L&H Pays $9.3m for UK Medical Coding Specialist

Computergram International, Sept 1, 1999

Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products NV is paying up to 5.8m pounds ($9.3m) to acquire a company that established the coding standard for medical records in the UK. Its purchase of Computer Aided Medical Systems Ltd (CAMS) gives L&H a pivotal position in the medical market in the UK with the potential for growth in Europe.

CAMS is responsible for Read Codes, a standard method of classifying clinical terms in the UK that can be shared between medical professionals and enable medical records to be more easily analyzed. While L&H has seen the medical sector as one of the key vertical markets, particularly for its dictation products, the CAMS acquisition takes it into the coding market and an opportunity to create a comprehensive medical reporting package.

The development of IT systems in the UK's state-run National Health Service has never been short of controversy and Read Codes, named after developer Dr James Read, have been criticized as being less comprehensive than international standards in certain specialist areas. However, supporters of the system have hopes that they could eventually be adopted as the standard for the European Community which would dramatically widen the market.

L&H plans to voice-enable the ReadEngine software and develop a version that would automatically identify and code medical terminology in text, eliminating a task now done by coding specialists. L&H is paying 3.8m pounds ($6.1m) for CAMS with an earn-out of 2m pounds ($3.2m) and says the acquisition will be accretive in 2000.