(M2 PressWIRE Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)
RDATE:29082007

Brazil -- The Brazilian Federal District Government has announced plans
for a medical exam portal that will benefit the population and the
entire health community network of the region. This initiative is part
of the Health Community project responsible for delivering IT solutions
and fully integrating the entire healthcare network. A key element of
the medical exam portal is the TrakCare solution from TrakHealth.

TrakHealth is a multinational company specializing in hospital and
clinical lab management information systems. The TrakCare system
includes capabilities ranging from scheduling appointments at basic
healthcare units to the complete management of any community patient
data.

The official opening ceremony was held on August 29th, at Palcio do
Buriti, in the presence of Federal District Governor Jose Roberto
Arruda, Vice Governor Paulo Octvio, Secretary of Health Jose Geraldo
Maciel and his secretariat, hospital directors, plus physicians,
healthcare associations, and special guests.

Annually, approximately 8.2 million medical exams are carried out in
the Federal District. Considering only the units that are already part
of the portal - including Base Hospital, North Wing Regional Hospital,
South Wing Regional Hospital, Gama Regional Hospital, Taguatinga
Regional Hospital, Samambaia Regional Hospital, and the Central
Laboratory - the total number of exams is 4.7 million.

According to State Department of Health (SES, Secretaria de Estado de
Sade) statistics, 20% of exam results are lost by public service
patients before their actual medical appointment, resulting in new
requests for the same exams. Additionally, statistics indicate that
when these exams are repeated, 30% are lost again. The portal promises
to cut these rates to zero once the entire system is computerized and
the user and/or health provider will be able to access, at any moment
and in real time, the patient's record and previous exams.

With the medical exam portal, the waste involved in repeating exams
will be reduced to approximately 30% of current levels, which is
equivalent to almost R$ 18 million per year, once the project is
complete. By the end of this year, this drop will represent R$ 10.5
million. Almost 2.1 million users will benefit from this technological
solution.

The system has multiple advantages, such as: incorporation of results
into an Electronic Patient Record (PEP, Pronturio Eletrnico do
Paciente), secure and confidential access to data via the Web, and
preservation of patients' privacy by not allowing the access to STD and
cancer test results.

"Searches can be performed according to patient, exam, and requestor.
The navigation is highly friendly and intuitive, which makes it very
easy and fast for any patient or professional to search for required
information in the portal," explains Dr. Joo Luiz Arantes de Freitas,
Subsecretary of SUPRAC/SES for Scheduling, Regulation, Assessment and
Control. The integration of the Portal to PEPs will ensure more quality
and security for any information generated by the SES-DF lab network,
and also reduce the waste involved in duplicating exams. The focus lies
on delivering computer solutions for key activities, providing return
on investment in a quick and consistent manner.

According to TrakHealth Country Manger in Brazil, Fernando Vogt, the
project is closely aligned with the worldwide investment carried out by
the company in Community Health Network concepts. By providing
information technology and integrating units of a specific region, you
can control all the generation, maintenance, and distribution of
clinical, health, and administrative information of a community -
whether it's a city, a state, or even a country. "It consists of
combining administrative, demographic, and clinical patient data,
enabling the integrated management of a specific health service
community," explains Vogt.

To support these solutions, TrakHealth relies on technology from
InterSystems, an innovation-driven company since its foundation. The
company has a high-performance object database and application
development environment. They also provide a unique platform for
integration, enabling the creation of health community networks in a
quick and flexible way, while aiming at preserving existing
investments. Another innovative InterSystems product is HealthShare, a
technological platform that allows large-scale multi-organizational
sharing of health information.

About TrakHealth

Australian-based TrakHealth, an InterSystems company, develops and
markets TrakCare, a revolutionary Web-based healthcare information
system that rapidly delivers patient-centric care solutions and
electronic patient record benefits. In addition to providing a complete
enterprise-wide clinical and administrative solution, with its
innovative "FastTrak to ePR" technology and methodology TrakCare
quickly and seamlessly integrates information from legacy systems and
multi-vendor solutions. TrakHealth is implementing projects that range
from single hospitals in numerous countries to a statewide fully
integrated healthcare information system serving a 6.5 million
population in Brasilia and its surrounding region. TrakCare, which can
be readily adapted to varying public- and private-sector healthcare
delivery approaches, is installed in leading healthcare organizations
in 25 countries, including the United Kingdom, China, Japan and India.

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