The FINANCIAL -- T-Systems is focusing on networked healthcare. The Deutsche Telekom subsidiary is positioning itself in the growing healthcare market and has acquired a stake in Portavita through T-Venture, Deutsche Telekom’s venture capital company, as announced today by the two companies at a joint press conference.

Portavita is the leading provider in the Netherlands of Disease Management System (DMS) for integrated care of chronic patients.

Via T-Venture T-Systems is also taking over shares in the Dutch software developer MGRID, a partner company of Portavita that specializes in developing software for medical database applications. Under the terms of the exclusive partnership, T-Systems will operate Portavita’s web-based software in its own data centers for at least five years and the companies will jointly refine applications, for which T-Systems will make its secure healthcare industry network available. The two companies together plan to customize the proven Portavita solution for the German and other European markets.

Holger Hille, head of Healthcare at T-Systems: "In the future, physicians and hospitals will work together even more closely to provide integrated healthcare. This is why we are investing in Portavita to add a market-leading electronic patient record to our portfolio. The project is multidisciplinary, primary care physicians, medical specialists, paramedics, nurses and last but not least the patient, can work directly in this treatment supporting system. Solutions like this one are the future of a net-worked healthcare system."

Ever Jan Hoijtink, Managing Director of Portavita, comments:

"T-Systems is a strong partner, a partner with whom we can offer our highly successful solution in Germany and the international market, a partner that will promote our development of Disease Management Systems, and a partner with whom we will expand our competencies. We are well established in the Netherlands, where the networking of healthcare providers has been a reality since a few years."

125.000 chronic patients are treated in the Portavita DMS in the Netherlands

Germany currently spends around EUR 250 billion per year on healthcare. Experts hope to curb rising costs with integrated care models, for example - especially for the treatment of chronic patients. In a study it conducted in 2006, the Institute for Strategy Development of Witten/Herdecke University concluded that integrated care can shave around ten percent off average patient treatment costs. One of the ways in which costs can be reduced is by optimizing all interfaces in the treatment process.

For some medical conditions, health insurance providers have launched disease management programs that facilitate such integrated healthcare. At present, around 20 percent of people in Germany have chronic illnesses. By the end of 2008 alone, the number of agreements between health insurance providers, physicians, specialists, hospitals, healthcare facilities, and rehabilitation clinics as well as other healthcare professionals had risen to over 6,000.

Together, the partners intend to offer the physician-managed patient record used for the multidisciplinary care of currently 125.000 chronic patients in the Netherlands in Ger-many as well. Currently Portavita has developed the web-based DMS in collaboration with medical professionals, the Dutch public health authorities and major health insurance companies. In the Netherlands, physicians are currently using the Portavita solution for disease management programs (DMP’s) in the treatment of oral anticoagulation, diabetes mellitus, and asthma/COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). Applications are being developed for patients with chronic congestive heart failure, for outpatient palliative care, and for cardiovascular risk management.