As part of its effort to widen its range of clinical software solutions, Harris Computer Systems has acquired Newark, New Jersey-based clinical communications company Uniphy Health.

As part of the deal, Uniphy Health’s team of around 24 employees will join Harris Healthcare under its clinical services umbrella and Uniphy CEO Adam Turinas will transition into the position of vice president of Uniphy Health Solutions. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“There’s been continued interest and growth within clinical communications and we reached the conclusion that being part of a bigger organization would give us the scale to to really capitalize on the opportunity,” Turinas said in a phone interview.

Outside of specialty health IT providers like Uniphy, consumer technology companies like Microsoft and Slack have started to make moves into the clinical communications space.

The industry in a period of consolidation with recent deals including Hill-Rom Holdings’ acquisition of communication company Voalte and Austin, Texas-based startup Medici’s purchase of secure messaging company DocbookMD.

The current incarnation of Uniphy Health was itself formed by a 2016 merger between Practice Unite and Uniphy Health. The company positioned itself as a clinical communications tool that was able to work both within the inpatient setting as well as in acute and post-acute care settings.

The company creates specially configured apps for healthcare providers with a range of potential features including secure messaging, the ability to share patient notes and mobile access to lab and diagnostic results.

Uniphy said that its mobile and desktop apps currently reach more than 90,000 clinicians at health systems like Hackensack Meridian Health, UNC Health Care, Catholic Health Services of Long Island and BayCare.

“What we’re seeing is communications technologies becoming a part of the fabric of all healthcare systems, where we’ve seen the opportunity with Uniphy specifically has been the ability to stretch out past the four walls of the hospital,” Turinas said.

“What’s differentiated Uniphy is the ability to customize and configure our tools to meet a much broader set of needs of clinicians like connecting to physicians out in the community, as well as social workers, home care aides and caregivers across the entire healthcare system.”

Harris had already been collaborating with Uniphy through their shared client Hunterdon Healthcare, which integrated Uniphy’s communication tools with Harris’ EHR system.

Making Uniphy a part of Harris’ suite of software solutions will allow for even greater integration with a wider range of features, while also significantly boosting the company’s sales and marketing apparatus.

“By acquiring us they’re filling a gap in their portfolio and right off the bat we’re seeing many different synergies across their broad portfolio of clinical solutions like the EHR, patient access and patient experience technologies and revenue cycle management technologies,” Turinas said.

Harris Healthcare offers a wide range of technology solutions for the healthcare industry ranging from care coordination tools to patient experience management software to financial and resource planning services.

In the past year, Harris made a number of acquisitions to bolster its product offerings including EHR integration company Iatric Systems and the Decision Support Systems division of Vizient.

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