Company offers coding assets and know-how in an effort to improve health care outcomes in Canada
Edmonton, Alberta - 26 June 2008
EMIS INC. TO SHARE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
EMIS Inc. announced today that it has offered its portfolio of assets and know-how regarding its Pharmaceutical Database and other coding sets such as SNOMED-CT for use throughout Canada on a royalty-free basis. Notification of the offer to a list of Canadian stakeholders has been distributed by CHITTA, the Health Division of ITAC, via email.
EMIS Inc.’s offer is predicated on a single governing Canadian organization serving as the managing body of a royalty-free license to the intellectual property, which can then be sub-licensed on a royalty-free basis by Provincial Ministries, healthcare providers and other vendors. EMIS is leveraging its membership in CHITTA to help identify this governing body and will then work with that governing body to structure the final terms of the agreement, and to assist in distribution of the IP under terms of the agreement to other stakeholders in Canada.
“With the exploding interest across Canada in establishing standardized data-sets, terminologies and nomenclatures, we feel it is consistent with our core ethos of improving the health of individual patients and populations, to make available the depth of knowledge and assets we have accumulated in this area, to the entire Canadian healthcare system,” said Eric Gombrich, Chief Executive Officer of EMIS Inc.
EMIS has a dedicated department known as Coding and Drug Information (CDI) based in the UK with representatives in Canada whose sole focus is the ongoing maintenance and evolution of these data-sets, terminologies and nomenclatures, as well as their adoption into front-line clinical practice. The CDI division of EMIS participates internationally with the governing bodies overseeing these terminologies and nomenclatures to assure their evolution is not only utilized by physicians and other care givers in “real-world” practice, but also meets the underlying goal of continually driving new knowledge for better care.
Mr. Gombrich added, “Canada Health Infoway’s identification of SNOMED-CT as being a foundational component of Canada’s healthcare infrastructure, and the ensuing Provincial intentions to adopt SNOMED-CT exemplifies the importance of this initiative. EMIS’ CDI team has over 15 years of experience as a team working through the challenges of implementing such taxonomies, and it would be a shame not to share that experience in order to accelerate adoption across Canada, while also leveraging the breadth of experience garnered in the UK.”
About EMIS Inc.
EMIS Inc. launched its Canadian operations in 2005, expanding on its success as the number one provider of EMR solutions in the UK and other countries. Since this time, EMIS Inc., headquartered in Edmonton, has become recognized in Canada as one of the pre-eminent solutions able to improve the health of Canadians and the daily activities of their providers through the use of a physician-centric, clinically based electronic medical record.
For More Information Please Contact:
Emis Inc.
Heather Linkletter
780.409.8277
Heather.Linkletter@emis.ca