The WebEPA is a jointly developed electronic platform for data exchange between healthcare facilities throughout Germany. It enables communication between the different clinical systems like documentation, hospital information, picture archiving as well as practice management systems in a total of 46 hospitals and the associated medical care centers of the RHÖN-KLINIKUM Group. With the patient's consent, it will thus be possible for information such as admissions, discharge letters and findings to be exchanged between clinicians involved in that patient's treatment. The roll-out of the WebEPA throughout the Group comes after its successful testing in a pilot project at Herzzentrum Leipzig (University Hospital) and Parkkrankenhaus Leipzig-Südost – both facilities of RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG. Additionally, a roll-out of WebEPA to outpatient areas, including community-based physicians, is planned following the completion of the roll-out at the RHÖN-KLINIKUM Group.

The software components of the WebEPA, developed by Siemens and based on Soarian IC, include reports, images and medical data, a module for consultations among physicians, as well as what is referred to as a master patient index (MPI) allowing clear identification of patients beyond a facility’s boundaries. The contractual parties see this joint further development of the WebEPA as the opportunity to establish a market standard for an interoperable structure spanning the various healthcare sectors and allowing for process-oriented cooperation and co-productions of service partnerships in the fast-changing healthcare system.

With this project, Siemens will further expand its leading position in the European eHealth sector. Here, Siemens' expertise ranges from regional to national networking of the providers involved. One current example comes from France where Siemens implemented some 5,000 electronic health records throughout the region of Limousin. The health records are currently being used in a pilot project in both the inpatient as well as outpatient sectors. Additionally, a screening program for the early detection of diabetic retinopathy with 213,000 registered patients has been under way for over a year in Scotland. In Germany, Siemens will conclude framework agreements for connectors (interfaces between existing information systems and central telematic services) and thus lead the market for these in the field tests to be launched in the spring.

RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG has moreover established an open consortium with other hospitals, public facilities and the Fraunhofer Institute of Software and Systems Engineering (ISST) as part of the electronic case record (eFA) project and has chosen Siemens as its industrial partner. Siemens and RHÖN-KLINIKUM are jointly working on the specification for the eFA. In the future, the WebEPA will pool all data of a treatment case based on the eFA standard and enable secure data exchange across sectors and facilities for all clinicians involved in care delivery. The contractual parties expect the eFA to make an important contribution toward optimizing patient care as part of the Germany-wide communication platform – the telematic infrastructure – being planned by the German Federal Ministry of Health.

"The WebEPA will be key to a big leap forward in the quality of patient care. It pools a patient's medically relevant information from the integrated providers, thus helping the treating physicians with important diagnosis and therapy decisions. That will also cut costs in healthcare. Today we have thus taken another big step toward realizing our corporate vision of making good medicine affordable to all," Wolfgang Pföhler said.

"Thanks to our comprehensive healthcare IT solution, we are enabling processes to be optimized across the care continuum and allowing for integrated and efficient treatment procedures to be developed between the various providers in the healthcare system – for patient-centered care”, explained Prof. Dr. Erich R. Reinhardt. "This is made possible by Siemens' combined know-how and experience as the world's first integrated diagnostics company in the fields of imaging diagnostics and therapy, lab medicine and clinical information systems. The objective is to enhance the quality of medical care while helping to reducing costs."

About RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG
RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG is a leading private hospital service provider and is committed to the highest standards of patient-oriented care combining the very best quality of service with good value. Our corporate aim and purpose is to build and operate hospitals, primarily acute hospitals at all care levels. RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG we went public in 1989, thus becoming the first listed hospital group in Germany. In financial year 2006 the Group generated revenues of nearly 2 billion euros and a net profit of 108 million euros. RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG shares the values and goals of the German healthcare system whose efficiency and benefits it wishes to uphold for patients also in future based on the principle of "rationalisation before rationing". Currently the Group has 46 hospitals (44 acute/2 in rehab sector) at 35 locations counting some 15,000 beds and places. The Group currently employs a staff of more than 31,000. More information can be found at http://www.rhoen-klinikum-ag.com.

About Siemens Medical Solutions
Siemens Medical Solutions is one of the largest suppliers to the healthcare industry in the world. The division offers innovative products and end-to-end solutions as well as a broad range of services and consulting. This is rounded off by imaging systems for diagnosis and therapy, molecular medicine and audiology, as well as IT solutions. The latest acquisitions in the field of in vitro lab diagnostics - such as Diagnostic Products Corporation and Bayer Diagnostics - have paved the way for Siemens to become the world's first integrated diagnostics company. Thanks to all these solutions, Siemens Medical Solutions enables its customers to achieve visible results both in the clinical and administrative areas – known as "proven outcomes". Siemens innovations help optimise workflows in hospitals, medical practices and in the area of integrated care, thus raising efficiency within the healthcare system. Employing over 41,000 people worldwide and operating in over 130 countries, Siemens Medical Solutions generated sales of € 8.23 billion and an order intake of € 9.33 billion for fiscal 2006 (Sept. 30), according to US GAAP. The divisional result was € 1.06 billion. More information can be found at http://www.siemens.com/medical.