Alcidion wins major UK contract as it looks to help transform healthcare

Informatics solutions provider Alcidion Group Limited (ASX:ALC), which consists of three healthcare software companies: Alcidion Corporation, Patientrack and Smartpage, and MKM Health, an IT solutions and services provider, is expanding its footprint, having just won a major contract with Dartford and Gravesham National Health Service (NHS) Trust in the UK to roll out its full product suite.

The contract win comes at a great time with UK’s National Health Service (NHS) transitioning to artificial intelligence (AI) and paperless systems and allocating £4 billion (A$7.5 billion) to transition to a paperless environment.

The Trust has an ambitious ICT strategic plan to achieve the NHS’s Five Year Forward View to be Paperless at the Point of Care by 2020.

Alcidion’s Managing Director, Kate Quirke said: “This is a major win for Alcidion. Although the company has a strong presence in the UK with Patientrack, this is the first integrated installation of the complete product platform – Miya Precision, Patientrack and Smartpage – outside of Australia.”

The product suite provides electronic patient observations, electronic paper charts, clinical assessments, clinical noting, patient flow, bed management and electronic discharge summaries for GPs. The clinical team also has online access to patient information 24 hours a day, where and when required to provide the optimum level of patient care through mobile computing.

“This contract is solid proof that we can effectively leverage our reputation and relationships in the UK and introduce an innovative new technology solution to the UK market,” Quirke said.

The contract with Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust is valued at A$2.1 million (£1.16 million) over five years. The Trust plan to achieve full digital maturity through the application of seamlessly integrated technology solutions and enabling industry partnerships, to become a digital exemplar at the forefront of the use of agile information and technology. It has an annual budget of about £121 million and employs 1,900 staff. It has 800 beds across three hospitals and a specialist nurse-led Unit. The Trust serves a population of half a million people.

Under the partnership, Alcidion will deploy the Miya Precision platform integrated with Smartpage and Patientrack in all wards across the entire Trust, to enable safer and more efficient patient care, reduce the burden of paper and deliver state-of-the-art information and technology to frontline clinical staff. The product suite will provide electronic patient observations, electronic paper charts, clinical assessments, clinical noting, patient flow, bed management and electronic discharge summaries for GPs. The clinical team will have online access to patient information 24 hours a day, where and when required to provide the optimum level of patient care through mobile computing.

Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust Associate Director of Digital Transformation Neil Perry said, “Following a competitive tender process, we are very pleased to be working with Alcidion to implement its leading product suite across our hospitals.

“Alcidion’s solutions are the right fit to help us meet our commitment to use digital technology to improve patient outcomes and share these improvements with other NHS Trusts. Alcidion is a long-term solution partner for the Trust, and we believe its technology can empower our clinical staff to make informed decisions and focus on what they do best – deliver excellent patient care. We are very excited by the possibilities in the use of artificial intelligence and natural language processing offered by the Alcidion solution.”

Alcidion has made great strides in the past 12 months rolling out its informatics products, delivering much needed data solutions to hospitals and healthcare providers.

The $44.3 million capped company, has also made a number of acquisitions, while continuing to develop its health data management technology. Adoption of its technology has been solid since it listed on the ASX in 2016, attracting clients such as the NHS, Queensland Health, NSW Health, Victorian Department of Health and Human Services, ACT Health, and eleven District Health Boards in New Zealand.

The following client snapshot indicates just how expansive Alcidion is becoming:

Alcidion’s goal is to transform healthcare, hence last year’s acquisitions of MKM Health along with Patientrack and healthcare software company Oncall Systems (Smartpage) which could be integrated with its existing leading core technology, Miya. Miya Precision is a health analytics platform that solves clinical problems through provision of clinical decision support based on the application of algorithms, artificial intelligence and meaningful notifications.

Quirke told Finfeed, “After cancer and stroke, preventable errors in healthcare delivery are the third biggest killer of US citizens. Here in Australia, it’s approximately one in nine patients that have an adverse event, costing us about half a billion dollars every year. It's been pretty well documented for 20 years that the delivery of healthcare is not necessarily a safe environment.”

Alcidion Group is helping health providers improve patient outcomes and reduce inefficiencies in healthcare delivery.