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Orion Health and Caradigm Expand Partnership to Deliver Integrated Health Information Exchange, Intelligence Platform and Applications

Extensible, end-to-end solution will help healthcare communities use data to gain insight
and transform care

Bellevue, Wash. and Santa Monica, CA – March 27, 2013 – Caradigm, a Microsoft and GE Healthcare company, and Orion Health, a global leader in eHealth technology and interoperability, today announced they have expanded their alliance agreement to integrate Orion Health’s market-leading Health Information Exchange (HIE) solution with the Caradigm Intelligence Platform (CIP) and ecosystem of applications, which will allow healthcare communities to more rapidly address today’s most complex challenges—including new models of care delivery and payment, population health management and patient engagement—while also helping to reduce costs and increase revenue.

The companies’ integrated, end-to-end solution will offer healthcare organizations the ability to move beyond simple data exchange by using near real-time data aggregated from disparate systems across the healthcare community to rapidly gain insight about patients, populations, performance and outcomes. These insights can be used to identify opportunities and steps to help healthcare organizations improve care for patients and populations across the community.

Healthcare organizations also will be able to use the aggregated data in a wide range of CIP-powered applications developed to target challenges related to population health management, revenue and cost optimization, and healthcare quality improvement. For example, the ecosystem of applications developed by Caradigm and industry partners helps healthcare organizations improve patient engagement, reduce avoidable costs like readmissions, drive quality improvement across populations, and manage new payment and care delivery models, such as accountable care and pay for performance.

Orion Health will expand the Caradigm application ecosystem by developing new applications for the Caradigm Intelligence Platform that take advantage of the extensive data available through Orion Health HIE. These new applications will be aimed at addressing customer needs in the areas of decision support, quality improvement and metrics, and population health management.

Under the new agreement, Orion Health also will act as a referral partner for the Caradigm Intelligence Platform and the integrated solution in the U.S., and as a reseller and services provider for CIP and the Caradigm Identity and Access Management (IAM) solutions in certain territories outside of the U.S. The IAM suite includes Caradigm Provisioning, Caradigm Single Sign-On and Caradigm Context Management, products designed to accelerate caregiver access to the right patient data across multiple applications, helping organizations improve patient safety, reduce errors and spend more time with patients.  Caradigm will resell Orion Health HIE under the Caradigm brand and promote the integrated solution to health systems in the U.S.

“We’re excited to partner with Orion Health to address the escalating needs of healthcare organizations worldwide with a new generation of interoperability solutions,” said Caradigm CEO Michael Simpson. “As health systems everywhere search for better answers to quality, cost, revenue and population health management, we expect our partnership to deliver significant value to our customers and strong growth for both of our companies.”

“Orion Health HIE is one of the most widely deployed HIEs in the world, linking hundreds of facilities, used by hundreds of thousands of end users, and caring for a population of millions of lives. We look forward to offering our mutual expertise to healthcare organizations worldwide,” said Paul Viskovich, president, Orion Health North America. “Combined with the Caradigm Intelligence Platform’s powerful framework for robust applications, this expanded partnership creates a new generation of solutions that make it easier to aggregate and analyze data to improve care.”

“Platform as a service will increasingly play a role in the health information exchange market as vendors add value-added services, such as analytics, care management and consumer engagement tools,” said Lynne Dunbrack, program director, Connected Health IT Strategies at IDC Health Insights. “This will be especially evident as HIE vendors build out their technology portfolios to target the burgeoning accountable care market and update solution offerings for healthcare providers that are building out their ACO capabilities.”

About Orion Health Inc.

Founded in 1993 in Auckland, New Zealand, Orion Health is the only global, independently owned eHealth technology company. With an inherent ability to interconnect a wide variety of healthcare information systems, Orion Health has become the world’s leading provider of health information exchange (HIE) and healthcare integration solutions. Orion Health has extensive experience in the design and installation of complex systems within demanding healthcare environments. Today, Orion Health products and solutions are implemented in more than 30 countries, used by hundreds of thousands of clinicians, and help facilitate care for tens of millions of patients. Clinicians, provider facilities and OEM partners rely on Orion Health to facilitate data exchange between hospitals, health systems, HIEs, and affiliated providers and medical devices, resulting in improved care coordination, increased cost savings and efficiencies, and enhanced quality of care.

In the U.S., Orion Health™ HIE provides the technology backbone for commercial, state and regional HIEs across the country. Orion Health Rhapsody® Integration Engine is used by nearly all state and local health departments for public health reporting. Customers include Catholic Health Initiatives, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Beacon Community of the Inland Northwest, North Carolina HIE, Geisinger Health System, Inland Empire HIE, Kaiser Permanente, Lahey Clinic, Louisiana Health Care Quality Forum, Lehigh Valley Health Network, Maine HealthInfoNet, Massachusetts Health Information Highway, New Hampshire Health Information Organization and St. Vincent’s HealthCare. For more information, visit www.orionhealth.com.  Connect with us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

About Caradigm

Formed by GE Healthcare and Microsoft Corp. in June 2012, Caradigm is a 50–50 joint venture focused on enabling health systems and payers to drive continuous improvements in care. Caradigm software helps healthcare professionals across care settings to use data to gain critical insights, collaborate with each other and with patients, and to develop and implement innovative care solutions. Caradigm products—and applications built by partners to extend these products—give clinicians, administrators and finance teams timely access to key information, helping them to take steps to solve some of healthcare’s biggest challenges, including chronic disease management, preventable hospital readmissions and hospital acquired conditions, and to advance integrated, accountable care. Caradigm is headquartered in Bellevue, Wash. For more information about the company, visit http://www.caradigm.com.

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April 8, 2013 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit.

Filed Under: EMR
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State of Connecticut Selects eiPortal for Healthcare Integration from PilotFish for Meaningful Use Testing

Cloud-Based Testing Tool Automates Provider Registration, Certification and Validation of HL7 Messaging

MIDDLETOWN, Conn.–(PRWEB)–March 4, 2013–Applied PilotFish Healthcare Integration, a provider of middleware solutions, announced today that the State of Connecticut has commenced implementation of the PilotFish eiPortal to support reporting requirements for Stage 1 Meaningful Use testing efforts.

The eiPortal, a cloud-based application, provides 24/7 access to all the implementation resources required to build an interface along with a fully automated, self-service, interface testing and validation facility that will be configured for reporting requirements.

Any common or standards-based message can be configured as an eiPortal service. Each service can be associated with a unique set of business rules, data quality checks and other validations. Once a service is configured, data exchange partners can submit messages electronically for automated review. Subsequently, a web-based UI displays immediate, detailed feedback. It also provides simulated responses (synchronous and asynchronous) to inbound messages, again without requiring human intervention or full test environments. Users can refine their interface and achieve conformance without involving their service provider.

“The State of Connecticut is really able to leverage the self-registration and automation capabilities of the eiPortal to perform Stage 1 Meaningful Use testing and HL7 format and content validation. This will enable all hospitals and practices in the State of Connecticut to build interfaces that will conform to healthcare interoperability standards,” said Neil Schappert, Executive Chairman of Applied PilotFish Healthcare Integration.  “Starting with HL7 immunization messages, the State will configure services for each Meaningful Use reporting requirement. As each organization that is looking for documentation for Stage 1 attestation for reporting meets these requirements, a certificate will be issued through the eiPortal’s automated process. The time savings for State employees will be considerable.”

The eiPortal greatly exceeds the basic Meaningful Use requirements of just capturing and verifying the electronic transmission of this data. It is also capable of certifying the conformance of these messages against national standards and internal processing requirements. This capability positions Connecticut to manage future-stage Meaningful Use testing, and to use the eiPortal as a pre-production, self-service on-boarding tool to greatly benefit Connecticut healthcare providers. The on-boarding tool will ready them to begin the move to full production for Stage 2 reporting.

“We are excited to partner with PilotFish for our Meaningful Use testing,” commented Mark Raymond, CIO for the State of Connecticut. “The eiPortal allows us to eliminate significant human intervention, while providing a higher level of service to our providers, than would otherwise have been possible.”

“States and organizations are spending millions of dollars working with different partners implementing the same message over and over again. It is a repetitive process that is intensely reliant on expensive human capital. The eiPortal provides a unique solution to automating this process. It frees up IT staffs not just in Government, but in Labs, at HIEs and Manufacturers or any entity that offers a standard set of interfaces, file formats or web services for consumption by many customers,” said Neil Schappert. “Meeting this critical need for the State of Connecticut for Meaningful Use certification is just one example. We are thrilled with the opportunity to help our home state be more efficient. We are also pleased to provide the state’s practices and hospitals with an online resource that lets them meet Meaningful Use requirements faster and with far less effort.”

Applied PilotFish Healthcare Integration is exhibiting at HiMSS13, March 4-6, 2013, New Orleans, LA, Booth #7941 – see live demos of the eiPortal and eiConsole for Healthcare (an IDE featuring a graphical Assembly Line for configuring interfaces).

About PilotFish

Founded in 2001 and based in Middletown, CT, PilotFish Technology provides middleware software and services to enable the integration of disparate systems. The eiPortal for Healthcare Integration is distributed through Applied PilotFish Healthcare Integration, Inc. (APHII), a subsidiary of PilotFish Technology. Products are distributed directly to end users and through select channel partners.

 

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March 5, 2013 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit.

Filed Under: Cloud Computing
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At HIMSS 2013, Siemens Demonstrates Care Coordination Across Healthcare Communities

• Soarian® enterprise EHR synchronizes workflow across care settings
• Siemens MobileMD® HIE helps providers easily and securely share data
• Business intelligence and predictive analytics now available in the Healthcare Intelligence suite

Siemens Healthcare, Malvern, Pa., is demonstrating solutions that connect healthcare communities in booth #2641 at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) 2013 Annual Conference and Exhibition, from March 3 – 7, at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans. Siemens will depict how a growing number of healthcare organizations — both large and small — are using Soarian to connect top-of-the-line patient care with effective bottom line results. The company will spotlight how the MobileMD Health Information Exchange (HIE) is being used by providers to securely deliver clinical and administrative data across a community. Siemens will showcase a solution that addresses the challenges posed by “big data” in healthcare, which is called Healthcare Intelligence. Siemens will continue recruiting top IT talent with on-site Human Resources recruiters, and the company will also make charitable donations to returning veterans through Hope For The Warriors®, a national, nonprofit organization that supports wounded U. S. service members, their families and families of the fallen.

“Healthcare information technology continues to deliver numerous benefits to providers: helping them to better synchronize information and workflows across care settings,” said John Glaser, PhD, CEO, Health Services Business Unit, Siemens Healthcare. “At HIMSS, Siemens will showcase the progress we have made in helping providers achieve a high degree of care coordination and to prepare to meet accountable care objectives.”

Siemens is increasingly being sought out to help organizations transform care delivery by re-engineering inefficient processes, re-imagining the revenue cycle and re-thinking business intelligence. These objectives are easier when enabled by Soarian, an enterprise electronic health record with embedded workflow technology available across the entire care continuum. Soarian helps providers coordinate clinical activities, proactively identify patient risk factors and escalate potential delays and adverse events.

To connect care communities, Siemens offers the MobileMD HIE, which securely delivers clinical and administrative data across a community. This cloud based HIE serves as an important building block in enabling care providers within a community to better coordinate care for individuals and populations while achieving clinical and financial objectives.

To meet future needs as the focus shifts to managing population health, HIMSS 2013 attendees can explore a solution such as Healthcare Intelligence, which collects both clinical and financial data as well as structured and unstructured data for analysis. Healthcare Intelligence gives organizational leaders rapid access to detailed analytics on individual patients or entire patient populations so they can better manage risks and achieve the outcomes associated with value-based purchasing, bundled payments and accountable care.

Siemens adds more health IT talent, strategic consulting
Addressing the demand from Siemens customers, the company will use its pres-ence at HIMSS to recruit top-tier talent into the Health Services Business Unit and the North American Sales organization, including the recently announced Strategic Consulting group. The Strategic Consulting group is growing at a rapid pace and helps customers meet the objectives of accountable care through a combination of Soarian, quality reporting tools, healthcare intelligence tools, risk identification and stratification, program dashboards, content fueled workflows, and advisory, optimization and performance improvement services. Workforce expansion in the Siemens health IT business is directly in line with one of the main pillars of the Agenda 2013 program, a two-year global initiative, which focuses on continually strengthening Siemens through people development and talent acquisition.

Follow Siemens LIVE from HIMSS at www.twitter.com/siemenshealth and at www.twitter.com/siemenshealthit

For further information on Soarian, please visit: http://usa.siemens.com/soarian

Siemens Healthcare, Media Relations
Carly Heimer, phone: +1 610 448-3460
E-mail: carly.heimer@siemens.com

Launched by Siemens Healthcare Sector in November 2011, Agenda 2013 program is a two-year global initiative to further strengthen the Healthcare Sector’s innovative power and competitiveness. Specific measures will be implemented in four fields of action: Innovation, Competitiveness, Regional Footprint, and People Development.

The Siemens Healthcare Sector is one of the world’s largest suppliers to the healthcare industry and a trendsetter in medical imaging, laboratory diagnostics, medical information technology and hearing aids. Siemens offers its customers products and solutions for the entire range of patient care from a single source – from prevention and early detection to diagnosis, and on to treatment and aftercare. By optimizing clinical workflows for the most common diseases, Siemens also makes healthcare faster, better and more cost-effective. Siemens Healthcare employs some 51,000 employees worldwide and operates around the world. In fiscal year 2012 (to September 30), the Sector posted revenue of 13.6 billion euros and profit of 1.8 billion euros. For further information please visit: www.siemens.com/healthcare.

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March 4, 2013 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit.

Filed Under: EMR
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CCHIT UNVEILS NEW HIE INTEROPERABILITY TESTING AT HIMSS13

Will Introduce Programs and Demonstrate Tools to Test Connectivity 

CHICAGO – March 4, 2013 – Today, the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology is announcing the opening of the pilot phase of a new health information exchange compliance testing program at the Healthcare Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) 2013 Annual Conference and Exhibition in New Orleans; it also will reveal the program seals designed to help healthcare providers identify health information exchange (HIE) certified technology, and demonstrate its automated testing tool for vendors.

At completion, the HIE compliance testing and certification program components include the following:

1)    HIE Certified Community™, for electronic health records (EHRs) and other health IT systems, that will enable state-wide patient data inquiry allowing clinicians to query an HIE for information on specific patients

2)    HIE Certified Direct™ that provides a simple way for providers to send secure health information directly to trusted recipients, including patients, over the Internet

3)    HIE Certified Network™ for HIE-to-HIE connectivity and for connection to the eHealth Exchange

Certification will be specific to each technology and its version, and include testing of commercially available products, healthcare provider participants and health information exchanges.

“For the first time providers and purchasers of EHRs and HIE will have a simple way of assuring their system has all the capabilities required for plug and play interoperability,” said Dave Whitlinger, Executive Director of the New York eHealth Collaborative. “In New York, vendors will be required to pass the compliance testing program in order to connect to the SHIN-NY (the Statewide Health Information of New York).”

The planned pilot testing – for HIE Certified Network – is  the first offering of a collaboration of states, public agencies, federally funded HIEs and HIT companies covering more than 50 percent of the U.S. population. Healtheway, the public-private partnership of the eHealth Exchange, and the EHR/HIE Interoperability Workgroup, a consortium of states and vendors, established the program to test and certify EHRs and other health IT to enable reliable transfer of data within and across organizational and state boundaries. CCHIT was selected as the compliance testing body by the partnership. The pilot will begin soon after the HIMSS meeting, and the launch of the certification program is planned for late in the spring.

“We’re creating a robust, highly automated testing program using an open source version of the AEGIS Developers Integration Lab (DIL) tool that relies on a set of specifications created by the partnership. Our aim is to enable true plug and play connectivity to simplify HIT development and reduce the cost of interface development,” said Alisa Ray, Executive Director and CEO, CCHIT.  “This will help health IT developers get their technology to market quickly and prepare provider and HIE participants share information more efficiently.”

EHR developers and others can view a demonstration of CCHIT’s testing software at the HIMSS Interoperability Showcase (Kiosk 17-7, La Nouvelle Ballroom–Level 2).

“The certification program also will support a recently announced collaboration between Healtheway and the Care Connectivity Consortium (CCC), combining Healtheway’s robust network services expertise with the advanced patient-centered care technology and commitment to health IT innovation of CCC,” said Mariann Yeager, Healtheway’s Executive Director.  “The collaboration will support IT interoperability among more than 40 health provider organizations across the nation, including founders Geisinger Health System (PA), Group Health Cooperative (WA), Intermountain Healthcare (UT), Kaiser Permanente (CA), and Mayo Clinic (MN).”

Additional HIMSS13 Demonstrations

CCHIT experts also will be on hand during the HIMSS meeting at The Meaningful Use Experience, Booth 149 in the Exhibit Hall. The Meaningful Use Experience is a special demonstration area that puts visitors in the middle of certified EHR solutions including complete EHR and EHR modules. Visitors to this interactive event will be able to connect with vendors, hear presentations and see demonstrations side-by-side.

About CCHIT

The Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT®) is an independent, 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with the public mission of accelerating the adoption of robust, interoperable health information technology. The Commission has been certifying electronic health record technology since 2006 and is authorized by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as a certification body (ONC-ACB).  CCHIT is accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) as a certification body for the ONC HIT Certification Program for  electronic health record (EHR) technology and accredited by the National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program (NVLAP) of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) as an Accredited Testing Laboratory (ATL) to test EHRs. More information on CCHIT and its programs is available athttp://cchit.org and http://source.cchit.org.

“CCHIT®” and “CCHIT Certified®” are registered trademarks of the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology.

About EHR/HIE Interoperability Workgroup

The EHR | HIE Interoperability Workgroup is a New York eHealth Collaborative-led coalition of 19 States (representing over 50% of the U.S. population), 20 electronic health record (EHR) vendors, and 23 health information exchange (HIE vendors). The workgroup was launched in February 2011 to leverage existing standards and develop consistent implementation guides for interoperability between HIE software platforms, and the applications that interface with them. For more information about the Workgroup, visit www.interopwg.org.

About Healtheway
Healtheway is a non-profit organization chartered to operationally support the eHealth Exchange, a rapidly growing community of exchange partners, who share information under a common trust framework and a common set of rules. Currently, 38 participants include four federal agencies, six states, eight beacon communities and more than a dozen Health Information Organizations (HIOs) and health systems, which represent hundreds of hospitals, thousands of providers and millions of patients. Healtheway leads in cross-industry collaboration to develop implementation strategies that enable secure, interoperable nationwide exchange of health information. For more information about Healtheway and the eHealth Exchange: www.healthewayinc.org.

About AEGIS

AEGIS.net, Inc. is a CMMI® for Development (v1.3) Maturity Level 3, CMMI® for Services (v1.3) + Service System Development (SSD) Maturity Level 3 rated, ISO 9001:2008 certified small business  and premier provider of information technology consulting services to federal civilian, defense and

commercial sector clients. AEGIS’s services, delivered by practitioners averaging more than 15 years of experience, include Project Management, Software Functional and Performance Testing, Application Design/Development, Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V), and Organizational Performance/Process Improvement. Our domains of expertise include health IT and interoperability, regulatory compliance, finance, human resources, and logistics. AEGIS offers the patent-pending Developers Integration Lab (DIL) testing solution for health information exchange gateway, interoperability, and compatibility testing.

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I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit.

Filed Under: EMR
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Kansas Health Information Network, Inc. Selects NoMoreClipboard Patient Health Record (PHR) for State-Wide Health Information Exchange

Fort Wayne, Ind. – February 28, 2013 – The Kansas Health Information Network (KHIN), the health information organization providing technology infrastructure for electronic medical record sharing for the entire state of Kansas, has selected NoMoreClipboard to configure and deploy a personal health record (PHR) that will connect patients and clinicians and improve care coordination for more than 2.7 million people in the state.

“We selected NoMoreClipboard as part of a detailed RFP process,” said KHIN Executive Director, Laura McCrary, Ed.D. “Their written response to our RFP document was top-notch, their references were exceptional and we were impressed with their experience and willingness to help Kansas health care providers communicate more effectively with their patients.  Most importantly, NoMoreClipboard has experience with health information sharing across providers.  The company is willing to work through the challenges associated with implementing the first statewide (and national) personal health record populated with real-time data from KHIN’s health information network.”

McCrary added, “This is great news for Kansas patients.  They will benefit by having all of their health information in one location.  A list of medications, allergies, procedures, lab results and health conditions will be available to them when the KHIN PHR is fully deployed in 2014.   For the first time, Kansas patients will also be able to securely and electronically communicate with all of their health care providers, view and share their visit summaries and obtain relevant educational information using their computers and smartphones.  For Kansas providers, this partnership will help them meet the patient engagement meaningful use requirements necessary to receive Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments.  This is a huge step forward for healthcare in Kansas.”

“We are gratified that KHIN has elected to partner with us to advance electronic patient engagement in Kansas, given their reputation as a national health information exchange (HIE) leader,” said NoMoreClipboard president, Jeff Donnell. “Based on learning’s from our ONC Challenge Grant work with HIEs in Indiana, we have advised KHIN to employ a phased approach that focuses first on connecting patients and helping Kansas healthcare providers comply with meaningful use stage two requirements. We will integrate tightly with KHIN’s HIE infrastructure – using Direct protocols – to enable consumers in Kansas to access and share their health information.”

“Our intent is to roll out the KHIN personal health record this summer, and we will continue to add capability as Kansas patients and providers become more comfortable with sharing data electronically,” added McCrary. “Our patient population will benefit from the choice of NoMoreClipboard, as this solution includes functionality that will help Kansas residents organize and manage their health information and access it anywhere using a secure connection.”

About KHIN

KHIN’s mission is to improve health care quality, coordination and efficiency through the exchange of health information at the point of care utilizing a secure electronic network provided by a collaboration of health care organizations.   KHIN is a provider led, not for profit.    It draws users from a broad geographical area (85,000 square miles) and aligns with state data sources to support cost effective delivery of services. It supports and integrates with community and medical trading area efforts to drive care coordination and workflow changes creating a climate to encourage innovation. Its goals are to ensure providers, patients and communities have long-term access to cost effective, sustainable health information exchange aligned with costs distributed across a broad user base. KHIN supports providers in meeting Meaningful Use requirements and removes barriers so communities and regions can focus on quality improvement, patient centered medical homes and entrepreneurial strategies that improve local health outcomes.

AboutNoMoreClipboard
NoMoreClipboard is a leader in electronic patient engagement, connecting consumers and clinicians to improve communication and foster collaboration. NoMoreClipboard gives consumers portable, interoperable personal health records to access, manage and share health information. Provider solutions include branded patient portals designed to integrate with clinical workflow, enhance efficiency and contribute to improved patient outcomes. Visit www.NoMoreClipboard.com for more information.

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March 1, 2013 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit.

Filed Under: EMR
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North American Connectathon 2013 Provides Testing Ground for Meaningful Use Stage 2 Requirements

CHICAGO – (February 27, 2013) In an effort to advance interoperability in the U.S., IHE USA and the Health Story Project offered  Health Level Seven’s (HL7) Consolidated Clinical Document Architecture® (C-CDA) standard as part of the testing process at the IHE North American (NA) Connectathon 2013. When implemented into electronic health records (EHRs) and health information exchanges (HIEs), HL7’s C-CDA contributes a critical component of a patient’s medical record, including the physician’s progress notes, discharge summaries, and other clinical documents. U.S. physicians create over a billion clinical notes each year. These notes contain most of a patient’s clinical records, and most EHRs are not capable of integrating this type of data into their systems.

“Eighteen vendors registered to test 27 systems for C-CDA – including, a diverse group of EHR, document imaging and HIE vendors. After years of working with EHR and HIE vendors and encouraging acceptance of C-CDA document types, Health Story members are thrilled about the potential uptake of C-CDA and its role in contributing to comprehensive electronic patient stories,” said Joy Kuhl, Executive Director of the Health Story Project.

IHE USA and Health Story Project are excited to announce that 18 companies earned a passing test score for C-CDA testing at the NA Connectathon 2013, gaining a competitive advantage in meeting Meaningful Use Stage 2 requirements for adoption of C-CDA.

Successful Consolidated CDA Test Participants:

Allscripts

athenahealth

CareEvolution, Inc.

Certify Data Systems

Corepoint Health

Epic

GE Healthcare

Greenway Medical Technologies

Iatric Systems, Inc.

ICT Health

InterSystems

Notable Solutions, Inc.

Nuance Communications

Mirth Corporation

Nextgen Healthcare

Oracle America

VitalHealth Software

Vitera Healthcare Solutions

Please visit IHE USA to learn more about Consolidated CDA, the NA Connectathon, and Consolidated CDA test participants.

About IHE USA

IHE USA (www.iheusa.org) is a not-for-profit organization established in 2010 that operates as a deployment committee of IHE International®. The mission of IHE USA is to drive adoption of standards-based interoperability to improve patient care through innovation, standards profiling, testing, education and collaboration. IHE USA improves the efficiency and effectiveness of healthcare delivery by supporting the deployment of standards-based electronic health record systems, facilitating the exchange of health information among care providers, both within the enterprise and across care settings, and enabling local, regional and nationwide health information networks in the United States, all in a manner consistent with participation in IHE International, Inc.

About Health Story

The Health Story Project was founded five years ago by the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI), the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), the Clinical Documentation Industry Association, Lantana Consulting Group, and M*Modal. It is now a collaborative of over two dozen healthcare vendors, providers and associations. Health Story accelerated development of HL7 Clinical Document Architecture (CDA) Implementation Guides for common types of clinical documents, bringing them through the HL7 ballot process and promoting their adoption within the industry. Over the previous five years, the initiative produced the first set of national data standards for clinical documents – use of which supports requirements for Meaningful Use of EHRs. The Health Story vision is for complete patient stories to be available in electronic medical records.  You can see Health Story in action at HIMSS13 in the Interoperability Showcase.

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February 27, 2013 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit.

Filed Under: EMR
Tags:                                                      

DataMotion Developers Toolkit Facilitates Quick Integration with Direct Messaging, Enabling Providers to Qualify for Meaningful Use Stage 2 Incentives

Toolkit Offers Lucrative Market Opportunities to EHR, HIE and IDN Vendors by Helping
Healthcare Providers Overcome Complexities and Qualify for Potential Subsidies

MORRISTOWN, N.J. – February 27, 2013 – DataMotion (www.datamotion.com), a health information service provider (HISP) offering secure data delivery services, today introduced the DataMotion Direct Toolkit. The Toolkit enables Health Information Systems (HIS) vendors who develop electronic health record (EHR), health information exchange (HIE) and integrated delivery network (IDN) solutions to qualify their systems’ interoperability capabilities as required for Meaningful Use Stage 2 incentive payments.

Often times, secure messaging and PKI encryption are not core competencies of HIS vendors. Rather than build a solution in-house, vendors can now quickly add required Direct functionality by leveraging the DataMotion Direct Toolkit. This shortens time to market for HIS vendors and helps them quickly seize lucrative new market opportunities.

“As we were looking for an expert in the development of Direct messaging functionality, DataMotion came out as the clear choice,” said Mark Pilarski, vice president, product generation for T-System, Inc., the industry leader in clinical, financial and operational solutions for emergency medicine. “After researching prospective HISPs it was clear that DataMotion had the most robust offering. Since engaging their team, we’ve been impressed with the strength and simplicity of the application programming interface (API) and their knowledgeable and responsive tech support. Best of all, we’ve found them to be flexible and easy to do business with. We look forward to offering an integrated Direct solution to our user base.”

Through the Toolkit, HIS vendors’ customers can take advantage of DataMotion Direct, a cloud-based secure data transfer service that enables healthcare organizations of all sizes to meet compliance demands and real-world communications needs. The Toolkit’s ease-of-use allows rapid integration -  usually in less than a month. The turnkey solution is regularly updated to meet new industry requirements. Designed to interoperate with disparate systems, provider organizations can also avoid vendor lock-in to ensure the greatest return on technology investments and the ability to take advantage of new developments in the future.

The DataMotion Direct Toolkit includes:

  • ·         A robust suite of APIs to facilitate integration of Direct messaging into any EHR/EMR, HIE or IDN application
  • ·         An easy-to-follow implementation guide
  • ·         Pre-integration consulting
  • ·         Integration engineering support
  • ·         Tier-1 technical support during third-party certification testing
  • ·         One year membership in the DataMotion Direct Developers Consortium

“Our Toolkit offers vendors a tremendous opportunity to quickly meet Meaningful Use Stage 2 requirements,” said Bob Janacek, co-founder and chief technology officer for DataMotion. “Whether you want DataMotion to provide the entire messaging interface inside of your solution, or simply need your existing messaging interface to communicate through Direct protocols, the DataMotion Direct Toolkit provides a rapid and easy way to accomplish this.”

The DataMotion Direct Toolkit is available immediately. For more information, vendors should visit http://www.datamotion.com/DirectProject/HealthcareDirectvendor.aspx, email sales@datamotion.com or call (800) 672-7233.

About DataMotion

DataMotion enables organizations to dramatically reduce the cost and complexity of delivering electronic information to employees, customers and partners in a secure and compliant way. The company’s core DataMotion Platform solves a broad range of business issues by providing a secure data delivery hub. DataMotion’s easy-to-use solutions for secure email, file transfer, forms processing and customer contact leverage the DataMotion Platform for unified data delivery. Millions of users worldwide rely on DataMotion to transparently improve business processes and reduce costs, while mitigating security and compliance risk. DataMotion is privately held and based in Morristown, N.J.

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I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit.

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New Hampshire Health Information Organization (NHHIO) Selects Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative (MAeHC) as State HIE Executive Director and Orion Health as Technical Vendor

New Hampshire Health Information Organization (NHHIO) Selects Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative (MAeHC) as State HIE Executive Director and Orion Health as Technical Vendor

MAeHC to Develop and Manage NH’s HIE, Connecting Key Healthcare Entities to Increase Efficiencies and Improve Patient Safety Outcomes; Orion Health HIE to Provide HIE Platform and Solutions

Waltham, Mass., February 20, 2013– The Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative (MAeHC), a non-profit pioneer and leader in healthcare delivery through health information technology, announced today that it has been selected by the New Hampshire Health Information Organization (NHHIO) to provide Executive Director Management services for the implementation of the statewide Health Information Exchange (HIE).  The NHHIO, a non-profit organization created by New Hampshire legislation in 2011 to establish a statewide electronic health network for healthcare providers, selected MAeHC to help them lead the State’s HIE initiatives based on the organization’s national reputation and experience working with the New Hampshire healthcare provider community via the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and as the operator of the Regional Extension Center of New Hampshire (RECNH).  As the NHHIO Executive Director of Management services, MAeHC will assist the NHHIO board of directors in providing the overall executive leadership, strategic direction and management for the State’s HIE initiatives which will allow healthcare providers to exchange electronic health information in a secure environment.  The NHHIO also selected Orion Health as the technical vendor to provide the HIE technology backbone and solutions that will enable statewide clinical data sharing.

“We are excited to move forward with MAeHC as the State’s HIE Executive Director. They have a strong reputation for their HIE efforts throughout the country and offer years of experience that will help us achieve our vision to leverage existing resources and close the gaps on information exchange,” said Denise Purington, Chair of the NHHIO. “And Orion Health has long been a trusted partner of the State, where its solutions are being utilized within The New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services and in several of the state’s hospitals and other healthcare organizations. Together, we’re certain that we will be able to create a secure and robust Statewide HIE which will reduce costs in healthcare while improving the quality, efficiency and safety of patient care.”

“This project promises to deliver a significant and lasting benefit to the health and safety of the citizens of New Hampshire, and we are thrilled to have such able and respected partners working with us to ensure the success of this critical initiative,” said Nick Toumpas, Commissioner, New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services. “MAeHC and Orion Health have worked closely with stakeholders from the earliest stages of this process, ensuring that our community gets the most utility and benefit from the NHHIO right from the start.  We are very pleased with the progress so far and are looking forward to the next phase.”

MAeHC will help the NHHIO board of directors develop a platform of core services necessary to facilitate the secure routing of data between existing private, local and regional HIE partners. Such information includes summary of care documents such as hospital discharge summaries, referral and consultation notes, as well as lab results and imaging reports.  To support the delivery of these documents and data, the NHHIO will also implement security services such as secure messaging that will be built in alignment with national specifications as well as provider addressing and auditing. Future phases may include an electronic master patient index, record locator services and the expansion of services to other healthcare stakeholders.

“We are honored to have been selected for such a key role in one of the nation’s most advanced state HIE infrastructures,” said Micky Tripathi, CEO of the Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative.  “The New Hampshire initiative is a great example of a private HIE that will be operated differently from the state run initiatives throughout the country. By doing a few things well for a few key constituents, we hope to incrementally build confidence in and utilization of HIE resources for future growth.”

About New Hampshire Health Information Organization (NHHIO)
NHHIO is a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization created by legislation that is establishing a statewide electronic health network to share patient health information between health care providers in a timely, secure, and confidential manner. Our goal is to collaborate with hospitals, physicians, community health centers, long term care providers, home care providers and other clinicians involved in the delivery of healthcare. Our vision is to design and implement a secure and robust health information exchange which will lead to the reduction in healthcare cost and improve quality, efficiency, and safety of patient care. In 2010 multi-stakeholder workgroups were formed to address six Health Information Exchange (HIE) planning and operational domains:  Governance, Finance, Technical Infrastructure, Business & Technical Operations, Legal & Policy and Public Health workgroup members were instrumental in the collaborative process that resulted in a Strategic and Operational Plan for Health Information Exchange in New Hampshire that was approved by the Office of the National Coordinator in December of 2010.   This multi stakeholder effort also resulted in legislation that created the NHHIO effective July 5, 2011. To learn more about NHHIO and its board of directors, please visit us at www.nhhio.org

About Orion Health Inc.
Founded in 1993 in Auckland, New Zealand, Orion Health is the only global, independently owned eHealth technology company. With an inherent ability to interconnect a wide variety of healthcare information systems, Orion Health has become the world’s leading provider of health information exchange (HIE) and healthcare integration solutions. Orion Health has extensive experience in the design and installation of complex systems within demanding healthcare environments. Today, Orion Health products and solutions are implemented in more than 30 countries, used by hundreds of thousands of clinicians, and help facilitate care for tens of millions of patients. Clinicians, provider facilities and OEM partners rely on Orion Health to facilitate data exchange between hospitals, health systems, HIEs, and affiliated providers and medical devices, resulting in improved care coordination, increased cost savings and efficiencies, and enhanced quality of care.

In the U.S., Orion Health™ HIE provides the technology backbone for state and regional HIEs across the country. Orion Health Rhapsody® Integration Engine is used by nearly all state and local health departments for public health reporting. Customers include Catholic Health Initiatives, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Beacon Community of the Inland Northwest, Geisinger Health System, Inland Empire HIE, Kaiser Permanente, Lahey Clinic, Louisiana Health Care Quality Forum, Lehigh Valley Health Network, Maine HealthInfoNet, Massachusetts Health Information Highway and St. Vincent’s HealthCare. For more information, visit www.orionhealth.com. Connect with us on Twitter, facebook and LinkedIn.

About Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative (MAeHC)
The Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative is a national leader in the facilitation and management of electronic health record deployment, health information exchange and quality measure reporting. MAeHC is an independent non-profit corporation with a charitable mission to improve the delivery of health care by promoting the use of health IT.  Formed in 2004 as a collaboration of non-profit health care stakeholders to demonstrate the most effective ways to deploy EHRs and HIE to improve the quality, safety, efficiency, and affordability of care in Massachusetts, MAeHC now works across the United States with a wide range of physician practices, hospitals, state governments, contracting networks, management services organizations, HIE organizations, technology vendors, and consulting firms.  To learn more about the Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative, please visit www.maehc.org.

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February 22, 2013 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit.

Filed Under: Healthcare  Healthcare IT  HIE
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HIMSS, AHIMA Release Results of HIE Staffing Environmental Scan

CHICAGO, (February 11, 2013) – Healthcare information exchange (HIE) organizations have become prime employers for both aspiring and experienced health information technology (IT) and healthcare information management (HIM) professionals, with the escalation of healthcare reform initiatives, such as HITECH and the Affordable Care Act. Noting this trend, plus the need for more formal research on necessary education, training, resources, talent and experience to effectively and efficiently staff HIE organizations, HIMSS and the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) have released the findings of their 2012 HIE Staffing Model Environmental Scan.

HIMSS and AHIMA established a joint workgroup to explore both current and planned HIE staffing models with the goal of providing a clear understanding of the professional skill sets and experience critical to HIE organizational success.  Representatives from 35 HIE organizations, encompassing a wide range of sizes, locations, funding strategies and stages of implementation, responded to a detailed survey on their operational strategies, current staffing profiles and anticipated hiring needs.

 “The laudable goal of HIEs – to connect healthcare providers electronically to facilitate higher quality care – can only be realized if we ensure the right resources and staff are developed,” said AHIMA CEO Lynne Thomas Gordon, MBA, RHIA, CAE, FACHE, FAHIMA. “This study outlines recommendations for moving this industry forward.”

Trends in Health Information Exchange Organizational Staffing: AHIMA/HIMSS HIE Staffing Model Environmental Scan presents the results of this effort, including:

  • Detailed information on current and planned staffing for HIE organizations of all sizes, including the use of full-time, part-time, job-sharing, outsourcing and on-site contractor positions;
  • Trends in staffing needs across the life span of an HIE organization;
  • Use of federal programs, such as the HITECH Workforce Development Consortiums;
  • Common staffing challenges encountered by HIE organizations;
  • Recommendations for both HIE organizations and health IT professionals; and
  • Suggestions for future research.

“Deployment and effective use of information technology is complex, challenging work   requiring skilled staff.  This study provides unique insight into the world of HIE organizations, focused on skill sets and experiences required for today’s and future expectations.  This first study also sets a benchmark for additional workforce studies in this critical area,” says Carla Smith, MA, CNM, FHIMSS, Executive Vice President, HIMSS.

Access this environmental scan research through HIMSS and AHIMA.  For additional discussion on this topic, join the conversation in the HIMSS LinkedIn group and the AHIMA LinkedIn group.

About HIMSS     

HIMSS is a cause-based, not-for-profit organization exclusively focused on providing global leadership for the optimal use of information technology (IT) and management systems for the betterment of health and healthcare. Founded 52 years ago, HIMSS and its related organizations are headquartered in Chicago with additional offices in the United States, Europe and Asia. HIMSS represents more than 52,000 individual members, of which more than two thirds work in healthcare provider, governmental and not-for-profit organizations. HIMSS also includes over 600 corporate members and more than 225 not-for-profit partner organizations that share our mission of transforming healthcare through the best use of information technology and management systems. HIMSS frames and leads healthcare practices and public policy through its content expertise, professional development, research initiatives, and media vehicles designed to promote information and management systems’ contributions to improving the quality, safety, access, and cost-effectiveness of patient care. To learn more about HIMSS and to find out how to join us and our members in advancing our cause, please visit our website at www.himss.org.

About AHIMA

Celebrating its 85th anniversary this year, the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) represents more than 67,000 educated health information management professionals in the United States and around the world. AHIMA is committed to promoting and advocating for high quality research, best practices and effective standards in health information and to actively contributing to the development and advancement of health information professionals worldwide. AHIMA’s enduring goal is quality healthcare through quality information. www.ahima.org

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February 14, 2013 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit.

Filed Under: EMR
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The Children’s Care AllianceTM Announces Launch of “Virtual Health VillageTM”

The New Pediatric Health Information Exchange is Designed to Improve the Healthcare of Children in the Lehigh Valley

Lehigh Valley, Pa. (January 28, 2013)….The Children’s Care AllianceTM announces creation of its Virtual Health VillageTM that will allow seamless exchange of student electronic health records between different hospital emergency rooms, clinics, physician offices and school districts in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley.  The rapid exchange of information between partner organizations will assure more complete, up-to-date information is available to healthcare providers, including school nurses, when a child is treated in an emergency room, clinic or doctor’s office or when the student visits the school health room. The pediatric health information exchange (HIE) will create more complete health records, while rapid access to a student’s health information will save time, eliminate duplicate tests and procedures and greatly improve initial and follow-up care.

The Children’s Care Alliance (CCA) governance body currently comprises three separate hospital systems –Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Hospital Network, Lehigh Valley Health Network and Sacred Heart Health System and two school districts, Bethlehem Area and Allentown, with a combined student population of over 32,000. The HIE represents a first-of-its-kind collaboration between healthcare organizations and the education community that share a common goal – improving the healthcare of children in the region.

The innovative project will assure better care of chronic conditions such as asthma and diabetes and will boost immunization rates. The Children’s Care Alliance anticipates greater patient and provider satisfaction and lower heath care costs by reducing duplicate tests and procedures. In addition to cutting student absence from school, parents and regional employers will benefit from fewer missed workdays.

“I am really pleased by this collaborative effort on the part of hospitals, doctors and school districts to improve the continuity of care of our children,” states Thomas Coyle, President of the Lehigh Valley Business Coalition on Health Care. “This is something employers can really get behind. Not only will it cut the time parents miss from work, but potentially it will reduce employer healthcare costs by eliminating duplicate tests and procedures.”

While full implementation of the project is expected to cost about $2.3 million, initial phases addressing governance, legal, security and privacy issues as well as infrastructure, hardware, software and training are being funded by grants – $300,000 from the Harry C. Trexler Trust, and $600,000 from the Kresge Foundation. In addition to the grant funding, all three hospital systems and both school districts are providing in-kind services to move the project forward.

A big plus for the school districts is that participation in the project is at no cost to them. Grant monies have been used to purchase approximately fifty iPads for the school nurses in both Allentown and Bethlehem Area school districts.

“At this point we are teaching the school nurses how to use the iPads,” states Kathy Halkins, Department Chair for District Nurses in the Bethlehem Area School District. “I just spent the day with one of our nurses measuring, weighing, and checking the vision and hearing of our high school students. After screening only two classes she had it mastered. The best part was, when we were done, we were done. We no longer had to pull each student’s file, handwrite the data, enter it into the computer and re-file the paper records. The computer savvy students even helped her out with the iPad, building a better connection between the students and the nurse.”

Halkins also has downloaded other applications to her iPad such as an animated instructional program for children on brushing and flossing teeth. “While most high school students already know how to brush and floss correctly, this is great for our lower grades, especially our underserved students. It also helps to foster relationships between the nursing staff and students.” With completion of training on the iPads, the school nurses are converting student health records into an electronic format so that they can be shared within the school districts and ultimately with hospitals and care providers within the Virtual Health Village.

“We’ve achieved another milestone and have just signed a contract with Alere Wellogic as the CCA HIE technology vendor,” states Michael Cirba, CIO, Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Hospital Network and the newly-elected CCA steering committee chairperson.

“Work now is underway to create the health information exchange capabilities. Later phases of the project will seek to expand the number of participating school districts as well as hospitals and physician groups.”

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February 9, 2013 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit.

Filed Under: Healthcare
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