Electronic Medical Record | EMR, EHR and Healthcare IT News

CHIME Calls for Stage 2 Extension in Letter to Senators

CIO organization underscores progress of EHR adoption, highlights importance of standards in Stage 2

ANN ARBOR, MI, May 6, 2013 – Following a request for feedback from Senators in Washington on the status of health IT adoption, the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) issued a response declaring that a one-year extension of Meaningful Use Stage 2 would “maximize the opportunity of program success.”

The organization of healthcare CIOs said the additional 12-months for meeting Stage 2 “will give providers the opportunity to optimize their EHR technology and achieve the benefits of Stage 1 and Stage 2; it will give vendors the time needed to prepare, develop and deliver needed technology to correspond with Stage 3; and it will give policymakers time to assess and evaluate programmatic trends needed to craft thoughtful Stage 3 rules.”

In calling for an extension to Stage 2, CHIME defended much of the federal incentive program’s progress to date, arguing that fundamental shifts in health IT adoption and EHR product capabilities have been made possible through the policy of Meaningful Use.

“While we share some of your concerns with the current state of interoperability, we strongly believe that EHR incentive payments under the policy of Meaningful Use have been essential in moving the nation’s healthcare system into the 21st Century,” the CHIME letter said. “Through the EHR Incentive Payments program, CMS and ONC have begun to mitigate a fractured and incompatible state for EHRs.”

The response comes amid concerns levied by six Senators that the current direction of the HITECH program is flawed. The white paper released on April 16, “REBOOT: Re-examining the Strategies Needed to Successfully Adopt Health IT,” outlines several concerns including increased health care costs, lack of momentum toward interoperability, patient privacy, and long-term program sustainability.

“Your report highlights a number of fair and responsible criticisms of the program and it echoes many of the concerns CHIME has voiced over the last three years,” the letter said. “But given the nation’s increased adoption of EHRs, the increased investments in interoperable solutions and the early-stage transformations encountered every day by our members, we remain convinced that the trajectory set by Meaningful Use is the correct one.

“CHIME believes the industry’s guiding principle should be to maximize the opportunity of program success and monitor the timelines needed to do that. For this reason, we formally and strongly recommend a one-year extension to Stage 2 before progressing to Stage 3 of Meaningful Use,” the organization concluded.

CHIME also called upon Congress to request an update from ONC on what technologies, architectures and strategies exist to mitigate patient matching errors; seek feedback from the public via congressional hearing or other formal commenting mechanism; and determine how current work at the S&I Framework could be leveraged to address the foundational challenge of patient data-matching.

Responding to a section of the white paper on audits and program integrity, CHIME said CIOs understand the desire to ensure that incentive payments are going to those who have qualified to receive them, but this intent must not result in unreasonable auditing efforts that are poorly structured, inconsistent or lack uniform criteria. “We ask that Congress ensure CMS audits are efficient and effective without overburdening providers,” the letter stated.

To read the full Senate response, visit the Public Policy section of the CHIME website.

About CHIME
The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) is an executive organization dedicated to serving chief information officers and other senior healthcare IT leaders. With more than 1,400 CIO members and over 95 healthcare IT vendors and professional services firms, CHIME provides a highly interactive, trusted environment enabling senior professional and industry leaders to collaborate; exchange best practices; address professional development needs; and advocate the effective use of information management to improve the health and healthcare in the communities they serve. For more information, please visit www.cio-chime.org.

Contact:
Stephanie Fraser
Director of Communications
734-665-0000
sfraser@cio-chime.org

Cerner, McKesson, Allscripts, athenahealth, Greenway and RelayHealth Announce Ground Breaking Alliance to Enable Integrated Health Care

First-of-its-kind effort to transform quality and cost effectiveness by enabling data liquidity across systems, settings and episodes of care

New Orleans, March 4, 2013 – Top health care information technology (HIT) companies Cerner, McKesson, Allscripts, athenahealth, Greenway Medical Technologies® and RelayHealth announced today the launch of the CommonWell Health Alliance™, planned to be an independent not-for-profit organization that will support universal, trusted access to health care data through seamless interoperability. This historic effort is aimed at improving the quality of care delivery while working to lower costs for care providers, patients and the industry as a whole.

The Alliance intends to be a collaborative effort of suppliers who are focused on achieving data liquidity between systems, in compliance with patient authorizations. The Alliance will define, promote and certify a national infrastructure with common platforms and policies. It also will ensure that HIT products displaying the Alliance seal are certified to work on the national infrastructure.

“Today’s announcement represents an inflection point in health care, with key industry leaders coming together to support the delivery of a national health information exchange,” said John Hammergren, chairman and CEO, McKesson Corp. “The formation of this alliance takes health care a step closer to broad industry interoperability. A national and trusted health information exchange will break down the information silos in health care and should dramatically improve the quality and cost effectiveness of care delivery. Creating data liquidity between all HIT developers is fundamental to improving patient care, enhancing the vitality of the health care industry, and strengthening the long-term health of our nation.”

“We believe the industry needs to step up to the challenges of interoperability,” noted Neal Patterson, co-founder, chairman, CEO and president, Cerner. “If we can rise to the challenge as an industry, we have a chance to deliver a golden era of health care. It is a system where consumers not only have a right to their data, but also have the ability to mobilize it in the pursuit of better health. This alliance is about setting aside the admittedly tough politics of this issue to do what is right for the health care consumer. We at Cerner are proud to play a leadership role in this exciting effort.”

Elements of the Alliance’s national infrastructure will be tested in a local pilot within the next year. Early components will include the following core services:

Cross-entity patient linking and matching services: Help developers and providers link and match patients as they transition through care facilities, regardless of the underlying software system
Patient consent and data access management: Foster HIPAA-compliant and simple patient-centered management of data sharing consents and authorizations
Patient record locator and directed query services: Help providers deliver a history of recent patient care encounters, and, with appropriate authorization, patient data across multiple providers and episodes of care

“The formation of the CommonWell Health Alliance will be a significant step forward toward the electronic exchange of health information to support clinicians and patients,” said Janet Marchibroda, director of the Health Innovation Initiative at the Bipartisan Policy Center. “The founding members of the Alliance are focused on exactly the right foundational areas, and it’s terrific to see industry leaders stepping up to solve the problem of interoperability on behalf of providers and patients everywhere.”

“Allscripts’ vision has been to create a true Connected Community of Health. We believe open platforms are required to realize that vision and make the improvements our health care delivery system needs to dramatically improve outcomes while reducing cost,” said Paul Black, president and CEO, Allscripts. “This alliance provides a framework that will enable patient identification and record-sharing for providers across the nation. This is good for care providers, for patients and for the country. We are proud to be a founding member and to help lead this important effort.”

“Greenway has anticipated this evolution to a smarter health care system based on open collaboration and data flow,” said Tee Green, president and CEO, Greenway. “We’ve been telling caregivers the marketplace can provide it and sustain it, and they are right to expect it. Consumers are no different, and a patient-enabled approach to data access will foster a deeper and more efficient patient-provider relationship. Allowing data to flow more freely fits the needs of a mobile society just as providers are taking on more financial risk in coordinating care. We are committed to the Alliance goals and our ongoing participation as this initiative grows.”

“We’ve built athenahealth on the vision that health care needs an information backbone that facilitates and incents true health information exchange. However, the promise of the free flow of health information and the reality of it today are worlds apart,” said Jonathan Bush, CEO and chairman, athenahealth, Inc. “We support the CommonWell Health Alliance because we believe that being open matters, especially when it comes to patient care. CommonWell’s efforts to bring major developers together to pilot patient linking and matching across IT systems and care settings is an important step in the right direction. We look forward to helping lead these efforts as a founding member of the Alliance.”

Members of the Alliance are committed to collaborating with all HIT developers to realize the vision of integrated health care and encourage other HIT companies to join the CommonWell Health Alliance by visiting www.commonwellalliance.org. The founding members of the Alliance will be holding a press conference on March 4, 2013 from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. CT at the HIMSS 2013 Annual Conference and Exhibition in New Orleans. The event will also be livestreamed atwww.webcasts.com/March4PressEvent. Please visit www.commonwellalliance.org for additional details.

About CommonWell Health Alliance

CommonWell Health Alliance is anticipated to be an independent not-for-profit trade association of HIT companies that will work together to create universal access to patient health care data. The Alliance will be open to all health information technology developers that are committed to making patient’s data available to themselves and providers regardless of where care occurs. Alliance members will support the belief that provider access to this data must be built-in to health information technologies at a reasonable cost for use by a broad range of health care providers and the patients they serve.

The founding members of CommonWell Health Alliance invite all HIT suppliers to join us in working together to provide seamless, trusted access to health information, in support of better, more cost-effective care for our patients and communities.

To learn more about the CommonWell Health Alliance, please visit www.commonwellalliance.org.

About Cerner

Cerner Corp. (NASDAQ: CERN) is contributing to the systemic change of health and care delivery. For more than 30 years Cerner has been executing its vision to make health care safer and more efficient. We started with the foundation of digitizing paper processes and now offer the most comprehensive array of information software, professional services, medical device integration, remote hosting and employer health and wellness services. Cerner systems are used by everyone from individual consumers, to single-doctor practices, hospitals, employers and entire countries. Taking what we’ve learned over more than three decades, Cerner is building on the knowledge that is in the system to support evidence-based clinical decisions, prevent medical errors and empower patients in their care.

Cerner® solutions are licensed by approximately 10,000 facilities around the world, including more than 2,700 hospitals; 4,150 physician practices; 45,000 physicians; 550 ambulatory facilities, such as laboratories, ambulatory centers, behavioral health centers, cardiac facilities, radiology clinics and surgery centers; 800 home health facilities; 40 employer sites and 1,750 retail pharmacies.

About McKesson

McKesson Corporation (NYSE: MCK), currently ranked 14th on the FORTUNE 500, is a healthcare services and information technology company dedicated to making the business of healthcare run better. We partner with payers, hospitals, physician offices, pharmacies, pharmaceutical companies and others across the spectrum of care to build healthier organizations that deliver better care to patients in every setting. McKesson helps its customers improve their financial, operational, and clinical performance with solutions that include pharmaceutical and medical-surgical supply management, healthcare information technology, and business and clinical services. For more information, visit us at www.mckesson.com.

About Allscripts
Allscripts (NASDAQ: MDRX) delivers the insights that healthcare providers require to generate world-class outcomes. The company’s Electronic Health Record, practice management and other clinical, revenue cycle, connectivity and information solutions create a Connected Community of Health™ for physicians, hospitals and post-acute organizations. To learn more about Allscripts, please visit www.allscripts.com, Twitter, YouTube and It Takes A Community: The Allscripts Blog.

About athenahealth
athenahealth, Inc. is a leading provider of cloud-based Best in KLAS electronic health record (EHR), practice management, and care coordination services to medical groups and health systems. athenahealth’s mission is to be the most trusted service to medical care givers, helping them do well by doing the right thing. For more information, please visit www.athenahealth.com or call 888-652-8200.

About Greenway Medical Technologies

Greenway Medical Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: GWAY) delivers innovative software and business service solutions for healthcare providers through its PrimeSUITE^® platform. As a certified and fully integrated electronic health record, practice management and interoperability solution, Greenway PrimeSUITE helps improve care coordination, quality and cost-efficiency as part of a smarter, sustainable healthcare system. Thousands of care providers across primary care and more than 30 specialties and sub-specialties use cloud-based or on-premise Greenway^® solutions in healthcare enterprises, physician practices and clinics nationwide. www.greenwaymedical.com

About RelayHealth

RelayHealth, McKesson’s connectivity business, enables the trusted exchange of clinical, financial and administrative information between patients, providers, payers, pharmacies, pharmaceutical manufacturers and government agencies. RelayHealth processes nearly 16 billion healthcare transactions annually by integrating the delivery of high-quality care and improving the financial outcomes for its customers. For more information, call 888.743.8735, or visit our Web site atwww.RelayHealth.com. Follow us on Twitter (@RelayHealth) or visit the RelayHealth Facebook page.

BEACON PARTNERS APPOINTS PRINCIPALS

Healthcare Management Expert Appoints New Leadership to Expand Strategic Management and Growth

WEYMOUTH, MA – February 26, 2013 – Healthcare management consulting firm Beacon Partners today announced the promotion of Scott Freeman to principal of its Southwest territory and the appointment of Kevin McKittrick to principal of its Northeast and Eastern Canada territories.
Freeman, who has more than 18 years of experience in leadership roles within the healthcare industry, will be responsible for providing strategic and advisory services to nationally recognized healthcare organizations, including large academic and integrated healthcare systems.
As a former Regional Director at Beacon Partners, Freeman was responsible for supporting current and prospective clients within the Western United States. Prior to joining Beacon Partners, Freeman led a team of ambulatory provider specialists tasked with creating a community integration strategy through ambulatory EMR connectivity for hospital clients.
Freeman holds a Bachelor’s degree in management from California State University, and a Master’s degree in health administration from the University of Washington, School of Public Health (2013).
Kevin McKittrick will serve as Principal for the Northeast and Eastern Canada, McKittrick will be responsible for providing strategic and advisory services to healthcare organizations ranging from small community hospitals to large academic and integrated healthcare systems.
In McKittrick’s previous role as healthcare field director at EMC Corporation, he was responsible for EMC’s healthcare vertical at the divisional sales level in establishing, implementing, and maintaining go-to market strategies to align EMC’s technology, solutions, and services, to the specific needs of the healthcare industry. His areas of specialization include helping clients achieve the greatest clinical, financial, and operational performance possible to deliver the highest level of patient care by improving workflow and productivity for safer, collaborative care decisions.
McKittrick’s experiences provide a strong result focused background in complex enterprise transformation and knowledge within multiple vendor system and practice areas within healthcare IT.

About Beacon Partners:

As one of the largest healthcare management consulting firms, Beacon Partners is chosen by organizations in the healthcare community to provide advisory services to improve overall operational, clinical, and financial performance with the adoption of information technology. With their strategic approach and depth of experience, Beacon Partners is uniquely qualified to help organizations navigate the challenges in healthcare and optimize their potential to deliver the highest possible level of patient care. For more information, please visit beaconpartners.com.

Post a Comment(0)

February 27, 2013 I Written By John

Filed Under: Electronic Medical Record Healthcare Healthcare IT

Tags:Ambulatory EMR Beacon Partners EMC Corporation EMR Healthcare Healthcare Management Expert Kevin McKittrick Scott Freeman

EMRapproved and HealthITxChange Collaborate to Benefit Healthcare and IT Professionals in the Adoption of Health IT

Partnership debuts at HIMSS13 in New Orleans

CHICAGO, Feb. 25, 2013 – Chicago health information technology (health IT) company EMRapproved is announcing a new collaboration with HealthITxChange, an online community where healthcare practitioners and health IT professionals share best practices and lessons learned throughout their electronic health record (EMR/EHR) implementation and ongoing health IT lifecycle.

The collaboration brings together both sites’ audiences who will share information and resources to benefit the health IT community at large. HealthITxChange partner organizations include the AHIMA Foundation, the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA), the American Nurses Association (ANA) and Health Level Seven International (HL7).

“EMRapproved is committed to providing comprehensive resources for the adoption of health information technology and electronic health records (EMR/EHR) for industry professionals,” explained EMRapproved CEO Kevin Donnelly. “HealthITxChange is unique in that they create an interactive and engaged community where members share knowledge and exchange ideas. Our mutual focus and priorities make this a truly strategic partnership.”

Combining the collaborative nature of a forum with the oversight of a medical publication, HealthITxChange brings together clinicians and health IT professionals to share their knowledge and best practices through “pearls” of information to summarize their collective experiences. These pearls are linked to in-depth discussions which provide users with the details of real life encounters on the road to implementation and Meaningful Use.

Visitors to EMRapproved.com, in particular the 900+ members of its 4Med Pro Network of consultants, will benefit from seamless access to the HealthITxChange pearls – and thus the collective wisdom and best practices of this thriving community.

Completing the collaboration, EMRapproved will link its 4Med Marketplace to the new HealthITxChange site. The 4Med Marketplace will provide a gateway for HealthITxChange members to access education and certification courses; EMR-related products; and consulting services (through the EMRapproved 4Med Pro Network).

“HealthITxChange’s primary goal is to foster community and collaboration among healthcare and health IT professionals. We are excited to unveil our added functionality that will support community collaboration,” said Helga Rippen, MD, PhD, chair of the HealthITxChange executive council. “By partnering with EMRapproved we are able to generate funds to continue to enhance the site but also provide our members access to the 4Med Marketplace, where they will find valuable, relevant resources all in one location.”

EMRapproved and HealthITxChange will be exhibiting at the HIMSS13 Annual Conference & Exhibition in New Orleans at adjacent booths (#7916 and #7914) to highlight the benefits of the collaboration for the health IT industry. Show attendees will be able to see demonstrations of the various components of the collaboration, register for community membership, and become marketplace sponsors and benefactors of the organizations. Booth interaction opportunities include on-demand new sponsor signup; site resource demonstrations, side-by-side product comparisons and more.

HealthITxChange is supported by Westat Insight — Center for Health Information Technology for the Rockville Institute for the Advancement of Social Sciences, a 501(c)(3) charitable, tax-exempt organization whose mission is to advance the social sciences by conducting research and disseminating research findings to the public.

About the Rockville Institute

A Research Institute for the Advancement of Social Science is a non-profit (501c3) organization that operates exclusively for charitable, scientific, literary, or educational purposes. Westat is an affiliate organization of the Rockville Institute and makes its full range of corporate resources available to the Institute to perform Institute contracts and grants. Visit http://www.HealthITxChange.org.

About EMRapproved

EMRapproved is a robust health information technology (health IT) and electronic medical record (EMR) resource, providing assistance to professionals at all stages of the health IT implementation process by providing access to invaluable content, community, curriculum and consulting resources in one centralized location. The company offers free industry updates, tools and resources, including topical industry update columns HITAnswers and HITSecurity; provides education, certification and career retraining programs through its 4Med Pro Training program; and facilitates online networking, collaboration and professional consultation through its 4Med Pro Network. Support for the free resources available from EMRapproved is provided by sponsors of its new 4Med Marketplace, where users can buy health IT-related products and services. Learn more at http://www.emrapproved.com/.

Post a Comment(0)

February 25, 2013 I Written By John

Filed Under: EHR Electronic Health Record Electronic Medical Record EMR Healthcare Healthcare IT

HIMSS Innovation Center Advances Interoperability

CLEVELAND (February 19, 2013) – Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald announced earlier today that the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, known as HIMSS, will be leasing on the fourth level 12,500 square feet for its Innovation Center, a unique and dynamic testing, demonstration, exhibition, and educational facility, with another 12,500 square feet of exhibition space, of the newly-named Global Center for Health Innovation (formerly the Cleveland Medical Mart). HIMSS also plans to double the size of the exhibition space by 2016. County Executive FitzGerald made the announcement during his annual “State of the County” address at the City Club in downtown Cleveland.

HIMSS is a cause-based, not-for-profit organization focused on improving healthcare through the best use of information technology and management systems. HIMSS, with its related organizations are headquartered in Chicago with additional offices in the United States, Europe and Asia, represents more than 52,000 individual members, of which more than two-thirds work in healthcare provider, governmental and not-for-profit organizations.

The HIMSS Innovation Center will provide ongoing services for health delivery organizations and health IT companies, along with exhibitions, educational programming, and consumer-oriented applications. In addition, the year-round interoperability showcase and exhibition space will further validate functionality for new and developing products using standards and customized testing in both a physical and virtual demonstration environment.

“We look forward to the opening in October of the HIMSS Innovation Center in the Global Center for Health Innovation. As we continue to build on our more than 14 years of leadership in and support of achieving seamless, secure exchange of electronic health information, our focus at HIMSS continues on interoperability, standards and harmonization initiatives, here in Cleveland and across the globe,” says H. Stephen Lieber, CAE, HIMSS President and CEO.

With its scenario-based setting, the HIMSS Health IT Ecosystem will provide a fully operational, multi-facility environment populated with simulated patient demographic, clinical and financial data. The health and healthcare communities will be able to plug into this environment and both test and demonstrate a specific product’s interoperability capabilities.

At the HIMSS Healthcare Technology Showcase, the health and healthcare community will find opportunities to participate in long-lasting exhibits themed around harnessing the power of IT in vital issues such as mobile devices, consumer-driven healthcare, and evidence-based care. The themed exhibits will show the value of the participating technologies in specific-use cases of the highlighted theme and serve as a point of collaboration.

HIMSS testing and educational services will be available virtually worldwide. The HIMSS space in the Global Center for Health Innovation will become a worldwide hub for health and health IT testing, demonstration, exhibitions, and consumer products, including the latest breakthroughs in mobile health devices and distance medicine technology.

The HIMSS educational offerings will leverage a variety of interoperability platforms, partner with other leaders in the facility, and create a full menu of educational programming for health and healthcare sector learners and conferences housed in the adjacent Cleveland Convention Center.

The newly renamed Global Center for Health Innovation more accurately reflects the purpose and mission of the facility and a natural transition in the business evolution of the Cleveland Medical Mart. The Global Center for Health Innovation is the only facility in the world that displays the future of health and healthcare, the majority of the participating partners have global reach and reputation, and the participating partners will draw international visitors to their spaces within the Global Center.

HIMSS exemplifies the global reach of the facility, as the sector’s leader in health IT with offices around the world in Chicago, Brussels, Singapore, Berlin, and Leipzig. The Healthcare Technology Showcase, much like the Interoperability Showcases held at HIMSS conferences, will enable solutions providers to work collaboratively instead of competitively to demonstrate and solve real-world healthcare delivery problems. HIMSS joins Cleveland Clinic, GE Healthcare, Johnson Controls, University Hospitals and Philips Healthcare as charter tenants in the Global Center.

Post a Comment(0)

February 22, 2013 I Written By John

Filed Under: Electronic Health Record Electronic Medical Record EMR Healthcare Healthcare IT

Tags:Cleveland Clinic Cuyahoga County Ed FitzGerald GE Healthcare Global Center for Health Innovation H. STEPHEN LIEBER Healthcare Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society HIMSS HIMSS Health IT Ecosystem HIMSS Healthcare Technology Showcase HIMSS Innovation Center information technology and management systems Innovation Center Johnson Controls Philips Healthcare University Hospitals

Kareo Buys Epocrates EHR

Small practice EHR combines mobile technology and clinical knowledge base acquired from Epocrates with Kareo’s medical office software platform

IRVINE, CA – February 20, 2013 – Kareo, Inc., the cloud-based medical office software and services provider for small medical practices, serving over 17,000 medical providers, today launched Kareo Electronic Health Record (EHR). This new application is available free of charge as a stand-alone application or integrated with Kareo Practice Management and Kareo Billing Services, providing a seamless user experience and instant data exchange across applications. Kareo EHR offers small medical practices an intuitive and intelligent way to deliver care and engage patients through native iPad and iPhone applications or with a web browser. Kareo acquired mobile technology and a clinical knowledge base from Epocrates and leveraged these assets in developing its new EHR.

“More physicians in the US practice medicine in small practices than any other way, yet the demands of managing a small practice continue to grow. Small practice physicians need smarter and more mobile technology to help them care for their patients and optimize their businesses,” said Dan Rodrigues, founder and CEO of Kareo. “Our customers asked us to develop an electronic health record to complement our practice management and billing services solutions. With Kareo EHR, small practice physicians can now take advantage of an intuitive solution designed for how they deliver care and run their practices. Best of all, Kareo’s EHR is available for free and without ads or any long-term commitments.”

Kareo EHR was designed to support how small practice physicians deliver care and interact with their patients and can be used through native mobile applications or a web browser. With mobile use, physicians can restore the natural doctor-patient interaction that desktop-based EHRs have come to inhibit, while demonstrating savvy use of technology in delivering care. Kareo EHR offers a simple and intuitive interface physicians can use to quickly build notes via clinical knowledge base pick lists or with integrated voice recognition. Regardless of device or location, all care team participants have critical, up-to-date patient health information at their fingertips. Health information can be instantly exchanged electronically, including e-prescribing medications, ordering and viewing lab work, and sharing information with patients through the embedded patient portal. Kareo EHR streamlines workflows through its integration with Kareo Practice Management providing users single sign-on and instantly synchronized data, including appointments, billing codes, and all critical patient information. Kareo EHR is certified for use, as a complete EHR, by providers to demonstrate Meaningful Use and to qualify for up to $39,000 in 2013 incentives offered under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Kareo acquired core EHR technology originally developed by Epocrates and combined it with Kareo’s medical office software platform to build the new application. Included in the acquired technology, was a comprehensive clinical knowledge base that enables documentation and treatment orders for the top 100 primary care conditions and previously unreleased mobile device technology designed to deliver efficient note taking on tablets through intuitive swipe, tap, and touch actions. The overall development effort was led by Dr. Tom Giannulli, Kareo’s chief medical information officer, practicing physician, and original inventor of much of the acquired technology. The combination of Dr. Giannulli’s leadership, Epocrates technology, and Kareo’s software platform enabled the creation of a breakthrough EHR application for small practices.

“Adopting an electronic health record is especially challenging for small practices because most EHRs were not built with their needs in mind,” said Tom Giannulli MD, MS, chief medical information officer at Kareo. “Our cloud-based solution gives small practices the promised benefits of EHR technology and eliminates the challenges of implementing complex and expensive on-premise software. It was our goal to build Kareo EHR to support the physician’s need to deliver high-quality care while ensuring the utmost in practice efficiency.”

Kareo EHR is available free of charge, with no long-term commitments, no expensive implementation or ongoing support costs. Physicians simply sign up and get started. Kareo coaches are available to help physicians take full advantage of the features of Kareo EHR and free support is included for all users. Application upgrades are delivered automatically allowing physicians to instantly utilize new functionality and meet emerging industry demands, including supporting the requirements of each subsequent stage of Meaningful Use. Kareo EHR is advertising free and clinical data are owned and controlled by the practice. Kareo’s EHR is made available for free in an effort to build trust and earn physicians’ business in other practice areas. Should they decide to upgrade, physicians using Kareo EHR have the ability to purchase and instantly integrate Kareo’s full software and services suite at any time.

Kareo has built a market leading position in delivering intuitive, integrated, affordable technology and services to support the business needs of small medical practices. The launch of the best-of-breed, no cost Kareo EHR immediately delivers these same benefits to physicians on the clinical side of their practice. Small medical practices now can rely on a single trusted partner to deliver all of the cloud-based technology needed to manage essential clinical and business components, enabling optimized practice efficiency and an increased focus on patients not paperwork. Kareo EHR is available now at www.kareo.com.

About Kareo

Kareo is the only cloud-based medical office software and services platform dedicated to small practices. At Kareo, we believe that, with the right tools and support, small practices can do big things. We offer an integrated suite of products and services designed to help small practice physicians get paid faster, run their business smarter, and provide better care. Our Practice Management software, Billing Services, and free, full-featured EHR help more than 17,000 medical providers more efficiently manage the business and clinical sides of their practice. Based in Irvine, California, Kareo’s mission is to help providers spend their time focused on patients, not paperwork. For more information, visit www.kareo.com.

Kareo EHR (formerly Caretools EHR) is a Complete EHR and is 2011/2012 compliant and has been certified by and ONC-ATCB in accordance with the applicable certification criteria adopted by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. This certification does not represent an endorsement by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services or guarantee the receipt of incentive payments.

Post a Comment(0)

February 20, 2013 I Written By John

Filed Under: EHR EHR Investment EHR Vendors Electronic Health Record Electronic Medical Record EMR EMR Acquisitions EMR Vendors Healthcare IT

Tags:Dan Rodrigues Dr. Tom Giannulli Epocrates Epocrates EHR Kareo Kareo EHR

Speech Recognition Tools Look to Play a Crucial Role within EMR

KLAS’ 2013 look at speech recognition vendors provides key insights for providers

OREM, Utah – Thursday, February 14, 2013 - Speech recognition vendors hope that just as front-end and back-end speech technology proved to cut costs and improve efficiency for transcription and image documentation, similar efficiencies can be found for EMR. This and other insights can be found in a new KLAS report titled Speech Recognition 2013: Going from Back to Front and Beyond.

Through various discussions with providers, KLAS provides key insights into the current state of speech recognition vendors and future considerations. The report touches on early leaders, market share, and front- and back-end innovations. Provider satisfaction with vendors as well as peer recommendations is also shared.

“There is a lot of interesting movement in regard to vendors in this space,” said Ben Brown, research director and report author. “For example, MModal, like some of the other vendors, shows a significant increase in service scores with their back-end solution, yet they show a significant decrease in the same category for their front-end solution. It’s important for providers to know this before they move forward with a vendor.”

Other vendors highlighted in this report include Agfa, Dolbey, and Nuance. To learn more about the speech recognition vendors and findings in this study as well as related reports that will publish in 2013, check out the full report, Speech Recognition 2013: Going from Back to Front and Beyond. This report is available to healthcare providers at a significant discount. To purchase, visit www.KLASresearch.com/KLASreports.

About KLAS
KLAS is a research firm on a global mission to improve healthcare delivery by enabling providers to be heard and to be counted. Working with thousands of healthcare executives and clinicians, KLAS gathers data on software, services, medical equipment, and infrastructure systems to deliver timely reports, trends, and statistical overviews. The research directly represents the provider voice and acts as a catalyst for improving vendor performance. KLAS was founded in 1996, and KLAS’ staff and advisory board members average 25 years of healthcare information technology experience. For more information, go to www.KLASresearch.com, email marketing@KLASresearch.com, or call 1-800-920-4109 to speak with a KLAS representative. Follow KLAS on Twitter @KLASresearch.

Post a Comment(0)

February 18, 2013 I Written By John

Filed Under: Electronic Medical Record Healthcare Healthcare IT

Tags:Agfa Ben Brown Dolbey EMR KLAS' 2013 medical equipmen MModal Nuance Speech Recognition Speech Recognition 2013 Speech Recognition 2013: Going from Back to Front and Beyond Speech Recognition Tools

NorthWise Services Partners With Merge to Offer Comprehensive Clinical Trial Services

eClinical OS(TM) Provides Single Platform for Clinical Study Data Capture, Processing and Reporting

CHICAGO, Feb. 14, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Merge Healthcare Incorporated (Nasdaq:MRGE), a leading provider of clinical systems and innovations that seek to transform healthcare, today announced that NorthWise Services (NWS) has partnered with Merge and selected eClinical OS™ to collect, manage and report on clinical trials data across all studies.

NWS is a specialist CRO offering services in data management, statistics and medical writing. Its services are complementary to the offerings of Merge, which has allowed for a strong and active working partnership to develop.

“NWS has always supported products at the forefront of eClinical technology, but in the past this tended to be separated into different software tools for EDC, ePRO, IVR, etc.,” explained Dr. Philip North, Managing Director of NorthWise Services. “It is therefore very appealing now to be able to access a wide range of eClinical functions on a single web-based platform, with just one user login and password.”

Recognizing the potential benefits of eClinical OS in collecting, managing and reporting clinical trials data across all phases, NWS has arranged to have its own eClinical OS certified study builder, who can now build studies for clients using eClinical OS.

“We were pleased with how easy it was for our study builder to become qualified and certified in the use of eClinical OS,” continued Dr. North. “Merge provided NWS access to eClinical OS in a sandbox environment during the self-training process. Because of this, the qualification was quickly and entirely achieved, using only the extensive online training materials available within eClinical OS. The built-in training materials were intuitive and thorough. Our staff did not require any additional help from Merge – though that would have been available if needed.”

Cost transparency using eClinical OS’s self-service quoting tool was also a benefit to NWS.

“The cost calculator tool has been very valuable,” added Dr. North. “Not only is Merge eClinical OS competitive in the eClinical marketplace, but this tool allows us to remain competitive when bidding on a new study with our sponsor clients.”

“With eClinical OS, NWS has deep visibility into the cost of its studies,” said Justin Dearborn, President of Merge Healthcare. “We designed a cost calculator into the system which allows our clients to generate their own quotes and create budget scenarios in real-time. This provides them with the decision support tools to balance options and costs.”

Merge eClinical OS provides end-to-end study support through a single, easy-to-use interface allowing clients to manage and run studies more efficiently than ever before. It delivers built-in study templates, libraries and reports to help users create studies quickly and manage them effectively without technical assistance. Merge eClinical OS works for the largest and smallest studies, has the flexibility to support trials in any phase, and captures any type of data, from any source, from any modality.

About Merge Healthcare

Merge is a leading provider of clinical systems and innovations that seek to transform healthcare. Merge’s enterprise and cloud-based solutions for image intensive specialties provide access to any image, anywhere, any time. Merge also provides health stations, clinical trials software and other health data and analytics solutions that engage consumers in their personal health. With solutions that are used by providers and consumers and include more than 20 years of innovation, Merge is helping to reduce costs and improve the quality of healthcare worldwide. For more information, visit merge.com.

The Merge Healthcare logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=10757

About NorthWise Services

NorthWise Services (NWS) was founded in January 2001, and has main offices at the Kent Science Park in Sittingbourne, UK. NWS offers a range of services, including data management, statistics, and medical writing, to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and other industries, and other services and products through strategic working alliances. For more information, visit northwiseservices.com.

Post a Comment(0)

February 15, 2013 I Written By John

Filed Under: EHR Electronic Health Record Electronic Medical Record EMR Healthcare Healthcare IT

Tags:(EDC Clinical Study Data Capture Comprehensive Clinical Trial Services Dr. Philip North eClinical marketplace eClinical OS eClinical technology ePRO GLOBE NEWSWIRE IVR Justin Dearborn Merge Merge Healthcare Incorporated MRGE NASDAQ:MRGE NorthWise Services NWS

American Sentinel University Details How Cloud Computing Has the Potential to Revolutionize Health Care

– Cloud-based Applications Benefit Nurses and Patients at Point of Care –

AURORA, Colo. – February 12, 2013 – Cloud computing has the potential to revolutionize health care administration by allowing providers to access information from a patient’s medical file at anytime from any where and that means patients receive better and more efficient quality care.

“Everything in health care today is so dependent on computers and cloud computing is the repository for all of these transactions,” says Suzanne Richins, DHA, MBA, FACHE, RN, chair, health information management and health care administration at American Sentinel University. “Cloud computing benefits nurses at point of care because no matter where the patient has a diagnostic test, the cloud ensures that data is available everywhere.”

The ‘cloud’ is an intangible, but ubiquitous presence in our tech-laden lives, allowing health care professionals to access all patient data across multiple devices and from any location with an Internet connection.

As an IT strategy, cloud computing took the business world by storm, allowing companies to store massive amounts of data virtually, rather than making a huge investment in developing and maintaining their own information system storage. Yet, health care has been a relative latecomer to cloud computing, largely because of the industry’s unique data security, regulatory, and patient privacy concerns.

“Laws require protection of pertinent information to ensure both confidentiality and privacy and before a health care organization contracts with a cloud organization, management needs to ensure that the cloud can meet the requirements of both HIPPA and meaningful use,” says Richins.

The mandate to widely adopt electronic medical records (EMRs), however, is expected to change that and a recent report by research firm MarketsandMarkets projected health care-related cloud computing will become a $5.4 billion global industry by 2017, encompassing both clinical and non-clinical applications.

Health Care Benefits from Cloud Computing
The most significant benefit cloud computing offers health care is data access.

When patient information is stored in the cloud, providers can access lab results, imaging scans and other pertinent test results at anytime and in any place, allowing for improved care coordination and better decision-making.

“As the move toward accountable care organizations (ACOs) drives the need for a better flow of information between primary care providers, specialists and case managers, clinical use of the cloud is likely to expand to include mobile applications that deliver data to tablets and smartphones,” adds Richins.

Most importantly, cloud-based platforms can allow collaboration between providers in real-time, from nearly any device that can connect to the Internet so health care organizations can manage data with more agility when working in the cloud.

Cloud Computing at the Bedside
Cloud computing benefits IT staff, nurse informaticians involved with EMR implementation and even the hospital’s bottom line. But Richins points out that health care will start seeing innovative, cloud-based applications that benefit nurses and patients at the point of care.

One example is Ultimate Caregiver, a nurse call system which merges pull cord technology with the power of cloud computing and mobile devices to allow for wireless paging and generated staff response reports.

When a patient rings for a nurse, the call signal is processed in the cloud and alerts are sent to nurses in the form of texts, e-mails, pages, or phone calls. This allows nurses to be more efficient on the floor, as the closest staff member can respond quickly to the patient and no one is tied to a nursing station to track patient call signals.

The use of cloud computing will also have a positive impact on career nursing opportunities in nursing informatics.

Richins notes that all of the third-party payers, including the government require reporting of quality measures and nurse informaticists are responsible for analyzing the data for reporting to these organizations.

“Nurse informaticists are critical to identification of problems, the root cause and identification of solutions and now that the payers do not reimburse for certain diagnoses, readmissions and hospital-acquired infections, nurse informatics are critical to the process as all decision-making requires evidence that comes from the data,” says Richins.

Cloud-based computing is also a boon to home health nurses, giving them easy access to accurate data, allowing them to document visits and update charts in real-time and freeing them from the cumbersome daily synchronization routine.

Richins notes that health care is in need of nurses who can analyze technologies from both the bedside and IT perspectives.

“Health informatics is the new frontier of health care and one of the fastest growing fields today. Nurses with a nursing informatics specialization will be in high demand to manage health information systems critical to the mission of health care delivery,” says Richins.

She points out that while opportunities in nursing informatics are plentiful, nursing informatics is not an entry-level career.

“RNs who find work in this specialty typically have several years of experience and professional education in both information systems and nursing,” adds Richins.

A registered nurse with an associate degree in nursing can purse a nursing informatics degree by taking the RN to BSN courses or RN to MSN courses. If a nurse already has a BSN, they can enter directly into the MSN program with a concentration in nursing informatics.

American Sentinel University helps prepare nurses for a variety of careers in nursing informatics with an online Master of Science in Nursing, Nursing Informatics specialization degree program that emphasizes understanding the infrastructure necessary to improve practice while safeguarding the security and privacy of data.

Learn more about American Sentinel University’s CCNE-accredited Master’s of Science in Nursing, Nursing Informatics program at http://www.americansentinel.edu/health-care/m-s-nursing/m-s-nursing-nursing-informatics.

About American Sentinel University
American Sentinel University delivers the competitive advantages of accredited online nursing degree programs in nursing, informatics, MBA Health Care, DNP Executive Leadership and DNP Educational Leadership. Its affordable, flexible bachelor’s and master’s nursing degree programs are accredited by the Commission for the Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE). The university is accredited by the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC). The Accrediting Commission of DETC is listed by the U.S. Department of Education as a nationally recognized accrediting agency and is a recognized member of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation.

Post a Comment(0)

February 14, 2013 I Written By John

Filed Under: EHR Electronic Health Record Electronic Medical Record EMR

Roche Turkey Selects Vidyo to Significantly Reduce Travel, Costs and Enhance Productivity

HACKENSACK, NJ, January 30, 2013 – Vidyo, Inc., the first company to deliver personal telepresence, today announced that its award-winning video communications and collaboration solution was chosen by Roche Turkey, a subsidiary of the multinational healthcare company Roche Group. Vidyo’s solution was selected over a variety of other platforms, and was chosen primarily because it delivers superior quality video over standard IP networks, including the Internet, 4G and LTE and delivers seamless connectivity between room systems, desktops, laptops and mobile devices.

Prior to using Vidyo, Roche Turkey district managers had to routinely travel to headquarters in Istanbul. “Our employees often had to fly in the day before a meeting or stay overnight because of changeable flight schedules,” said Yavuz Şanes, IT Site Head Turkey, Roche Turkey. “Travel is not only tiring and stressful, but costly in terms of time and money. Our managers are greatly enthusiastic over Vidyo’s many different benefits. They have commented many times about how easy and efficient meetings have become through the use of Vidyo.”

To find the best video communications solution, Roche contracted Vitel, a highly regarded Systems Integrator in Turkey. “Vitel provided essential assistance during all phases of the project, from vendor selection to implementation,” said Şanes.

Throughout the entire Roche organization, and especially at Roche Turkey, innovation and sustainability are key goals. In September, 2012, Roche was recognized the most sustainable healthcare company in the world, topping the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI), for the fourth year in a row. The DJSI World and DJSI Europe Indexes track the performance of the leading sustainability companies based on environmental, social and economic performance. “Vidyo was a natural choice for Roche,” said Şanes. “The Vidyo platform is perfectly in line with the high value our organization places on environmental issues, because of Vidyo’s unique ability to enable our employees to meet and conduct business from wherever they are, whenever they want, without the negative environmental impact of travel.”

The fact that Vidyo allows Roche Turkey employees to access telepresence-quality video communications over an iPad using VidyoMobile™, has been one of the most noteworthy benefits to the company. In August of 2011, Roche distributed iPads to its field force of 200 people and since that time, they have needed only one single device for all of their communications needs. They are able to connect to conferences from wherever they are — over the Internet, 4G and even 3G, when corporate networks are not available. According to Roche Turkey’s calculations, in 2011, seven hundred employees participated in 216 video conferences eliminating the need for 447,000 kilometers of flight travel and 31,000 kilometers of road travel. Roche Turkey also asserts that by switching to Vidyo, transportation related risks for employees were reduced.

“Vidyo has again demonstrated the ease and value of its telepresence-quality video communications platform, delivering significant benefits,” said Eric LeGuiniec, VP and General Manager EMEA at Vidyo. “Roche Turkey is now able to conduct its business more effectively and increase the productivity of their employees by using Vidyo as the solution facilitates high-quality, natural visual communication on whatever device is convenient to Roche employees, regardless of location.”

The Vidyo Difference
The Vidyo communication and collaboration platform is software-based, highly flexible and can be easily customized for individual enterprise and vertical market video conferencing needs. The VidyoRouter™ is based on the company’s patented Adaptive Video Layering architecture and leverages the standard based Scalable Video Coding (SVC) technology. It eliminates the MCU and offers unprecedented error resiliency, low latency and rate matching enabling natural, affordable, high quality video to work over the Internet, LTE, 3G and 4G networks. The Vidyo platform allows users to quickly leverage the latest hardware innovations and new consumer devices, making it uniquely attractive to partners. Vidyo has been active driving H.264 SVC, HEVC and SIP videoconferencing interoperability in various standards bodies since 2005.

About Vidyo, Inc.
Vidyo, Inc. pioneered Personal Telepresence enabling natural, HD multi-point videoconferences on tablets and smart phones, PCs and Macs, room systems, gateways that interoperate with H.323 and SIP endpoints, telepresence solutions and affordable cloud-based visual communications solutions. Learn more at www .vidyo .com, on the Blog or follow@vidyo on Twitter.