Elaj and NxOpinion Press Release May 1, 2008

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 1, 2008

ELAJ GROUP ADDS MEDICAL DECISION SUPPORT SOFTWARE FROM NxOPINION TO IMPROVE PATIENT SERVICES AND CARE

Elaj Group has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with Robertson Technologies to provide and promote the distribution of an integrated software package that will be used to help address the medical needs in the Middle East and Northern Africa.  This joint venture will provide advanced clinical decision support software that will not only improve the quality of care but also expand the services currently available.

NxOpinion (pronounced next opinion), an entity of Robertson Technologies, is a software that provides diagnostic decision support, electronic health records as well as monitoring and evaluation.  It is the only product on the market that is capable of doing all of these functions and many more. 

Since its establishment, Elaj Group has been the leader in providing “state of the art” technology and expertise of life enhancement specialties to the people in the GCC and Middle East.  The areas of care delivery include Andrology, Urology, Infertility, Dermatology, Dentistry, Allergy, Spine and Joints.  They attain qualitative leadership in these fields through the development of a knowledge based, well-trained empathetic and conscientious team operating under a dynamic and responsive managerial system.

“Merging of technology and medicine has been taken to a higher level with Elaj Medical Centers, the largest healthcare delivery organization in the Middle East and GCC, and NxOpinion giving patients more accurate, efficient and cost effective treatment” states Chief Executive Officer of the Elaj Group, Dr. Mohamed Amin.  Dr. Tarek Tawil, Medical Director of the Elaj Group stated “The joint venture of these two companies will not only enhance our current healthcare delivery system but NxOpinion will allow us to enhance the quality of care provided throughout the entire region and in areas we couldn’t reach before.”  After the development and integration of NxOpinion into the present system, distribution will expand to Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Morocco.

NxOpinion is a software suite designed by and for healthcare workers, primary care providers, and physicians to provide multiple easy to use features that can meet the needs of basic healthcare in the rural areas of the world as well as state of the art hospitals and medical schools.   The current version 3.0 became available on January 15, 2008 after more than three years in development, which included extensive testing, independent research validation studies and pilot studies in India, Africa and the Dominican Republic.  It provides a medical knowledge database with 500 diagnosable diseases and is capable of being regionalized to specific conditions that rural health workers could recognize and treat.

Versions 4.0 and 5.0, currently in development, will accommodate user needs based on agreements and be geared for the physician and medical student market with the ability to add labs values, web-based patient data entry from the physicians office practice and interaction with personal health records controlled by the physician.

Prashant Ranade, Director, Robertson Technologies states: “Robertson Technologies’ goal is to partner with the best healthcare providers around the world, to improve patient care, with accurate diagnoses, higher standards of care, improved outcomes and cost savings.” “The partnership with the Elaj group is one that is a win/win situation for the people of the Middle East and Northern Africa” states Dr. Joel Robertson, CEO, Robertson Technologies.

Elaj Medical Services Co Ltd, the flagship company of the Elaj group, commenced operations in 1995 by establishing a “Quality of life enhancement center” in Jeddah Saudi Arabia.  Since then it has expanded its operations to include 20 Centers, which is expected to double in three years, covering Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar and Egypt.

Robertson Technologies is a network of profit and non-profit organizations that has a global initiative to change world medicine and is dedicated to making a lasting impact on healthcare around the world. Robertson Technologies, with offices in Saginaw and Grand Rapids Michigan, USA, is a medical informatics company dedicated to developing compelling solutions for managing and interpreting medical information.  NxOpinion, is an integrated software suite designed to provide sophisticated decision analysis and support to practicing clinicians while building comprehensive and queryable electronic health records in support of macro- and micro-public health planning and implementation programs.  NxOpinion has scalable application from the remote public health clinic to comprehensive national public health planning programs.  We have recently demonstrated NxOpinion for the Microsoft Healthcare Division, Microsoft Research and Development, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Library of Medicine/National Institutes of Health (NLM/NIH) and the Rural Health Initiative of India, among others.  In each case the response has been positive and enthusiastic. NxOpinion, was nominated by Steve Ballmer, CEO, Microsoft in 2004 as the “Best Software in Medicine” for the ComputerWorld Honor’s 21^st Century Award, finishing in the top five best in the world.

For additional information please contact:  Prashant Ranade at pranade@robertsoninstitute.org or Joel Robertson at jrobertson@robertsoninstitute.org or Dr. Ahmed Rabie at ahmed.rabie@elajgroup.com