New Zealand — Customarily, when Microsoft is in the news, it’s usually because it is gobbling up a smaller competitor. But today, it is the other way round, as the New Zealand’s largest software merchant Auckland-based Orion Health’s wholly-owned subsidiary Orion Health Asia Pacific has endorsed a deal to acquire Microsoft’s Hospital Information System (HIS) software assets, including RIS/PACS, previously known as Amalga HIS, Orion says in a media statement this morning.
Orion and Microsoft are also planning to work together to provide solutions for the global electronic health market, and will co-market their health information exchange (HIE) and data aggregation and analysis products previously marketed under the Microsoft Amalga brand.
“The inclusion of the Microsoft’s HIS assets is a natural enhancement of Orion Health’s portfolio of products that empowers us to offer a complete solution to a wide range of hospitals and health organizations in Asia Pacific,” says Orion Health CEO Ian McCrae.
Orion Health chief executive Ian McCrae
Orion Health will sell and market the HIS and RIS/PACS software as Orion Health HPM (Health Process Management) suite to the public and private markets, according to the statement. The two have endorsed a Memorandum of Understanding, outlining this deal.
McCrae said the acquisition of Microsoft’s software, available in Southeast Asia under the brand name Amalga, would enable Orion to provide a complete solution to a wide range of hospitals and health organizations in Asia Pacific.
“The health sector in a number of Asia Pacific countries is unsettled to make the transformative leap to the next generation of systems which integrate the complete health-care ecosystem rather than siloing information in individual organizations or facilities.”
Moreover, McCrae added that the acquisition would see it take on 50 staff. Orion, which employs more than 400 staff, turned over almost $100 million last year.
Besides, Orion will also unify its health information exchange and workflow software with Microsoft’s data aggregation and analysis software, which would help customers easily view and report on patient data — helping to improve health-care and reduce costs.
Microsoft health solutions group general manager Nate McLemore said it was committed to improving the delivery and economics of patient care in global and evolving markets.
“Through our joint efforts with e-health leaders like Orion Health, we are addressing the unique needs and challenges of regional health-care delivery with the right combination of complementary software solutions.”
A HIS development facility at a Thai private hospital, Bumrungrad — which has a long history with the Amalga HIS product — will be Orion Health’s fourth development center. The others are in Auckland, Christchurch and Canberra, says McCrae. “It will also bestow the company with a base from which to widen its Southeast Asian organization,” he says.
The acquisition was communicated to media this morning as an “Asia Pacific” deal. Orion chief executive McCrae told NBR this was a reference to the fact his company would initially target the Asia Pacific market with Orion Health HPM.
“There is one version of the HIS/RIS/PACS assets and Orion owns this and the universal rights,” McCrae said. “There is no regional qualification to the deal.”
Furthermore, the Orion boss would not put a value on the deal, but said it would more than triple his company’s software assets, and make it a “full-fledged” health vendor.