Energy for Electronic Health: EnBW Acquires Interest in eHealth Specialist ICW
EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG has acquired a minority interest in the eHealth specialist InterComponentWare AG (ICW). The additional capital is intended to accelerate the further development of the innovative ICW networking solutions, and to reinforce the international market presence of the company.
Walldorf / Karlsruhe (PRWEB) September 24, 2006
EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG has acquired a minority interest in the eHealth specialist InterComponentWare AG (ICW). The additional capital is intended to accelerate the further development of the innovative ICW networking solutions, and to reinforce the international market presence of the company.
With its interest in ICW, EnBW secures preferred access to technologies that can also be used in its core business, for example, for the remote management of technical devices. Prior to the investment decision of the third largest German energy company, InterComponentWare AG was exclusively held by private investors: the main investor is SAP co-founder Dietmar Hopp, other shares are held by the management, the supervisory board and employees of the ICW, as well as other private individuals.
ICW has specialized in eHealth solutions since it was founded in 1998. Its software and hardware, as well as its services, improve the information flow in health care and thus enable a further increase in the quality of medical care. All ICW’s developments are internationally designed and can be adapted to national requirements with minimal effort.
Among other things, ICW develops components for electronic health card infrastructures. With its know-how acquired in this area, the company supported the introduction of the eCard in Austria and advised the German Ministry of Health in the context of the bIT4health consortium on the introduction of the German electronic health card. ICW’s electronic health card solution has already found practical application in an initial field test.
In as early as the year 2000, ICW introduced LifeSensor, the first electronic personal health record on the German market. Users of the LifeSensor record can securely archive copies of their medical data online and thus make them available to attending physicians in a clear structure at all times. Among other applications, LifeSensor is used by a Bavarian network of physicians with some 350 participating medical professionals, which was recently certified in a study of the University of Erlangen as being the most developed of all examined German and Swiss physicians' networks.
The ICW portfolio is rounded off by solutions for the secure networking of clinics and practicing doctors, as well as for the efficient control of disease management programs. All of these software components are compatible with the future electronic health card and can exchange data with the web-based LifeSensor health record, so that the flow of electronic data so urgently required in health care can finally gain momentum.
In the course of the investment, Dr. Peter Vest, group Executive Sales Manager of EnBW for private and commercial customers and Management Spokesman for Yello Strom, joined the supervisory board of ICW as a new member. With his long years of experience in marketing and business development, he will provide the company with valuable impulses. At the same time, Paul Wahl will supplement the control committee of ICW. Wahl is the former CEO of SAP America and former President and COO of Siebel Systems. He will contribute his profound knowledge of the international software sector to the supervisory board.
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