CTFA.L Regulatory News (CTFA)

12 Jan 2010 07:00

12 January 2010 Avia Health Informatics Plc ("Avia" or "the Company") First contract in Northern Ireland secured * Southern Area Urgent Care Services (SAUCS) agrees a one year contract with Plain Healthcare Limited for clinical decision support tools. * Third contract announcement since the Company's admission to AIM in November 2009.

Avia (AIM: AVIA), the developer and provider of clinical decision support systems worldwide, announces that its subsidiary, Plain Healthcare Limited ("Plain"), has been awarded a one year contract by Southern Area Urgent Care Services (SAUCS), to use Plain's Odyssey eCover, a clinical decision support tool, to assist them in dealing with the expected increase in demand relating to the AH1N1 swine flu pandemic.

The contract is strategically important as it is the first of Avia's new web-deployed products to be sold in Northern Ireland. SAUCS covers a patient population of approximately 360,000 across the southern region of Northern Ireland.

The choice of Odyssey eCover was made as the product is intuitive to use and presented in plain English.

SAUCS expects to operate the system using nursing staff that have limited experience of telephone triage. Consequently SAUCS has also purchased a learning and development package which includes a Telephone Skills Consultation workshop and Professional Issues workshop designed to assist in the training of their nurses to allow them to undertake telephone triage.

Marie McConville, Head of GP OOHs & MIUs, SAUCS, stated:

"We have chosen Odyssey eCover to ensure we are prepared to deal with increased demand on our service rising from the pandemic. To further support this we will also be undertaking a learning package from Plain including telephone consultation skills."

Barry Giddings, Chairman, Avia Health Informatics commented:

"This is, although modest in terms of the Company's annual turnover, another excellent strategic contract win. Avia is very pleased to be working with SAUCS and to have made our first commercial sale in Northern Ireland of our new generation, web-deployed product Odyssey eCover. We believe this will strengthen our new client's position to deal with the current flu and other future pandemics and are confident our suite of products can assist other organisations to do the same."

Enquiries:Avia Health Informatics Plc Barry Giddings, Chairman 07770 747 818

Nigel Leavy, Finance Director 07540 014 503 Merchant John East Securities Limited (Nominated Adviser and Broker) Simon Clements/Bidhi Bhoma 020 7628 2200 Lothbury Financial (Financial PR) Gary Middleton/Michael Padley 020 7011 9411

For more information on Avia Health Informatics Plc please visit www.ahi-plc.com or for the Odyssey product range, please visit www.plain.co.uk

Notes to editors

Avia Health Informatics plc was admitted to trading on AIM on 16 November 2009 having completed a reverse takeover of The Plain Software Company Limited ("Plain"). It is Avia's intention to grow the business both organically and by acquisition.

The Company produces a range of clinical decision support products under the Odyssey brand:

* Odyssey TeleAssess which supports telephone triage by nurses and the provision of up-to-date self are advice; is also used to manage demand for clinical services in an efficient manner. Used by GP out of ours services, GP surgeries in-hours, ambulance trusts and the MoD. * Odyssey FaceToFace is used by nurse-led clinics such as NHS Walk-in Centres, GP-led Health entres, Polyclinics, primary care centres and practices staffed by varying nurse grades. It's also used in prisons. * Odyssey Reception is utilised by non-clinical staff to prioritise patient queues and identify potential emergencies quickly and safely. It may be used by receptionists throughout primary care services. * Odyssey Gold a state-of-the-art combination product comprising some or all Odyssey variants: Reception, TeleAssess and FaceToFace merged into one, seamless solution. * Odyssey eCover allows health managers to commission health workers to work from home to provide emergency cover when needed. Securely held on N3 servers, its sophisticated security system allows access via domestic broadband. * Odyssey FirstAssess is being developed specifically for use in the Prison service to help improve healthcare in this challenging environment.

Odyssey products interact with leading GP patient administration systems and other key systems used by the NHS.

ENDS