EMIS and Ascribe to join forces

The move will bring together two leading companies working in adjacent but not overlapping markets – creating a powerful new force in healthcare IT able to offer a wide range of integrated clinical systems working across multiple care settings.

EMIS provides software and other services to 52.4% of GP practices and a wide range of other healthcare practitioners. It recently established a Community Child and Mental Health Division to extend its footprint into these services.

Ascribe is principally focused on hospital pharmacy, A&E, mental health and patient administration (PAS) / electronic patient record systems (EPR). Seventy-five per cent of NHS secondary care organisations use an Ascribe solution.

Other companies in EMIS Group plc include community pharmacy software provider RX Systems, which has 34.9% of the market, and Digital Healthcare Limited, a leading provider of diabetic retinopathy screening and other ophthalmology-related solutions.

Chris Spencer, CEO of EMIS Group said: “We believe that there are significant growth prospects for the combined business which will be uniquely placed to address market challenges, allowing us to directly target the Acute, Specialist Care, Pharmacy, Children and Community Care and the Mental Health markets.”

Ascribe founder Stephen Critchlow, who will become Executive Chairman of Ascribe, said: “With Ascribe and EMIS shoulder to shoulder, we will deliver our vision for patients to benefit from all the information collected about their health and care across primary, secondary, social and community settings. Combining the products and services with the culture in our organisations will enable us to offer a unique proposition.”