BridgeHead Partnering With Forcare

BridgeHead Software Ltd, in Healthcare Data Management (HDM), partners with Forcare B.V., a provider of software solutions in the Health Information Exchange (HIE) sector.

Together, the two companies are offering hospitals across EMEA a solution that leverages BridgeHead’s and Forcare’s market vendor neutral archive (VNA) [1] and XDS solutions respectively.

It is estimated that medical imaging data is responsible for one-third of the total global storage market and is the equivalent of 1.2 billion average HDDs. [2]

Data retention policies, coupled with the growth in the number of patients moving through the healthcare system (which is larger than it has ever been), is resulting in an increase in data volumes. In order to manage the cost and complexity of this growing data, healthcare IT leaders will increasingly look for intelligent, vendor neutral data and storage management solutions.

The joint solution enables hospitals to provide a data management infrastructure that enables the storing, protecting and sharing of all patient information, from medical images to clinical reports; scanned patient documents to back office files, across the healthcare landscape. The solution will have particular appeal to healthcare environments looking to facilitate data sharing across sites, organisations and/or regions, helping to provide a centrally-accessible and secured registry and repository and ensuring patient data is available to the people that need it, when they need it, for improved care delivery. The solution allows doctors, nurses, pharmacists, other health care providers and patients to access and securely share a patient’s vital medical information electronically – improving the speed, quality, safety and cost of patient care.

BridgeHead’s market VNA, which is presently gaining rapid traction throughout the UK, with recent contracts awarded by Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust and Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, is a XDS-enabled solution. Forcare is dedicated to providing interoperability solutions based on XDS. Both companies recognise that their specialisms are complementary and have joined forces to deliver a converged solution, particularly in the deployment of larger-scale data sharing networks, such as Health Information Exchanges (HIEs). By combining Forcare’s solutions alongside BridgeHead’s VNA, healthcare data can be securely stored, protected and shared at scale.

The two companies not only feel they have a compelling strategic proposition for healthcare organisations, but also recognise their respective geographical strengths and plan to leverage these in their go-to-market efforts in the coming months.

Jim Beagle, president and CEO, BridgeHead, comments: “Forcare is the renowned healthcare interoperability specialist and BridgeHead is pleased to be partnering with such an organisation. One of the major challenges healthcare providers face today is how to get timely access to relevant patient data delivered at the point of care. Most clinical applications only provide a ‘localised’ view of the patient. If more information is required in the event of incomplete studies, or additional diagnostic data is needed, this can add significant delays to patient treatment and creates inefficiencies elsewhere in the workflow, with people trying to locate the data. The combined BridgeHead Software and Forcare solution overcomes these challenges and ensures valuable patient information is delivered to the people who need it, when they need it.“

Harm-Jan Wessels, founder and CEO, Forcare, comments: “BridgeHead is the acknowledged market leader for VNA in EMEA and we are the leading independent healthcare interoperability specialist- so, simply put, our products are entirely complementary. Across Europe, we are witnessing ever-increasing collaboration between healthcare organisations. The various stakeholders across these organisations increasingly require the ability to access and share clinical and administrative information pertaining to an individual so that they can provide a better quality of care, in the most efficient manner, and thereby enhancing the patient’s experience. Together, the combination of BridgeHead Software’s VNA and Forcare’s XDS-based product portfolio provides those organisations with an easy-to-use and manage healthcare data access and sharing solution.“

The joint solution is available from BridgeHead Software and Forcare.

[1] In 2013, in its Medical Enterprise Data Storage – World – 2013 report, IHS named BridgeHead number one in EMEA’s independent VNA market
[2] AGC’s HCIT Cloud Update 2014