Eclipsys and Microsoft form alliance

Eclipsys Corporation has announced an alliance with Microsoft that will see Eclipsys integrate Microsoft’s Amalga platform into its clinical software products, including Sunrise Clinical Manager.

The new alliance will focus on integrating key components of Eclipsys’ clinical software with Microsoft’s Amalga Unified Intelligence System (UIS) and data aggregation technologies.

Benefits for customers are promised in improved analytical and integration capabilities.

Eclipsys says it will partner with Microsoft to offer tightly integrated health IT solutions designed to make it easy for physicians, nurses and hospital administrators to gain insights from data aggregated from multiple clinical and financial systems across the hospital.

Although most immediately a deal for the US market, the new alliance has potential significance in the UK. Microsoft is already selling Amalga UIS into the NHS, with a recent contract win at Milton Keynes Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. 

Eclipsys, meanwhile, is poised for a return to the NHS market where it plans to market the latest version of Sunrise Clinical Manager.

A much earlier version of Sunrise Clinical Manager provided the code base for iSoft’s iCM product, still widely used within the health service.

The latest generation of Sunrise Clinical Manager, allied with enhanced Microsoft analytic and integration capabilities, could prove attractive to NHS trusts re-evaluating their IT strategies.

“Eclipsys and Microsoft offer complementary strengths to healthcare enterprises looking to overcome the restraints caused by legacy health IT applications that block the strategic exchange and use of digital health data,” said Peter Neupert, corporate vice president, Microsoft Health Solutions Group.

Neupert added: “Blending Eclipsys’ leadership in physician adoption and sophisticated clinical and decision-support workflows with Microsoft’s leadership in interoperability, data extraction, authentication and context management will open up new choices and opportunities for healthcare organizations needing to make the most from their existing IT infrastructure.”

Amalga UIS is a data aggregation platform designed to integrate disparate clinical, administrative and financial data from healthcare organisation’s current information systems.

The new alliance will focus on enhancing the analytic capabilities Eclipsys can provide to its clients, and make future integration and data aggregation easier.

“Clinicians have been frustrated by not having critical information available to them at the point of care because either the information resided on disparate systems or they were unaware that patient data was available,” said Philip Pead, Eclipsys’ president and chief executive officer.

Pead added: “This important relationship with Microsoft marks the opportunity for clinicians to have access to patient data no matter where it resides, thereby improving the quality of care and lowering the cost.”