Cedara prepares Asian initiative

B-Soft Group, a leading vendor of HIS products in China, has signed with Canadian PACS developer Cedara to sell that company's PACS products. Under an agreement signed Nov. 5, B-Soft and Cedara will cooperatively develop an integrated hospital information and image management system that provides a complete solution tailored to workflow in Chinese hospitals. The deal is a milestone in Cedara's strategic plans to expand business in China.

Other efforts include a cooperative agreement signed in late November with Hong Kong Polytechnic University to deploy Cedara's PACS. The university is expected to provide Cedara with a clinical environment where it can display its technology to potential customers, offer training, and learn more about regional workflow requirements. Funding from the Canadian International Development Agency will help defray costs of penetrating the Chinese market, providing some 80% of the expense of developing a business plan for the development of Chinese medical IT products and services.