Alles zeigt auf Richtung Norden.
Press Release Source: VisualMED Clinical Solutions Corp.
MONTREAL--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 7, 2005--VisualMED Clinical Solutions Corp. (NASDAQ:VMCS - News; OTCBB:VMCS - News):
initiatives.
Significant funding to come from both the White House and congress.
Positive global response expected from U.S. leadership
VisualMED Clinical Solutions Corp. (NASDAQ:VMCS - News; OTCBB:VMCS - News) announces that it has refocused some of its marketing strategies, to take advantage of recent policy developments in Canada, France, Great Britain, and especially in the United States. Major funding initiatives are underway to encourage hospitals to move into the digital age.
"We have increased the pace of teaming with strategic allies to take advantage of some of the larger government-backed projects that are being contemplated by various national and local authorities," says Chairman and CEO Gerard Dab.
There is evidence that a large mobilization is underway across the U.S. to ensure proper funding and standards for the transition from paper-based medicine to computerized physician order entry (CPOE) and the electronic medical record (EMR) (New York Times; Feb. 19, 2005).
Across the ideological spectrum, health care experts and politicians agree that the hodgepodge of paper-based medical files needs to move into the digital era, so that eventually each person has an electronic medical record that can travel across networks and be read remotely by doctors, hospitals, insurers and the patients themselves. Doing so, the thinking goes, would reduce medical errors, improve health care and save money (NY Times; Feb. 19, 2005).
In the United States, President Bush continues to urge the adoption of hospital informatics with a new White House initiative of 125 million dollars. The President's Health Information Czar, Dr. David J. Brailer, has recently warned the healthcare industry that the U.S. government considers this a critical issue and will impose measures if the industry does not take concrete steps to move itself into the digital age.
Reps. Charlie Gonzalez (D-Texas) and John McHugh (R-N.Y.) introduced legislation aimed at encouraging greater adoption of health information technology.
Under the National Health Information Incentive Act of 2005, HHS would be authorized to fund healthcare providers -- through grants, revolving loans and tax credits -- to purchase IT systems. It also would provide incentives, such as add-on Medicare payments, to providers who use technology to improve patient care (
www.modernphysician.com; Feb. 14, 2005).
A group of governors last week called on Congress to establish a National Health Care Innovations Program that would support large-scale demonstration programs in five areas, including the use of information technology to improve health care. A white paper which was released at the National Governors Association winter meeting in Washington, D.C., calls for state-led partnerships between the government and the private sector.
President Bush has called for widespread deployment of health information technology within 10 years to realize substantial improvements in safety and efficiency. President Bush has stated that he is committed to the use of advanced software for preventing medical errors, which he repeated during a recent visit to the Cleveland Clinic, and during his February 2nd State of the Union Address.
President Bush has announced that the White House will propose $125 million in federal spending in next year's budget to test computerization of health records. The government spent $50 million on this in 2004, and has asked Congress to double that amount for 2005. Among other measures that favour general progress in modernizing medicine, the National Institute of Health (NIH) budget has been doubled for 2005.
In concert with new federal initiatives, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has laid out important markers toward an "intelligent health system for the 21st century. These include:
- A secure, Web-based networking infrastructure.
- Physicians, hospitals and medical personnel using interoperable
electronic medical records.
- Web-based electronic medical records for every American, beginning
with seniors enrolling in Medicare as of Jan. 1, 2005. Everyone
would have a health record that they and their clinicians can
access electronically from anywhere at any time.
- Medicare and financial incentives to encourage doctors to adopt
clinical systems and prescribe electronically.
- Mandatory use of EMRs by physicians at some point during the next
10 years.
Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) has said he plans to introduce Gingrich-backed legislation to implement a paperless health care system by 2015.
There are currently eleven different organizations in the United Sates dedicated to promoting healthcare information technology innovation and improvement, most notably with respect to widespread development and acceptance of an Electronic Medical Record.
In Canada, the federal government is preparing to legalize e-Prescriptions, until now illegal for security reasons. Since the improvement of security protocols in healthcare information technologies, the government is set to table legislation sometime this year. Surveys show that the number one issue for Canadian citizens is the current state of the healthcare system. There are several organizations dedicated to promoting the electronic modernization of the healthcare system as a means to reducing cost, increasing quality of care, and cutting down waiting lists for surgery. Chief among these is the Canada Health Infoway, a Crown Corporation with more than one billion dollars destined to support efforts in connectivity and interoperability within the healthcare network.
VisualMED is actively working with numerous partners to find ways to unlock some of these considerable federal and provincial funds nominally earmarked for healthcare information technology. These initiatives could prove to be an important source of guaranteed contracts and revenues for companies like ours.
In Europe, the Company is in negotiations with a number of leading systems integrators and consulting firms involved in building, renovating and managing hospitals. New French legislation has mandated the implementation throughout the French healthcare system of a universal Electronic Patient Record.
In Great Britain, VisualMED is looking to its new European partners to help the Company access some of the projects that are currently being planned by the British National Health Service. This effort is being supported by a 10 billion pound budget managed by British Telecom's integration subsidiary Syntegra.
In Tunisia, Sonotec S.A.R.L., one of North Africa's leading medical equipment companies, is helping VisualMED in a pilot project to implement the VisualMED solution at Habib Thameur University Hospital. We believe there are over twelve modern private hospitals in Tunisia that provide elective surgery to European patients. While we gear up for major projects (
yahoo.brand.edgar-online.com/doctrans/finSys_main.asp?formfile name equals 0001002014-05-000130&nad) the Company continues to pursue a select clientele of small affluent private hospitals, as evidenced by the recent contract in Battle Creek, Michigan (
biz.yahoo.com/bw/050209/95752_1.html). About the Company and its Products
The VisualMED Clinical Information System (CIS) is a unique software application built to conform to the way doctors and nurses provide and document patient care. The VisualMED CIS is the only solution of its kind to have been wholly designed by practicing medical staff in terms of both workflow and user interface.
There are over 5,500 hospitals in the United States and Canada, and three times as many in Europe, making up most of the potential market for the VisualMED technology. According to the Leapfrog Group, relatively few American sites have experimented with physician-based clinical support order entry, and most of these have been limited to large centers whose mainframe technology is not easily transferable. According to the HIMSS, less than 10% of hospitals say that they have some form of CPOE or decision support.
Cost of implementation of a Clinical Information System can vary between 2 and 20 million dollars depending on the size of the hospital and the nature of the selected technology. A leading U.S. consulting organization believes that 50% of hospitals in America will be moving to CPOE in the next 4 years.
Management believes in a more cautious scenario, one that would see between 10 and 15% of hospitals adopting CPOE within this time frame. This would still represent a multi-billion dollar market opportunity for our industry.
VisualMED Clinical Solutions Corp. is a leading provider of clinical informatics solutions that help hospitals and healthcare authorities reduce medication errors, increase personnel efficiency and bring down operating costs. One of its key components, Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE), is a core solution in the new agenda to promote greater patient safety and reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with medication error.
Detailed information on our company and its products is available on our web site at
www.visualmedsolutions.com. Forward-Looking Statements
Except for historical information provided herein, this press release may contain information and statements of a forward-looking nature concerning the future performance of the Company. These statements are based on suppositions and uncertainties as well as on management's best possible evaluation of future events. Such factors may include, without excluding other considerations, fluctuations in quarterly results, evolution in customer demand for the Company's products and services, the impact of price pressures exerted by competitors, and general market trends or economic changes. As a result, readers are advised that actual results may differ from expected results.
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Contact:
VisualMED Clinical Solutions Corp.
Barry Scharf
COO
(514) 274-1115
bscharf@visualmedsolutions.com
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Source: VisualMED Clinical Solutions Corp.
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