CureMD was founded in 1997 in New York to provide IT solutions to the growing US healthcare market. It established an R&D facility in Lahore, Pakistan in 2003 to develop cloud-based healthcare products. Today CureMD is a top-ranked healthcare IT provider in the US. Ikonami Ltd. recently acquired a suite of learning and performance management products focused on the UK healthcare industry, with the product installed in 410 NHS hospital trusts. Several Pakistani companies are developing healthcare IT products and making headway in bringing modern hospital information systems to Pakistani and Middle Eastern markets.

1. In 1997, Bilal Hashmat founded CureMD – a New York - based company – to provide IT solutions to the growing US healthcare market. The rst
company in the world to o er cloud - based services to the healthcare industry, CureMD today is one of the top-ranked healthcare IT providers in the
United States. Kubair A. Shirazee’s Ikonami Ltd. recently concluded an acquisition of its very successful suite of learning, competence, and
performance management products focussed on the UK healthcare industry by Radcli e Publishing Ltd., whose parent company, Electric Word plc,
a specialist information publisher focussed on the healthcare vertical. With the product installed in 410 hospital trusts of the National Health Service
(NHS), Ikonami Pakistan can pride itself on contribution to one of the largest healthcare providers in the world.
Pakistan's Healthcare IT Industry - A Capability Pro le

2. Companies Pro led In This Brochure
CUREMD P1 AGA KHAN UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL P7
IKONAMI P1 INDUS HOSPITAL P7
KABOT INTERNATIONAL P5 SHAUKAT KHANUM CANCER HOSPITAL P7
ITACK SOLUTIONS P5
SIS SERVICES P5
ELECTRONIC SOLUTIONS PAKISTAN (ESOLPK) P5 OTHERS:
SOFCOM P6 PAKISTAN SOFTWARE EXPORT BOARD P7
FOLIO 3 P6 NATIONAL ICT R&D FUND P7
CARE P7 PAKISTAN SOFTWARE HOUSES ASSOCIATION P7
NETSOL INC P7 COMSATS INST. OF INFO. TECHNOLOGY (CIIT) P6
MICRO INNOVATIONS P7 SEECS - NUST P6
While CureMD and ikonami adopted the inside-out approach of
creating products in Pakistan for the worldwide market, iTack % GDP
18
Solutions’ Fahad chose to do the outside-in when he decided to Diff.
16.0
move back to Pakistan. iTack hopes to bring the high quality and 16 Total expenditure on health
functionality of the modern hospital information systems to the 14
Pakistani and Middle Eastern market. iTack is not alone in this quest. 12
11.2
10.7
10.5
10.5
10.4
10.2
A number of Pakistani companies are making signi cant headway
9.9
9.9
9.8
9.7
9.7
10
9.4
9.1
9.1
9.0
9.0
8.7
8.7
in this direction, as the country's growing middle class demands a
8.5
8.5
8.4
8.1
7.8
8
7.3
7.2
7.1
7.0
6.9
more responsive service, and hospitals seek to arrive in the age of
6.5
6.0
5.9
6
automation and eHealth. Companies such as Kabot International,
4
SiS Services, Electronic Solutions Pakistan (ESOLPK), Netsol, and
Micro Innovations are developing a range of healthcare IT products, 2
such as, Hospital Information Management Systems (HIMs), 0
Greece
Netherlands
Luxembourg
France
Portugal
Chile
United States
Austria
Belgium 1
New Zealand 1
Slovak Republic
Iceland
OECD
United Kingdom
Germany
Denmark
Italy
Australia
Mexico
Canada
Sweden
Spain
Ireland
Norway
Finland
Japan
Poland
Hungary
Czech Republic
Korea
Turkey
Switzerland
Electronic Health Records (EHR), healthcare management systems,
billing and patient management systems, compliance systems, 1. Current
laboratory management systems, and pharmaceutical systems,
Figure 1: Health expenditure as a share of GDP, 2008 (or latest year available) (Source: OECD)
etc. These companies are joined, on the user-side, by a number of
hospitals that have developed their own systems to add to this mix Clinical IT includes specialist clinical workstations, monitor-
of frenzied development activity that has positioned Pakistan to ing equipment, and decision-support systems, etc. Enterprise
aim for a share of one of the most exciting, albeit well kept, IT includes clinical data systems, and Electronic Medical
opportunities of modern times. Records (EMR) etc. Infrastructure IT includes hardware,
operating systems, network systems, and data centres, etc.
Healthcare: A trillion dollar global opportunity Consulting includes business process re-engineering,
change management, and transformation, etc. As one goes
Healthcare, globally, is more than a trillion dollar market. Analysis away from the centre, the potential addressable market-size
by OECD – the body representing the world’s 22 most developed becomes larger, and the domain expertise needed to
countries – estimated that the United States spent $7,538 per approach the market becomes less specialised. A bigger
person on health in 2008, well over double the $3,000 average of all market, however, may not automatically translate into
OECD countries.2 The United States leads the countries in terms of greater opportunities for outsourced product development
proportion of output dedicated to healthcare – at 16% of GDP – or service delivery for specialist healthcare IT companies.
followed by France, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Canada, and
Belgium (all above 10%) with the OECD average being 9.0% of GDP. The future market growth in healthcare IT is expected to
This expenditure has since exploded, leading to persistent calls, in come from the tremendous demand for general applications,
the United States, for instance, for fundamental healthcare reform, which includes electronic medical records, computerized
and an increasing pressure on US healthcare providers to stream- physician order entry systems, and non-clinical systems.
line processes, introduce automation and technology, practice The fastest growing sub-segment is the EHRs
evidence-based medicine, and introduce market-based reforms. In where spending is particularly buoyed by the US market (EHR
the United Kingdom, the National Health Service (NHS) is under spending comprised 37% of global healthcare IT in 2008, and
tremendous pressure to cut costs and increase e ciency. is destined to rise to 48% by 2015) as the US nancial stimulus
mandated by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
Technology is the leading driver of healthcare spending (ARRA) 2009 is destined to drive IT spending through, among
others, spending $20 billion for the adoption of electronic
While technology is a major driver of spending in the healthcare records.3
healthcare industry, primarily as a means for improving
e ectiveness, automation through the use of Information
Technology (IT) is increasingly seen as a means to cut costs. There
are a number of components of healthcare IT. Figure 2 divides
healthcare spending into four di erent categories.
02

3. Consulting First, a number of Pakistanis or individuals of Pakistani
Infrastructure IT IT in Healthcare = Infrastructure IT + Healthcare IT descent living abroad have transferred their domain
Healthcare IT = Enterprise IT + Clinical IT
Enterprise IT knowledge from more established markets abroad – such as
Clinical IT Consulting: Business Processing Re-Engineering (BPR),
the United States and United Kingdom – back home.
Institutional Transformation, Change Management, etc.
Customer references have gradually begun to build as well.
Infrastructure IT: IT Hardware, Operating Systems, Second, a number of local health providers – large private
Netwroks, O ce Desktop, Outsourced infrastructure, etc.
hospitals, hospital franchises, and even public and charity
Enterprise IT: Clinical Data Repositary, CPOE, EMR and
Departmental IT systems, etc.
hospitals – have gradually built healthcare management
systems from scratch in order to meet their particular needs,
Clinical IT: PACS, Workstations, Clinical Applications,
Decision Support, Monitoring related IT products, leading to codi cation and di usion of domain knowledge
Other Medical Systems, etc.
across the industry. Each of these factors has been instru-
mental in the development of the domestic capability and
Figure 2: Breakdown of the Global IT in Healthcare Opportunity
capacity to deliver globally-competitive products and
(Source: Philips Healthcare) services within a challenging domain. Table 1 summarises
However, despite the recent advances in IT investment, some of the leading players in Pakistan’s healthcare IT sector.
overall IT spending within the healthcare sector remains
considerably lower than other transaction-based industries. (%) US Spending on IT Healthcare & other Services
A 2005 Frost and Sullivan report estimated that healthcare IT
spending in the US amounted to only 2.2% of the revenue as Financial Services
compared to 5.6% for business services, and 11.1% for 15 (%) of revenue for IT
11.1
ConsumerTrade
nancial services. The study also projected this number to
Business Servicve
grow over subsequent years.4 10
Wholesale Trade
Insurance
At about $88 billion5 a year, and growing faster (2.2%) than
the market average (0.5%), healthcare represents the
Healthcare
6.4
untapped “frontier” for IT adoption and investment that any
5.6
Retail
company – and country – can ill-a ord to ignore.
8.1
5 2.2 6.4
Pakistan’s healthcare IT industry
3.9
Pakistan’s IT companies have not overlooked the opportunity
a orded by greater IT penetration in the healthcare market.
Although a bit slow to start with, primarily because of the low
0
levels of healthcare IT spending at home, a couple of drivers
have resulted in a gradual development of signi cant and
Figure 3: Intensity of IT spending in US industries
credible capability within the healthcare IT vertical. (Source: Frost and Sullivan)
COMPANIES SPECIALISATIONS
CureMD Electronic hearth records; Enterprise practice management; Patient portals; Revenue cycle management
ikonami Human capital management; Learning management system (LMS); Performance and competence management system; 360 degree feedback;
Venue and bed management system
Kabot International Electronic health records; Chemotherapy management system; Practice management systems; Pharmacy inspection, monitoring, and
compliance system; Billing and reporting system; VA User access management system
SiS Services Hospital management system (HMS); Pharmacy management system
iTack Solutions Hospital information management systems (HIMs) including patient records; Laboratory information management systems (LIMs); Clinic
management systems
Electronic Solutions Hospital management information systems (HIMS); Doctors’ o ce automation system; E ciency measurement toolkits; Pharmacy automation
Pakistan (ESOLPK) and eCommerce systems
NetSol Inc. Hospital information management systems (HIMS)
Micro Innovations Hospital information management systems (HIMS)
The Shams Group Electronic document management and electronic health record (HER) system; Clinical informatics systems; Clinical decision support systems;
Physicians’ dashboards; Pharmacy management systems
Sofcom Quality management system for pharmaceutical industry; Human capital management systems
Folio3 Healthcare expert systems; patient data management
CARE eHealth Systems
Aga Khan University Hospital Hospital information management systems (HIMS)
Shaukat Khanum Cancer Hospital Hospital information management systems (HIMS)
Indus Hospital Hospital information management systems (HIMS)
03
Table 1: Pakistan's Leading Healthcare IT Companies (Source: Technomics' Compilation)

4. Bilal Hashmat serves on several US healthcare industry
committees and was invited to give testimony to the US
Government’s Certi cation / Adoption Work Group of HIT
Standards Committee at the O ce of National Coordinator
for Health IT.
CureMD is not the only US company to have leveraged
Pakistan’s high-quality and low-cost talent for setting up its
R&D operations. While CureMD was in uenced to set up
operations in Pakistan due to the a liations of its Pakistani –
American founder, The Shams Group (TSG) is unique in that
its founders are not of Pakistani origin, and yet they found
Pakistan to be a fertile ground for talent necessary to support
their R&D. TSG provides EHR, Health Information Systems
(HIS), electronic document management and archiving
Capitalising on the US rush for Electronic Health Records systems, and reporting and business intelligence systems for
over 400 hospitals across North America, Central and South
CureMD is an award-winning provider of web-based all-in- Asia. TSG has also won industry awards, such as the Top-100
one healthcare solutions and accompanying services that Healthcare Informatics (HCI) award, and a Tech Titan Fast 50
empower care providers to improve the quality and value of award.
healthcare while opitimizing e ciency and pro tability. In
2003, CureMD established a captive R&D facility in Lahore, A niche market strategy in action
Pakistan and embarked upon developing a suite of products
for the US healthcare market that were designed and While CureMD has ourished in the private provider-
conceived by its domain experts, software architects, and dominated US market based, partially, on the strength of its
designers in the US. In the initial days of the company’s devel- R&D operation in Lahore, ikonami has performed a similar
opment, Bilal Hashmat, CureMD’s CIO, and his team of usabil- feat in the United Kingdom in the vastly di erent culture of
ity researchers spent a lot of time between the US and the public sector-driven universal healthcare at the National
Pakistan as they developed and re ned the company’s award Health Service (NHS).
winning products. On the whole, about 30% or more of the
product development work took place in Pakistan. ikonami Technologies was founded in 2005 as a captive R&D
operation of Ikonami Ltd. UK, specialising in specialist human
Over the years, CureMD has become one of the leading IT capital management software for the healthcare vertical.
service providers to the US healthcare industry, with a With its software servicing more than 1.2m people across 410
number of its EMR/EHR modules winning awards and NHS Trusts, ikonami is a signi cant niche player in the UK
notable mentions, and ranked amongst industry leaders. healthcare market, and the company behind successful
Black Book Rankings by industry market research rm Brown Knowledge and Skills Framework (e-KSF) that is at the heart
– Wilson ranked CureMD as one of the top-4 EMR vendors in of the largest program ever undertaken at the NHS. Ikonami
the US based on physician satisfaction6. The results were product platforms encompass the entire range of human
based on a four-month-long survey comprising 30,000 capital management, compliance, and professional
healthcare professionals, physician practice administrators, development sub-functions across an organisation as
and hospital leaders in the healthcare IT arena. complex as the NHS: AT-Work™ is a competency and appraisal
system that can be integrated with any payroll system,
CureMD was also one of only 28 vendors across the US enabling appraisals to be linked with pay; AT-Learning™ is a
certi ed by the Centre for Medicare and Medicaid Services web-based enterprise-level Learning Management System
(CMS) in 2011 for its EHR solution, allowing it to tap into the (LMS), that has taken the NHS’ learning management space
multi-billion dollar federal healthcare market.7 by storm; AT-Feedback™ is a web-based tool that automates
the entire 3600 feedback; AT-Venues™ is an event, venue and
More recently, CureMD also launched a Discreet Reportable bed management system; and AT-Performance™ is a perfor-
Transcription (DRT), enabled EMR solution that allows mance management tool designed to store and manage
physicians to call a toll-free number and dictate their ndings competence, behavioural and service objectives for the sta .
and clinical assessments in their own words, thus saving In addition to product development, ikonami Technologies
precious time and costs within the healthcare system.8 also provides product deployment and support services to its
parent company.
”CureMD consistently ranked among the top-10
highest-ranked EMR rms, including single and
multi-physician internal medicine environments…” –
Doug Brown, Managing Director, Brown – Wilson
CureMD has won a number of di erent innovation awards,
including the Asia Paci c Information Technology Alliance’s
APICTA Award for e-Health applications and MedTech
Journal’s Innovation Award. CureMD has sought to play an
increasingly active part in health policy debates around
04 adoption of IT in the US, thus shaping, rather than merely
reacting to, changes in the healthcare IT market place. (Photo Credits: Siemens)

5. ikonami Ltd was recently, acquired by Electric Word plc (AIM: work ow for Vista-associated HR functions, and
ELE), the specialist information publisher with complemen- “PharmaKomply” enables VA facilities to manage their Joint
tary interests in the healthcare vertical. ikonami will be Commission conformance requirements for medication
rebranded as Radcli e Solutions – alongside Electric Word management. Kabot’s approach to product development
other recent acquisition, Radcli e Publishing, which primarily has been clever, albeit with its own challenges. “The VA brand
focuses on professional development books, journals and does sell and establishes a comfort level for our clients”, says
training in primary healthcare.9 Kubair A. Shirazee, the CEO of Dr. Arif Toor, CEO of Kabot International. With a basic track
ikonami Technologies and one of the Directors of ikonami record established after more than 25 deployments within
Ltd., sees this acquisition as a crucial in exion point for the the US, Kabot has recently adopted the reseller model in
company, allowing it to use its successful track-record of anticipation of rapid growth in the years to come.
product development within the healthcare vertical and
diversify its o erings. “It is a mark of acknowledgement of the
considerable success that ikonami has had with developing a
successful range of products for the healthcare vertical that
an international player has acquired our entire product
portfolio, with a view to using its much greater marketing
muscle to take it to the next level. This frees up ikonami to
pursue other exciting opportunities, while bene ting from
the pro ts of its existing product-line,” says Kubair Shirazee.
ikonami Technologies – the Pakistani operation – will
continue to provide product development and support to
the new entity, while venturing into new areas.
Health and hospital information management systems
iTack Solutions has developed a complete range of products
Health information management systems form the core of to meet the needs of information management and
the healthcare IT and automation movement. A number of integration across the healthcare value chain. For example,
healthcare IT companies have particularly targeted this i-Care is a web-based suite of products encompassing an
opportunity. end-to-end hospital management information system cover-
ing all departmental needs. iClinic is specially designed for
the clinics and iLabs for laboratories and diagnostic centres.
“The ultimate objective for iTack’s product suite,” says Fahad
Mohiyuddin, the CEO of iTack Solutions, “is to create the tools
necessary for a ‘paperless’ hospital.”
From a market standpoint, iTack is seeking to go against the
tide of creating products for the developed world. iTack seeks
to bring the developed world's healthcare standards and
automation to the emerging markets and developing
countries in the Middle East and Asia. The company has
recently made inroads into the Pakistani market and a couple
of deployments in the Middle East are also on the way.
Other companies with a variety of healthcare IT products and
services include Solultions in Software Services (SiS Services
with a hospital management system and a pharmacy
Kabot International (also Kabot Systems) is a key player in this management software product and Electronic Solutions
market. It began developing its product suite in 2005 by Pakistan (ESOLPK) primarily works on a service model, and
leveraging the release of US Veteran A airs’ legacy software – has delivered a range of web and Windows-based healthcare
Vista ® –under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Vista – automation tools such as my MDCentral – an all-in-one
operated by 180,000 healthcare professionals across 170 VA doctors’ o ce Automation tool – and Dr-SIR – a research-
hospitals – is considered as a Gold Standard by the US based expert system for e ciency improvement in hospitals,
Government. Kabot’s biggest achievement was to adapt this in addition to a number of bespoke portals, e-learning
platform for commercial use, especially for Ambulatory platforms, and e-commerce systems, among others.
Clinics and Physician O ces. Rebranded as Vista++, the EMR
product also contains several key modules such as Practice "Ikonami has an excellent reputation for its software
Manager, Chemotherapy Manager, Pathology, and Billing. within the NHS, a strong market position, and an
Kabot is one of the rst 50 companies to get this product outstanding opportunity to grow in a fast-changing
certi ed for the O ce of National Coordinator of Health IT environment, in which e ective people
(ONC) “meaningful use” certi cation 2011/2012, necessary to management, training and compliance will be
take advantage of CMS incentives for HIT adoption. increasingly important within the new health service
structures…this acquisition gives us an excellent
Building upon its expertise to re-engineer the VA platform, platform for future organic growth in the healthcare
Kabot has launched a number of new products. “SenVis sector, and allows us to extend the Radcli e brand so
Studio” enables the user to easily navigate Vista’s soon after we acquired it.” – Julian Turner, CEO, 05
complex technical architecture. “Mynapin” automates Electric Word plc.

6. New emerging niche markets Folio3 recently launched the Smart Path Platform for
Diagnosis One, a US client. Smart Path consists of an expert
Companies have also gone further down the value-chain system designed to enable doctors to make better diagnoses
within the pharmaceutical and diagnostics industry. Sofcom, – as well as a public health surveillance system funded by the
for example, has developed a process information centre for Diseases Control (CDC) in the US. The latter was
management system and laboratory management system deployed in Pakistan, and can be deployed for use by other
for the pharmaceutical industry. Spectrum is a web-based public health agencies.
FDA 21 CFR Part 11-compliant total quality management tool
designed to ensure consistent product and process quality, Folio3 has also developed mobile applications for customers
resource optimization, and compliance to cGMP. According such as Myomo, a MIT spino that produces robotic devices
to the FDA, Process Analytical Technology (PAT) o ers that help stroke patients recover limb usage. Folio3's
considerable cost-savings, and has been hailed by the smartphone app acts as a remote control for the robotic arm,
industry as the most radical change in pharmaceutical and gathers patient progress data that can be reviewed by
manufacturing over the last 30 years. Sofcom’s clients include therapists on the other side of the world. e-Health is certainly
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), P zer, Merck, Bristol-Myers Squibb, a growing area where Pakistan is seeking to develop capacity.
Parke Davis, and BASF, among others. The COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT) is
seeking to become a leader in bioinformatics. An
Folio3 is a fast growing software services outsourcing inter-departmental health informatics research group has
company in Pakistan that was part of the All-World Fast been set up to focus on telemedicine, e-Health, and mobile
Growth Pakistan-25 2010 List. Folio3 specialises in mobile, health technology, among others. The School of Electrical
entertainment, and social media platforms, among others. It Engineering and Computer Sciences (SEECS) at the National
has also developed capability within the e-Health space. University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) has also
Pharmacy Medication Safety Physician Clinical Practice Clinical Documentation
Medication Outpatient Physician Ambulatory Patient I&O
eMAR Results Order Flowsheets
Order Entry Prescriptions Order Practice Assessment Vital Sings
Review Sets
Entry Management
Substitution/
Dosing Formulary Rounding/ Patient Patient
Cost Provider Kardex Task Lists Care Plans
Management Management Work ow History/ Locator/
Management Documentation
Tools Problem Lists Patient Lists
Access to
Drug Non-MD Patient Interfaces to
Barcoding Drug
Interactions Pathways Protocols Orders Education Monitors
Database
Critical Care Non-MD
Robot Pharmacy Automated
Specialty Evidence Based
Interface Robot Dispensing Core Information Management Documentation Documentation
User Interface/Portal
Enterprise Patient Access
Department/Support Services Data Aggregation and Reporting Tools
Admission/ Enterprise Eligibility
Lab Radiology Cardiology Enterprise Clinical Common Registration Scheduling Veri cation
Research
Master Person Data Medical
Repository
Index (MPI) Repository Vocabularies
Technical
Standard Request for Consumer
Emergency Decision Denial
Pathology Surgery Order Rules CDM/ Authorization Portal
Department Support Management
Management Engine Master File
Repository
Other Security Integration Response PDA Health Information Management
Medical
Blood Bank Departmental Tools Tools Time Support
Imaging
Systems
Coding
Coding Abstracting
Support
Document Document
Imaging Imaging
Care Management Single Batch
Chart
Initial & Chart Electronic
Discharge Tracking/
Authorization Concurrent Completion Signature
Planning Management
Review
Clinical Decision Support
Clinical Payer InterQual Comparative Release of Printing the Work ow
Denial Communication Support for Data Severity Report Information EMR Tools
Database
Management and Notes LOC Warehouse Adjustment Writer
Access
MRN
Transcription/
Pathways Post Acute Disease Outsomes Resource Provider Management
Credentialing Dictation
(LOS) Placement Management Measurement Utilization Pro ling and Merge
Phillips Medical Systems
06
Figure 4: A Taxonomy of Healthcare IT system functions (Source: Cap Gemini / Philips Healthcare, 2004)

7. established critical competence within healthcare quality Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust (SKMT) Hospital and
certi cation. Through a project funded by the National ICT Research Centre in Lahore, and a number of government,
R&D Fund, SEECS implemented a Health Level 7 (HL7) based military (CMH), and semi-private hospitals such as Fauji
open source solution for e-Health applications, and has Foundation Hospitals have jumped onto the automation
developed HL7 certi cation capability. bandwagon.
The National ICT R&D Fund has also funded other capability As these hospitals have moved towards creating automated
development projects in the e-Health area, namely, a
– even paperless – environments, they have also sought to
tele-surgical training robot and simulator, and a remote
develop and market these capabilities elsewhere. The Aga
patient monitoring system. The results of these projects,
Khan Hospital’s IS department has signed a 20-year contract
although preliminary, point towards a growing interest and
expertise in Pakistan. with a French children’s health institute in Kabul,
Afghanistan, to deploy and maintain its system in their
Center for Advanced Research in Engineering (CARE) has facility. It has also been able to leverage the Aga Khan
developed a geographically distributed ECG machine that is Network’s global relationships to deploy their systems
capable of diagnosis and monitoring of remotely located elsewhere. The SKMT has worked with several other hospitals
patients of severe arrythmic abnormalities and other condi- in and around Lahore to develop or deploy its HIMS at these
tions. This infrastructure would enable patients in rural areas facilities. It has also recently entered into a joint venture with
who would not have survived or would be misdiagnosed NetSol Technologies to productise and further develop their
because of lack of availability of expert cardiologists to be HIMS. Netsol’s HMIS has been deployed in 3 hospitals,
seen and monitored in real-time. These machines have high namely, Social Security Hospitals, the National Institute of
resolution signal acquisition, real time data storage, and Heart Diseases (NIHD), and Maroof International. Indus
patient database management and can communicate with a Hospital is also engaged in licensing discussions with other
Cardiac Control Centre at an urban hospital in real time over
charity hospitals. Another company–Micro Innovations–has
cellular mobile networks, dialup connections, or satellite
worked with Civil Hospital and Capital Development
connections, whichever is conveniently available. The project
Authority (CDA) Hospital to develop an open-source based
also aims to machine diagnose (without human involvement)
arrhythmia and other life threatening heart disease. The hospital management system.
project is funded through a grant by National ICT R&D Fund.
These conversations, and collaborations, point towards a
Building upon a wealth of domestic experience healthy demand for automation within the healthcare sector
in Pakistan, and the desire to leverage the experience gained
While a number of Pakistani companies look towards the within the in-house operations of these hospitals, and
developed world for markets, there has been a fast-growing productise these for the commercial market. Pakistan
wealth of domestic experience with hospital management Software Export Board (PSEB) and Pakistan Software Houses
systems, as Pakistan’s healthcare system prepares itself for Association of the IT and ITES companies (P@SHA) are
greater levels of automation and e ciency. working with the industry to further this emerging capability
within Pakistan’s IT industry. Together, these, and many more
A number of Pakistani hospitals – starting with Aga Khan companies, are powering the global healthcare industry.
University Hospital (AKUH) and Indus Hospital in Karachi,
HEALTHCARE IT STANDARD DESCRIPTION
HL7 • Messaging standards involved in order entries, scheduling appointments, tests, admittance/discharge and transfer of patients.
• Vocabulary standards for demographic information, units of measurement immunizations and clinical encounters.
• Clinical document architecture standards for text-based reports.
NCPDP Scripts National Council for Prescription Drug Program provides standards for ordering drugs from retail pharmacies. Proposed in February 2005
that NCPDP Scripts will be the adopted standard used by all medicare providers.
IEEE 1073 The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers 1073 provide standards for healthcare providers to plug medical devices into
computer systems, and allow monitoring from ICU and tele-health services.
LOINC Laboratory Logical Observation Identi er Name Codes utilised to standardise the electronic exchange of laboratory results.
DICOM Digital Imaging Communications in Medicine provides standards that enable both the retrieval and transfer of images and diagnostic
information from medical devices and sta work stations.
SNOMED-CT Systematized Nomenclature Medical Clinical Terms for laboratory results, non-laboratory interventions and procedures, anatomy,
diagnosis and nursing.
HIPAA Transaction and code sets for electronic exchange of health related information for billing and administration.
Federal Terminologies • FDA name and codes for ingredients, manufactured dosage forms, drug products.
• National Library of Medicine’s RxNORM for describing clinical drugs.
• VA National Drug File Reference Terminology for specified drug classification.
HUGN The Human Gene Nomenclature for exchanging information regarding the role of genes in biomedical research.
EPA Substance Abuse Registry System Environmental Protection Agency’s Substance Registry System for non-medicinal chemicals of
importance to healthcare.
Table-2: A Proliferation of Standards – Key Healthcare IT Standards in the US (Source: IntellectUK)
07

8. Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB)
2nd Floor, Evacuee Trust Complex
Aga Khan Road, F-5
Islamabad, Pakistan
Telephone: +92 51 111-333-666 and +92 51 9204074
E-mail: mkt@pseb.org.pk
PSEB is the apex body created by the Government of Pakistan (GOP) within the Ministry of IT and Telecom
(MOITT) and charged with promoting Pakistan’s exports from IT and IT-enabled Services (ITeS) industry. PSEB
hosts and supports foreign delegations to conferences and events, match-makes and networks Pakistani
companies with foreign partners and clients, and supports international marketing and image-building
activities.
To learn more about Pakistan’s IT industry, please visit the Industry Portal at http://www.IT.org.pk
Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA)
Suite 310, Business Centre
Block 6, PECHS
Karachi, Pakistan
Telephone: +92 21 3541 8121 and +92 21 3430 4796
Contact: Jehan Ara, President
E-mail: president@pasha.org.pk
P@SHA is the representative association for Pakistan’s IT and IT-enabled services industry. It is a platform for
promoting, protecting and developing the software industry in Pakistan. It provides a focal point of
representation to a variety of outside agencies, seeks to nd ways to tackle issues confronting member
companies, and provide advocacy for the advancement of Pakistan’s IT industry.
To learn more about Pakistan’s IT industry, please visit P@SHA website at http://www.pasha.org.pk
Technomics International Ltd
93 Century Court
Woking, GU21 6DR
United Kingdom
Telephone: +44 1483 901916
Fax: +44 1483 901925
Contact: fp@technomics-international.com
Brand Intellect ™ is a branding and image marketing service of Technomics Media that focuses on
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Disclaimer:
This document is prepared by Technomics International’s Brand Intellect™ Service for Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB). It
provides factual assessment and “best judgement” analysis of an emerging, dynamic, and fast-changing industry. It is not intended
as a sole means of advice for making investment decisions, and neither PSEB nor its consultant assumes any responsibility for the
same.
References:
1 http://www.investegate.co.uk/article.aspx?id=201104150700089830E
2 http://www.oecd.org/document/11/0,3746,en_21571361_44315115_45549771_1_1_1_1,00.html
3 http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20091210005301/en/Research-Markets-Future-Healthcare-Market-2015-%E2%80%93
4 Intellect UK, 2005, United States IT Healthcare Market Analysis, by Frost and Sullivan, London
5 http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh030209-story05.html
6 CureMD, 2011, http://www.curemd.com/news2011March04.htm
7 CureMD, 2011, http://www.curemd.com/news2011Jan.htm
8 CureMD, 2011, http://www.curemd.com/news2008Oct19.htm
9 http://www.investegate.co.uk/article.aspx?id=201104150700089830E
08