Topcon Corporation, (Headquarters: Itabashi, Tokyo Japan; President and CEO: Satoshi Hirano) (hereinafter referred to as ‘Topcon’) has successfully acquired 50.1% shares of ifa systems AG (hereinafter referred to as ‘ifa’), a company listed in the Entry Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, Germany.
ifa develops, markets, and provides consulting services for Health IT solutions in the Eye Care field, and sells electronic medical record systems connectable to various types of ophthalmic examination devices. By acquiring more than half of the outstanding common shares and majority rights, Topcon will integrate ifa’s Health IT solution into its Eye Care business unit and accelerate its growth strategy.
With the rapid aging of the world’s population as well as explosive population growth, operational efficiency in eye care clinical practice and financial efficiency are key requirements for today’s ophthalmic practice. Here, Topcon will pursue its “Healthcare through the Eye” concept with the goal of greatly benefiting the patient’s quality of life, as well as clinical operational efficiency. By taking advantage of ifa’s versatile information technology, Topcon will be able to cover not only vendor neutral data management software, but also comprehensive electronic medical record systems. As a result, patients will save on waiting time at clinics and will be able to adjust their postoperative examination schedule in ways which they favor. On the other hand, clinics will be able to manage different vendor examination devices with one platform. Furthermore, diagnosis of patients can even be made in remote locations by utilizing ifa’s remote access system. These are the essential infrastructure items that Topcon will supply, under the name “Health IT Solutions,” which can collectively manage and utilize all healthcare resources from screening, examination, diagnosis, and treatment to prognosis management. The collaboration of Topcon’s hardware technology and ifa’s Health IT solutions will lead to medical efficiency improvement for patients, clinics and societies.
Topcon will introduce the first product from this new collaboration with ifa called “IMAGEnet^® Connect” at its corporate headquarters in Tokyo in December and will also present it to the public at the World Ophthalmology Congress 2016 scheduled to be held in February in Guadalajara, Mexico. The system will be officially launched in Spring 2016.
IMAGEnet Connect is an all-in-one vendor neutral software solution that connects to all TOPCON devices and various non-Topcon ophthalmic devices (more than 400) and any system used in clinics such as Practice Management Software and Hospital Information Software. It is ICD-10 compliant and provides a number of notable benefits including improved patient and workflow efficiency.