HIE EMerge NEWS!
HIE Expands European Healthcare Market Presence with LifeLine Networks Distribution Agreement
PR Newswire - March 18, 1999 08:09
- EMerge Enterprise Master Person Index Supports 1.1 Million Patient Database for Largest Nonacademic Hospital in the Netherlands -
MARIETTA, Ga., March 18 /PRNewswire/ -- HIE, Inc. (Nasdaq: HDIE), a leading provider of enterprise application integration (EAI) software tools and services, today announced that the company has extended its presence in Europe through an exclusive distribution agreement of its enterprise master person index system, EMerge, with LifeLine Networks b.v., a healthcare distributor based in the Netherlands.
"The consolidation of hospitals in the Netherlands has created a need to build regional electronic file systems," said Ron Meijsen, LifeLine product manager. "LifeLine wants to introduce the emerging technology of enterprise master patient indexes (EMPIs) to the entire country."
LifeLine is currently installing EMerge at Isala Hospital, created by the recent merger of the two largest nonacademic hospitals in Zwolle, the Netherlands. The two hospitals, Weezenlanden and Sophia, combined to create a 1,100 bed facility with a patient database of 1.1 million that includes over 200,000 duplicate records. The Weezenlanden location is presently with EMerge.
"EMerge provides a sophisticated way to select and retrieve patient data as the front-end to our flat file database," said Emiel Godding, director of Information Technology, Weezenlanden Hospital. "We were the first Dutch users of Cloverleaf(R), and over the past three years have created fourteen interfaces that have definitely saved us development time. As soon as I saw a live EMerge demonstration at Brookwood Medical Center in Birmingham, Alabama, I knew that EMerge would provide the foundation for electronic medical records and make communications between the hospitals easier."
"The first phase of the project involves eliminating duplicate records," said Meijsen. "During the registration process, patients are selected from both hospitals' databases. EMerge automatically attaches a new and unique patient number."
"The partnership with LifeLine expands our presence in Europe," explained Robert Murrie, HIE president and CEO. "Last year, HIE opened an office in Essen, Germany dedicated to healthcare sales and service through a strategic alliance with Health-Comm GmbH. With a customer base of over 76 Cloverleaf users and fifteen strong distributors such as Siemens-Elema AB based in Sweden, GWK located in Germany and Denmark's Kommunedata, HIE believes that it is geographically poised to increase European software sales of both our Cloverleaf integration engine and EMerge."
Under the terms of the agreement, LifeLine has exclusive rights to market EMerge to the healthcare sector in the Netherlands. EMerge is HIE's enterprise-wide demographic repository that serves as a single source for customer configured person information.
"Organizations are merging medical records to ensure clinical quality and cut daily operating costs," said Scott Overton, vice president, Product Development, HIE EMerge Group. "Cleaning up duplicate medical records is a necessity as integrated delivery networks (IDNs) continue to grow."
According to META Group, Inc., the EMPI market was valued at $10 million in 1998, and predicts that it will grow to more than $140 million in 2003.
About LifeLine Networks b.v.
Founded in 1983, LifeLine Networks b.v., specializes in the development and servicing of electronic communication for healthcare enterprises. As a market leader in electronic data interchange (EDI) messaging, the company has grown to an all-round communication specialist. LifeLine's goal is to be the combining factor for all Dutch organizations associated with the healthcare industry. LifeLine is headquartered at Capelle a/d IJssel , the Netherlands. For more information visit LifeLine's web site at lifeline.nl.
About HIE
HIE helps enterprises rapidly integrate their existing and new applications, using the Company's software tools and strategic and tactical integration services. The Company's products are used at more than 1,200 sites, worldwide, including those in healthcare, government, financial services and banking industries. HIE is headquartered in Marietta, Georgia, with offices in Dallas, Texas; Columbus, Ohio; New York, New York; London, England and Essen, Germany. For more information visit HIE's web site at hie.com.
This press release includes forward-looking statements in addition to historical information. The words "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "believe," "seek," "estimate" and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements; however, this press release also contains other forward-looking statements in addition to historical information. The Company cautions that there are various important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements; accordingly, there can be no assurance that such indicated results will be realized. Among the important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements are competitive pressures, the mix of software and service revenue, the mix of direct and indirect sales, sales timing, changes in pricing policies, undetected errors or bugs in the software, delays in the product development, lower-than-expected demand for the Company's software tools or services, business conditions in the healthcare and other complementary markets, the Company's ability to modify its software for use in non-healthcare industries, risks associated with possible acquisitions, general economic conditions and the risk factors detailed from time to time in the Company's periodic reports and registration statements filed with Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 1997 and its Registration Statement on Form S-3 (Registration No. 333-55703). By making these forward-looking statements, the Company does not undertake to update them in any manner except as may be required by the Company's disclosure obligations in filings it makes with the Securities and Exchange Commission under the Federal securities laws.
"HIE" "Cloverleaf" and "EMerge" are registered trademarks of HIE, Inc.
SOURCE HIE, Inc.
/CONTACT: Press: Sara Herrmann, Manager, Corporate Communications
of HIE, Inc., 770-423-8572, or sara.herrmann@hie.com; Investor Relations:
Gordon McCoun or Press: Michael McMullan of Morgen-Walke Associates,
212-850-5600, for HIE/
/Web site: morgen-walke.com
/Web site: lifeline.nl
/Web site: hie.com
(HDIE)
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