ICNet, Visante Join Forces to Help Hospitals Prevent Infections

ICNet® Systems, Inc., which provides infection surveillance and pharmacy stewardship software to more than 1,200 hospitals globally, and Visante®, Inc., a leader in medications management and infectious disease consulting, today announced a partnership to offer hospitals a comprehensive solution to help preserve the last line of defense against life-threatening bacteria.

This strategic alliance is being formed to address the complex clinical and data analysis
challenges associated with antimicrobial stewardship and infectious disease management. It combines ICNets powerful clinical decision support software with Visantes depth of clinical expertise and hospital operating experience to promote the proper use of medications that treat infections.

ICNet will provide its suite of Agile Surveillance software solutions, which include:
- Comprehensive community and hospital-acquired infection surveillance.
- ABX Alert, a real-time clinical decision support application that interfaces with existing
information systems to ensure appropriate prescribing of antibiotics; detects and
prevents adverse drug events for all classes of drugs; and provides accurate and
powerful reports on a wide range of quality-of-care metrics, including auditing of doctors
adherence to prescribing protocols and the efficacy of interventions.

With its experienced team of physicians, pharmacists, and hospital operating executives,
Visante will provide clinical advisory services tailored to each hospitals unique issues with
bacterial resistance. Visante consultants conduct an extensive review of data, including an
onsite visit to assess current bacteriology, prescribing habits, antibiotic use and cost,
antimicrobial resistance and current stewardship efforts. Visante benchmarks the data against similar settings to discover the extent of resistance and the reasons driving it.

Weve been working to provide health systems with the data they need to improve clinical surveillance and antimicrobial stewardship across their operations, says Adam Boris, chief executive officer of ICNet Systems. Given the nature of the challenges facing healthcare today, it makes sense to partner with a company in Visante, which can help providers make the best use of that data through a structured, effective stewardship program.

Adds Michael Flagstad, Visante CEO: Through our strategic alliance, Visante and ICNet will be able to provide clients with increased ability and speed to identify anti-infective best practices and uncover opportunities to improve the way these medicines are used. In an era when payment is at risk over hospital-acquired infections and readmissions and regulators are intensifying scrutiny of medication management, a systematic approach to antibiotic use in hospitals is critical.

The two companies will work together to identify hospitals that would benefit from a combined ICNet/Visante approach. They will also share opportunities to co-market ICNet solutions and Visante consulting expertise.

Source: ICNet