E-health tech firm to base HQ in Dublin


10 Jan 2006

A US technology company that has won multimillion-euro contracts to deploy e-health systems in Europe, North America and the Far East, has revealed that it will create an initial 25 new jobs in Ireland as part of a plan to move its headquarters from Baltimore to Dublin, siliconrepublic.com has learned.

In the past 24 hours it has emerged that Global Medical Networks (GMN) won a contract valued at US$2.5m a year over the next five years (US$12.5m) to rollout a National Health Registry via the internet that will support an initial 100,000 users, possibly growing to millions across the Far East. The project will be managed from the company’s new Dublin operation, currently based on Baggot Street, and deployed via the internet.

The project, won in conjunction with a Singapore technology and equipment vendor for medical institutions, will include individual emergency information and medical history for availability anywhere at any time. The project funded by a Far Eastern government and executed by a local insurance company will span over a period of five years in the amount of at least US$2.5m a year for GMN.

Dr Linda Harnevo, founder, owner and CEO of GMN told siliconrepublic.com that the identity of the Far Eastern government that awarded the contract could not be identified for “political reasons”.

She explained that the new operation with an initial employee base of 25 people will open its doors in Dublin this May. The company also has technical operations in the US as well as a research and development centre in Israel.

Commenting on the Far Eastern project, which will be deployed via the internet from Dublin, she said: “We are happy with the opportunity to be a partner in this Far Eastern project. The local multimillion communities are developing extremely fast. There is no question that the business opportunity is huge. The subject pilot project is expected to be completed within six months and with the successful completion we shall gradually begin with full integration involving millions of citizens.”

In addition, she added: “The Singaporean company, specialising in the development of computerised systems in hospitals and the building of medicals networks chose to base its offer on GMN’s technology in the view of the fact that GMN has developed a technology that allows the integration of medical information form different sources, displaying them in secure patient information network available from anywhere at any time in a number of different formats.”

GMN is currently involved in deploying a similar project across a number of hospitals and clinics on the East Coast of the US. In May, the company emerged as the leader of a €17.5m pan-European consortium project for the development of an e-health patient-centric network based on its flagship product LifeOnKey.

The European project — to be completed in five years — has already six additional commercial companies participating: the pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, Abbot Laboratories, Cellcom and three telemedicine companies: Artica Telemedicine, the Slovenian company Maat Telemedicine and Second Opinion operating in Europe and London.

The network showcased in 20 university hospitals in Europe (the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Italy, France, Ireland, the UK, Poland, and in three medical centers in Israel — Rabin, Schneider, and Hadassah), and also the Polytechnic in Madrid and the Diabem Research Institute of Spain. The project has been submitted to the EU for requested funding of €9.5m.

By John Kennedy