Global healthcare technology company Dedalus is looking to build on its established presence in the Australian healthcare market with its Dedalus ORBIS electronic medical record (EMR) platform, offering hospitals a broader range of clinical capabilities alongside their existing systems.
The company is drawing on Dedalus ORBIS’ extensive European deployment experience as it adapts the platform for Australian requirements, with a focus on interoperability, flexible implementation and supporting healthcare organisations at different stages of digital maturity.
Speaking to Pulse+IT, Dedalus ANZ Business Lead for EMR, George Patapis, said Dedalus ORBIS had an established presence across Europe – particularly in German-speaking markets – and was a key part of the company’s broader strategy to provide integrated healthcare solutions.
Dedalus ORBIS has been deployed in more than 900 European hospitals, with its development informed by experience across multiple health systems.
Mr Patapis said Dedalus’ existing relationships with Australian hospitals offered a foundation for extending the Dedalus ORBIS clinical functionality, to customers already using its patient administration, medication management and other healthcare applications.
“One of the expectations and one of the challenges is how do we add new value as a starting point to those customers who are happy with their existing Dedalus solutions, used over many years and they keep renewing them,” he said.
Dedalus ANZ pre-sales lead Richard Dinsdale said the company’s approach was designed to help hospitals build on existing technology investments rather than replacing entire systems.
“We really want to leverage what our customers do have, rather than doing a full “rip-and-replace,” he said, noting that ORBIS offered a broad range of clinical functionality that could be introduced alongside existing hospital applications.
He said the platform’s modular approach provided organisations with flexibility in how they adopted additional capabilities, while offering the depth of functionality expected of a comprehensive EMR.
AI capabilities and clinical workflows
Dedalus is also looking to bring AI functionality already available in its international Dedalus ORBIS offering to the Australian market.
Mr Patapis said the company had introduced AI capabilities in Europe, including functionality announced or deployed in Germany and the UK and was working through the requirements for making relevant components available locally.
“Some of the AI functionality, which is already deployed in Europe, does need to go through an official process here in Australia through TGA before we deploy it,” he said.
The capabilities include ambient documentation technology, developed with Dedalus’ partners, alongside tools designed to help clinicians access and interpret information within patient records.
Mr Dinsdale said Dedalus ORBIS also incorporated intelligent chat and data review functionality, allowing clinicians to ask questions about clinical information and retrieve relevant results.
Analytical capabilities could also support the identification of patterns and trends in clinical data.
“We do have AI capability in the product – however, Australian availability will depend on completing the necessary local requirements. We’re drawing on our existing international development and deployment experiences to help pursue that,” Mr Dinsdale said.
Opportunities for private healthcare
Mr Patapis said private and not-for-profit healthcare providers were an important part of the Australian market, particularly as organisations considered how to expand their digital capabilities while managing investment costs.
He said the ability to introduce clinical functionality progressively could be particularly valuable for private providers seeking to maximise their existing technology investments while enhancing clinical workflows and access to patient information.
“Private providers need an EMR that offers value for money, supports clinical workflows designed with patient safety at the forefront, and gives them the flexibility to expand its capabilities as their needs evolve.”
Mr Dinsdale noted private hospitals had different operating models from public health services, with independent specialists often maintaining clinical information in their own systems.
This created additional challenges for organisations seeking a more complete picture of patient care.
“It’s not just about the money – their operating model is quite different,” he said, adding that extending existing hospital applications with additional clinical functionality could support more consistent information capture, reporting and research, while accommodating different organisational requirements.
Mr Patapis said access to structured clinical data was increasingly important for healthcare organisations seeking to measure outcomes and identify opportunities for improvement.
“How do you improve if you don’t have data? Where are you going to get the data from?” he asked.
Focus on usability and integration
Mr Dinsdale said Dedalus had also invested in the user experience of Dedalus ORBIS U, the platform’s updated interface, working with clinicians to simplify workflows and make clinical documentation more intuitive.
He said the interface allowed clinicians to enter information directly into relevant sections of a patient record, reducing the need to navigate through multiple screens.
Dedalus ORBIS supports desktop and mobile devices, to provide flexibility for different clinical environments.
Dedalus is also undertaking work to regionalise for our Australian healthcare requirements, including local medication catalogues, prescribing processes and health information standards.
Mr Dinsdale said Dedalus ORBIS used a common global code base, allowing many local requirements to be addressed through configuration rather than extensive customisation.
Mr Patapis said the company’s broader objective was to help healthcare organisations make better use of clinical information and progressively develop more integrated digital environments, with Mr Dinsdale noting that this approach would also provide existing Dedalus customers with a chance to extend their current systems as their needs evolved.
“As a full-suite vendor, we now have the ability to take customers even further and support their clinical needs across their entire organisation.”
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