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Medical Software Provider Acquires Transcription Services Firm

Posted on: Saturday, 8 October 2005, 00:00 CDT

By Kimberly S. Johnson, The Denver Post

Oct. 7--In an effort to further tap into the emerging market for electronic medical records, Denver-based medical software provider MD-IT said it last week purchased ProMed Transcription, a Boulder- based medical transcription services company.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Both companies are privately held. MD-IT, founded in 2000, is owned by two individual investors. The company received $100,000 in venture capital from CTEK Angels, a Colorado-based group of high net-worth investors.

MD-IT's software lets doctors create chart notes using speech recognition. But MD-IT chief executive Thomas Carson said that a majority of physicians are more comfortable with traditional methods of note-taking and transcribing.

"Instead of making doctors do their notes themselves, I believe now the best way is to engage the medical transcription companies," he said. "We expect this to be the first of many acquisitions." Carson said Pro-Med has "a very good reputation" in the transcription market.

The company's 22 employees will be absorbed into MD-IT, giving the new company a total of 30 workers. No plans have been made to relocate either office.

Getting doctors to put their notes in electronic form efficiently is the first step in setting up a digital medical records system, Carson said.

"Selling software packages to doctors is different from what they were trained to do. And it's asking a lot," he said. "That's why adoption of electronic records by mainstream doctors is so slow." MD-IT will begin offering ProMed's transcription services to its clients.

The combined company will reach 300 doctors in 90 clinics nationwide.

"We're moving from being a software company to being a services companies supported by software," Carson said.

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Source: The Denver Post

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