IT Stimulus Yields Foreign Interest

In the latest case of foreigners with dollar signs in their eyes coming to America, a Paris-based IT company seeking to enter the U.S. health IT market has bought Pulse Systems, a maker of electronic health records based in Wichita, Kansas.

In the latest case of foreigners invading the American homeland to make a buck, a Paris-based IT company seeking to enter the U.S. health IT market has bought Pulse Systems, a maker of electronic health records based in Wichita, Kansas.

The acquisition by Cedegim, a global technology services company, is its first in the EHR market here, reports Modern Healthcare. (No telling what would have happened if the company had tried to enter the U.S. through Arizona.)

Billions of dollars in federal incentive funds are shaking up what Alain Missoffe, chairman of the Cegedim Healthcare Software business unit calls "the rapidly growing U.S. healthcare computerization market." Money set aside by Congress to promote adoption of EHRs represents "considerable opportunities" for health IT companies, Missoffe said.

The landscape, as observed by long-time IT blogger Dana Blankenhorn, looks pretty much the same.

"All areas of the main health IT food chain are looking to get into health IT," wrote Blankenhorn in a blog post for ZDNet Healthcare.