Kupat Holim Meuhedet Selects IBM DB2 Express for Patient Management System

IBM Turns Out Oracle Lite in Another Head-to-Head Competition.

ARMONK, NY.-IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that Kupat Holim Meuhedet, one of Israel’s major healthcare providers, has deployed DB2 Express 9 to enable its EasyMed patient management system. EasyMed collects data from more than 1,200 servers (supporting 2,300 doctors) and transmits this information to a centralized server on a daily basis.
Meuhedet chose DB2 Express over Oracle Lite in a head-to-head competition after determining that their existing proprietary database was unable to meet increasing usage demands. DB2 Express provided them with a full-featured relational data server in a footprint that could be easily deployed to their customers.

“The advanced technology offered by DB2 and the fact that IBM is constantly investing in development and newer versions made this a very easy decision,” said Efraim Ostrovsky, Project Manager, Meuhedet. “DB2 Replication provided a solution that allowed us to keep our EasyMed application as a stand-alone/disconnected product, with connections to the central server, but without being dependant on communication issues. Having the data continuously replicated to the central server allowed our doctors to view patient records from anywhere in the country. This system greatly enhanced our ability to provide better service to our customers.”

The new DB2 Express 9 provides users with industry leading capabilities of the DB2 9 “Viper” data server including patented pureXML -- an industry-first technology for managing XML data.

“Raanon Reutlinger, an IT Specialist at IBM Israel, didn’t simply sell us a product,” adds David Kaduri, Meuhedet CIO, “but also accompanied us throughout the entire development and deployment cycle, making IBM an active partner in Meuhedet’s success. This was a level of commitment that other vendors simply didn’t provide.”

“DB2 Express complements IBM’s expanded commitment to deliver the industry’s broadest portfolio of solutions for today’s growing information management challenges,” said Bob Picciano, Vice President of Worldwide Software Sales for IBM. “With native XML support and IBM’s revolutionary deep compression technology, DB2 Express 9 continues to lead the industry as the most capable entry data server available.”

DB2 Express currently supports the broadest range of operating systems including both Windows and Linux on various 32-bit and 64-bit processor architectures.(1) Many of these Linux distributors also include DB2 Express in their Linux distributions.

For Developers, DB2 Express offers broad environment flexibility for their applications.(2) Additionally, clients can seamlessly upgrade from DB2 Express to any of the DB2 editions which support larger servers or server clusters.

For more information on DB2 Express visit www.ibm.com/db2/express.