OREANDA-NEWS. The NHS in Greater Manchester, the Manchester Academic Health Science Centre and North West e-Health (a joint-venture partnership between the University of Manchester, Salford Royal NHS Trust and NHS Salford), have signed an MOU with Hitachi, Ltd., Hitachi Consulting Co., Ltd. and Eagle Matrix Consulting Co., Ltd. to explicitly work together towards planning and developing informatics technology to manage and improve patient care and population health.

Masaya Watanabe, Vice President and Executive Officer of Hitachi, Ltd., who is also the Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Innovation Officer of Hitachi's Information and Telecommunication Systems Company, remarked "it is a great honour to be able to combine Hitachi Group's cutting-edge technologies with the healthcare infrastructure and development friendly environment offered by the NHS in Greater Manchester. Healthcare is one the core focus areas of Hitachi's ‘Social Innovation Business.' Our ideas on how informatics can transform the delivery, experience and management of healthcare will be a key business driver for us over the next decade. This partnership offers us the opportunity to contribute towards the enhancement of healthcare in the UK and eventually duplicate this model in other regions around the world.

Hiroshi Ashibe, President of Hitachi Consulting Co., Ltd., praised the momentum of the discussions noting that there is a "clear advantage in leveraging the synergies both in vision and technology between the Hitachi Group and the NHS in Manchester, where the wider health economy provides the ideal launch pad for innovative health services. We are very excited to be working with the NHS in Manchester in exploring this potential further."

Chief executive of Eagle Matrix Consulting Co., Ltd., Yoshito Date explains "We are looking at technology as a facilitator of change, where the holistic integration of public and private health data will create an open service and technology ecosystem that enables innovation for the better management of our health providing much needed focus on the new social paradigm of personalised health."

Professor Ian Jacobs, MAHSC Director said "We are delighted to be combining our expertise here in Manchester with a company as prestigious as the Hitachi Group. This initiative affords us a tremendous opportunity to develop new products and services of significant benefit to the NHS and people of Greater Manchester but it is also our joint intention to ensure scalability for the wider benefit of the rest of the UK". He added that "As a partnership organisation with a strong focus on both ‘health and wealth', MAHSC has been able to support the relationship with the Hitachi Group not just for our own members but also on behalf of the wider regional NHS community, now being drawn together under the Gt. Manchester Academic Health Science Network "

Professor Martin Gibson, Chief Executive of North West e-Health (NWeH) remarked, "The MOU with the Hitachi Group signals a really exciting time for Greater Manchester's health economy. From a NWeH perspective, the agreement means we can pool the expertise and knowhow from all the parties involved and take our healthcare technology development to the next level, developing better outcomes for NHS patients in the process."

As Chief Executive of NHS Manchester, Dr Mike Burrows explained "I am really excited that we have established this agreement with the Hitachi Group. By utilising the wealth of our data more efficiently in combination with appropriate technology we can improve our service delivery and public health support", he also noted that "It was a delight to meet the Hitachi team as part of the signing process and I look forward already to the further discussions we have planned."

The discussions between Hitachi and the NHS in Manchester have been supported by UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) and the Department of Health. Dr Mark Treherne, CEO of UKTI's Life Science Investment Organisation, commented "The UK has a huge amount to offer in health innovation specifically within the health informatics space as demonstrated by this MOU with Hitachi, Ltd. and Hitachi Consulting Co., Ltd. The on-going appetite for industry and the NHS to partner up makes the UK an ideal place for a company like the Hitachi Group to develop ideas collaboratively. The NHS with 60+ million patients has access to unrivalled, clinically coded, granular health data, providing a unique opportunity to test innovative approaches to health informatics in order to meet end patient benefit."

The six parties will be working over the next year in designing detailed technology and service applications tailored towards the population of Greater Manchester.