Foresight and perseverance winning through
With a growing presence in Europe, Aptvision has evolved from working on bespoke software projects to concentrating on one product and one sector
After developing a robust radiology information system for one of its clients, former bespoke software company Aptvision is now solely focused on enhancing this product and expanding its healthcare client base.
Aptvision was set up in 2012 by Paul Wierzbicki, who had started working as a freelance software developer a year previously. He was soon joined in the company by his brothers Marek and Thomas. Initial projects included ticketing systems for Croke Park and Semple Stadium, and a sales solution for SuperValu to sell GAA tickets in its stores.
In 2014, the company was commissioned to develop an e-commerce system for medical company Affidea (rebranded from Euromedic), which specialises in radiology imaging and operated five clinics in Dublin, Cork and Kilkenny at the time.
Identifying inefficiencies in Affidea’s radiology information system, as well as a lack of connection to its business processes, Aptvision proposed creating a solution that would deal with its real operational challenges.
The company delivered a new, fully integrated system in late 2015 and rolled it out to all of Affidea’s Irish locations during 2016. “Since then, thanks to our system being at the core of its operations, Affidea has been able to grow to seven large and nine small clinics across Ireland,” says Wierzbicki.
Other countries in the Affidea group are now adopting Aptvision’s system. “We are currently installing it in Affidea clinics in Poland and Hungary and hope to take over the whole organisation [12 European countries] in the next two to three years,” notes Wierzbicki.
Importantly, the system has been designed with the ability to operate multiple sites simultaneously. According to Wierzbicki, this is by far the biggest innovation and possibly unique on a global scale. “All healthcare systems have always been very much single location oriented – one hospital, one system,” he explains.
Aptvision’s radiology information system has now become the company’s sole product. “We decided not to do any more bespoke work but rather focus on improving the system and finding more and more clients in the sector.”
The company now employs nine staff at its head office in Citywest in Dublin, as well as two in its Birmingham office and six in Lodz, Poland.
Current clients are mainly radiology clinics and radiology departments in hospitals but the company is now expanding to other healthcare areas, including ophthalmology and otolaryngology.
Immediate plans for 2018 include executing the Affidea contract in Poland and Hungary, which will result in over 50 new clinics at the end of the year. The company also hopes to secure an NHS contract to unify reporting for multiple hospitals in the North West London Trusts and to convert several prospects in the private sector in the UK and Ireland.
“We will also expand beyond radiology to other ‘-ologies’. There is strong interest from Specsavers in the UK,” says Wierzbicki.
“We will also expand beyond radiology to other ‘-ologies’. There is strong interest from Specsavers in the UK”