iSoft promises new UK products

ISoft has pledged to invest in the development of new products for NHS customers, separate to its Lorenzo development commitments.

In an exclusive interview with E-Health Insider, iSoft’s UK managing director, Adrian Stevens, said that iSoft will invest in a new 75-strong UK based development team.

“We’ve put development centres of excellence back into the UK; that’s 75 new people working on interoperability, business intelligence, medications management and hosted Synergy,” he said.

“Isoft needs to behave like a market leader and will be bringing in new products to the market."

He added that despite heavy cut-backs elsewhere in the business, the firm will continue to invest heavily in R&D.

Stevens promised a flexible, agile development approach, to produce products that will specifically meet the needs of existing NHS customers.

Central to this new approach will be offering Lorenzo on a modular basis. “Smart solutions is all about a modular approach of introducing Lorenzo to the market,” he said.

Lorenzo is the electronic patient record that iSoft is committed to delivering to the North, Midlands and East of England, through the National Programme for IT in the NHS contract signed with local service provider CSC.

Although Lorenzo remains vital, the company offers a portfolio of products that are used by the overwhelming majority of NHS trusts.

“We have about 45% share of the current patient administration system market and a 60% share of the pathology market,” Stevens said.

“Lorenzo gets all the headlines, but 95% of trusts have an iSoft solution in use at the moment, we have a very strong presence on PAS, departmentals, pathology, A+E, theatres and ICU.

"We are also a proven player in primary care with products that customers like and use."

Stevens told EHI that iSoft intends to offer products covering the breadth of healthcare delivery. Despite losing market share, it is not giving up in primary care, where it pins hopes on hosted Synergy

In addition to in-house developments, iSoft has bought other products: MedChart medications management, the BridgeForward integration platform and UltraGenda scheduling technology.

Stephens argued that in a market in which some trusts take existing iSoft products, Lorenzo modules are pragmatic and make sense.

“This is right strategy for us as a company. Of course we want people to take Lorenzo, but they don’t have to.”

Lorenzo, he said, is a long-term project that may take 10-15 years to complete. And it will take a long time to take customers from existing products.

“At the moment we have very strong products in use that have rich functionality and will enable us to gradually transition to a next generation product.”

Read the full interview in opinion and analysis.