UK healthcare IT services provider iSoft has revealed that it plans to enter the US market by 2006, backed by the worldwide technology and marketing alliance signed with Microsoft in 2004. The CEO of iSoft’s Indian operations has also stated that the full version of Lorenzo, its next generation healthcare system based on Microsoft’s .Net platform, is due to be released during 2007. In late 2003 iSoft’s Lorenzo product was chosen as the core solution for three of the five local service providers selected by the £6.2 billion National Programme for IT (NPfIT). The news of the planned assault on the giant US market came in an interview with iSoft India’s CEO Ravan Boddu, who in an interview with online news service Rediff.com said: “We plan on entering the lucrative US market in the next two years through our worldwide technology and marketing alliance with Microsoft which we had inked in 2004. All our products are developed on the .Net platform making it a perfect match for Microsoft." On the release date of Lorenzo Ravan Boddu, was quoted as saying. “We shall be releasing our latest healthcare software product Lorenzo in phases, the complete product will be released sometime in early 2007." In addition to the US iSoft plans to target China. Other future target markets are understood to include countries who are investing on patient-centred healthcare like Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands. Following the award of the NPfIT contracts iSoft now has approximately 60 per cent of the market share in UK and 70 per cent of the IT healthcare software products market in Australia. The report on The Economic Times also states that iSoft plans to leverage its partnership with UK digital cable operators to offer interactive e-health programmes to senior citizens, based on streaming data through cable TV and recording data using digital cameras. Doctors would monitor this data and make weekly visits to take care of the patients who sign up for this programme. It is not clear whether such e-health services would be covered by iSOFT’s NPfIT deals or be offered as additional services.
