CIO Magazine Presents Award to MacGregor Medical Association's Tandem-based Patient Care Solution; MacGregor's Clinical Information System receives CIO's Enterprise Value Award.

HOUSTON--(BW HealthWire)--March 24, 1997--CIO magazine last month honored MacGregor Medical Association with the Enterprise Value Award for the physician group's innovative use of technology to improve patient care.

The award, given to companies that deliver exemplary value to customers through unique application of information technology, specifically recognizes MacGregor Medical's Clinical Information System (CIS) for providing more cost-effective tracking of patients' medical histories. The information system is based on Tandem(R) Computers Incorporated massively scalable NonStop(R) Himalaya(R) servers.

MacGregor developed CIS to solve one persistent, expensive, and quality-depleting problem -- the lack of immediate access to up-to-date patient information. The Houston-based HMO opted to run CIS on Tandem's server and database because of its reputation for reliability, availability, and scalability. Tandem's massively parallel NonStop SQL database manages the 60 gigabytes of data, including more than 1 million patient records, 3.5 million progress notes, 25 million lab results, and 9,600 perinatal records.

"We've not only been able to reduce costs, but we have also seen significant increase in the early detection of disease and in the accuracy of our doctors' diagnoses because of the availability of timely information," said James Birge, M.D., medical director and CEO of MacGregor Medical.

"The doctors and patients in our network now depend heavily on the Clinical Information System. Tandem's technology has performed flawlessly, assuring continuous access to vital information. Perhaps the most important benefit of the system is that it makes proactive care possible."

Caregivers in the MacGregor network retrieve records via CIS workstation clients linked to a eight-processor Tandem Himalaya K20000 server. It is important that patient information is retrieved quickly by each caregiver. MacGregor claims that its Himalaya server delivers typical response times in the one-to-two second range.

"We congratulate MacGregor for this prestigious honor," said Patrick Smyth, Tandem's vice president of worldwide marketing. "Tandem worked closely with MacGregor to achieve maximum reliability and efficient response times on Tandem's powerful server and database technologies. CIS is an extraordinary application and we're pleased to be part of MacGregor's success."

Cutting-edge patient care

By providing instant access to patient records, medical history, and other information, CIS reduces the cost of distribution and provides information needed to accurately diagnose patients. Previously, doctors in the MacGregor network relied on the normal industry method for distributing patient records -- manual delivery.

Because of the 23 clinical sites and the size of Houston, doctors sometimes failed to receive records in time for patient visits. Therefore, these doctors could diagnose patients based only on observations during the visits and on the patients' sometimes faulty recollection or poor awareness of their own medical conditions.

However, by integrating other features such as scheduling and billing capabilities, CIS quickly proved to be more valuable than merely a store of patient data. CIS now allows doctors to see the big picture and to view trends both from a macro and micro perspective. Visitation activity, treatment methods, success among MacGregor's patient population, and other variables can be tracked for patterns and analyzed for ways to improve the quality of care.

About Tandem

Founded in 1974, Tandem Computers Incorporated (NYSE:TDM) designs and delivers technology solutions that companies rely on to compete in a business world that runs 24 hours a day. A US$1.9 billion company headquartered in Cupertino, Calif., Tandem has offices, strategic partners, and service providers in more than 50 countries. Tandem press materials are also available on NEWSdesk International on the World Wide Web at http://www.newsdesk.com . -0-

Note to Editors: Tandem, Himalaya, NonStop, and the Tandem logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Tandem Computers Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. All other brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

CONTACT: Tandem Computers

David Collins, 408/285-5833

or

MacGregor Medical Association

Katie Kasparik, 713/741-2273 ext. 4424