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MSA, VPI of Canada Will Combine to Build New Medical Teleconferencing System, Seek Medical Business in Canada PITTSBURGH, PA - March 6, 2002 - Management Science Associates, Inc., (MSA) and Virtual Professionals, Inc. (VPI) of London, Ontario, have announced a new business partnership to pursue opportunities in telemedicine and videoconferencing technology. Initially, the two companies will join forces to build a telepsychiatry network for the Canadian Health Infrostructure Partnerships Program (CHIPP). MSA has also acquired a significant financial interest in VPI for the purpose of pursuing additional medical business in Canada. The announcements were made today by Dr. Alfred A. Kuehn, founder and chairman of MSA and John J. Eberhard, president of VPI. VPI is general contractor of a consortium of Ontario hospitals and psychiatric facilities, including St. Joseph's Health Care London and The Chippewas of the Thames Nation Economic Development Corp. that has been awarded a $2.5 million contract to build a telepsychiatry network for the CHIPP Program. "Project Outreach" is a program that provides psychiatric services for patients who live in remote areas of Ontario. Telepsychiatry employs telephones, videoconferencing, closed-circuit television, communications satellites and the Internet to facilitate provision of outpatient services. "MSA's Medical Division partnered with VPI in preparing the winning proposal with St Joseph's Health Care London for the CHIPP contract and will design and build a prototype electronic medical record system with the department of Psychiatry representing medical schools from The University of Toronto, The University of Western, The University of Ottawa, and Mc Master University in Ontario that focuses on the delivery of psychiatric care via telemedicine," according to David B. Parrish, vice president of MSA's Medical Division. "The goal is to establish a viable information architecture that will support the delivery of telemedicine nationwide. MSA will bring its expertise in medical informatics, data management and analytics, and in addition, VPI and MSA will join forces to seek additional medical business in Canada," Mr. Parrish said. Project Outreach will be used throughout the Province of Ontario and is expected, initially, to connect some 40 remote, local healthcare centres, via a real-time, interactive teleconferencing network, with major urban hospital and mental health facilities in Ontario's urban teaching and academic centers of London, Ottawa, Hamilton and Toronto. Half of the remote centers will be First Nation community facilities located on Indian reservations; the other half are municipally operated hospitals. Through teleconferencing, doctors in urban medical centers can speak to and interact with patients living in rural areas directly and as often as necessary to affect positive medical outcomes. VPI's expertise is in the development of telemedicine protocols and in the integration and administration of diverse telecommunication technologies to serve the medical community, according to Mr. Eberhard. In addition, VPI offers strategic planning, recruitment and training services, performance and system management and employee relations' services for medical telecommunications centers. "Increasing cultural sensitivity is particularly important for "big city doctors" treating people in remote Native communities such as exist in large areas of Ontario." Mr. Eberhard said. " Although initially aimed at psychiatric services, the software is adaptable to providing other medical or social services as well. Family physicians, nurses, social workers, counselors, technicians and government agencies, as well as First Nation agencies will have access to the system. Patient privacy and the security of patient records will be assured with only authorized individuals having access to the information," he concluded. "Project Outreach has helped to reduce the high cost of patient or physician travel in rural areas and to avoid costly hospitalization for mental health problems," states Dr. Robbie Campbell, Project Director of Project Outreach. "Telepsychiatry permits the patient and psychiatrist to interact and utilize the resources of large, urban medical centers without the expense and delay of travel to and from those centers. It is important to note that telepsychiatry is not designed to eliminate current face-to-face service, but to be complementary and respectful of traditional referral patterns." MSA's Medical Division will work with the universities to build an Electronic Psychiatric Record system (EPR) to exchange patient information, consolidate that information into useful reports and coordinate the scheduling of patient sessions and satellite availability. Through the use of distributed database technologies, a virtual patient record will be created that will address concerns of patient confidentiality, health information access, as well as provide a longitudinal view of the patient's history. This virtual patient record will connect various government sponsored databases and systems, allowing clinics, hospitals and doctors to share patient information. The new system will also serve as a cultural information and education tool enabling doctors to better understand the social context in which their patients reside. MSA has been a pioneer in both computer and communications developments for the Internet. An MSA-developed multi-level browser preceded the introduction of both the Netscape and Microsoft Explorer products and was eventually incorporated into both of them. In media, the company established the standard for Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). The company's "BusinessWeb" system provides broad scale distribution of media and marketing services to thousands of users via the Internet and intranets. MSA analytical tools have been employed in analyzing medical, clinical and healthcare data since 1994. Some of these tools have proved highly effective in the study of the progression of disease and in analyzing patient healthcare data in the U.S. and abroad. Founded in 1963, MSA is a Pittsburgh-based world leader in informatics, data management and analytics. The company has become a key provider of information and data solutions for the healthcare and biotech industries in recent years. The Medical Division has been previously involved in breast cancer, leukemia and lymphoma projects. This past year the company was one of only two bidders for the national contract to manage the organ transplant program for the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Resources.