Siemens and Asklepios Expand Cooperation in the IT Sector

Siemens Healthcare (Erlangen, Germany) and the Asklepios Hospitals (Hamburg, Germany) will continue to expand their cooperation in the information technology (IT) sector. The hospital information system i.s.h.med, installed to date in eight major hospitals of the Asklepios hospital chain, will be expanded by adding elements that further enhance its performance, including a modern user interface with intuitive handling, service-oriented architecture, and a clinical process-management system.

The companies will close their cooperation by signing an agreement within the Asklepios Future Hospital (AFH) program November 2008 at the Medica in Duesseldorf, Germany. I.s.h.med is an SAP-based hospital information system that has operated successfully in approximately 150 German hospitals and is a key tool in the planning, management, and communication of clinical processes. Now, the current installation of i.s.h.med is undergoing additional expansion in parts of the Asklepios group within the development strategy "i.s.h.med goes Soarian.” First results will be available by end of December 2008.

The development partnership of the two companies focuses on two areas. First, the new user interface technology of i.s.h.med will introduce users to the world of intuitive handling and thereby achieve a higher usability. Second, a novel information management system will be established. The documentation workstation, called Ward, is an initial major stage in this development process. Ward maps routine clinical situations to enhance efficiency in two primary areas: All tasks will form a base from which the necessary follow-up actions in treatment are automatically generated. Moreover, the developers plan to optimize the filter functions in electronic patient records to display only the data pertinent to the specific patient situation. The goal of this is speeding up patient diagnosis and treatment in routine cases.

The project Clinical Pathways is the starting-point of the development partnership between Siemens and Asklepios. Here, hospital staff knowledge and experience is applied to creating clinical treatment pathways and is implemented to produce transparent documentation of treatment sequences. The project will enable examinations to be performed in a more focused way and will reduce the number of questions. Treatment processes can be compared more easily helping inexperienced staff that is able to accustom themselves to hospital routine more rapidly and more confidently. Since all sectors can obtain information about the current progress of treatment at all times, resource planning in the hospital is streamlined. For hospital administrators, proactive bed allocation management is a critical factor in decision-making and has a positive long-term impact on cost and time budgets.

All projects bundle the requirements, knowledge, and experience of Asklepios with respect to tangible software functions and implementation issues, and are incorporated into the design and development of i.s.h.med to serve as representatives of all future users. If the project is successful, it is planned to launch the project "i.s.h.med goes Soarian” in all Asklepios Hospitals in Hamburg, Germany. Within the cooperation, Asklepios will demonstrate the installation and further development of i.s.h.med to interested parties and to illustrate its use in a customer's live situation.

"We accompany the customers of our hospital information system i.s.h.med into the future, by providing long-term development strategies and trend-setting innovations. The solution i.s.h.med is a key element of our healthcare IT [information technology] strategy in Germany,” explained Dr. Bernd Montag, CEO of the Imaging and IT division at Siemens Healthcare. "As a new partner of the Asklepios Future Hospital Program, we will work with Asklepios and the other partners driving ahead our approach to integrated healthcare more effectively and more rapidly.”

"With Siemens, Asklepios has gained a cooperation partner whose business strategy focuses on a similar goal: the development of communication and data transfer solutions to enhance the cost-effectiveness and quality of patient treatment in everyday hospital routine,” remarked Dr. Tobias Kaltenbach, chairman of the executive board, Asklepios Hospitals.

As one of Germany's leading private hospital chains, Asklepios launched the Future Hospital Program to establish a partnership-based collaboration made up of a global network of companies from the IT and medical technology sectors. The goal of the program is to create a platform for technologic and process-related developments in integrated healthcare. For both partners, the principal of open innovation is the major factor to achieve the maximum potential using technologic infrastructure.

In the Asklepios Future Hospital Program, innovative technological solutions are developed and tested with an array of solution partners from various industry and healthcare sectors. The projects focus on improving treatment quality for the patients, creation of seamless interoperable communication between all healthcare service users, and cost-effectiveness of the solutions. The AFH Program is designed as an open, dynamic program. In April 2008, the Asklepios Future Hospital received a Landmark in the Land of Ideas award for its future-oriented focus.

Asklepios is one of the most innovative leading global hospital chains. The group oversees over 100 institutions, almost 40 day-clinics, around 22,000 beds and 36,000 staff in Germany, Europe, and the United States. Over one million patients place their health in our hands every year. The sole owner of the family company is Dr. Bernhard gr. Broermann, who withdraws no funds from the company and thus enables its proceeds to be reinvested in full. With consolidated sales of around 2.3 billion Euros, Asklepios is the largest private hospital chain in Germany and Europe.

The Siemens Healthcare Sector is one of the world's largest suppliers to the healthcare industry. The company is a renowned medical solutions provider with core competence and innovative strength in diagnostic and therapeutic technologies as well as in knowledge engineering, including information technology and system integration. With its laboratory diagnostics acquisitions, Siemens Healthcare is a fully integrated healthcare company, bringing together imaging and lab diagnostics, therapy, and healthcare information technology solutions, supplemented by consulting and support services.

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