ABOUT US

iPLATO leads the field in mobile health promotion, using wireless technology to help healthcare providers improve the health of patients.  Our solutions are improving patient access to healthcare, enabling population-wide personalised mobile health promotion and supporting people with long term conditions.

The clear benefits associated with our products and approach, has driven the adoption of iPLATO solutions across over 40 NHS organisations - including 35 Primary Care Trusts.

MISSION

iPLATO Healthcare uses mobile technology to help healthcare providers, professionals and payers improve the health of patients and populations. Provided in partnership with leading healthcare software suppliers, our solutions improve patient access to healthcare, enable population-wide, personalised mobile health promotion campaigns and support people with long term conditions.

HISTORY

iPLATO is a privately owned limited company founded in London in the autumn of 1999.  In 2003, the company was awarded a SMART Feasibility Grant by the Department of Trade & Industry to study the feasibility for national implementation of a system to remind outpatients about scheduled appointments, using text messaging technology.  This became the first step on the road to realising the true potential of wireless technology in healthcare.

The European Venture Contest, organised by the European Commission, recognised iPLATO as one of the top ten early stage technology ventures ready to “reshape their industry and to conquer the global market” and featured on the Red Herring Europe Top 200 of companies to watch in 2006. 

Over the last five years, iPLATO has invested substantial resources towards overcoming the barriers to entry of the healthcare market and now provides successful healthcare solutions to NHS organisations throughout the United Kingdom - building a promising business around its flagship service ‘Patient Care Messaging’.

VISION

Wireless Healthcare will increasingly play a vital role in improving the health of UK populations in the coming years. With a well balanced team of wireless experts and a significant number of strong client relationships, iPLATO is well placed to deliver the innovation and expertise necessary to realise this exciting opportunity.

MANAGEMENT

In the relatively young ‘wireless’ sector our success is based on three factors:

• Knowledge of the wireless market
• Comprehensive and specialised expertise in products and services
• Exceptional management experience

iPLATO’s first-class management team reflects this successful model.

Tobias Alpsten - Managing Director

Tobias Alpsten is an executive with proven track record of business development, solution delivery, innovation and cross-national leadership.   Under Tobias’ leadership, iPLATO Healthcare raised seed funding to expand its mobile health business to serve healthcare providers such at the St Bartholomew’s Hospital, the Royal London Hospital and the Saad Hospital in Saudi Arabia, a handful of Mental Health Trusts and over thirty Primary Care Trusts in addition to pharmaceutical companies such as AstraZeneca, Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline.

Tobias started his career at Société Générale defining and implementing strategic improvement to the investment bank’s trading and workflow systems in Paris, Tokyo, London and Singapore. Moving into management consulting Tobias joined Accenture’s Paris office in 1996. Later based at Accenture in London, Tobias joined the Internet revolution in 1997 specialising in e-procurement strategy. Tobias left Accenture to set up iPLATO in London in 2000. 

Tobias holds a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology from KTH (the Royal Institute of Technology) in Stockholm and ENST (Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications) in Paris. He is trilingual in English, French and Swedish.

Martin Rowden - Director Finance & Operations

As a qualified Chartered Accountant, Martin has more than 18 years experience as an Operations and Finance Director, general chartered accountant, consultant and project manager.

Martin spent over 10 years with PriceWaterhouseCoopers in both Canada and Australia as a manager in the Financial Advisory Services division before moving to the UK in 1997 and starting his own project management/consulting business.

During his time with PwC Martin worked with and for some of the world’s premier financial institutions. He managed and participated in a vast range of projects including, rapid operational turnarounds, viability assessments and a wide range of executive assignments including court supervised restructurings and private appointments.

Martin joined Tobias at iPLATO in February 2001. In 2005 he co-founded iPLATO Healthcare with Tobias and has been responsible for all Financial and Operational matters within both businesses.

Tom Fletcher - Head of Sales & Marketing

Joining iPLATO in 2006, Tom has since then played a major role in the expansion of iPLATO’s Primary Care ‘footprint’, culminating in the Trust wide roll out of iPLATO Patient Care Messaging across 10 Primary Care Trusts in the first quarter of 2008.  An excellent communicator with a proven track record of business development, product marketing, client engagement and commercial acumen, Tom and his team are responsible for all aspects of iPLATO Sales and Marketing to the UK Primary Care sector.

Sheena Macpherson - Head of Health Support

Sheena studied at Durham University, after graduating she joined a small start-up company. Sheena joined iPLATO in June 2006 and now heads the iPLATO Health Support Team in the UK. The Health Support Team is responsible for coordinating and supporting our Healthcare partners in the planning and delivering of evidence based population-wide health improvement campaigns.

Jirka Orlik - Head of Technology

Jirka Orlik is a member of iPLATO’s pan-European management team in the capacity of Head of Technology of the Solution Delivery Centre.  Jirka’s background includes strong experience in IP network development and management with a leading Czech Internet service provider.  In addition to his management skills, Jirka has extensive knowledge and certifications in a range of Internet technologies such as Java, Java script, HTML, WML, XML, SSL, PHP, Linux administration and Internet/Web distributed systems.  Jirka has been an integral member of the iPLATO Solution Delivery Centre since its creation in May 2000 and now leads the technical expertise and development of the team in Pardubice.

NON-EXECUTIVE TEAM

Phil Sissons - Non-Executive Director

Over 30 years in the IT Services industry, Phil worked with many different client sectors including manufacturing, finance, petrochemicals and healthcare in the UK, Europe and the Far East.  Phil’s grounding in IT and IS industry came from fourteen years with Comshare after graduating from Bradford University as a Computer Scientist in the early 70’s.  After five years leading Oracle Corporation’s Healthcare Division, in 1994 Phil moved to SMS United Kingdom to sharpen his focus on Healthcare information systems. As SMS United Kingdom’s MD, Phil continued the delivery of clinical and administrative systems for the Health Service in the UK, through acquisitions and sales successes. At both Oracle and SMS, significant revenue growth was achieved through organic and acquisitive growth. 

Since 1989, Phil has strongly supported the Intellect UK trade association, particularly in the Healthcare Interest Group.  For the years of 1995/96 and 1999/2001, Phil held the role of Chairman of the Healthcare group and is currently on the Intellect UK Board and the Health Council.  Phil represented the Health Computing industry on many issues (including standards, procurement, and PFI) with the Health Service.  Leaving SMS in 1998, Phil worked with a number of NHS Organisations in procuring software and services.  In recent projects, Phil project managed the NHS Email and Directory procurement and the NHSnet replacement procurement. From December 2002 to April 2004, Richard Granger chose Phil to represent the National Programme for NHS IT to Industry and vice versa. Phil joined iPLATO as a non-executive director in January 2006.

Dr Josip Car - Chief Medical Officer

Director of eHealth Unit
Division of Epidemiology, Public Health & Primary Care, Imperial College, London

Dr Josip Car joined the iPLATO family as Chief Medical Officer in April 2008.  As Director of the eHealth Unit at Imperial College and a General Practitioner, Josip is well placed to contribute to the acceleration of development in iPLATO’s service offering.

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES

We consider our people to be iPLATO’s most valuable asset and resource. We are always interested in hearing from qualified business and technical consultants experienced in the application of wireless technologies to business. If you would like us to consider your qualifications, please send a full CV and cover letter to jobs@iplato.net  [See Current Openings]