T-Systems is continuing to invest in the healthcare market

Investment in market leader in electronic patient records supporting Disease Management Programs in the Netherlands

T-Systems is focusing on networked healthcare. The Deutsche Telekom subsidiary is positioning itself in the growing healthcare market and has acquired a stake in Portavita through T-Venture, Deutsche Telekom’s venture capital company, as announced today by the two companies at a joint press conference. Portavita is the leading provider in the Netherlands of Disease Management System (DMS) for integrated care of chronic patients.

Via T-Venture T-Systems is also taking over shares in the Dutch software developer MGRID, a partner company of Portavita that specializes in developing software for medical database applications. Under the terms of the exclusive partnership,
T-Systems will operate Portavita’s web-based software in its own data centers for at least five years and the companies will jointly refine applications, for which T-Systems will make its secure healthcare industry network available. The two companies together plan to customize the proven Portavita solution for the German and other European markets.

Holger Hille, head of Healthcare at T-Systems: “In the future, physicians and hospitals will work together even more closely to provide integrated healthcare. This is why we are investing in Portavita to add a market-leading electronic patient record to our portfolio. The project is multidisciplinary, primary care physicians, medical specialists, paramedics, nurses and last but not least the patient, can work directly in this treatment supporting system. Solutions like this one are the future of a net-worked healthcare system.”

Ever Jan Hoijtink, Managing Director of Portavita, comments:
“T-Systems is a strong partner, a partner with whom we can offer our highly successful solution in Germany and the international market, a partner that will promote our development of Disease Management Systems, and a partner with whom we will expand our competencies. We are well established in the Netherlands, where the networking of healthcare providers has been a reality since a few years.”

125.000 chronic patients are treated in the Portavita DMS in the Netherlands
Germany currently spends around EUR 250 billion per year on healthcare. Experts hope to curb rising costs with integrated care models, for example - especially for the treatment of chronic patients. In a study it conducted in 2006, the Institute for Strategy Development of Witten/Herdecke University concluded that integrated care can shave around ten percent off average patient treatment costs. One of the ways in which costs can be reduced is by optimizing all interfaces in the treatment process.

For some medical conditions, health insurance providers have launched disease management programs that facilitate such integrated healthcare. At present, around 20 percent of people in Germany have chronic illnesses. By the end of 2008 alone, the number of agreements between health insurance providers, physicians, specialists, hospitals, healthcare facilities, and rehabilitation clinics as well as other healthcare professionals had risen to over 6,000.

Together, the partners intend to offer the physician-managed patient record used for the multidisciplinary care of currently 125.000 chronic patients in the Netherlands in Ger-many as well. Currently Portavita has developed the web-based DMS in collaboration with medical professionals, the Dutch public health authorities and major health insurance companies. In the Netherlands, physicians are currently using the Portavita solution for disease management programs (DMP’s) in the treatment of oral anticoagulation, diabetes mellitus, and asthma/COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). Applications are being developed for patients with chronic congestive heart failure, for outpatient palliative care, and for cardiovascular risk management.

About Portavita
Portavita creates, markets and implements a 100% web-based Disease Management System (DMS) for supporting the multidisciplinary treatment of patients with a chronic disease. Input of leading medical professionals and their patients is the basis for the design of the different modules of the DMS, including diabetes, asthma/COPD, Cardiovascular Risk Management and Anticoagulation.
The system offers support for the primary process of the medical protocol of all involved caretakers, organization of the care process, monitoring of quality and results and self management by the patient.
Portavita is dedicated to standards and the DMS is based on medical best practices, disease management protocols and standards like HL7, Snomed CT and LOINC. Portavita employs 30 highly educated IT professionals and experienced business professionals. The software is delivered as an ASP service on a per patient per usage basis.

About T-Systems
Drawing on a global infrastructure of data centers and networks, T-Systems operates information and communication technology (ICT) systems for multinational corporations and public sector institutions. On this basis, Deutsche Telekom’s corporate customer arm provides integrated solutions for the net-worked future of business and society. Some 46,000 employees at
T-Systems combine industry expertise and ICT innovations to add significant value to customers’ core business all over the world. The corporate customers unit generated revenue of around EUR 9.3 billion in the 2008 financial year.

About T-Venture
T-Venture, Deutsche Telekom’s venture capital company, was founded in 1997. Since then,
T-Venture has advised and looked after young, innovative enterprises that exhibit economic and technological synergies with the business units of Deutsche Telekom. The headquarters are in Bonn and are supported and complemented by T-Venture of America, Inc. in Foster City, California and Seattle, Washington.
Thematically oriented funds are used for the financing that closely correspond to Deutsche Telekom’s three strategic business areas - Broadband/Fixed Network, Mobile Communications and Corporate Customers - and address cross-divisional topics. T-Venture intensively accompanies companies and acts as their long-term partner. The objective of the cooperation is to increase the value of the companies, followed by a successful sale of the shareholding after five to seven years.
T-Venture’s activities for its shareholdings also include the distribution and marketing as well as re-search and development networks of Deutsche Telekom. Portfolio companies receive nationally and internationally proactive support. Regional emphasis lies in Europe, the United States, and Asia.