Software company Craneware is looking at acquisitions and partnerships as it seeks to move further into providing cost management and patient interaction tools for healthcare providers in the United States.
The Edinburgh company has traditionally provided revenue monitoring systems to hospitals and health providers in the US.
But changes to that market, such as the ageing population and more US consumers having health insurance, has resulted in a greater focus on cost management.
Craneware chief executive Keith Neilson, speaking as the business reported rises in annual profit and turnover, said this has “opened up new areas”.
He said: “It is taking all the data and tools we have got, looking at trying to find out what the hospital doesn’t know just now to try to improve on that.
“Then [we want] to provide them with a toolset that allows them to actually make a difference and improve on [their] revenue and margin and understand their cost base.
“Once they have done that then they can optimise that with changes in workflow and what they are doing so it is sustainable for the future.”
Alongside that Craneware, which has products in around one quarter of US hospitals, said it is also seeing potential in mobile device software products offering direct interaction with patients.
Mr Neilson said US healthcare has traditionally been a business to business market with revenue typically coming from insurance companies or the government.
But with more insurance plans now offering greater scope for individuals to pay and have a greater say in their care, the hospitals are having to adapt to the consumer market.
He said: “We are providing that interface between the consumer and the hospital. It can be in a whole number of ways. It can be around scheduling [of appointments] or providing quotations for elective surgeries.
“It could also be as far reaching as something like working with Alzheimer’s patients who have a drug regime and which the hospital wants to make sure they are actually taking.
“So it could be scanning bottles of drugs and recognising that people have taken their tablets that day. It is all about patient interaction and communication across that mobile platform.”
Craneware reported a 5.2 per cent rise in revenue from $42.6m to $44.8m in the 12 months to June 30. Pre-tax profits rose 10.6 per cent from $11.3m to $12.5m.
Net cash noted on the balance sheet at the year end stood at $41.8m with Mr Neilson signalling the group is looking at a number of acquisitions and partnerships as well as continuing to build its own software.
He indicated the business was looking to “over a relatively short space of time” strike agreement to fill in certain areas where it did not already have products.
The company took exclusive US distribution rights over an analytics platform built by Edinburgh based informatics business Aridhia earlier this year.
Craneware also snapped up mobile health app developer Kestros for £1.25m in August last year.
Kestros, now known as Craneware Health, had contracts with NHS trusts with its products allowing patients to keep track of appointments and send messages to clinical staff when someone with a known condition gets taken into hospital.
Aspects of those services are on course to be launched in the US next year.
Mr Neilson said Craneware is aiming to grow its staff numbers in Scotland, which are currently around 100, with more than 20 current vacancies.
He said the company has not been constrained by a shortage of developers but admitted he would be keen for more talented software engineers to come into the Scottish market.
Mr Neilson added: “We believe we have an attractive proposition whereby we can profoundly impact healthcare going into the future.
“[We have] very much open doors for attracting good quality talent in.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here