International consolidation
In October 2007, the IBA Health Group — Australia's largest listed specialist health IT company, led by executive chairman and CEO Gary Cohen — took over iSoft PLC. In April 2008, IBA appointed Andrea Fiumicelli as Chief Operating Officer. Formerly responsible for Agfa's Healthcare IT worldwide R&D and sales/service organisation in Europe, and 20-plus international subsidiaries, he is now based at iSoft's European HQ in Banbury, UK , At conhIT 2008 in Berlin Guido Gebhardt spoke with them about the challenges this new role represents
Although much has been done in the last three or four months, iSoft needs to become a stronger global organisation, Gary Cohen emphasised.
‘We are now analysing the consolidations of our operations. Until two months ago Germany and Netherlands were two separate organisations, today they are one. Until about three months ago iSoft’s international organisations weren’t fully amalgamated. Now they are, along with strong systems and procedures. We want to become a quality organisation - whether it is sigma 6 or CMM Level 5.’
‘We are setting up IT systems to ensure that, for example, the entire company works on one wide area network, so that we can have VOIP in the whole organisation,’ explained Andrea Fiumicelli. We need to have quality systems, so that we do not have multiple support centres in each country. Currently, we have over 200 products to support globally. We need to reduce these to about 20 or 30 products, so perhaps then we will need only two or three support centres worldwide.
‘We are now rebranding the whole company on iSoft. In Australia, for example, we brand everything under IBA and iSoft. In future, everything will be iSoft. Our sales people must sell every product in the same way as in Europe — in Australia, China or Saudi-Arabia. Globally, iSoft has a good name and reputation, from which we want to benefit.
‘There are few key themes, that the healthcare providers either public or private in Europe will need to address in the next three to five years,’ Andrea Fiumicelli continued. One definitely is the continuum of care, he pointed out. ‘An efficient, economical healthcare system must address connectivity and interoperability between primary, secondary and tertiary care. Through the creation and implementation of processes that will require IP-solutions, efficiency in healthcare systems will increase.’ Next comes chronic disease management, he said. ‘Today 75-80% of healthcare money in each country is spent on major chronic diseases. We need preventive campaigns to inform people about their risks.’
The third theme, he believes, is quality. ‘If you measure healthcare, it is a two or three sigma industry. Well organised companies run a six sigma system to avoid errors. These are three key themes that could change Europe´s healthcare systems.’
Asked what lies in store for iSoft in the near future, Andrea Fiumicelli said: ‘IBA will become not just an infrastructure player, but will also be a player that connects and provides an empowering of the consumer. So the consumer can access health records or interact with the healthcare system — whether to order a prescription and get it delivered, or to find healthcare information. IBA will be an essential element in connecting and empowering the consumer. Most importantly, iSoft´s solution Lorenzo already has a medical semantic terminology services engine embedded. This strong know-how was one of the reasons why I joined Gary and IBA.’
30.04.2008
