February 2024 will see MidexPRO celebrate 30 years of serving the medical community.
As one of the longest-running Private Practice Management software providers in the UK, it has seen many changes in technology and medical advancements over the years from when it was first written by Rodney and Jayne Howlett.
Let me take you back to 1990’s when the first UK commercial internet service provider, Pipex introduced dial-up internet to the UK. Its creation provided internet service to ONLY 150 customer sites!
Rodney & Jayne were writing clinical audit software and selling to the NHS at the time. When they were approached by a consultant who highlighted there were no suitable private practice packages for him to use, a light bulb moment for them both ended up with them writing the first version of MidexPRO.
Windows 3.1 was the first generally accepted stable version of Windows at the time and that platform was designed with graphics, so it allowed them to create the first real version of MidexPRO to be released as a product.
From the very beginning MidexPRO was designed to be a fully multi-practice, multi-user system and whenever a consultant bought the system, it was shipped to them on two, 1.4Mb floppy disks!
MidexPRO like many things was evolving just like the ‘90s.
In 1994 alongside MidexPRO becoming widely available to consultants as a functional tool, the first Nokia was launched as a cell phone. The Nokia 1011 changed the way cell phones were viewed and was the first mass produced phone.
Amazon and Yahoo were founded in 1994 and the NHS Organ Donor Register was also introduced saving countless lives ever since.
We all started watching Friends on TV and would you believe that Forrest Gump, The Shawshank Redemption, Pulp Fiction and Schindler’s List were released in the cinema in that year too.
Sunday Trading was made legal so we could all go shopping if we wanted to and of course, work longer hours just in time to buy a lottery ticket and become a millionaire for the first time with the National Lottery.
A much different time and with everything, technology changed and so too did the private medical sector with the advancement in technology both the internet and medical equipment began to advance.
Fast forward to 2008. The business was going well, and Gary Parker was employed to run the Support Desk helping clinicians on the phone and as he was based in Harley Street, often wandered down to a practice to help a medical secretary or consultant with the MidexPRO system. Updates to the software continued and more companies realised the potential of launching a Practice Management Software and competition was building!
Partnerships with external providers is something MidexPRO have been passionate about and one of the first was with Healthcode. Healthcode is the only clearing house for private invoices and linking MidexPRO with them was a must for the private sector. This partnership continues today and is by far the most important to our consultants.
In 2013 Rodney & Jayne made a decision that for the software to remain competitive in the market, that it would need a significant shake-up. A deal was reached with Gary taking over the business and he continued to carry MidexPRO forward to new horizons including becoming one of the first to be truly Cloud-based and establishing itself as the mature product you know it today.
Gary had one other person join him to help on the Support Desk until 2015. He worked with a software developer to take MidexPRO to the next level and create a Cloud version enabling it to be accessed anywhere in the world with an internet connection. This was aptly timed and enabled clients who were using the Windows version to have their data moved to the Cloud and open a whole new way of working.
In September 2016 and with the advent of the new GDPR legislation due to roll out in 2018, Caroline joined the team with Gary also expanding the Support Desk to offer better, quicker advice and training to clients.
Further adjustments to the software included email encryption and the compilation of a huge number of new processes to ensure compliance. Cyber Security, the DSPToolkit and ISO27001 standards became part of the day-to-day activity at MidexPRO in 2019 and was something we all had to read up on!
We all adjusted to living with the Covid years which saw many new technologies being developed to enable homeworking safely and securely. Some of those changes were implemented by MidexPRO software developers, some by research into which Partnerships would benefit integrating with MidexPRO. Afterall, why recreate the wheel when there is a mutual benefit to working with a company who are expert in their field.
All this coupled with taking payments through MidexPRO, a brand-new Patient Portal and bespoke software builds for clients, the business was and has grown beyond all expectations. It hasn’t been easy, and clients have been patient when things didn’t go to plan.
We are, and always will be, very grateful and humbled by every review, every kind email and even when we get not so favourable feedback, we don’t shy away from finding out how we can fix the problem and change.
In fact, most of our new business continues to come from referrals from those that use MidexPRO and this is testament to the vision we have carried through from all the way back to the beginning in 1994; to listen to clients and continue to find new ways to deliver a streamlined product fit for all medical specialities, Hospital Groups and Medical Secretaries in the private sector.
We cast a very wide Thank You to each person who has, did or continues to use MidexPRO over the years and to all our existing clients who continue to help shape the future of this wonderful piece of software.
Would you believe that we have one client who is still using MidexPRO from the very first version released on Windows floppy disks, through to the Cloud Version it is today! Leading Respiratory Clinician, Mr Bryan Sheinman. How brilliant and is that, also clinical Oncologist Dr Alan Makepeace is also still using MidexPRO and he bought the system in 1999. Now that’s loyalty!
We couldn’t do it without them. We also couldn’t do it without the team who have worked so hard to make the product what it is today.
We have never needed to have a big team at MidexPRO. Managing the growth of the business in line with demand has been tricky but by keeping a team that works and plays together, we have been lucky enough to have kept core team members with us for years.
Special mention to Adam Godowski who joined us in May 2018 and Nathan Howse who joined a few months later in the October of 2018
Both young men have seen MidexPRO change and have been part of that journey. We have had the pleasure of shaping their knowledge in both technology and customer service and helping them to expand their careers with us.
With Alastair and Daniel on Support working on other projects like the User Guide and Migrations, the team’s activity goes beyond answering queries and training.
Recently with my stepping back from the day-to-day activity of MidexPRO and Lisa Darby joining, we will see another phase of MidexPRO emerging over the next few months and this is exciting but for now, we look at the enormous milestone we head towards in having a product that has been an asset to clinicians for 30 years.
As a business, we have donated over £170,000 to charitable causes in the years Gary has been MD. He has led that drive from the front with numerous events raised by his own hand or by involving the team in events like Tough Mudder. Some 294 voluntary hours has been given by myself to charitable causes over the years, offering advice and structure to support charities needing guidance and advice on growing income.
As a team we have supported, disadvantaged children in schools, local hospices, foodbanks, women’s refuges, mental health charities and larger National causes like Breast Cancers’ Wear it Pink campaign and Prostate Cancer UK
As part of our celebrations, we decided to involve our clients in something the business holds dear and that’s supporting charitable causes. Gary has pledge to give away £10,000 to causes nominated by our clients. We are asking clients to submit a nomination and in April, those causes will share in the money MidexPRO will give away.
This time, our clients can highlight a cause that they would like us to donate to. If you are a client, click the link (Requests no longer being taken) to fill in the details needed and submit your nomination.
On a personal note, and yes he is my husband, but I would like to thank Gary for all the extra hours he has worked to make the business what it is today.
As any business owner knows, the stress and the pleasures of running a company come hand in hand but without the passion to drive the big tech machine forward, we would have fallen by the wayside by now and swallowed up by bigger fishes in the Private Practice Management Software Pond.
I also know it would be remiss of me not to mention how eternally grateful Gary is for the opportunity given him by Rodney and Jayne all those years ago. Something I know he will never ever forget.
MidexPRO continues to be a great piece of technology driven by a small and perfectly formed team.
Long may it continue.
Caroline Corrigan Parker
Director, MidexPRO.