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Healthcare IT exec Gary Folker joins xwave

TORONTO – After more than 30 years of pioneering healthcare technology in Canada, Gary Folker (pictured at left) will now take on the task of managing the development and delivery of a Clinical Management System from xwave Healthcare (www.xwave.com)

xwave is a wholly-owned subsidary of Aliant Inc. (TSX: AIT), an industry-leading telecommunications business with strengths in information and communications technology. Aliant delivers a wide variety of innovative and traditional communications services, including local and long distance telephony, wireless, Internet, e-commerce, interactive multimedia, data and managed network services, to more than two million consumers and over 80,000 enterprises. Aliant’s has approximately 8,400 employees and a market capitalization of $3.8 billion.

A few of Folker’s credentials include spearheading the implementation of Canada’s first fully-integrated electronic patient chart, introducing the country to high-volume scanning of patient records, and creating the largest document-capture facility in North America.

Folker is known for guiding initiatives that have quadrupled revenues, expanded services and resulted in the introduction of many leading medical technologies to Canada. Under his leadership, xwave will look to expand the capabilities and access of its Clinical Management System (CMS), a system which applies information and communications technology to improve the flow of medical information and, ultimately, quality of patient care.

Built around GE Healthcare’s Centricity physician office software, the xwave Clinical Management System ASP (CMS-ASP) is a turnkey solution offering full electronic medical record (EMR) and practice management (PM) functionality. At present, it has been customized for Ontario doctors.

According to the company, the solution integrates easily with Ontario labs, hospitals, and the OHIP funding framework. It is available via the Internet on a monthly-fee basis. Physicians retain ownership of data, which remains secure in the state-of-the-art Smart Systems for Health Agency (SSHA) data centres.

Comprehensive training and round-the-clock, live-operator support help facilitate easy adoption and ongoing change management–ensuring the system remains current with physicians’ needs and grows with them.

xwave bills itself as Canada’s largest ASP and a leading innovator in healthcare technology. Drawing from a healthcare practice with over 30 years of experience, the company builds solutions that target the industry’s most pressing information-management challenges.

Through the creation of portals such as OntarioMD.ca and DoctorsNS.com, xwave aims to take primary-care communication to new levels of efficiency.

The company also provides outsourced support and enterprise-value consulting, working with healthcare providers such as the Atlantic Health Sciences Corporation, the New Brunswick Department of Health and Wellness, the Nurses Association of New Brunswick, and the Nova Scotia Department of Health.

And working with national healthcare innovators such as the Ottawa Heart Institute, xwave is addressing critical issues such as waitlist management: the Regionally Accessible Secure Cardiac Health Records (RASCHR) system connects the Heart Institute with Ottawa-area hospitals to improve the exchange of cardiac information and management of patient waiting lists.

xwave is a full-service business-solutions provider that serves clients through systems integration, infrastructure services and fulfillment. These areas offer clients a broad delivery capability. xwave plans, designs, builds and operates complete IT solutions that meet business-process needs and are designed to deliver a tangible return on IT investments. With more than $340 million in revenues and 2000 people, xwave is one of the largest business-solutions companies in Canada, with locations in Ontario, Newfoundland, PEI, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, New England and Ireland.

More information is available at www.xwave.com.