System C buys The Learning Clinic

System C has bought mobile clinical specialist The Learning Clinic, best known for the VitalPAC vital signs recording software.

The acquisition fills a gap in System C’s product portfolio and gives the company instant access to a widely used mobile platform, which it can potentially leverage for its existing clinical software and extend into social care.

System C, previously McKesson UK, says it will tightly integrate VitalPAC and The Learning Clinic’s newer VitalFLO patient flow products into its Medway patient administration system and electronic patient record software.

The company also says it will give existing clients access to the mobile clinical applications. No details were released on the value of the deal.

VitalPAC enables clinicians to capture, assess and act on clinical data at the patient, ward and hospital level. The system is in use at more than 50 hospitals across England and has been used to record 100 million patient observations to date.

System C says it will add additional clinical functionality into the VitalPAC, including workflow, results and ordering, as well as access to care community shared records.

A lot of the early work behind the model used by VitalPAC was done by the University of Portsmouth and its Centre for Healthcare Modelling and Informatics. The local trust was the first to try out the system.

Published research in the BMJ and Nursing Times suggests that Portsmouth and other hospitals using VitalPAC and related products have reported reductions in mortality rates, cardiac arrest rates, unplanned ITU admissions, lengths of stay and hospital acquired infections.

The Learning Clinic has also developed advanced bed management and whiteboard software in VitalFLO, which is designed to reduce length of stay.

The Learning Clinic employs 59 clinicians, technologists and other experts in London and Exeter.  The company was founded by Roger Killen, previously co-founder and managing director of Dr Foster.

Stephen Murphy, chairman of The Learning Clinic, said: “System C is a great cultural fit for us and has the ambition, scale and range of products we need to drive mobile clinical support forward to the place that clinicians need.”

System C joint chief executive Ian Denley commented: “The Learning Clinic is a clear market and thought leader in clinical solutions, its products are held in high regard by users, and we are delighted they have joined the System C group.”

System C chief executives Denley and Markus Bolton will be joining the The Learning Clinic board as joint CEOs, with current CEO Kal Vaikla, who joined in August, stepping down.

Roger Killen, who announced his retirement from the company earlier this summer, will re-join the senior executive team.

The current System C was created when McKesson UK, which bought the original System C in 2011, was purchased by US private equity firm Symphony Technology Group in June 2014.

Symphony promptly brought back the former chief executives of System C to run McKesson, and they renamed the company System C.

The acquisition of The Learning Clinic is the first deal since the Symphony took over. The Learning Clinic will operate as a subsidiary of System C, sitting alongside the company’s social care subsidiary, Liquidlogic.