IBM to Acquire Healthlink

IBM Corp., Armonk, N.Y., will acquire Healthlink Inc., a Houston-based health care information technology consulting firm. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. The addition of Healthlink will significantly increase IBM's consulting services to the health care industry, particularly in the provider segment, says Neil de Crescenzo, health care industry leader at IBM. The giant computing firm in February 2004 announced a three-year initiative to bring new technologies and services to the health care market and boost its overall presence in the industry. One of the initiative's goals was to provide new consulting services-using clinicians as consultants-to assist provider organizations in transforming clinical practices. Healthlink has expertise in improving processes to achieve better outcomes and improve cash flow, and more than half of its 550 consultants have clinical backgrounds, de Crescenzo says. The consulting firm also will bring to IBM expertise in implementing information systems from most major health care I.T. vendors, he adds. Following the acquisition, Healthlink will form the core of IBM's new provider practice within its business consulting services unit, de Crescenzo says. Ivo Nelson, CEO of Healthlink, will lead the provider practice.