Thomson is buying the balance of Solucient from media giant VNU, private equity firm Veronis Suhler Stevenson and healthcare provider alliance VHA. Thomson snapped up part of the informatics business – that focused on provision of services to payors – last February. Now the Stamford-based firm has completed its acquisition of Solucient by picking up its analytics business directed at providers. Those businesses will be folded into Thomson’s Medstat informatics unit. Headquartered in Evanston, IL, Solucient boasts a staff of 500 and a secondary office in Ann Arbor, MI, where Medstat is based. Thomson comms director Kyle Christensen said that Solucient would maintain both offices under Thomson. “There will be some strong integration,” said Christensen. “They’re very complementary.” The acquisition, he said, “will enable us to provide a much broader, more comprehensive view for our clients and better insights into how they can improve quality and manage healthcare costs.” Before the acquisition, Thomson Health & Scientific employed 4,700. The firm has been moving away from medical publishing and more heavily into healthcare informatics since its divestiture of its Medical Economics business to Advanstar in October 2003.