted by law. Kinetra’s services initially will be offered to a select group of physicians who have a high concentration of patients whose prescription plans are administered by Merck-Medco.
• McKessonHBOC (San Francisco), and UW Health/ University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics have signed a new five-year contract under which McKessonHBOC will provide its CoSource supply management program to the UW Health network. The CoSource supply management program integrates pharmaceutical distribution services, automated technologies and information systems to help deliver the lowest total patient cost available. In a related agreement, UW Health has purchased and will implement McKessonHBOC’s Pathways Laboratory software, a new-generation laboratory information system (LIS) integrating laboratories with the information structure of the entire health enterprise. McKessonHBOC currently distributes pharmaceuticals to UW Health, along with robotics for medication dispensing and additional software products. Also as part of the agreement, McKessonHBOC’s SupplyNET pharmacy consultants and the UW Center for Drug Policy and Clinical Economics will collaborate to expand the SupplyNET Consultation and therapeutic interchange component of the service. The UW Health system includes the University of Wisconsin Hospital, the UW Children’s Hospital, eight affiliated hospitals, 21 remote satellite community clinics and more than 80 outpatient clinics.
• NaviCyte (San Diego), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Trega Biosciences, has entered into an agreement with the R.W. Johnson Pharmaceutical Research Institute (PRI), a Johnson & Johnson company, to collaborate on the use and development of NaviCyte’s proprietary Pk-Informatics tools to identify new candidates for drug development via prediction of pharmacokinetic outcomes in humans. PRI will provide data and make initial and milestone payments over the course of the further development of NaviCyte’s proprietary In Vitro Determination for Evaluation of Absorption (IDEA) simulation software system and database. NaviCyte will license its software and computational models for use at PRI with compound libraries from PRI and other Johnson & Johnson Affiliates.
• Software Technologies Corp. (STC; Monrovia, CA), a provider of enterprise integration technology, has expanded its alliance with Perot Systems (Dallas), through a new master services agreement. The two IT companies will offer healthcare organizations a best-of-breed, one-stop solution for complete business reengineering consultation and enterprise systems integration. Perot Systems will work with STC’s professional services and sales teams to recommend and implement technology solutions, and STC will subcontract Perot Systems’ consulting services for projects in support of STC’s enterprise application integration products: DataGate and Universal Index. Perot Systems and STC began their business relationship in 1994 when Perot Systems recommended DataGate for enterprise integration and EDI services to one of its healthcare clients
Subscribe Now for Access
You have reached your article limit for the month. We hope you found our articles both enjoyable and insightful. For information on new subscriptions, product trials, alternative billing arrangements or group and site discounts please call 800-688-2421. We look forward to having you as a long-term member of the Relias Media community.