Today’s Business News
The Massachusetts eHealth Institute (MeHI) at the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative announced nearly $1.3 million in grants to fund projects that advance the interoperability of electronic health records with the Commonwealth’s health information exchange, called the Mass HIway. The primary goal of this competitive grant program, called the Mass HIway Vendor Interface Grant Program, is to accelerate connections to the HIE which will enable health care providers to more easily exchange information and therefore increase the impact of the HIway on every day care delivery. Grants were given to IT vendors that support hospitals and health care organizations, with preference given to vendors in the electronic health record (EHR), clinical information system (CIS) and Care Management sectors that support physicians in small practices, long-term care, or in behavioral health settings.
Evolving payment models and an influx of clinical data generated from EHRs are compelling healthcare provider organizations to seek analytics solutions to manage patient health risk, according to Chilmark Research’s newly released 2013 Clinical Analytics Market Report: Analysis and Trends. The report describes a market for Clinical Analytics solutions that is just getting started, driven by the major new challenge of population health management. The report details an immature, yet rapidly evolving market.
MacPractice, Inc., developer of native practice management and clinical software for Mac, iPad and iPhone for doctors, announced integration of MacPractice MD with OneTouch EMR. With OneTouch, a cloud based EMR/EHR, doctors can easily record and access medical records using any modern browser or OneTouch EMR’s native app for iPad. Mark Hollis, MacPractice’s CEO, stated, “We are excited to work with OneTouch EMR. The application is template driven and thus flexible enough to fit very well with a wide range of specialties. Moreover, OneTouch EMR seamlessly interfaces with our MacPractice practice management software and provides another excellent EHR option for our users. The interface ties MacPractice MD and OneTouch EMR together, facilitating a streamlined workflow for staff and fewer steps for physicians, which provides them more time with patients. Based upon the high level of interest we have seen in quality EHR apps for iPad, we expect OneTouch EMR to do very well with MacPractice users and prospective users.”
Medtronic, Inc. announced the closing of the acquisition of Cardiocom, a privately held developer and provider of integrated telehealth and patient services for the management of chronic diseases, in an all cash transaction valued at $200 million. Medtronic expects the net impact from this transaction to be neutral to fiscal year 2014 earnings and for this transaction to be consistent with the company’s disciplined focus on long-term returns. This acquisition is in support of Medtronic’s transition toward expanding the company’s medical device product offerings to broader healthcare services and solutions, providing meaningful clinical and economic value for hospitals, physicians, patients and payers. The first area of focus for Medtronic will be in heart failure, where the addition of the Cardiocom technology and patient services to its product offerings will expand its reach to more patients across the heart failure care continuum.
Krames StayWell, the nation’s largest provider of patient and consumer education and population health management solutions, announced that its Integrated Patient Education Solution has joined the Greenway Medical Technologies online Marketplace as a certified API solution for users of Greenway’s PrimeSUITE platform. As a Marketplace certified API solution, Krames StayWell’s Integrated Patient Education Solution has been proven to deliver value-added interoperability with the Greenway PrimeSUITE electronic health record (EHR) and practice management solution, supporting providers in delivering high-quality, cost-effective care.
Salutopia, a healthcare software innovations company, announced the launch of a technology that gives patients, providers and payers seamless interoperability of patient data across all electronic health record technologies. “ We’re thrilled about launching a solution that helps providers achieve the goal of accountable care and interoperability while meeting stringent HIPAA requirements,” said Jeffrey Renton, Salutopia’s chief executive officer. “With Salutopia’s new technology, patients have access to the information they need from nearly any location and providers have compliant, secure and efficient data portability, which significantly improves patient care.”