Clinical Computing Plc, a medical information systems provider is looking westwards to the US for business and has taken to selling personal computers and servers to its customers in an attempt to put some volume through its books and boost revenues. The London- based company employed the entire dictionary of business-speak to explain that its UK customers cannot find sufficient funds or justify the expense to those above them to pay for the renal dialysis information systems that Clinical offers. And the cost of maintaining an underperforming UK business while trying to grow a US business has kept the company in the red, where it has been ever since flotation back in February 1994 (CI No 2,354). Clinical has decided to develop new systems for the UK market only where sufficient revenues can be identified in advance to fund the development.
Renal dialysis chains
Instead, the company intends to concentrate on the US market. Clinical Computing Inc experiences shorter sales lead times than in the UK and has two of the top 10 renal dialysis chains in the US using its di-Proton product, and is in talks with two more, having been selected by one of them to participate in an evaluation project. It will open a small support center in San Francisco to complement those in Cincinnati, Ohio, and is adding senior management muscle and financial advisors in the US prior to seeking a placing some time in 1997. The US business became a distributor for IBM Corp, Hewlett-Packard Co and Quantitative Medical Systems Inc, a supplier of renal dialysis billing products during the year, but these moves added little to revenues during the year but helped speed the sales process. The company is currently developing an Oracle-based renal clinical information system, and has already taken orders for it prior to completion later this year. It is also developing a resource scheduler and utilization package for the renal dialysis business. This type of development is the first step in the company’s proposed diversification, away from renal analysis into other clinical areas, and eventually general healthcare information systems. Clinical placed an advert in the Financial Times last week for companies whose products are or could be sold into international healthcare markets.
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