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Helix Health announces the formation of Clinical Advisory Board to enhance patient care
16 October 2007 - Dublin, Ireland - Helix Health Limited, the largest healthcare IT solutions provider in Ireland, has announced the formation of a Clinical Advisory Board, enabling the company to create truly patient-centric software solutions.
The Clinical Advisory Board is a multi-disciplinary board of healthcare professionals who meet on a regular basis to suggest and discuss new technological advances that Helix Health is making in the healthcare IT sector. Chaired by the eminent Professor Arthur Tanner RCSI, the board is comprised of members representing all facets of the healthcare spectrum including Dr. Ciarán Kelly, General Practitioner, Karl Hilton, pharmacist and former President of the Irish Pharmaceutical Union, and Ronan Brett, Head of Pharmacy Services Europe with Celesio, the leading European pharmaceutical distributor.
Chairman of the Clinical Advisory Board, Professor Arthur Tanner RCSI, says, “The Clinical Advisory Board acts as an interface between the user of healthcare IT and Helix Health, the people who develop software solutions for these healthcare professionals. The presence of a Clinical Advisory Board ensures that the voice of the user is listened to and that they use software that, not only helps them to do their job, but ultimately, enables them to deliver a superior health service to their patients”.
Announcing the creation of the Clinical Advisory Board, Howard Beggs, CEO of Helix Health, says, “As a market-leading technology company, we’ve always used expert groups in the various healthcare sectors we are involved in. However, the Clinical Advisory Board is different because it is tasked with the challenge of discussing advances in technologies that not only transcend traditional healthcare boundaries but also pre-empt the impact of technologies that have not yet been developed. We are truly delighted that we were able to attract people of the calibre of Professor Tanner, Dr. Ciarán Kelly, Karl Hilton and Ronan Brett to the Clinical Advisory Board, and look forward to their input on the new healthcare technologies that we have planned for the future”.
At the beginning of this year, Helix Health announced that they would become the first healthcare IT provider to create a truly integrated healthcare system through the deployment of electronic transmission of prescription (ETP) technologies. “We are currently in pilot with a variant of ETP, which involves the transmission of prescription information between the general practitioner and the pharmacist using 2D barcodes,” adds Beggs. “The aim of this pilot is to prove, first and foremost, that the technology works and, secondly, that there are distinct advantages to deploying this type of technology, particularly for the patient. Results of this pilot will be published shortly”.
About Professor Arthur Tanner RCSI:
Professor Tanner is a General Surgeon and the Director of Surgical Affairs in the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI). Having qualified as an undergraduate from Trinity College Dublin, Professor Tanner was subsequently awarded a Doctorate from the same university. He is a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in
Ireland, the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and a founding fellow of the Faculty of Sports and Exercise Medicine. He was a consultant general surgeon to the Meath and the Adelaide Hospitals and was Associate Professor of Surgery in Trinity College, Dublin.
About Dr. Karl Hilton:
Dr. Karl Hilton is a community pharmacist and the proprietor of four community pharmacies in Ireland. As the immediate past President and former Vice President of the Irish Pharmaceutical Union, Dr. Hilton helped steer the course of Irish pharmacy through the changing climate that post-deregulation pharmacy posed. Under his Chairmanship of the Pharmaceutical Contractors Committee, Dr. Hilton was involved in negotiating the Over 70s deal for community pharmacists. A former full-time lecturer in the Department of Pharmaceutics, School of Pharmacy, Trinity College, he has also lectured in Pharmacy Practice and Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Technology. Dr. Hilton has published extensively in the area of controlled drug delivery research.
About Dr. Ciarán Kelly:
Dr. Ciarán Kelly is a practising GP in Lifford Health Centre, Co. Donegal. Having built up extensive expertise in the area of healthcare information technologies, Dr. Kelly was the former Medical Director of Medicom Medical Computer Solutions from 2001 up until the company’s recent merger with Systems Solutions Limited, the leading provider of pharmacy solutions in Ireland. In his capacity as Chairman of the Helix Health National User Group of GPs, Dr. Kelly is responsible for ensuring that GPs play a proactive role in the future development of Helix Health’s next generation general practice management solution - Medicom Practice Manager®, which will be previewed at the company’s forthcoming nationwide GP User Group roadshows in November.
About Ronan Brett:
Ronan Brett is the head of Pharmacy Services Europe for Celesio AG, the leading European healthcare company with revenues of €21.5bn (2006), 35,000 employees and representation in 16 European countries. Having qualified as a pharmacist in 1993, Ronan practised as a pharmacist in the UK before moving back to Ireland in 1998 where he developed a keen interest in pharmacy politics, subsequently becoming Chairman of the Employee Pharmacists group of Ireland. In 2004 Ronan was elected to the Council of Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland, sitting on a range of sub-groups and committees relating to strategic development, regulatory change and professional issues.
About Helix Health Limited:
Helix Health is a leading provider of world-class primary healthcare software solutions. The company was formed in 2007 as a result of a merger between Systems Solutions Limited (leading provider of pharmacy management software) and Medicom Medical Computer Solutions Limited (market leader in general practice systems), creating the largest indigenous healthcare IT provider in Ireland. With software solutions spanning the complete primary care spectrum including general practices, community pharmacies, hospitals, and government, Helix Health has built a strong reputation for delivering quality software, which combines flexibility and user-friendliness. The company is regularly first-to-market with new innovations such as the first-ever solution for electronic claims transmission (ECT) in Europe and centralised Patient Medication Records (PMRs). In 2006, Helix Health became the first pharmacy IT provider in Ireland to integrate with and implement a pharmacy robot.
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