22 Sep 2010 08:00
Amphion Partner Company, FireStar Software, Wins Major US Federal Grant
London and New York - September 22, 2010 - Amphion Innovations plc (LSE: AMP) ("Amphion" or the "Company"), the developer of medical and technology businesses, today announces that its Partner Company FireStar Software ("FireStar") and OMGÔ partnership with the Southeast Michigan Health Information Exchange ("SEMHIE") and the Southeast Michigan Health Authority ("SEMHA") has contributed to SEMHIE receiving contracts from the US Social Security Administration and a Beacon Community Grant from the US Department of Health and Human Services. The combined contracts received by SEMHIE are more than $19 million. FireStar anticipates they will be allocated approximately $2 million.
FireStar is a software product company focused on allowing different organizations to automatically exchange electronic information with each other in a secure, private, indisputable, and guaranteed delivery. Amphion's fully diluted ownership stake in FireStar was 13.78% as of 30 June 2010.
Richard Morgan, Chairman and CEO of Amphion Innovations and Chairman of FireStar, said, "Despite its success, the internet is not sufficiently robust or secure to address the major unsolved problems with the reliable exchange of information between different organizations. This award will provide the funding to develop the standards to address this problem, which, in turn, will give FireStar the opportunity to implement the standard in all medical entities. FireStar will offer a software appliance, built on its proven and patented product, EdgeNode, that will facilitate the processing and distribution of information - data based on the standard. This is an exciting multi-billion dollar marketplace opportunity".
The partnership between FireStar and OMG will enable SEMHIE to achieve their goals of dramatically shortening the time and cost of processing Social Security disability claims (SSA Contract) and increasing the quality and decreasing the cost of the treatment of diabetes (Beacon Community Grant) for the citizens of Southeast Michigan.
The cornerstone of this partnership is OMG's Model Driven Message Interoperability™ ("MDMI"™) Standard. MDMI was developed to achieve information exchange at the highest quality, the lowest implementation cost, and with the ability to incorporate future changes. In both the SSA and Beacon projects, FireStar will apply the MDMI standard to achieve the exchange of healthcare information.
Richard Mark Soley, Ph.D., Chairman and CEO of OMG said, "We are pleased that SEMHIE has been recognized for its vision in applying the MDMI Standard and other standards to increase the quality of healthcare and reduce costs for all members of SEMHIE. FireStar, who has taken the leadership position in both the MDMI Standard and in working with SEMHIE, was instrumental in reaching the point where we will demonstrate the value of the MDMI Standard for the US Healthcare industry."
Ken Lord, CEO of FireStar Software said, "We believe that the power of the MDMI standard represents a quantum improvement in quality, cost, and implementation time for healthcare interoperability situations. FireStar looks forward to working with others throughout the US Healthcare system in applying the innovative MDMI Standard so that they can achieve the same benefits as Southeast Michigan".
"Using MDMI standards will enable SEMHIE to provide high quality, low cost exchange of secure healthcare information for all our participants, from the largest hospital systems to our small private physician practices," said Dr. Robert Jackson, President of SEMHIE.
Southeast Michigan Health Information Exchange is an organization whose membership includes Chrysler, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, the Wayne and Oakland County Medical Societies, Greater Detroit Area Health Council, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Michigan State University, MPRO, and the Henry Ford Health System, Detroit Medical Center, Oakwood, Beaumont Hospitals, Trinity Health, and St. John Providence Health System and others. Its goal is to provide an interoperable health information exchange for the benefit of the residents, providers and other stakeholders in Southeast Michigan.
For further information please contact:
Amphion Innovations plcCharlie Morgan+44 779 953 6043
Cardew GroupTim Robertson/ Jamie Milton+44 20 7930 0777
Charles Stanley (Nominated Adviser)Mark Taylor+44 20 7149 6000
About Amphion Innovations plc
Amphion (LSE: AMP) builds shareholder value in high growth companies in the medical and technology sectors, by using a focused, hands-on company building approach, based on decades of experience in both the US and UK. Amphion has significant shareholding in 8 Partner Companies developing proven technologies targeting substantial commercial marketplaces, each in excess of $1 billion. Each Partner Company is chosen with the goal of achieving an exit valuation in excess of $100 million. The Amphion model has been refined to optimise the commercialisation of patents and other intellectual property within the Partner Companies. The Partner Companies collectively own or control over 200 separately identified pieces of intellectual property, a number that grows rapidly each year.
On the web: www.amphionplc.com
About FireStar Software, Inc.
FireStar Software builds software for Service Providers who build and maintain electronic information exchanges. With our flagship product, EdgeNode, FireStar directly addresses and solves the key obstacles that have limited the adoption of electronic message exchange to only the largest entities to allow a much broader and richer adoption that includes the Small and Medium Business. FireStar Software is a Partner Company of Amphion Innovations plc (AIM: AMP). For more information on FireStar, visit www.firestarsoftware.com.
About MDMI
Message interoperability reduces costs, increases data quality and increases revenue. By automating interoperability between disparate systems, MDMI improves communications, helps reduce errors and provides a way to address future business changes. MDMI lets institutions use standardized maps provided by message format owners (including standards bodies, financial institutions and others) to correctly map information in message formats. Facilitating and mediating information across a number of message formats is a high cost obligation for institutions in healthcare, banking, insurance, and other industries. The standard also provides a migration path to new message formats. The MDMI standard specification was submitted by FireStar Software, IBM, Informatica, IP Commerce and VISA with support from Adaptive and SWIFT, and was approved in 2009.
For more information about MDMI Labs, see http://www.mdmi-consortium.org/labs; for more information about OMG, visit http://www.omg.org/. Questions about membership in OMG or the MDMI Consortium and participating in MDMI Labs may be directed to Ken Berk at +1-781-444 0404 or ken.berk@omg.org.
About OMG
OMG™ is an international, open membership, not-for-profit computer industry standards consortium. OMG Task Forces develop enterprise integration standards for a wide range of technologies and an even wider range of industries. OMG's modeling standards enable powerful visual design, execution and maintenance of software and other processes. For more information, visit www.omg.org.
Note to editors: For a listing of all OMG trademarks, visit http://www.omg.org/legal/tm_list.htm. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.