Seattle Systems Forms Strategic Alliance With Velos Medical Informatics!

Cardiovascular Information Alliance Formed to Serve 800 Heart Centers

San Francisco--March 19, 1999, Seattle Systems and Velos Medical Informatics, the two leading suppliers of clinical information systems to the cardiovascular provider market, have teamed up to provide a comprehensive suite of information products and services to their combined installation base of more than 800 cardiovascular centers in the US and Canada. The companies plan to integrate current software offerings and to create new products and services that take advantage of emerging Internet technology. The core systems offered by the alliance will be scaled to serve a wide range of customer needs and budgets&--from smaller, lower cost systems focused on participation in the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) national data registries, to large multi-hospital networks offering a host of diagnostic and HIS interface capabilities. New products will provide alliance users with web-enabled access to cardiovascular clinical data in physician offices, patient homes and remote emergency rooms.

In the near term, the companies will provide the following product offerings:

• Velos Essentials for patient management and ACC and STS registry participation, scaled to customer needs and requirements
• The industry leading Apollo database, configured with 32 subspecialty modules and interfaces to major hemodynamic, electrophysiology,
• ECG management, echo, and digital angiography systems
• Velos Scheduling, a department-wide cath, echo and surgery, patient and resource scheduling system
• The Apollo cath lab inventory control system, the number one inventory product on the market
• Velos Research, an innovative, fully integrated product to support clinical research and clinical trials.

"This alliance creates exciting possibilities for our existing and future customers", according to John McIlwain, president of Velos. "We are combining best-of-class solutions from the two leading technologies in this market, and our sales and service organizations will be working together to provide a powerful range of data management solutions to all customers. The two companies have highly compatible technologies, so most components of the combined offering will be available for immediate purchase."

According to Allyn McAuley, president of Seattle Systems, the alliance will enable member hospitals to improve care and derive increased revenues through tapping the value of their composite patient databases. "There is tremendous value in the rich clinical data that exists right now in hundreds of cardiovascular centers in North America. Properly gathered, analyzed and accessed, the data can be used to improve patient care, facilitate research on new drugs and devices, and generate needed income for hard-pressed care providers. The alliance will help hospitals put the best set of data management tools in place, then provide optional services that allow users to set up web-based access to their clinical data from remote locations, generate comparisons with national patterns in device and drug usage, benchmark clinical and cost outcomes, and participate in important and profitable clinical research. These new products will be web-based for maximum efficiency and minimum investment in IT infrastructure", said McAuley.

In addition to the initiative in cardiovascular medicine, Velos and Seattle Systems will combine their efforts in offering department-wide management of patient populations by medical specialty and disease state. Together, the two companies serve more than 1,200 medical centers, and an estimated 1,000,000 patients per year with specialized systems in cardiovascular services, renal care, oncology, diabetes care, and transplantation. Velos software and distribution partners include Oracle, Microsoft, and Althin Medical, while Seattle Systems has product development and distribution relationships with Guidant, Siemens Medical Systems, and Hewlett-Packard Medical Products.

"Both companies were founded with a similar mission", according to McIlwain. "We both believe that data management in healthcare must be targeted and approached from the perspective shared by physician and patient. We've succeeded in engaging clinicians and the other front line workers in healthcare to use information technology. This difficult achievement unlocks a wealth of information our customers can use not only for high quality, cost-effective patient care but also in areas like regulatory compliance, which is a big issue right now; clinical research; and interaction with third parties such as suppliers, other providers, and payers. Together, we offer customers in our targeted specialties a level of information richness and value that will be difficult to match. Further, the two companies are in a unique position to support virtual, Internet-based communities of patients, physicians, providers and manufacturers with common, highly-focused needs and interests", McIlwain concluded.

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