Calian® Group Ltd., a provider of trusted products and solutions, extends digital healthcare and cybersecurity offerings through the acquisition of Dapasoft Inc, a leading provider of innovative systems integration, cloud lifecycle management and cybersecurity solutions, which enable clients to securely implement digital transformation initiatives. The acquisition adds depth and breadth to Calian’s core capabilities, thereby accelerating its go-to-market strategy in the rapidly growing digital healthcare industry.

“We see demand from organizations of all sizes to modernize their healthcare infrastructure and manage cyber risk and they are looking for a trusted partner in this endeavour.” says Kevin Ford, Calian CEO. “The addition of Dapasoft’s people, products, and services broadens and deepens the digital healthcare offerings of our IT and Cyber Solutions division.”

Michael Lonsway, President of Dapasoft adds, “The acquisition could not come at a more opportune time. Together we can scale to meet accelerated demand for migration to the cloud and virtual care. Our innovative Dapasoft Corolar Virtual Care solution meets the needs of today’s healthcare organizations and their patients, while addressing ever-evolving security and regulatory requirements.”

Dapasoft, a Microsoft Gold Partner, and its wholly owned subsidiary, iSecurity, came together in 2019 to provide full-service cloud lifecycle management and cybersecurity solutions. Their Corolar integration engine has been deployed in over 30 healthcare institutions across Canada, and their proprietary cybersecurity solutions are used by customers in healthcare, financial services and critical infrastructure across North America.

“My co-founder, Kees Pouw, and I are pleased to combine our business with Calian. Leveraging the powerful Calian brand will enable us to offer a greater range of cybersecurity solutions and managed security services to build more and deeper customer relationships,” said Raheel Qureshi, co-founder, iSecurity.

“Dapasoft and iSecurity will enable us to offer a greater range of cloud migration, cybersecurity, and managed security solutions to our entire customer base,” says Sandra Cote, President of Calian IT and Cyber Solutions (ITCS). “Calian has the bench strength to scale Dapasoft and iSecurity offerings to meet customer digital transformation demand.”

The acquisition of Dapasoft and its subsidiary, iSecurity, aligns with two pillars of the Calian growth strategy: Customer Diversification and Innovation. The definitive agreement is valued at up to CDN$83M. Amount paid on closing is $50M, consisting of $43M cash and $7M in Calian shares. Contingent consideration over two years is based on certain EBITDA growth targets ($14.5M payable in cash and $18.5M payable in Calian shares).

The combined entities generated revenues of $27M in their most recent fiscal year, with Gross Margin and EBITDA percentages well above Calian’s consolidated levels. The Company expects this transaction to be immediately EBITDA accretive.

Origin Merchant Partners acted as financial advisor to Dapasoft in connection with the transaction. CIBC Capital Markets acted as financial advisor to Calian in connection with the transaction.

As a result of this acquisition, we have updated and raised our guidance to reflect the impact of Dapasoft for the remaining seven months of our fiscal year. Our guidance also reflects one-time transaction costs associated with the completion of the acquisition.

About Dapasoft and iSecurity

Dapasoft is pioneering the future of healthcare applications and health data interoperability. Headquartered in Toronto, Dapasoft is trusted by North American healthcare providers, payors, and application developers to power their solutions every day, integrating a wide variety of EHR, EMR, and other clinical and analytics systems Dapasoft’s wholly owned subsidiary, iSecurity delivers world-class enterprise solutions that manage cybersecurity risk while addressing unique regulatory requirements and critical infrastructure. Its team is comprised of senior and fully accredited Cybersecurity Advisors (CISSP, CICA, CISM), Enterprise Architects (TOGAF, Zachman, SABSA) along with a 24/7 managed security and incident response services.

About Calian IT and Cyber Solutions

Calian’s IT and Cyber Solutions support customer requirements for subject matter expertise in the delivery of their complex IT solutions. With a primary focus on cloud migration, IT development, support services, SAP consulting and cybersecurity solutions, Calian supports customers at all levels of government and the private sector in the domestic market. Calian Cybersecurity solutions provide public and private sector organizations with the right people, processes and technology to build actionable plans and keep their environments safe and secure.

About Calian

Calian employs over 4,400 people in its delivery of diverse products and solutions for private sector, government and defence customers in North American and global markets. The Company’s diverse capabilities are delivered through: Advanced Technologies, Health, Learning, and IT and Cyber Solutions. Advanced Technologies provides innovative products, technologies and manufacturing services and solutions for the space, communications, defence, nuclear, government and agriculture sectors. Health manages a network of more than 2,000 health care professionals delivering primary care and occupational health services to public and private sector clients across Canada. Learning is a trusted provider of emergency management, consulting and specialized training services and solutions for the Canadian Armed Forces and clients in the defence, health, energy and other sectors. IT and Cyber Solutions supports public- and private-sector customer requirements for subject matter expertise in the delivery of complex IT and cyber security solutions. Headquartered in Ottawa, the Company’s offices and projects span Canada and international markets.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while addressing a webinar on effective implementation of Budget provisions in the health sector, said on Tuesday that the year 2020 was an acid test for the Covid-hit sector. The PM said the country established a long chain of Covid-19 labs within a short period and conducted over 21 crore tests in the country.

He said the COVID-19 has provided an opportunity to equip the country for any future pandemic by creating an infrastructure for labs, ventilators and hospitals. “In this budget, we have provided an opportunity to develop an ecosystem to strengthen better health services to handle any such future pandemic,” he said.

He said the objective of the health budget is to create a similar healthcare system in rural India as well. “World has noticed our efforts during COVID-19. Indian doctors’ demand is going to increase globally because of that. India’s medicine and vaccination have increased the trust level,” he said.

The PM said Indians are working together on four fronts to keep India healthy. “The first front is to prevent diseases i.e. prevention of illness and promotion of wellness. The second front is to provide cheap and effective treatment for the poorest of the poor. Schemes like Ayushman Bharat Yojana and Pradhan Mantri Jan Aushadhi Kendra are doing the same. The third front is to increase the quality and quality of health infrastructure and health care professionals. And the fourth front is to work on mission mode to overcome problems. Schemes like Mission Indradhanush, which has been extended to the tribal and far-flung areas, are working towards this,” he added.

The PM said the Centre has set a target to eradicate TB from the country by 2025. “TB also spreads through droplets of the infected person. Wearing of masks, early diagnosis and treatment are also important in the prevention of TB,” he said.

He said the private sector can support PPP models in creating a network of public health laboratories. It can also partner with the national digital health mission, digital health records of citizens and other cutting-edge technology, he said.

Caption Health, a leading medical artificial intelligence (AI) company providing AI guidance and interpretation for ultrasound, announced the publication of the study that was the basis for the February 2020 authorization of Caption Guidance™ through the FDA’s De Novo pathway. The Caption AI platform, which includes Caption Guidance and Caption Interpretation™, is the first and only AI-guided medical imaging acquisition software to obtain FDA clearance, enabling a broad range of healthcare workers to perform cardiac ultrasound examinations at the point of care.

Published in JAMA Cardiology, the study demonstrates that ultrasound images captured by nurses without prior ultrasound experience and reviewed by experienced cardiologists were shown to be of diagnostic quality to assess left ventricular size and function in 98.8% of patients, right ventricular size and function in 92.5% of patients, and in 98.8% of patients for presence of pericardial effusion. The study was conducted with 240 patients aged 20-91, 42% female patients, with 17.6% of patients Black or African-American, and 33% of patients with a BMI of 30 or greater.

“In our mission to democratize access to healthcare and quality medical imaging, we wanted to ensure that we tested Caption Guidance on a wide range of patients to prove its effectiveness across a diverse population,” said Yngvil Thomas, Head of Medical Affairs & Clinical Development at Caption Health. “This study shows that AI-guided imaging can expand healthcare professionals’ skill sets in a meaningful way with minimal training—giving patients more opportunities to receive timely diagnostic care.”

Each patient in the study underwent paired ultrasounds: one from a nurse, and one from an experienced registered diagnostic cardiac sonographer. In addition to evaluating diagnostic quality, the cardiologists also made diagnostic assessments. For the diagnostic assessments corresponding to the primary endpoints listed above, there was at least 92.5% agreement between the nurse and sonographer scans. The results indicated that Caption Guidance performed well for patients with various cardiac pathologies that might be encountered in real-world clinical practice; more than 90% of patients were found to have cardiac abnormalities in scheduled full echocardiograms performed within two weeks of the study. The results were also consistent across BMI, sex, and race, further demonstrating Caption Guidance’s efficacy and robustness.

“The study’s remarkable agreement between nurses’ scans and sonographers’ scans shows that the use of AI like Caption Guidance could fundamentally change how we use medical imaging,” said Dr. Akhil Narang, a cardiologist at Northwestern Medicine and first author on the paper. “This will extend the abilities of healthcare providers to evaluate for different pathologies in critical care, emergency departments and other settings—and perhaps identify them even earlier with the assistance of AI.”
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Given the demonstrated effects of COVID-19 on the heart (Puntmann, Carerj, Wieters, et al in JAMA Cardiology), the study notes that technology like Caption Guidance may allow for reduced exposure of sonographers to the disease. Caption AI has already been used in hospital systems for assessment and treatment of the cardiovascular impact of COVID-19, and is quickly becoming the new standard of care in critical care settings for timely diagnosis and management.

“Cardiac ultrasound is a powerful diagnostic technology that can be helpful, and even life-saving, in many clinical settings,” said Dr. Chris Moore, an emergency medicine physician at Yale. “However, its application may be limited by the availability of experienced users. This groundbreaking study represents a significant step forward in making this technology more widely accessible to patients wherever needed.”

In addition to further refinements of its cardiac ultrasound guidance, Caption Health recently received a $4.95 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop AI-guided lung ultrasound software.

About Caption Health
Caption Health was founded on a simple but powerful concept: use technology to emulate the expertise of highly trained medical experts and put that ability into the hands of every care provider. We are delivering AI systems that empower healthcare providers with new capabilities to acquire and interpret ultrasound exams.

Open source technology company WSO2 have launched a new consent management tool, aiming to simplify compliance rules and give patients more control over their data.

WSO2’s Consent Management is a portal for gaining consent in a manner consistent with US regulatory requirements and Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standards, the global industry standard for passing healthcare data between systems.

The new portal provides an ongoing process for requesting, collecting, enforcing and logging activity related to patient or member data acquisition and management. It’s available with the latest release of WSO2 Open Healthcare, an interoperable platform for healthcare payers and insurers, healthcare providers, hospitals and pharmacies. It also integrates securely with electronic medical records (EMR) systems, health databases, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications.

WSO2’s Consent Management will add the following new functionalities:

Healthcare organisations working with Medicare and Medicaid can exchange health information and claims data, and share this with patients electronically and securely via an API. This ensures compliance with regulatory bodies and avoiding potential fines of up to $1 million.
Individuals will be able to control access to their own health information and that of the people they care for, such as children or parents.
Third-party app developers can enable personalised privacy by assigning consent policies to apps, such as those running on personal fitness devices or clinicians’ medical diagnostics systems.

“The pandemic has served to accelerate the move toward digitally-enabled health and wellness services among healthcare organizations and consumers alike” WSO2 Vice President of Solutions Architecture Mifan Careem said.

“In this context, failure to give patients control over access to their data is a costly mistake, both in terms of potential fines and lost customers. With the new FHIR-compliant Consent Management functionality in our WSO2 Open Healthcare solution, we’re lowering the technology barriers to managing consent. Now healthcare organisations can streamline their compliance in 2021 and focus on the digital innovation that will fuel their future growth.”

Liquidware, the leader in adaptive workspace management, announced its solution, ProfileUnity, was key in migrating 30,000 users when a major Orlando-based healthcare company went on an acquisition spree. ProfileUnity’s automated migration process has proven to support a reliable playbook for bringing new staff into the environment efficiently and cost effectively for any future mergers or acquisitions.

The customer had a very aggressive timeline of migrating 30,000 users over the course of just two weekends. Forthright Technology Partners, based in Florida, were engaged to deliver the support and Liquidware competence to achieve this goal.

“As a Liquidware Center of Excellence, we have many certified technicians on staff some of who worked diligently to assess the situation and business requirements prior to running a proof of concept,” commented Frank M. Merion, VP of Professional Services at Forthright, “ProfileUnity is best in class for providing zero-downtime migrations. Using this solution and applying our expertise, Forthright was able to provide a seamless migration of 30,000 users to the new environment in the tight timeframe required.”

ProfileUnity was installed on user desktops and automatically harvested the user profile, including OS and application personalization settings and user-authored data. ProfileUnity is configurable to cleanup profiles and only lift important user profile data, leaving caches and bloated areas behind. When the harvest was completed, ProfileUnity created a “universal user profile” that supported co-existing (both backward and forward compatibility) over multiple Microsoft Windows OSs, allowing the organization to “migrate once and forever” to newer desktop or server OS versions. Its advanced Active Directory capabilities automatically retrieve user account information from domain servers. In this case, the profiles could be loaded to the new domain server and to desktops the first time users logged in. ProfileUnity also handles folder redirection and establishes access to the user’s local printers.

Because ProfileUnity is so automated and scalable, the mass migration was accomplished with a handful of people over two weekends, not the dozens that would have been needed if it used common tools to manage the domain change and profile migration. The health system’s small team, working with representatives from Liquidware and Forthright, achieved the aggressive timeline goal.

ProfileUnity’s key advantages in this deployment were:

• It executed the domain and Windows OS migrations in a single step. That capability significantly reduced the overall expected conversion time, and the corresponding costs.
• Just as significant, the migration executed without blocking users from accessing their desktops and systems during the transition.
• This was an essential requirement for the health system because its doctors and other caregivers need access to their notes and patient files at all times.
• ProfileUnity works for all Windows OS versions and for any kind of desktop – physical or virtual, including Microsoft RDSH,
• Windows Virtual Desktops (WVD), Amazon WorkSpaces, Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops and VMware Horizon. While the new desktops are standardized on physical machines running Windows 10, the pre-migration population was not homogenous.

“Working with partners like Forthright enables Liquidware to deliver our adaptive workspace management solutions to joint customers,” stated Chris Akerberg, President and COO at Liquidware. “They have invested in our technology and this particular customer requirement of migrating 30,000 users to a new environments, due to an acquisition, demonstrates the power of us working together to deliver unimaginable benefit to customers.”

About Liquidware

Liquidware is the leader in adaptive workspace management solutions for Windows desktops. The company’s products encompass all facets of management to ensure the ultimate user experience across all workspaces – physical, virtual, DaaS or in the cloud. Enterprises across the globe utilize Liquidware solutions to dramatically decrease time spent managing desktops, while delivering increased security, flexibility and scalability. Supported platforms include Microsoft physical, WVD (Windows Virtual Desktop), and RDS desktops, Citrix Desktops, VMware Horizon View, Amazon WorkSpaces (AWS), and Nutanix Xi Frame. Liquidware products are available through a global network of partners.

Hologic, Inc, a global leader in women’s health, has completed its previously announced acquisition of molecular oncology leader Biotheranostics, Inc. for approximately $230 million. Biotheranostics develops and markets two highly differentiated molecular diagnostic tests for breast and metastatic cancers – Breast Cancer Index™ (BCI) and CancerTYPE ID® (CTID).

“We are very pleased to complete the acquisition of Biotheranostics and look forward to working with our new colleagues to grow in the large, rapidly expanding oncology space,” said Kevin Thornal, Hologic’s president, Diagnostic Solutions Division. “We are even more excited about the acquisition because last month the National Comprehensive Cancer Network revised its clinical practice guidelines to include Breast Cancer Index as the only gene expression assay to predict benefit from extended endocrine therapy for patients with early-stage hormone-receptor positive breast cancer.”

The National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) is a not-for-profit alliance of 30 leading cancer centers. Breast Cancer Index is recommended by the NCCN for prediction of which early-stage hormone receptor positive (HR+) breast cancer patients are likely to benefit from extended endocrine therapy.1 Terminating endocrine therapy in those patients unlikely to benefit may save healthcare dollars and reduce patient exposure to challenging side effects of therapy. Conversely, for patients needing prolonged treatment, Breast Cancer Index can provide the confidence of knowing that the treatment is reducing their risk of recurrence. The BCI test is also included in additional clinical practice guidelines for breast cancer, including those from the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO).2

Biotheranostics also developed and markets the CancerTYPE ID test, which provides a molecular diagnosis for patients with uncertain or unknown cancers. In advanced cancer that has metastasized, it can be difficult to determine the tumor type and subtype, information that is needed to optimize treatment selection, particularly with advancements in molecular targeted therapies. CTID compares genomic tumor information to a reference database to find the closest match, enabling physicians to design personalized treatment plans for patients with Unknown Primary Cancer and cases with diagnostic ambiguity.

The BCI and CTID tests are laboratory developed tests that are not required to be cleared or approved by the US Food and Drug Administration.

About Hologic, Inc.

Hologic, Inc. is an innovative medical technology company primarily focused on improving women’s health and well-being through early detection and treatment. For more information on Hologic, visit www.hologic.com.

Hologic and The Science of Sure are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Hologic, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries in the United States and/or other countries. Breast Cancer Index and CancerTYPE ID are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Biotheranostics, Inc.

Brainlab announced that the company has reached two major milestones with the FDA clearance for both Loop-X® Mobile Imaging Robot and Cirq®, a robotic surgical system. Following on CE mark approvals last summer, the FDA clearance paves the way for Brainlab to now enter the US markets with the Cirq robotic alignment module for spine procedures, and Loop-X, the first fully robotic intraoperative imaging device on the market.

The first-of-its-kind, Loop-X works seamlessly with the full Brainlab digital surgery portfolio or with a customer’s existing surgical setup. Independently moving imaging source and detector panels enable flexible patient positioning and non-isocentric imaging which reduces the amount of radiation exposure and increases the variety of indications which can be treated. This mobile imaging robot can be controlled wirelessly with a touchscreen tablet. Loop-X was developed in close collaboration between Brainlab and partner medPhoton based in Salzburg, Austria, where the first Loop-X was installed. Hospital San Juan de Dios León in Spain recently performed the world’s first navigated spine surgery using Loop-X mobile imaging robot technology.

Following on the success and growing install base for Cirq, a universal platform for robotic tasks, the new Cirq Robotic Alignment module is capable of fine tuning the alignment to a pre-planned trajectory and freeing up surgeons’ hands, enabling them to focus on the patient’s anatomy. Surgeons at Royal London Hospital in the United Kingdom have already used Cirq Robotic Alignment for a range of cases from routine lumbar fusions to complex deformity and cervical fractures.

“We’re expanding and diversifying our digital surgery portfolio with robotics across all indications,” said Sean Clark, President, Brainlab, Inc. “Our customers want to offer their patients advanced technologies close to home. Brainlab technologies are designed to enable greater freedom for clinicians and enhance outcomes for patients.”

The recent availability of these robotic medical devices is bringing a futuristic vision of the modern digital operating room closer to reality supporting surgeons in their day-to-day work and bringing benefits to their patients.
About Brainlab

Brainlab is a digital medical technology pioneer founded in 1989 and headquartered in Munich. The company employs more than 1,500 people in 20 offices around the globe. Brainlab serves physicians, medical professionals and their patients in over 5,600 hospitals in 116 countries.

Brainlab creates software-driven medical solutions that digitize, automate and optimize clinical workflows for neurosurgery, spine, trauma, craniomaxillofacial (CMF), general and vascular surgery as well as radiotherapy and radiosurgery. Core products center around surgical navigation, radiotherapy, digital operating room integration, and information and knowledge exchange. The Brainlab open framework operating system will allow third parties to develop medical applications to further advance the field of spatial computing and mixed reality.

Brainlab is dedicated to creating an impact in healthcare. The company connects opportunities from emerging digital technologies to transform healthcare at scale and help improve the lives of patients worldwide