iPLATO is a mobile and wireless application developing firm based in the UK that has had multiple successes in the space of healthcare middleware applications, recently reporting a full roll out of its system across 10 Primary Care Trusts in the first quarter of 2008 reaching 2 million patients. Increasingly industry and government alike have sought innovation in electronic management systems; in the healthcare market this move towards eHealth is projected to reach upwards of $8 billion by 2012, according to AMD Telemedicine. The mobilization of clinical systems has recently become a prominent area of interest for many and has seen market deployment of various mobile versions of clinical systems, among the most well known being PAS, PACS, and EPR systems. These deployments have made great strides in providing physicians and healthcare professionals with direct access to patient records, drugs- and disease databases, lab reports, e-mail, etc. on a functional device during patient consultation resulting in drastic improvement in the quality of personalized patient care. Given these undisputable benefits, the 1.2 billion-dollar market for electronic medical records is expected to grow nearly 400% in the next eight years, according to Kalorama Information’s experts. While these solutions have opened the door for middleware products to improve diagnostics and patient care, the current technology offerings are largely point solutions and are reliant on a single device, which is where iPLATO’s portfolio of systems promises to build upon.

iPLATO’s Mobile Clinical Access (MCA) is a middleware platform allowing different healthcare professionals to access their clinical systems in a secure manner from a mobile interface not tethered to a particular PDA device. In an effort to address the high rates of patient non-compliance with prescribed medical therapies (especially problematic among elderly patients with chronic illness) and missed appointments the system also allows for simple, automated reminder text-messaging. While these middleware offerings are by no means disruptive, their simple interface and deployment has greatly increased the efficiency of already deployed network architectures. Physicians currently using MCA have reported patient response rates of 30% (versus a response rate of 5% using letters) iPLATO has made headway in other middleware markets as well by utilizing the same MCA architecture including distribution of web and video content for the International Herald Tribune to mobile devices, increasing their online readership subscriptions.

iPLATO is a privately owned limited company founded in London in the autumn of 1999. In 2003, iPLATO was awarded a SMART Feasibility Grant by the Department of Trade & Industry to study the feasibility for national implementation of their middleware architecture and now provide successful healthcare solutions to NHS organizations throughout the United Kingdom. The European Venture Contest, organized by the European Commission, recognized iPLATO as one of the top ten early stage technology ventures.

Labels: eHealth, healthcare, middleware