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BridgeHead CEO says Vendor-Agnostic Healthcare Data Management (HDM) and Healthcare Storage Virtualization (HSV) Can Make IT Managers' EPR Resiliency Dreams a Reality

World of Health IT, Barcelona - 15th March 2010 - Preliminary results from the BridgeHead Software Data Management Healthcheck survey suggest health IT managers are looking for resilient solutions for managing their electronic patient record (EPR) systems that can grow and evolve as their organisations' storage needs change over time.

Respondents to the survey, which is still underway at http://www.bridgeheadsoftware.com/hdm-survey, said their top three spending priorities for the next 12 months were backup (including business continuity and disaster recovery) (46.2%), Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS, 38.5%), and archiving (36.5%). Other answer choices included digitizing paper records (34.6%), server virtualization (30.8%), storage virtualization (19.2%), cloud storage (11.5%) and green IT (7.7%).

Tony Cotterill, CEO of BridgeHead Software, said the results indicated "a professional understanding of the complexities of migrating from paper to electronic patient records in the modern healthcare environment. Backup and archiving are fundamental to any data management strategy, so it's clear that health IT managers are doing their homework before starting the EPR migration process."

Cotterill added that BridgeHead Software's vendor-agnostic healthcare data management (HDM) and healthcare storage virtualization (HSV) suite has helped over 1,000 hospitals take control of their data by creating fully integrated and interoperable platforms for viewing and accessing electronic patient records.

"Healthcare storage virtualization [HSV] helps hospitals realise the full potential of electronic patient records systems because HSV empowers hospitals to meet their growing storage needs without compromising on current hardware brand or media type," explained Cotterill. "HSV separates applications from the storage device, allowing multiple applications to tap into the same resources and increasing overall utilization of the storage resource."

Cotterill added, "Vendor-agnostic solutions for HDM and HSV free hospitals to negotiate better service contracts on better terms with their application and storage vendors, hence making the most of their current storage infrastructure and systems investments."

Preliminary findings from the Data Management Healthcheck also confirmed the existence of a growing healthcare data burden. A majority of respondents said they expected their data volumes to increase by up to 25 percent over the next year, and a whopping 90 percent said over half of the data contained within their organisations was over six months old.

"Although backup is one of the keys to an effective and efficient data management strategy, it is by no means a catch-all solution," said Cotterill. "The integrated, vendor-agnostic HDM and HSV approach puts hospitals back in control of their clinical data, freeing them from supposed obligations to their imaging and storage vendors while enabling them to deliver quicker, more efficient, and better informed healthcare at the same time as reducing costs within the hospital."

Press briefings
Journalists, bloggers and analysts attending World of Health IT are invited to register for a press briefing to discuss the research, its healthcare storage virtualization and its European expansion plans with CEO Tony Cotterill or other available BridgeHead Software spokespeople.

If you would like more information or to schedule a briefing, please do not hesitate to contact Rose Ross at rose@omarketing.co.uk or on-site at +44 7976 154597

Data Management Healthcheck 2010
To request additional information or sign up to receive an executive summary of the research when it is completed, please contact Rose Ross at rose@omarketing.co.uk

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Media Contacts

UK and EMEA
Rose Ross
Omarketing
+44 208 255 5225
+44 7976 154597
rose@omarketing.co.uk
www.twitter.com/Rose_at_O
www.twitter.com/Omarketingnews

US
Elizabeth S. Glaser
Dodge Communications
770-576-2551
eglaser@dodgecomunications.com

About BridgeHead Software - www.bridgeheadsoftware.com
BridgeHead Software is the leading provider of Healthcare Storage Virtualization (HSV) technology, providing backup, recovery, and archiving solutions to over 1,000 hospitals worldwide. BridgeHead HSV enables organizations to eliminate data silos and separate applications from storage. A storage- and vendor-agnostic approach, BridgeHead HSV provides customers with a scalable platform that works with their current and future systems infrastructure. To learn more about BridgeHead Software, visit http://www.bridgeheadsoftware.com.

About Healthcare Storage Virtualization (HSV)
Healthcare Storage Virtualization (HSV) gives IT the power to say "yes" to the growing storage needs of the organization at large by creating a flexible storage management framework that separates the application from the storage device, allowing multiple applications to tap into the same resources, thereby increasing overall resource utilization. HSV creates common pools of shareable storage hardware that can be accessed as needed, regardless of the application or data type.

Healthcare Storage Virtualization is a scalable solution that supports your healthcare data management challenges over time. HSV enables you to focus on solving your highest-priority problem first (e.g., implementing a vendor-neutral DICOM archive) while establishing a platform that positions you to address other issues (e.g., email archiving) as your time and budget allows.

HSV puts you in control. Your data, your storage, your choice.

World of Healthcare IT, Booth 831
Media Contact: Rose Ross, +44 7976 154597