BridgeHead launches public cloud offering which runs on Microsoft Azure

BridgeHead Software has launched a public cloud solution, which runs on Microsoft Azure, for its Independent Clinical Archive (ICA) system, HealthStore.

HealthStore enables health organisations to consolidate, store, protect, and provide authorised access to information outside of the electronic healthcare record (EHR) for clinical and operational needs.

Previously, HealthStore was run from a private cloud solution. Now, healthcare providers are able to take advantage of a best-of-breed healthcare data management solution for accessing and managing patient and administrative information through its lifecycle while using Azure’s compliance and privacy protections, as well as its state-of-the-art compute, storage, security among other services.

Mike Ball, chief business development officer at BridgeHead Software, said: “With a growing number of healthcare organisations looking to integrate health and care services, the challenges facing data security, protection, access and analysis are becoming increasingly more complex.

“We are pleased to offer HealthStore in the Cloud with Microsoft Azure as this will allow healthcare providers to adopt ‘cloud-first’ principles and start to use their information strategically. This will improve patient care, improve operational efficiencies, decrease cost and reduce risk.

“Microsoft offers a comprehensive cloud computing service for healthcare, with a significant footprint in hospitals across the globe and a continued dedication to the industry. Using BridgeHead’s position as a data management and clinical workflow experts, in tandem with Microsoft’s leading-edge innovation in cloud technology, we are bringing to market a very unique and valuable solution for hospitals worldwide.”

By adopting HealthStore, whose customers include Southampton Football Club and the England and Wales Cricket Board, in the public cloud, healthcare IT organisations can now adopt a flexible and measured (data first) project management approach.

Gareth Hall, senior director for worldwide health solutions at Microsoft, added: “As healthcare moves closer to a cloud-first policy, the inevitable question remains: how do providers get information locked into their applications into cloud?

“For healthcare organisations to transition to the cloud, whilst meeting all of their governance and compliance obligations, they need robust, reliable, compliant cloud-ready solutions that can ingest information using open healthcare data standards. Solutions, like HealthStore in the Cloud from BridgeHead Software, can provide this clinical and administrative repository.”