EMIS Health: Difference between revisions

Egton Medical Information Systems Limited, known as EMIS and part of EMIS Group plc, is a software company that develops and supplies computer systems used by over half of all General Practices in the United Kingdom,^[1] and also internationally, to electronically store patient notes. Like other competitor systems, data includes all details of a patient's medical history, acute and repeat medication record and results of blood and radiology investigations electronically posted back to a surgery from a hospital.

EMIS began over 20 years ago in a rural dispensing practice in Egton near Whitby in North Yorkshire, where Dr Peter Sowerby wrote the software in association with co-author Dr David Stables.^[2] As at December 2010, EMIS supplied systems to 53.8% of GP practices in the UK with a responsibility for over 60% of the cradle-to-grave electronic healthcare records. Turnover was £62.4m for 2010 (2009: £57.7m) and they employed over 800 people in the United Kingdom.

EMIS chose not to be one of the major current GP computer providers initially included in the proposed National Programme for IT (NPfIT) due to issues surrounding the lack of system choice for GPs.^[1]

The disenfranchisement of General Practitioners and the resultant political change which affected the NPFIT led to the creation of the GPSOC (General Practitioners System of Choice) programme which allowed individual GPs to choose their own system for storing electronic patient notes. As a result EMIS are now involved in the GPSOC programme.

As of 2009, of the 5000 practices using EMIS, 40% are now able to transfer notes electronically with the GP2GP electronic record transfer software to other GP practices using either EMIS or INPS Vision.^[3] In 2009 EMIS is also to release its next generation system, EMIS Web, which (with other interoperability initiatives pioneered by EMIS) is intended – subject to patient consent - to allow patient data to move freely and safely not just between GPs but also elsewhere within the NHS (Accident & Emergency, Out of Hours, Hospitals, Community Nursing, etc.).

In 2005 EMIS expanded into Canada with the formation of EMIS Inc., a subsidiary of EMIS in the United Kingdom. The head office is based in Edmonton, Alberta and operations were focused on Alberta and British Columbia. However, in 2011, EMIS decided to leave that market in view of the provincial (rather than federal) approach to healthcare and the resistance to codified patient records.

A branch of EMIS, based in Perth Western Australia, named Egton existed between 2003 and 2009. The purpose of this office was to produce insourced software for both EMIS' UK and Canadian operations. This branch was scaled down on June 16, 2009 with the loss of all but 3 staff due to completion of a number of projects, the global financial situation and time zone difficulties especially with the Canadian operation. However, in February 2010 EMIS was able to announce that it was to work with CSC on the Australian MoD's health software - called JeDHI.

EMIS Group Limited became EMIS Group plc and then floated on AIM starting trading on 29 March 2010.

In August 2010 EMIS Group acquired a controlling interest in Rx Systems further enabling the consensual secure sharing of patient data between GPs and community pharmacists.

Rx Systems Limited, known as Rx Systems is a software company that develops and supplies computer systems used by a quarter of all community practices in the United Kingdom. Rx Systems was incorporated on 20th March 2003 and is a registered company in England & Wales under registration number 04704728.

Whilst its historical accounts were previously not available to the public (as exempt) they will become visible when published as part of the EMIS Group plc accounts. It is partly owned by EMIS Group plc and partly by Phoenix Group.

Rx Systems supplies computer systems and provides managed network services to a quarter of all community pharmacies in the United Kingdom. Part of that managed service is the support of the respective government agencies' Electronic Transfer of Prescription and associated IT projects. Like other competitor systems, data stored includes all details of a patient's medical history, acute and repeat medication record and increasingly recording other clinical data.

Rx Systems was set up in March 2003 by Simon Ward, Ian Taylor and Martin Shepsman. In partnership with Phoenix Medical Supplies, Rx Systems had rapid market growth in all countries in the UK. It is supported by key market stakeholders in partnership to deliver solutions to community pharmacy. Partners include Numark, Avicenna and AIMp (Association of Independent Multiples pharmacies). In December 2009 Rx Systems secured an agreement with AAH Pharmaceuticals (AAH) to provide Rx Systems' core application, ProScript, to the AAH Link client base under the brand name ProScript Link.

In June 2010 Rx Systems invested in Pharmacy EPoS system provider MultEPoS to supply their services to the Rx Systems customer base thereby enhancing the overall pharmacy IT offering. Rx Systems continues to see a significant increase in its client base and currently supplies services to over a quarter of community pharmacy sites in the UK. Currently positioned as the second largest system provider to Pharmacy in the UK, its ProScript software is the most widely used application in UK Pharmacy.

EMIS makes a number of anonymous and other charitable donations in cash or kind - for example to QRESEARCH and for projects in Africa. EMIS also provides Patient UK as a free service for the public.

• Egton Medical Information Systems Ltd (EMIS) website