Item 5424563 94/02/14 05:02 From: DARREN_SMITH@NEXT.COM@INET# Internet Gateway Subject: NEXTSTEP Healthcare MCCAs shown at HIMSS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Karen Logsdon NeXT Computer, Inc. 415/780-3786 CUSTOMERS BUILD ADVANCED HEALTHCARE SOLUTIONS USING NEXT'S OBJECT-ORIENTED TECHNOLOGY Object-oriented NEXTSTEP increases productivity of health information environments PHOENIX-February 14, 1994-At hospitals, HMOs, clinics and private practices around the world, healthcare professionals are choosing NEXTSTEP technology to turn information management into a competitive advantage and effective decision making tool. NEXTSTEP, the premier object-oriented operating environment available from NeXT Computer, Inc., as well as newly developed, mission-critical custom healthcare applications are being demonstrated at HIMSS this week in booth #835. With NEXTSTEP, programmers and developers at leading medical institutions are creating a new generation of healthcare solutions. For example, Mt. Clemens Hospital in Detroit, Michigan, has developed an object-oriented, patient-care system whereby the computerized system tracks and manages patient's demographic records, clinical information, appointment scheduling, order entry for tests and medication and referral management. This system took less than two years to build from concept to deployment. "We built logic into our new system, allowing it to function like an executive assistant, alerting caregivers to items such as duplicate tests and automatically updating nursing care plans for interventions," said Vimal Chowdhry, chief financial officer at Mt. Clemens Hospital. "Our bottom line is to improve patient care, but we expect the new system will also increase overall hospital efficiency, uniformity of care, quality documentation and provide an improved use of tests, procedures and supplies." Many healthcare organizations have discovered that building custom applications is one of their key competitive advantages. Using object-oriented NEXTSTEP and NEXTSTEP Developer, complex and dynamic applications can be written with far fewer lines of code, five to ten times faster than with traditional methods, and can be modified and maintained easily throughout their life cycle. Object-orientation enables an organization to build a library of reusable objects, improving programmer productivity and ensuring a higher degree of consistency, robustness and reliability across all applications in a client/server computing environment. The NEXTSTEP object advantage enabled customer Alberta Children's Hospital and its value-added reseller Logibec Information Group to develop and deploy mission-critical applications faster and at a lower cost than with traditional systems. According to Sam Tse of the Alberta Children's Hospital, "The most attractive thing about NEXTSTEP is the reduced cost of developing a system-about three to five times less than if we worked with another system. Plus, we think that NEXTSTEP is much more mature than tools in other environments." Advanced systems provide links to legacy data Healthcare customers are building these new, advanced systems without abandoning their links to existing systems and data. Where applications require legacy data integration or information system resources, NEXTSTEP provides seamless integration. Through a combination of advanced ObjectWare technology and emulation services, users are able to access PC and workstation-based applications from MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows and X-Windows. IBM mainframe and AS/400 systems are also supported with development tools that allow legacy data to be directly integrated into custom NEXTSTEP user interfaces. For customers who require support for MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows applications, NEXTSTEP comes bundled with a 30-day evaluation license of SoftPC from Insignia Solutions of Mountain View, Calif. Users can run their DOS/Windows applications in either full-screen mode or in a NEXTSTEP window with full support for copy and paste of graphics and text between DOS/Windows and NEXTSTEP applications. SoftPC also includes network support for applications that require Novell Netware (SPX/IPX) and Novell LAN Workplace (TCP/IP) network access. Where customers have large-scale legacy systems installed, 3270Builder from Conextions, Inc. of North Andover, Mass. offers an unprecedented ability to connect directly to mainframe applications. By providing a non-invasive data access schema, customers can access data that has historically been restricted to proprietary user interfaces or complex software development efforts through an intuitive database interface. As a result, information systems professionals can build sophisticated graphic user interfaces to mainframe applications or provide research access to legacy data without making any changes to the mainframe software. Availability and Pricing NEXTSTEP Release 3.2 and NEXTSTEP Developer Release 3.2 are available today. Pricing for NEXTSTEP for Intel processors and NEXTSTEP Developer is $795 and $1,995 respectively. Pricing for upgrades to NEXTSTEP for NeXT Computers and NEXTSTEP Developer for NeXT Computers is $195 and $495 respectively. They also are shipping today. NeXT Computer, Inc. NeXT develops and markets the award-winning NEXTSTEP object-oriented software for industry-standard computer architectures. Customers use NEXTSTEP to develop and deploy custom client/server applications, using both custom and shrink-wrapped software. Headquartered in Redwood City, California, and with offices throughout the world, NeXT serves customers requiring enterprise-wide, object-oriented productivity environments. # # # # NeXT, the NeXT logo and NEXTSTEP are registered trademarks of NeXT Computer, Inc. All other trademarks mentioned belong to their respective owners. =END=