IBA's Lorenzo nabs first customer

By: Karen Dearne

MACQUARIE University Private Hospital in Sydney is set to become Australia's first user of Lorenzo, IBA Health Group's next-generation platform, in a $7.6 million deal for advanced healthcare applications to be installed at the high-tech hospital due to open next year.

A $140 million joint venture between Macquarie and Dalcross Private Hospital is funding the construction of a 180-230 bed facility in the university's research precinct, with the aim of providing high quality patient care as well as opportunities for post-graduate medical training and health research.

IBA will supply its Lorenzo Acute Care suite of clinical, administrative and financial applications across the hospital and specialist clinics. The package includes full electronic medical record functionality, and will link to new systems for radiology and pathology.

Dalcross chief executive Carl Adams said the investment would allow management of the new facility "with a confidence that the essential administrative and clinical requirements can be achieved immediately, while ensuring a pathway to the next-generation" of health information systems.

"As an early adopter, we aim to play an active role in the development program and, with other users, help shape the future of healthcare IT," Mr Adams said.

IBA chief executive Gary Cohen said the contract marked a milestone that would help drive sales of Lorenzo in the region.

"With Lorenzo, everyone has the opportunity to play an active role in the delivery of care," Mr Cohen said. "It breaks down barriers to critical clinical information, helping health professionals to make faster informed decisions.

"There is a revolution in healthcare in which Lorenzo will have a central role."

Macquarie University Private Hospital will also be the first Australian hospital to install iSoft Financials, an integrated suite of web-based financial and purchasing products called Integra.

Yesterday, IBA claimed the title of the nation's leading health software company with revenues of $361 million, up 381 per cent from $75 million in 2007.

IBA registered a net profit of $49 million, up 113 per cent, after completing the takeover of its former rival, iSoft, in October last year. However, the profit result included $35 million in acquisition, integration and other one-off costs.

IBA expects Lorenzo - built on Microsoft's .NET platform - to set a new global standard for healthcare IT.

Lorenzo to boost IBA group

By: Karen Dearne

IBA Health Group expects the release of its new Lorenzo software will improve its forecast 18 per cent revenue growth next year.

Chief executive Gary Cohen said IBA was now the SAP of healthcare, and Lorenzo would transform the company into a "major international player" over the next two to three years.

"Health informatics will do for healthcare what enterprise solutions did for manufacturing and banking some 20-odd years ago," he said.

Australia's largest listed health IT company took a hit yesterday, however, due to costs associated with its $463 million takeover of former rival iSoft.

IBA's net profit for 2007-08 was $14.65 million, compared with $23 million the previous year, but the result included $35 million in acquisition, integration and other one-off costs.

Mr Cohen said revenues rose from $75 million in 2007 to $361 million last year, reflecting the company's expanded global footprint.

For 2009, IBA is predicting revenue of $540 million to $560 million, with earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of between $120 million and $130 million.

"To the delight of many shareholders, we expect to reinstate the payment of dividends," Mr Cohen said.

The global launch of the Lorenzo platform is planned for November, with the clinicals release due early next year. Based on Microsoft's .NET service-oriented architecture, it it designed along plug-and-play lines.

IBA has also committed to opening the platform to outside developers. "That way, we'll quickly get more scalability and usability," Mr Cohen said.

The Lorenzo fantasy

All that we've been hearing from IBA (iSoft) since 2004 is that Lorenzo is going to change the world and fix all of our e-health problems. It sounds like a great idea but it has one problem - the product doesn't actually exist. The reality is that Lorenzo is shaping up to be just another web portal that interfaces in legacy systems and provides little to no intrinsic value overall. I'll give some credit to IBA's chairman and marketing department who have done a good job of ensuring that people are hearing about Lorenzo. Talking is unfortunately all that IBA has done. The issue still remains - when will we be able to actually see it working and "live" in it's full promised form. The sales pitches just aren't cutting it and IBA is looking a lot more like a failing company who is outsourcing it's development in labour cheap, quality poor India, promising a lot and delivering ... well ... nothing. So far at least.