Two of the UK's leading healthcare IT companies are to join forces following the announcement that Ascribe - a leading software and IT services provider to secondary care - is to join EMIS Group plc, owner of EMIS - the UK's leading provider of software to GPs. The move will bring together two leading companies working in adjacent but not overlapping markets - creating a powerful new force in healthcare IT able to offer a wide range of integrated clinical systems working across multiple care settings.
EMIS provides software and other services to 52.4% of GP practices and a wide range of other healthcare practitioners. It recently established a Community Child and Mental Health Division to extend its footprint into these services.
Ascribe is principally focused on hospital pharmacy, A&E, mental health and patient administration (PAS) / electronic patient record systems (EPR). Seventy-five per cent of NHS secondary care organisations use an Ascribe solution.
Other companies in EMIS Group plc include community pharmacy software provider RX Systems, which has 34.9% of the market, and Digital Healthcare Limited, a leading provider of diabetic retinopathy screening and other ophthalmology-related solutions.
Chris Spencer, CEO of EMIS Group said: "We believe that there are significant growth prospects for the combined business which will be uniquely placed to address market challenges, allowing us to directly target the Acute, Specialist Care, Pharmacy, Children and Community Care and the Mental Health markets."
Ascribe founder Stephen Critchlow, who will become Executive Chairman of Ascribe, said: "With Ascribe and EMIS shoulder to shoulder, we will deliver our vision for patients to benefit from all the information collected about their health and care across primary, secondary, social and community settings. Combining the products and services with the culture in our organisations will enable us to offer a unique proposition."
Related news articles:
- EMIS' Profile
About EMIS Group
EMIS Group is the UK's leading supplier of clinical software and related services to GP practices and other healthcare practitioners and a major software supplier to high street pharmacies. As at 30 June 2013, EMIS Group had a GP market share of 52.4% (5,170 GP Practices) and a high street pharmacy market share of 34.9% (4,727 pharmacies). EMIS Group's core activities include software development, software licensing and support, hardware support and maintenance services, hardware sales, third party software sales and training services. Established in 1987, EMIS Group' shares were listed on AIM under the trading symbol EMIS.L following a successful fundraising in March 2010.
About Ascribe
From trust-wide EPR solutions through to individual departmental clinical systems and services, Ascribe is able to deliver IT solutions that cater to all secondary care clinical requirements. Using a professional Consultancy division, Ascribe also delivers a comprehensive range of Integration and Business Intelligence solutions based on Microsoft® & other third party IT suppliers to significantly improve clinical and operational efficiencies, to improve patient safety and reduce operating costs. The company is a Microsoft Gold Partner and was selected by Microsoft as their Public Healthcare Partner of the Year in 2012.