FCGI First Consulting Grp (MM)

FCG (NASDAQ: FCGI) today announced that it has been selected a subcontractor with Sun Microsystems (B.C.) Inc., a subsidiary of Sun Microsystems of Canada Inc., to develop and implement an interoperable Electronic Health Record (iEHR) system for the province of British Columbia. As part of the project, FCG will implement its FirstGateways� software solution to provide a shared, easily accessible electronic record system that will play an integral role in increasing patient safety and reducing healthcare delivery costs. FirstGateways will collect and provide a central index to patient and clinical data from healthcare systems throughout British Columbia, which�will�provide integration and�fully secure access to healthcare data�only to authorized caregivers�in B.C. The FirstGateways web-enabled clinical portal will be used to securely present health records in the iEHR and link to other functional domain specific applications. The project is expected to give healthcare providers better access to primary care and other clinical data from hospitals, pharmacies, laboratories and diagnostic imaging systems. �British Columbia�s health network will serve as a model for all organizations, governmental or private, interested in increasing patient safety and reducing costs over time,� said Joseph Casper, President of FCG�s Software Products business unit. �We are pleased that this effort, led by Sun, will allow us to demonstrate the strength of the FirstGateways platform for developing practical community health information solutions.� The iEHR project will take advantage of the Sun Java� Composite Application Platform Suite (Java CAPS) for streamlined application development and management. This flexible, architecture allows the province to quickly and easily re-use and expand new and existing applications throughout the province and, in the future, operate with other Provincial and Federal initiatives which follow the Canada Health InfoWay standards and maintain a low total cost of ownership. In addition to providing the Java CAPS development platform, Sun will design, build, and implement the underlying identity management and access management solution for the iEHR and the complete hardware and software infrastructure required to connect local health data systems while consolidating and standardizing the province�s healthcare data. �Throughout North America, and across the world, forward-looking governments and other organizations are investing in technology systems that save lives and cut costs,� said Larry Ferguson, CEO of First Consulting Group. �The decision of Sun to call on a subcontract with FCG for one of the largest eHealth projects in North America illustrates our leadership in the Health Information Exchange area.� About FCG First Consulting Group (FCG) is a leading provider of outsourcing, consulting, systems implementation and integration for healthcare, pharmaceutical, and other life sciences organizations throughout North America, Europe and Asia. Through combinations of onsite, off-site and offshore resources, FCG provides low cost, high quality services to improve its clients' performance. The firm's consulting and integration services increase clients' operations effectiveness with information technology, resulting in reduced costs, improved customer service, enhanced quality of patient care, and more rapid introduction of new pharmaceutical compounds. For more information about FCG, visit www.fcg.com or call 800-345-0957. About FirstGateways� The FirstGateways Health Information Exchange system is built upon a powerful and flexible enterprise architecture to support initiatives that improve patient care and enable health caregivers to make better decisions by providing them with web-enabled, real-time access to patient data. The product is currently being deployed to serve a wide variety of enterprise, community, and regional data sharing and integration initiatives. FirstGateways offers a robust data integration engine with sophisticated security and privacy functionality that enables the collection, aggregation, distribution and analysis of patient data � collected from various source systems � and displayed via a consolidated portal view. FirstGateways serves as the foundation for immediate and strategic information needs. The result is a Virtual Electronic Medical Record that integrates patient-specific data from across a healthcare provider�s inpatient and outpatient environment. About Sun Microsystems (B.C.) Inc. Sun Microsystems (B.C.) Inc. is a subsidiary of Sun Microsystems of Canada Inc. Sun Microsystems of Canada Inc. is headquartered in Markham, Ontario. The company, which employs more than 640 persons, has offices in Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary, Vancouver and Victoria. Sun products and services are also available through Sun Authorized Independent Marketing Organizations and Sun(SM) Partner Advantage Program partners across Canada. For more information, visit http://sun.ca About British Columbia The British Columbia Ministry of Health is charged with the mission of guiding and enhancing the province's health services to ensure British Columbians are supported in their efforts to maintain and improve their health. The current Minster of Health is the Honourable George Abbott, who has held the post since June 16, 2005.