Lexmark acquires Acuo Technologies

Acuo Technologies, best known for its Universal Clinical Platform for clinical data management, has been acquired by Lexmark International.

A relative newcomer to the UK, Acuo Technologies formed a partnership with Philips Healthcare in 2012 to provide a multi-site vendor neutral archive across six trusts in Surrey and Sussex.

It has gone on to win other VNA business in the PACS/RIS refresh that is now underway.

The company also works with a wide range of national governments, university and other medical centers in the US and Northern European countries.

Acuo Technologies will become part of Perceptive Software, a Lexmark company that provides healthcare software products and services.

Perceptive Software says the acquisition means it will be able to offer its process and content solutions on Acuo’s Universal Clinical Platform.

“This provides users an enterprise-wide view of all patient medical information from within the electronic medical record system,” said Brian Anderson, chief technology officer.

“It gives physicians immediate and convenient access to all patient information – from x-rays, ultrasounds, computed tomography scans and more, regardless of the department of origin or the proprietary technology used to create and store it.”

VNAs are noted for their sophisticated handling of high resolution imaging data from a diverse spectrum of sources including radiology, cardiovascular and even pathology imaging,

Traditionally, they perform less well with scanned paper documents or electronically created documents.

“Our combined offerings provide capabilities to quickly search and extract relevant information from this [paper or electronic] captured content, and deliver it in the context of the clinical applications,” said Anderson.

“It allows us to bring high definition to the EMR and is unique in the healthcare space.”

Jeff Timbrook, Acuo Technologies chief executive, said the acquisition means that healthcare customers will have access to “more compelling end-to-end solutions that integrate and manage both medical image and document-centric patient information, all integrated with the EMR.”

The Acuo Technologies acquisition fits into Lexmark’s capital allocation framework, which aims to acquire companies that support growth in the provision of software solutions, whilst returning more than 50% of free cash flow to shareholders.

Since mid-2011, Lexmark has returned to shareholders more than $500 million in the form of dividends and share repurchases.