Plato signs $11m contract

By PETER GRIFFIN

Clinical software developer Plato has sealed its maiden United States deal, signing a US$5 million ($11.2 million) contract with a mystery medical company.

A New York-based company specialising in transcribing medical notes will begin using Plato's clinical coding software to collate and code notes written by doctors in hospitals and clinics across the US.

Plato chief executive and part owner Paul Ryan declined to name the company, citing the extremely competitive health software market in the US.

He said the deal was "extremely profitable" for Plato and millions of documents would be fed through the software every year.

"They will use the coding engine to code all those transcribed medical records. The file is fed through the Plato architecture and Plato spits out the required medical codes."

The transcription company had 100 hospital "groups" as customers, the largest group was made up of 60 hospitals. Implementation would begin next month.

Ryan said the deal "changed the face of Plato" and was the biggest contract he had ever signed off.