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Tony Collins is an investigative and campaigning journalist and former Executive Editor at Computer Weekly. With his friend and colleague David Bicknell he wrote "Crash", which found common factors in the world's largest public and private sector IT-related failures. He wrote "Open Verdict", a book on the strange deaths of defence scientists. He writes, and gives talks, on the tensions and disputes between suppliers and users.
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Linked-in ProfileInnovative Swedish supplier wins first major NHS IT contract
Cambio Healthcare Systems beats 25 rivals to win an important deal outside the NPfIT
Published 13:54, 28 October 10
IT market researcher Techmarketview reports that Swedish healthcare application specialist Cambio Healthcare Systems has won its first major contract with the NHS. The contract is outside the National Programme for IT, NPfIT.
“The deal with Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust whittles CSC and iSoft’s potential National Programme business down a little further,” says Tola Sargeant of Techmarketview.
The Trust says it chose Cambio, in part, because it’s an innovative company whose IT is good for integration.
Originally the Trust had planned to buy an interim hospital information system while waiting for iSoft's Lorenzo from the NPfIT.Now it says it cannot wait for Lorenzo. It will use Cambio’s Cosmic platform to integrate its existing patient administration system with A&E and e-prescribing functionality across four sites and more than 3000 users.
Sargeant says she doubts the Cambio deal will be its last with the NHS. “We’ve long fancied the privately-held Scandinavian company as a strong competitor both to the existing National Programme offerings from iSOFT and Cerner, and to other rivals such as System C Healthcare …”
Keith Griffiths, Finance and IT Director at Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust said: "The [Cambio Cosmic] platform is well developed, proven and gives us all the necessary features to our healthcare business demands.
"The system is flexible and is in line with our mission to implement intelligent applications such as e-prescriptions, which significantly improves our patient care. WWL's vision is to incorporate the elements of health records in outpatient and primary care and as far as possible allow patients access to their care and information they receive. "
Cambio’s Cosmic software is installed in 25 private hospitals in the UK, and is used widely in Sweden and Denmark. The software can be introduced on a modular basis.
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Comment: The Trust concedes that many challenges remain to be overcome. In particular, the software may need to be anglicised - which proved a challenge too far for NPfIT health software supplier IDX. It has also proved a major difficulty for US-based NPfIT supplier Cerner.
That said the Trust acknowledges that it is entering the unknown - which is a crucial first step in implementing a successful project.
Links:
Cambio breaks into UK market - Techmarketview
iSoft's share price hits record low - this blog
iSoft markets Lorenzo modules to trusts - E-Health Insider
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