The key component of the partnership will be the delivery of a Clinical Information Portal built on Carefx's Fusionfx platform. The portal will integrate NHS clinical and administrative applications residing either inside an NHS Trust or between multiple healthcare organisations, providing the ability to connect disparate systems and leverage and protect existing investments. By enabling Trusts to link existing systems, the portal not only extends the value of IT investments, it provides clinical and administrative staff with streamlined access to critical patient information from a single point of access, eliminating the need for data replication and new storage infrastructures.

"Partnering with key software developers like Carefx is critical in enabling us to provide the joined-up solutions that are so vital to the success of UK healthcare," says Andrew Spence, CSC's UK director of healthcare strategy. "Combining this innovative technology with our understanding of healthcare has the potential to deliver significant savings at a time when budgets are tighter than ever before."

"The Carefx partnership also demonstrates our ability to deliver solutions that ensure that the right information is delivered to the right people at the right time. Giving healthcare staff the fullest possible picture will improve continuity of care, patient safety and clinical productivity while reducing fragmentation to give the patient a better experience," Spence added.

Carefx Executive Vice President and General Manager for EMEA, Wayne Parslow, stated: "The aim for all healthcare organisations today is to improve the quality of patient care, while reducing the costs to the NHS of providing its services. Partnering with CSC strengthens our position in being able to do just this. By jointly deploying our Fusionfx platform we know that Trusts will be able to deliver secure, real-time access to relevant patient data, at that precise point in the care pathway. This is about meeting the needs of healthcare staff, the organisation and most importantly the patient."

By working collaboratively, CSC and Carefx can deliver solutions that not only meet the requirements of individual NHS Trusts, but can also support regional NHS partnerships and national interoperability programmes.

CSC's new solutions
The collaboration with Carefx on the Clinical Information Portal is one of several new solutions, services, and partnerships CSC is introducing to help healthcare organisations. The solutions have been tailored to help NHS Trusts tackle a number of UK Government policy initiatives, such as the QIPP (Quality, Innovation, Productivity and Prevention) agenda which identifies the importance of harnessing innovation and technology at key points in the patient journey. In addition to the clinical portal, two other solutions were launched in January, including the ePF (electronic patient folder) and Healthcare Self-Service Kiosks. Further solutions will be launched in 2010.

"To rise to these policy challenges - and free-up the resources required under the current stringent efficiency programme - Trusts are realising that they have to look at new ways of working, and that technology is key to that," comments Spence. "This is why we have developed solutions that focus on increasing efficiency, reducing costs and managing risk."

For further information regarding CSC healthcare solutions in the UK visit www.csc.com/cscalliance.

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• CSC's Profile

About CSC
CSC is a global leader in providing technology-enabled solutions and services through three primary lines of business. These include Business Solutions and Services, the Managed Services Sector and the North American Public Sector. CSC's advanced capabilities include system design and integration, information technology and business process outsourcing, applications software development, Web and application hosting, mission support and management consulting. The company has been recognized as a leader in the industry, including being named by FORTUNE Magazine as one of the World's Most Admired Companies for Information Technology Services (2010). Headquartered in Falls Church, Va., CSC has approximately 92,000 employees and reported revenue of $16.0 billion for the 12 months ended Jan. 1, 2010. For more information, visit the company's Web site at www.csc.com.

About Carefx
Carefx supports healthcare organisations in achieving their vision of advancing the quality and safety of patient care delivery through its Fusionfx suite of interoperable workflow solutions. Fusionfx streamlines and simplifies clinical and business workflow and connects care providers to the information they need - where, when, and how they need it. By managing care transitions and information gaps between diverse systems, departments and facilities, Fusionfx delivers crucial patient information with speed, efficiency and logic. Carefx supports more than 700 hospitals, health systems, regional health information organizations (RHIOs) and health information exchanges (HIEs) across North America and Europe. Founded in 2002 and headquartered in Scottsdale, AZ, USA. Its EMEA headquarters are in Watford.