News
Microsoft To Acquire Sentillion
Looking to extend its presence in the growing field of health care information technology, Microsoft Thursday said it will acquire Sentillion Inc. for an undisclosed sum.
In announcing the deal, Microsoft said it plans to continue offering Sentillion's single sign-on (SSO) software designed for clinical systems deployed in more than 1,000 hospitals, according to the closely held vendor.
But the deal will also pave the way for Microsoft to bridge Sentillion's technology with Microsoft's Amalga Unified Intelligence System (UIS), a data aggregation platform launched in April. Amalga UIS is designed to integrate patient data with a variety of systems and let authorized clinicians and patients alike to access their medical records, Microsoft said in announcing the platform at the time.
Among the 115 hospitals using it are John Hopkins, New York Presbyterian Hospital, Novant Health and Seattle's Hospital, according to Microsoft.
Back in June, Microsoft licensed Sentillion's SSO, context management and strong authentication technology for use with Amalga UIS. Sentillion has its own offering, called Vergence, which combines the SSO, context management and strong authentication into a clinical workstation, and ProVision, which supports user provisioning.
In announcing the planned acquisition, Microsoft said by combining the capabilities of Amalga UIS and Sentillion's technology, it will be able to offer real-time information and simplified workflow, thereby reducing the administrative tasks in administering care. Amalga UIS is also intended to integrate disparate health care management, administrative and financial systems, Microsoft said.
Sentillion will continue to operate out of its corporate headquarters of Andover, Mass. The deal is scheduled to close in early 2010.
About the Author
Jeffrey Schwartz is editor of Redmond magazine and also covers cloud computing for Virtualization Review's Cloud Report. In addition, he writes the Channeling the Cloud column for Redmond Channel Partner. Follow him on Twitter @JeffreySchwartz.