Link to original article

ICT company potential leader in health-care technologies

A New Brunswick ICT company will today be identified as a potential Canadian leader in health-care technologies.

AnyWare Group Inc.'s ROAM platform is one of 10 Canadian health-care solutions to watch, information technology research firm IDC Canada will announce this morning.

The Saint John-based company provides hospitals and health organizations with secure online remote access to about 150 different health-care applications, many of which its clients already use, from any computer.

"In the health-care system the emerging solutions that are coming to market now really need to be agnostic in order to provide the seamless communication and patient care that we're hoping to achieve," IDC research analyst Krista Napier said. "We can't expect these health organizations to rip out everything that they have. These new solutions that are coming in have to integrate with what's there today."

By the way she spoke of AnyWare Group it seems the company is up with the times.

"We're seeing this trend toward workplaces becoming increasingly mobile," Napier said.

Since AnyWare Group's service makes working remotely and sharing files easier the company's chief executive, Robert Lalonde, said it helps hospitals improve efficiency, potentially reducing waiting times for treatment.

"One of the big things we've seen an improvement of is the ability to get faster consults from a physician or expert that may not be present," Lalonde said. "If someone has a stroke up in Miramichi and they need to get a consult from someone in Fredericton that can be done in a matter of minutes through our system."

Without this solution health organizations would have to take cautious steps that may waste time.

"In health care you always have to err on the side of caution," Lalonde said. But that can lead to patients being sent to more specialized hospitals for conditions they don't actually have.

AnyWare Group's track record of implementations at over 100 facilities across North America, including most hospitals in New Brunswick and Ontario, and high-profile institutions like Maui Memorial Medical Center in Hawaii, helped the company get the recognition.

"Those early success stories will help to set them apart from the competition as well," Napier said.

As will the recognition, which is meant to identify companies IDC feels are set to have an impact, Lalonde said.

"It will help us get visibility, it helps us get credibility, and good luck to us to do the hard work and go out and win more business," said Lalonde, who joined AnyWare Group as top executive at the beginning of February.

In an interview with the Telegraph-Journal in February the corporate veteran said he plans to grow the business five fold over the next couple of years. Lalonde still has the same goals, but is now more excited about AnyWare's opportunities, he said Monday

"I've gotten out there now and talked to customers and learned a lot about what the market needs and what we actually have in capabilities," he said.