HCL Perot Systems (HPS), the 50:50 joint venture between HCL Technologies and Perot Systems Corporation, has successfully completed an end-to-end HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) implementation project.
Without disclosing the name of the company where HIPAA was implemented, Rajnish Kohli - Head, Healthcare Practice, told Pharmabiz.com in an email interview that the customer is the largest provider network chain in USA.
HPS is present in US, Europe and Asia-Pacific where its application framework with reusable components, are accepted because it saves time and cost of redevelopment.
"Healthcare providers constitute our major target segment in healthcare. We have successfully executed multiple projects for providers. Currently HPS has a 10-year Lab-on-Hire for providing enhancements and maintenance support to the various applications running at this huge provider network chain", he said.
HPS is also associated with leading healthcare product companies in Australia for which it has re-engineered and web-enabled HIS (hospital information systems). Currently it is developing a leading edge, unified scalable architecture for the client's products and providing end-user customisation & implementation support. The client is extremely satisfied with the HPS delivery capabilities and has agreed to jointly market their products in USA, informed Kohli.
HPS has been providing software services to the healthcare and life sciences industry globally, since its inception in 1996. It also offers both domain and generic service to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry - CRO (contract research organizations), pharmacies, and biotechnology companies. For the pharma sector, CFR part 11 and part 58 compliant solutions, Clinical Trial management systems, Pharmacovigilance systems, Encapsulations & Dispensary management, ERP implementation, Sales force management, Process Automation, cGMP and cGLP compliant documentation are offered. To the biotech companies, compliance monitoring and assessment, development of web-based portal solutions, software algorithms for identifying new drug targets, process automation for synthesis of new, recombinant molecules, data warehousing and mining solutions are provided.
The current trends in the healthcare industry are that hospitals are merging into larger practices requiring large-scale integration of services and departments. The level of complexity of IT solutions has increased to meet the large practices. There are new targets set by regulatory bodies: HIPAA compliance is by 2003 and EHR deadlines set by the NHS (30 per cent by 2003 and 100 per cent by 2005), he said.
According to Kohli, the cost of installation varies from project to project depending on the client requirements and final estimates. Training to the end-users is also imparted after implementation of the developed software at the client site.
For the future, HPS through its software development campuses at Delhi (NOIDA) and Bangalore is making investments in further developing the healthcare competency. It has recruited doctors who interface the client (hospitals and clinics), which leads to less information loss and then the along with the software engineers prepares the solutions. We have formed "techno-domain" teams of people with industry/domain experience and technical experts. In addition, all the technical resources working on healthcare projects are provided Level 1 and Level 2 healthcare industry training which ensures that those working in healthcare projects and implementations understand the nuances of healthcare industry along with technology features, informed Kohli.