This Week’s Health IT Business News
The health IT industry’s biggest event is two weeks from today. The HIMSS Annual Conference & Exhibition will be held in New Orleans, March 3-7. We’ll be there as part of the press covering the event including interviewing a dozen Executive Directors and Senior Staff members attending from Regional Extension Centers across the country. From a business model, what will happen to the RECs when Stage 1 federal grant funding expires? One REC, CalHIPSO, has put in to place a plan for self-sustainability as of January 1, 2014. It will be interesting to see what the other 61 RECs will do this year as Stage 1 winds down. We’re hoping to hear from the RECs attending HIMSS on their future plans.
Partnerships
HealthCare Anytime and ICA announced the two companies will partner to combine and strengthen the their technologies in delivering clinical data transfer and patient engagement applications. According to the press release, ICA will provide “a mechanism to capture and distribute data from and to multiple care settings and multiple systems into HealthCare Anytime’s portal to allow patient viewing.” In turn, HealthCare Anytime’s patient portal will be made available to ICA’s current client base. Both solutions will facilitate secure communication between patients and providers through the use of Direct messaging.
Merge Healthcare has announced that NorthWise Services (NWS) has partnered with Merge and selected eClinical OS™ to collect, manage and report on clinical trials data across all of its studies. NWS is a specialist CRO offering services in data management, statistics and medical writing. Merge eClinical OS provides end-to-end study support through a single interface.
Product Development
Dallas-based Jericho Systems Corporation has received approval by members of the ONC Data Segmentation for Privacy Pilot workgroup (DS4P) to start a pilot program exploring advanced patient control over shared medical records. The pilot will focus on how patients can better control the release of their Protected Health Information (PHI) when their medical records are requested electronically from their healthcare provider. The pilot will simulate the exchange of electronic medical records using eHealth Exchange (Healtheway). The simulated exchange will be augmented in the pilot by adding a centralized repository where simulated patients can specify conditions under which their PHI can be electronically shared. The pilot will also explore how requests for a patient’s PHI can be reported back to the patient so that each patient can be aware of who is asking for their medical information.
Cloud EHR provider Royal Solutions Group has deployed its mobile-friendly CPOE solutions, Mobile Royal Forms™, at Radiology Ltd. in Tucson, Arizona. The product enables exam ordering from any mobile device or computer. According to the press release the Royal Forms™ product integrates into any scheduling workflow through its PDF submission notifications at the point of entry and custom HL7 capabilities. Information can also be auto-populated for the referring provider making the ordering process simpler, quicker and less prone to data entry errors.
Contracts
Health IT consulting firm Stage 7 Systems has been engaged by a 200+ bed regional medical center in central Missouri and by a professional pediatric home care provider in Colorado. The consulting firm works with medical organizations on selecting, implementing and/or replacing EHR systems as well as on the development of long-range health IT strategies. According to Shawn Torkelson , Stage7 Systems’ Managing Director, the two engagements are leading indicators that the firm’s broader strategy will ultimately be a success, “In the latter part of 2012, we announced the creation of a multi-phase healthcare IT transformation methodology designed to help community & rural hospitals and large ambulatory medical groups streamline EHR projects. These two initial engagements are perfect representations of our vision for how our firm can help build forward momentum for regional healthcare providers.”
EHR vendor eClinicalWorks announced that North Carolina’s Southeastern Health (SeHealth) will expand its relationship with the company to include eClinicalWorks Care Coordination Medical Record™ (CCMR) for advancing its Accountable Care Organization (ACO)-related objectives. SeHealth has been utilizing eClinicalWorks comprehensive electronic health records (EHR) solution across 30 locations since 2010.
Company Announcements
Vitalize Consulting Solutions (VCS) and maxIT Healthcare, wholly owned subsidiaries of Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) announced their inclusion in top ten rankings on the 2012 Best in KLAS Awards: Software & Services report. VCS and maxIT ranked fourth and seventh in the Overall Services Firms category, respectively. KLAS publishes the annual report to help improve service delivery, by independently measuring vendor performance.
MyMedicalRecords, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of MMRGlobal, Inc. announced the filing of a complaint for patent infringement against WebMD. The complaint alleges that WebMD is infringing on MMR’s Personal Health Records patents and as a result, MMR is seeking monetary damages as well as a permanent injunction. The complaint was filed in the United States District Court for the Central District of California, case number CV 13-00979 (CAS/JCx), on February 11, 2013, and will be available on the court’s website http://www.pacer.gov/. The complaint alleges WebMD’s consumer-based PHR incorporates features and functions subject to MMR’s patents.
Fast Company has released their Most Innovative Companies 2013 List. The annual guide features businesses whose innovations are having the biggest impact in their industries. In the World’s Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Health Care EHR vendor athenahealth ranked 8th on the list with the author citing ease of use and making reference to the company’s recent acquisition of mobile health company Epocrates. You can follow the conversation about Fast Company’s annual list on Twitter using #FCmostinnovative.
New health IT company QPID officially launched this week. According to the press release the company will deliver a new health record intelligence platform and web-based applications to aid health care institutions and clinicians gain greater insights from their EHRs. QPID’s intelligence engine can layer on top of any EHR and was developed within Massachusetts General Hospital and Partners HealthCare.
Personnel
The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) has announced the selectin of its new President and CEO. Russell P. Branzell, who is currently the CEO of Colorado Health Medical Group, a division of University of Colorado Health, will begin his new role with CHIME effective April 5, 2013.
Ambulatory EHR vendor Vitera Healthcare Solutions announced that Kermit Randa will join the company’s leadership team as Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing. Randa most recently served as Chief Operating Officer at Surgical Information Systems (SIS).
Hello Health has announced the appointment of Barry Holleman to chief operating officer and vice president of the company. Holleman brings more than 15 years of experience to the company with previous roles with Cardinal Health, Infor, Cap Gemini and Ernst & Young.