Orion wins $600,000 for information system

By ADAM GIFFORD

Health software company Orion Systems International has won a $600,000 grant from Technology New Zealand for work it is doing with Auckland University's computer sciences department to develop artificial, intelligence-based clinical management tools.

Orion chief executive Ian McCrae said the company would match the grant, under the technology for business growth scheme. The project aimed to create and implement electronic workflows, or what health workers called clinical pathways.

"We are looking for pragmatic ways doctors, administrators and health workers will be able to describe the optimal way a hip operation, tonsillectomy or other treatment can be done."

He said the problem was compounded by the fact that many patients might have multiple problems and confusing symptoms - someone with diabetes could also have a level of heart failure and be overweight.

"What we are trying to do is create software so that once the doctors have decided what a person has they can proceed with certainty that the patient will get appropriate treatment."

McCrae said Orion had already developed systems such as its Rhapsody integration broker product, which electronically linked hospitals, general practitioners and community health workers so they could co-ordinate patient care. The new tools would complement those systems.

Auckland University professor of software engineering John Grundy said that at least five senior staff and some graduate students would work on the project.

The research team was keen to use data visualisation technology, which could make it easier for clinicians to grasp the information in front of them.

"In the main medical information systems are pretty awful and difficult to use."