Microsoft has announced an agreement to acquire various assets from healthcare technology firm Global Care Solutions (GCS).The internet giant said that it will buy software, intellectual property and other assets from the Bangkok-based firm to boost its health-related operations in international markets.
Under the terms of the agreement, employees of GCS will join the Health Solutions Group (HSG) at Microsoft and aid its work in product development and delivery.
Currently, GCS's end-to-end health information system, first launched seven years ago, is used at Bumrungrad International Hospital to oversee clinical workflow, billing, regulatory compliance and medical records.
It consists of 50 clinical and back-office application modules that run all hospital, clinical and administrative functions on Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and Microsoft SQL Server 2005.
"The international, fully integrated nature of the GCS technology - and the fact that it is built from the ground up on scalable Microsoft technology - makes this a great addition to our portfolio of health enterprise products as we look to power developing and emerging hospital systems around the globe," commented Peter Neupert, HSG corporate vice president at Microsoft.
Last week, Microsoft and the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society announced that they were to expand the Microsoft Healthcare Users Group to include partners and organisations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
The group is a forum for those involved in healthcare software development and currently has 4,200 members in North America.
