UK operator BT has announced an agreement to supply health IT consultancy services to the General Hospital of Ningxia Medical University in China.
The deal is the first of its kind for BT's recently established Asia-Pacific Health Practice arm.
The company will design a streamlined IT platform, that will unify the systems currently in place in Ningxia Medical University’s 27 hospitals. Ningxia Medical University aims to create one of China’s most technologically superior hospitals.
The new IT platform will unify medical records, electronically linking Ningxia General Hospital’s system with the groups other hospitals in Ningxia, Shaanxi and Inner Mongolia provinces.
BT established the Asia-Pacific Health Practice in 2012, in an effort to tap in to China’s rapidly increasing health IT sector. The new group has over 130 employees providing clinical safety management, design assurance, technical architecture and programme practice.
The deal in China will add to BT’s growing presence in the Asia-Pacific. The group has already struck various IT agreements in Asia Pacific, including health records technology, clinical safety management and large infrastructure contacts for new build hospitals.
Eliza Kwok, managing director, BT China said, “The health IT market is undergoing a transformation everywhere in the world. In China, the issue of health provision is being addressed by the national government and will be a priority over the coming five years.”