HCN Wins Extension on Australian Contract

Health Communication Network  (HCN), an Australian medical IT and health software provider, has announced the renewal of an $8 million deal that will enable New South Wales (NSW) Health to provide doctors, nurses and allied health professionals with online health information through its Clinical Information Access Program (CIAP) health information database.

NSW Health originally negotiated a three-year contract with HCN — the new deal extends the contract for a further two years. The contract extension for the first time covers content for hand-held devices.

NSW Health’s CIAP provides hospital clinicians with evidence-based information on treatment, drugs, guidelines and protocols. HCN has been the main content provider for the four years that CIAP has been available.

In addition to the renewal, NSW Health has expanded its purchase to include hundreds more online medical journals and textbooks, accessed through HCN’s new Unified Search Environment (USE) software, which enables users to employ a simple search engine to sift through various data sources.

USE enables HCN’s collection of online commercial health databases – currently providing 80,000 health professionals with the most up-to-date information – to be easily searched together

The USE software can search multiple health databases from multiple vendors in one search, adding significant value to the resources currently available.

Mike Gregg, Managing Director of HCN said today "We are delighted to continue our long term association with NSW Health. What they have done with CIAP has been a world class, pioneering effort and HCN has been integral to it."

In July HCN signed a three-year deal with IMS Health to provide it with anonymous prescription data from Health Communication Network’s General Practice Research Network (GPRN).