Indra to present solutions for healthcare of the future at EHealth Week

Indra, the premier IT company in Spain and a leading multinational in Europe, will present at eHealth Week 2010 its latest technological advances in digital health, which aim at meeting the future needs of healthcare. Currently, more than 32 million people in more than 10 countries benefit from the companys solutions and systems developed in this sector.

The event will be held from March 15 to 18 at Barcelona International Conventions Centre. For the first time the Ministerial High Level Conference on eHealth and the World Health IT Conference and Exhibition will coincide. 2,500 attendees in representation of the eHealth sectors (ministers, members of public administration, hospital staff, suppliers and information systems directors) are expected.

Indra’s stand will exhibit its wide offer in Healthcare developing solutions which have been employed by more than 100,000 professionals in more than 5,500 health centres and hospitals making 500,000 daily medical appointments possible. Its health model contributes a new global concept of the healthcare system oriented to citizens, taking into account accessibility guidelines, clinical safety, sustainability and interoperability. This model facilitates the tasks of health professionals as well as access to information regardless of location. Besides this, the company’s offer covers all the health sectors and categories of services: regional, private or public health systems.

Indra’s knowledge and technologies applied to health are based on its “Health solutions” portfolio. It specialises in telemedicine, digital medical imaging or electronic medical records, among others. The advantages of both the fixed and mobile versions of clinical stations will also be shown, streamlining processes related to assigning patients, prescribing medication, issuing notifications and hospital visits.

Leadership in health solutions

Currently, Indra’s health care management systems provide two thirds of the national population with services with avant-garde projects for most of the regional healthcare systems. Such is the case of DIRAYA, an innovative information system commissioned by SAS, Andalusia’s Health Services, which facilitated the implementation of digital health records. Health professionals can consult the patient's record from any centre of the regional health network. Besides this, DIRAYA also allowed the development of the electronic prescription. With this modality, the patient's treatment information can be recorded in the medical record which the chemist can consult.

Regarding the electronic medical records we can mention Abucasis, a system which enabled unification of all the information of the medical records of the Valencia community or IANUS, the sanitary platform that integrates the Electronic Clinical Records of the Servizo Galego de Saúde (SERGAS).

The company also leads the implementation of the electronic prescription in Spain, first in Andalusia and then in Aragon, Madrid, Murcia, Valencia, Galicia and Cantabria. The IT company is currently engaged in the development and implementation of the Electronic Prescription system for the Instituto Social de las Fuerzas Armadas (ISFAS), the Mutualidad General Judicial (MUGEJU) as well as in Ceuta and Melilla autonomous regions.

On the other hand, it also developed SESCAM’s digital medical imaging system (Ykonos). This solution allows digitalization of diagnose images and reports for storage and access from any centre connected to the system. This way, x-rays, ultra sound scans and other diagnostic tests are not handed-in in hard copy to patients. Instead, they are submitted via internal network in digital media, so that specialists can analyse them without delay at their workplace regardless location, permitting also consultation of images in 3D.

This project is a pioneer experience in Europe in an area that will expand in healthcare with the objective of promoting the implementation of electronic medical records. The system, which is already into service in Castilla-La Mancha hospitals and specialised centres, improves services for citizens and will allow many upgrades in comparison with current systems: integration of diagnose image in the future medical digital records, availability of images and medical reports online anytime, anywhere, integration of specialised and primary attention, clinical sessions through videoconferences and optimization of schedules for multiple tests which saves time and reduces radiation doses due to test repetition in case of loss.

Due to Ykonos’ success, Indra and SESCAM created an excellence centre of digital medical imaging in Toledo. The centre was designed to become a benchmark in innovation, development of new tools and processes related to digital medical imaging.

The IT company extended its broad experience in the development and implementation of advanced health solutions to the international market and has undertaken, among other initiatives, the design, implementation and maintenance of Azores’ public health digital information system (SISARD) or the definition of Tunisia’s new health care model. Indra also provided Fundacion Lavoro, one of the main cardiovascular care centres in Argentina; and is engaged in a pilot to implement electronic medical records in Brazil.

Innovation for the management of future healthcare

Indra is currently involved in numerous innovation projects in the health sector, such as: Tratamiento 2.0 to be employed in the management and smart application of treatments for patients with chronic diseases, disabilities or for the elderly; e-Tiobe, the first technological solution for the prevention and cure of child obesity, already into service at the paediatrics unit of Hospital General in Valencia; Toyra, which aims at the development of an occupational therapy platform to facilitate management of more than one patient per physiotherapist while at the same time injured patients will be able to undergo remote rehabilitation. On the other hand, the IT company also cooperates in the Smart Open Services for European Patients (epSOS) whose objective is building cross-border interoperability between Electronic Health Record Systems in Europe and is part of the RealtH initiative for the improvement of social welfare and resource management.

Indra has agreements with more than 100 universities and research centres across the world with the objective of becoming an international reference in cooperation and in university-company technology transfer. During the last three years, it has invested more than 500 million Euros in R&D, thus becoming the European company in the sector with major investments in this matter, as published by “EU Industrial R&D Scoreboard” in November last year.

Indra is the premier Information Technology company in Spain and a leading IT multinational in Europe and Latin America. It is ranked as the second European company in its sector according to stock market capitalisation, and also the second Spanish company with the most investment in R&D. In 2009, revenues reached € 2,513 M, of which a third came from the international market. The company employs more than 29,000 professionals and has clients in more than 100 countries.