Health Software Moves to GE Joint Venture

Amalga and other Microsoft vertical software for healthcare organizations will move to a new joint venture to be launched with GE Healthcare in 2012. The move reduces Microsoft’s direct involvement in healthcare software and shifts support for customers and partners of the divested products to the new venture. The move also suggests some guidelines for customers and partners betting on vertical software from Microsoft.

Amalga Data Integration Core to Venture

GE Healthcare and Microsoft will have equal shares in the as-yet-unnamed venture. The venture will take over the Amalga data integration software, formerly called the Amalga Unified Information System. Amalga collects data from multiple applications to create unified patient records and views that present clinical and administrative information. The venture will also take the expreSSO and Vergence software, which provide single sign-on and application user interface integration (context management) for healthcare systems. The joint venture will not get the Amalga Health Information System (for hospital management) or the Amalga RIS/PACs imaging software, as Microsoft sold both products to Orion Health in Oct. 2011.