Siemens buys i.s.h.med from T-Systems Austria

Siemens, SAP, and T-Systems Austria, have completed a deal that will see Siemens take over i.s.h.med software that it had jointly developed with T-Systems Austria, an arm of Deutshe Telekom.

Siemens, SAP, and T-Systems Austria originally developed i.s.h.med in the ‘90s; Siemens has now bought T-Systems Austria’s 50% share of the product, together with a team of 34 employees working on the development of the software.

The German technology giant said that the acquisition would enable it to have greater direct control over the future development of the product.

The i.s.h.med information system is fully integrated with standard SAP healthcare software and is used as a tool for healthcare planning, control, and communication, and is now in use in more than 300 hospitals in 16 countries worldwide.

Siemens says the aim is to deliver comprehensive software solutions that cover all of a hospital’s requirements – both clinical and business – to customers. The i.s.h.med software is already integrated with SAP’s Patient Management for Healthcare software.

“The complete transfer of product responsibility to Siemens allows us to directly introduce our future-oriented functionality like smart user interface, workflow, embedded analytics, and service oriented architecture into i.s.h.med, and implement our long-term development strategy for the product," said Stefan Herm, head of Siemens Medical Solutions GSD GmbH and senior vice president of the Health Services Europe business unit for Siemens AG, Healthcare Sector.

Future development plans for the software will be based on SAP’s NetWeaver platform and Healthcare software portfolio.

Herm added: “The i.s.h.med solution will be further developed based on the SAP NetWeaverTM platform and the SAP for Healthcare solution portfolio and join the next generation of hospital information systems, remaining an important part of our worldwide healthcare IT strategy."

John Papandrea, Global Healthcare Sector head at SAP AG, said the software was vital in helping hospitals meet the cost and quality pressures they face.

"Integrated information systems that cover both business and clinical tasks play a decisive role in increasing efficiency in healthcare today and in coming years. Given that i.s.h.med is fully integrated into SAP Patient Management for Healthcare, we look forward to closer collaboration with Siemens in the future."

In addition to the transfer of rights, 34 employees from the T-Systems development department will join Siemens AG Austria and, along with colleagues in development at Siemens Healthcare, put their proven know-how to work in the rapid further development of the i.s.h.med hospital information system.

"With the transfer of the 50% joint copyright of i.s.h.med and the acquisition of the developers responsible for this hospital information system from T-Systems, the entire product development is consolidated in the hands of Siemens," says Georg Obermeier, managing director of T-Systems in Austria.

The software is deployed in over 300 clinics in Austria, Belgium, Chile, Columbia, Germany, Israel, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, The Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, and Turkey.