After the implementation of hepic in the Nove de Julho’s Hospital in Brazil, Group First is now launching the solution in three more Brazilian hospitals: Lifecenter’s Hospital in Belo Horizonte, Santa Marcelina’s and Cidade Tirandentes’ Hospitals in Sao Paulo.

Zonadvanced, a First Group company, specialized in solutions for telecommunications and video communications, has recently established an agreement with norwegian Ceelab for distribution of video conferencing products in the portuguese market.

First Solutions has again been recognized as a SME leader. This status is awarded to portuguese companies with superior performance profiles. It aims to strengthen the SME leader visibility of intermediate-sized companies that comprise the most competitive segment of the national economy functions as a seal of reputation and encouragement in the pursuit of business dynamics, which contribute to sustainable wealth creation and social welfare.

FIRST is a Portuguese company that triumphed in creating, developing, implementing and supporting specialized software solutions for healthcare. FIRST’s history dates back to 2001. At this stage it was still linked to a group where José Correia de Sousa was a partner. Three years later, he bought the whole of this structure and the following year he formed Group FIRST, which specializes in the creation, development, implementation and support of specialized software solutions in healthcare.

First has developed a solution which is prepared for the dematerialisation of medical prescription, the ePM-Rx (Electronic Patient Management – Prescription). The ePM-Rx is a web solution which includes a set of functionalities which provide support to the prescription.

FIRST is present, for the third consecutive year, at the “Hospitalar Fair” in Sao Paulo, Brazil Bringing together exhibitors from around the world, ‘Hospitalar’, the largest health forum and exhibition in Latin America, is today a vital channel for access to the various innovative products and services of global health.

Integrated within the company`s expansion policy, FIRST moves its headquarters to the ‘Burgo’ Tower in Avenida da Boavista, Porto, in July. The building is signed by the renowned Architect Souto Moura, who was recently awarded the Pritzker Prize, "Nobel of Architecture".

FIRST recently entered the Polish market by opening an office in Warsaw. After an in-depth market study, Poland was noted to have an enormous business potential, being a European Union country with almost 40 million inhabitants and with a GDP forecast for 2011 of growth exceeding 4%.