"We are thrilled to have this opportunity to help interventionalists to become more competitive, track outcomes, and monitor the quality of care they deliver,” said Emily DeMerchant, Custom's healthcare practice director. "Our focus will continue to be on helping our customers use HI-IQ [information management system] to deliver the best possible patient care, improve departmental workflow, and provide consistent, accurate clinical data analysis and information exchange,” she noted.

SIR and Custom have unveiled innovations such as Hosted HI-IQ, a Web-based version of HI-IQ accessible from any Internet-enabled computer and requires no special operating system, servers, or workstations. Moreover, SIR and Custom recently launched a new version of the product that enables physicians to comply with Part IV (practice quality improvement) requirements for maintenance of certification.

"The Society of Interventional Radiology works to improve healthcare on behalf of--and with--interventional radiologists, physicians who specialize in minimally invasive treatments, while Custom's strength is product development and innovation. This licensing agreement, which enables each of us to focus on our strengths, will allow HI-IQ to continue to evolve and to meet future interventional radiology needs,” said SIR president James F. Benenati, M.D., FSIR, who represents the national organization of nearly 4,500 doctors, scientists and allied health professionals.

SIR and Custom have worked together since 1993, when the society engaged the company to develop HI-IQ on its behalf. "Custom has been a strong partner, understanding our members, the society's needs, the product, the IR [interventional radiology] market, and the competition,” said Dr. Benenati.

As part of the agreement with SIR, Custom has acquired ConexSys Inc. (Vienna, VA, USA), SIR's subsidiary formed to manage the HI-IQ business. ConexSys, which will keep its name, is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Custom. Terms of the agreements were not disclosed.

HI-IQ is an integrated quality assurance, scheduling, and inventory management solution for interventional radiology (IR) departments. HI-IQ data enable the interventional radiologist to monitor outcomes to improve quality of care, reduce procedure costs, improve communication, and streamline workflow, meeting the comprehensive needs of IR physicians and practice managers.

Custom Computer Specialists is an information technology (IT) service firm that helps clients with their technology investments.

Related Links:
Society of Interventional Radiology
Custom Computer Specialists