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Health IT Company's Largest Single Contract Puts It on Radar Screens

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Health IT company wins $3 million contract, as well as begins to pilot its VIA Marketplace blockchain system.

HealthSpace Data Systems Ltd. (HS:CSE; BGGWF:OTC) has acquired a new contract for $3.064 million—the largest contract in the company's history—with the Virginia Department of Health. Healthspace is a software developer and service provider for over 300 state and local government health agencies in North America, including the Virginia Department of Health, the Tennessee Departments of Health and Agriculture and Health Canada.

The company will implement and operate its CS Pro Enterprise cloud application for the duration of the five-year contract.

The enterprise application will be used by the Office of Environmental Health within the state health department. The division oversees programs focused on lead-based paint, shellfish, marine habitats, bedding, upholstery and furniture, etc. There are about 500 environmental health professionals working in this part of the Department of Public Health, with additional support staff. Their work activities are policy development, training, programmatic oversight and technical support.

"This is the largest single contract ever signed by HealthSpace and is a tremendous endorsement of our new cloud technology," explained HealthSpace President Joseph Wilmott.

Over 20 proposals were submitted by various vendors for the VA Dept. of Public Health contract, and HealthSpace was victorious.

The company has developed and maintained the current internet-based client-server system since 2003. The Department of Public Health now wants to migrate to a cloud-based system.

"Because of its size, it's going to put us on the radar with other jurisdictions that are interested in statewide programs. It increases the probability of us getting contracts of this nature and of this size with the other states that are out there," stated Ali Hakimzadeh, the company's chairman and a director.

The cloud-based system is expected to be rolled out by March 2019.

"We had been building out our technology stack since 2012 to have a fully functional cloud activity. We did recognize as technologies advance we needed to be far more agnostic in terms of what we could provide to a department or any government organization," said Joseph Wilmott, HealthSpace's president.

A new contract for a cloud-based system was also signed with a county health department in Indiana, this one for $36,300.

Additionally, in late April, HealthSpace reported that Safe and Sound Food Safety Consultants, which provides audit services to food service facilities in New York and Los Angeles, purchased the HSCloud and HSTouch components of the CS Pro suite. According to the company, "this will allow Safe and Sound to more efficiently track violations and data for their clients, while staying on top of what matters most: food safety."

That contract "constitutes the first major auditor to begin using HS CS Pro in the private sector space for third party audits," HealthSpace noted.

Los Angeles-based Safe and Sound Food Safety Consultants has a 30-year history in food service management. The consultancy has been contracted by Ecosure to "audit all Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) in New York City, as well as Hilton Hotels (NYSE:HLT), TGI Friday's (NYSE:TGI) and McDonalds (NYSE:MCD)."

HealthSpace President Joseph Willmott stated, "Food safety audits and brand protection is a rapidly growing business sector. Public awareness is expanding causing private audits to become a larger and larger portion of the $900 billion food service industry in North America."

In March, HealthSpace released a white paper, "The VIA Marketplace," on a system for connecting private industry and government using blockchain technology. VIA stands for "Verification, Inspection and Audit Marketplace." According the company, "the whitepaper provides a guiding basis for defining business strategy and use cases as well as outlining the technical thesis on how HealthSpace and partners will achieve this vision."

The company noted that "the VIA Marketplace proposes a robust mechanism for the simple transmission, sharing and access of data between government and private industry for the furtherance of health and safety. This is accomplished by allowing private industry to have direct access into the regulatory inspections performed against them and subsequently sharing their own audits for self-reporting, similar to the way an IRS tax filing works."

HealthSpace CTO Silas Garrison noted, "We believe the solutions proposed in the whitepaper constitute a revolutionary change in the approach of how governments and private industry exchange data. With the forthcoming release of our alpha phase prototype, we are extremely excited about what's next for HealthSpace."

The VIA Marketplace is one step closer to the real world environment with the announcement on May 3 that Peterborough Public Health in Peterborough, Ontario, "has agreed to be the first environmental regulatory agency to pilot the VIA Marketplace."

Health officials will use HSTouch to enter inspections and audits. HealthSpace will transmit the data to the Ethereum Blockchain. According to the company, "the arrangement with Peterborough will mark the first implementation of an environmental regulatory app to transmit public health inspections to the blockchain, in real-time."

CTO Garrison stated, "This pilot is a crucial step in demonstrating how HealthSpace is perfectly positioned to bring blockchain technology to the government sector. It is an evolution of our technology stack that now incorporates Cloud, Blockchain and Mobile in one fell swoop. All of this is pivotal as we bring our technology into the private sector to prove how it can improve the health and safety of consumers in everything from food service to cannabis distribution to the agricultural supply chain."

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Disclosure:
1) Jake Richardson compiled this article for Streetwise Reports LLC and provides services to Streetwise reports as an independent contractor. He or members of his household own securities of the following companies mentioned in the article: None. He or members of his household are paid by the following companies mentioned in this article: None.
2) The following companies mentioned in this article are billboard sponsors of Streetwise Reports: None. Click here for important disclosures about sponsor fees. As of the date of this article, an affiliate of Streetwise Reports has a consulting relationship with HealthSpace Data Systems Ltd. Please click here for more information.
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5) From time to time, Streetwise Reports LLC and its directors, officers, employees or members of their families, as well as persons interviewed for articles and interviews on the site, may have a long or short position in securities mentioned. Directors, officers, employees or members of their immediate families are prohibited from making purchases and/or sales of those securities in the open market or otherwise from the time of the interview or the decision to write an article, until one week after the publication of the interview or article. As of the date of this article, officers and/or employees of Streetwise Reports LLC (including members of their household) own securities of HealthSpace Data Systems Ltd., a company mentioned in this article.





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