VantageMed® and DrFirst Announce Distribution Partnership | DrFirst

RANCHO CORDOVA, Calif.-October 1, 2004-VantageMed Corporation (OTCBB: VMDC.OB) and DrFirst, Inc., announced today a distribution agreement under which VantageMed will integrate DrFirst’s RCOPIASM electronic prescribing management solution with VantageMed’s RidgeMark® practice management software solution. The HL7-based integration will enable the two systems to work together to bring the power and benefits of handheld charge capture and electronic prescribing to RidgeMark users.

“By combining RCOPIA’s electronic prescribing and charge capture capabilities with RidgeMark, one of the industry’s leading practice management systems, providers will now be able to electronically write and transmit prescriptions from their office or on the road, leveraging RCOPIA’s mobile capabilities and its interfaces with the pharmacy benefit management companies on one end and the pharmacies on the other”, said John Bartos, Jr., President of DrFirst.

According to Richard M. Brooks, Chief Executive Officer for VantageMed, “This represents a great partnership for our company and our customers. Our HL7-based interfaces allow us to integrate with best in class clinical systems such as DrFirst’s RCOPIA. By integrating these two highly successful and widely used programs, we feel that we are giving RidgeMark users access to the ideal end to end solution for mobile electronic prescribing and charge capture.”

About VantageMed
VantageMed is a provider of healthcare information systems and services distributed to over 12,000 customer sites nationwide. Its suite of software products and services automates administrative, financial, clinical and management functions for physicians and other healthcare providers as well as provider organizations. For more information about RidgeMark, please call 877-879-8633, or visit www.vantagemed.com.

About DrFirst
Utilizing the latest advancements in Internet, security, wireless, web and Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) technology, DrFirst provides a suite of integrated, affordable, intuitive and easily implemented products and services for the healthcare community. DrFirst’s products include electronic prescribing, charge capture and secure messaging. These comprehensive solutions solve critical communication, business productivity and clinical needs of physicians, clinics, and health systems.

This press release may be deemed to contain “forward-looking statements” as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any forward-looking statements are made as of today’s date and we do not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements. You can identify such statements by our use of such words as “should,” “expect,” “will,” “intends,” and similar words and phrases which denote future events and which may depend on the future performance of the Company. Our assumptions underlying these statements are also “forward-looking” statements. Forward-looking statements are based on information and assumptions that are dynamic in nature and subject to rapid and sometimes abrupt changes. Our forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those stated or implied by the statements. These risks and uncertainties include risks related to our failure to improve our operating cash flow, the inability of our restructuring efforts to improve profitability and our inability to increase our revenues or to grow the sales of our products. Our forward-looking statements are also subject to important risks and uncertainties detailed in our latest reports filed with the SEC and available on its website at www.sec.gov.

VantageMed Investor Relations Contact:
Investor Relations
Liesel Loesch
(916) 638-4744 ext 365
investor@vantagemed.com
VantageMed Media Contact:
Jennifer Morgano
(510) 536-6012
jmorgano@vantagemed.com

DrFirst Contact:
DrFirst
sales@drfirst.com
Tel: (301) 231-9510
Fax: (301) 231-9512
www.drfirst.com