Philips, Epic downgrade partnership, halt Xtenity development

Philips Medical Systems and Madison, Wis.-based Epic Systems Corp. have made the decision to end their collaborative partnership towards developing the Xtenity Enterprise system. The two companies will no longer develop or offer the system, which is a suite of enterprise and departmental healthcare information systems targeted at mid-sized hospitals. Xtenity was first announced at the 2005 Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) annual conference in Dallas. Xtenity was largely developed by Epic, but branded by Philips.
          
Customers of Xtenity have been notified of the change, a Philips representative said, and are aware that their existing systems will continue to be supported by both companies.
          
Moving forward, Philips will continue pursuing opportunities in the enterprise IT arena via other partnerships while also focusing on its core capabilities, the representative said.
          
Philips and Epic had been collaborating since November 2003 towards a merging of its products. Epic’s core strengths are in patient-centric, enterprise-wide healthcare information systems while Philips’ strengths are in medical imaging, PACS, and patient monitoring technology.

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