MED3OOO has announced today that its InteGreat Electronic Health Record has been ranked 2012′s #1 EHR in for physician groups of 100-249 physicians in the BlackBook Rankings Top EHR and EMR Vendors Report. Additionally, InteGreat EHR has also been ranked #1 in the multi-specialty practice space.

BlackBook Rankings based their research on key questions to over 80,000 key stakeholders involved in EHR purchasing, implementation, and usage. MED3OOO users ranked the InteGreat product with overwhelming satisfaction, specifically ranking it #1 in the following categories:
* Vendor Overall Preference
* Innovation
* Client Relationship
* Training
* Customization
* Support and Customer Care
* Best of Breed Technology and Process Improvement

“We are honored to be voted BlackBook’s #1 EHR in large group and multi-specialty practices,” stated Patrick Hampson, Chairman and CEO of MED3OOO. “We are dedicated to providing the best technology products and service to our clients, and are deeply gratified that our client evaluations continue to reflect our commitment.”

Healthland, a company that focuses on healthcare information technology solutions for rural hospitals, today announced the results from a recent customer survey focused on the Stage 1 Meaningful Use attestation process. The survey reported on categories including: the amount of time required to attest; keys to success; challenges in the process; and the importance of executive buy-in.

The survey’s findings reveal that the overwhelming majority of healthcare providers found the attestation process and ability to meet Meaningful Use requirements to be faster and easier than they originally anticipated. The majority of respondents also found that the Meaningful Use reporting capabilities in Healthland’s electronic health record solution (EHR) were essential to track progress, identify problem areas and report attestation data. Over 85 percent of clients said that executive buy-in was very important to their Meaningful Use achievement. The Healthland survey included responses from rural and critical access hospitals across the United States.

“Our clients are meeting Meaningful Use requirements at an impressive rate — at times faster than their larger counterparts,” said Angie Franks, Healthland president and CEO. “We now have over 50 clients that have attested to Stage 1 Meaningful Use. Healthland clients are actually paving the way for Meaningful Use in states like Minnesota, North Dakota, Louisiana and Wyoming, where they were the first healthcare providers to attest. Since ARRA was passed, we’ve worked diligently to help the rural hospital community meet these government mandates by providing educational webinars, regulation and requirement updates, and reporting tools that help our clients throughout the attestation process.”

When Healthland clients were asked what was most helpful in achieving Meaningful Use, survey respondents cited vendor support by a significant margin. The majority of respondents also listed the following as extremely helpful in getting them to Meaningful Use:

– Healthland’s EHR Meaningful Use Reports

– Healthland Webinars

– Healthland Staff Support

– Weekly Internal Staff Meetings and Updates

In fact, over 90 percent of Healthland clients reported that Healthland tools and support were the most important components to success as they worked toward Meaningful Use. Of those surveyed, 69 percent said the Healthland Meaningful Use Report was essential to keep them on track during the 90-day reporting period, and the majority of respondents said that the Healthland report was their primary tool for tracking Meaningful Use progress. “When you look at how robustly our clients leverage the Meaningful Use reporting tool, and how quickly they are able to complete the attestation process, it’s clear that the two are related,” said Franks. “You can correlate the data and see a clear alignment — the Healthland Meaningful Use reporting tool makes it easy to attest. That’s a testament to the power of the solutions we provide our clients.”

When asked about major challenges in their Meaningful Use achievement, 37.5 percent of respondents said internal process change management was the most challenging aspect. Not far behind, 31 percent of those surveyed said understanding Meaningful Use criteria was their biggest challenge and 12.5 percent said physician adoption was their biggest challenge in achieving Meaningful Use.

The hospitals surveyed also reported surprising successes with the Healthland EHR solutions such as: the ability to attest much earlier than expected; the ease of physician and staff adoption; the consistency and standardization of many processes within the Healthland EHR; and impressive internal staff performance.

“We are thrilled by these findings,” concluded Franks. “Helping the rural hospital community meet Meaningful Use, and receive the critical incentive funds that go with it, is absolutely a necessity to keep these important healthcare providers doing what they do best — delivering quality healthcare to their family, friends and neighbors.”

Nuance Communications, Inc.  has announced the winners of the 2012 Mobile Clinician Voice Challenge, a month-long event that called upon healthcare developers to voice-enable mobile or web-based healthcare applications.

According to market research from RNCOS, physician adoption of mobile devices in healthcare is expected to reach 81-85 percent this year, heightening the need for intuitive, user-friendly healthcare applications that enhance clinicians’ experience, improve mobile workflow and lead to better patient care.  As part of the 2012 Mobile Clinician Voice Challenge, developers had access to the 360 | Development Platform (formerly the Nuance Healthcare Developer Program), which supports multiple devices and operating systems and enables developers to seamlessly and quickly embed Nuance’s SpeechAnywhere services into their healthcare applications.

“Through access to Nuance’s secure, cloud-based, medical speech recognition platform developers were challenged to give mobile clinicians a voice,” said Janet Dillione, executive vice president and general manager, Nuance Healthcare.  “Developers stepped up to the challenge and delivered some truly innovative clinical applications including disease management tools, diagnosis checklist systems, physician-patient interaction and communication tools, and practice management apps that will help mobile clinicians research, access, create and share clinical information faster than ever before.”

Our judging panel (see panel participants detailed below) reviewed all submissions based on pre-defined judging criteria – including Innovation, Functional Implementation, Workflow and Patient Care Benefits, and Visual Appeal – and selected SparrowEDIS, developed by Montrue Technologies, Inc., as the grand prize winner.

SparrowEDIS is an emergency department information system for the iPad that allows doctors and nurses to dictate, through Nuance Healthcare-powered voice recognition technology, the clinical narrative at the point-of-care.  With the added layer of medical voice recognition, clinicians can also check for prescription interaction issues, create prescription orders, and share discharge instructions at the bedside all through voice, helping to streamline emergency medicine workflow and improve patient safety.  For more insight into the winning app from Montrue Technologies, please visit:  http://vimeo.com/35912556

“As an emergency doctor, I know access to the clinical narrative is crucial in enabling us to get a 360 degree view of a patient.  I also know that speech recognition is the best way to capture this narrative in its fullest form, and in the most efficient fashion,” says Brian Phelps, CEO and co-founder, Montrue Technologies, Inc.  “By speech-enabling our app, SparrowEDIS, on Nuance’s 360 | Development Platform we are able to capture the essence of the patient doctor relationship.”

Following grand prize recognition, first prize in Nuance’s Mobile Clinician Voice Challenge was awarded to healthcare application developer, Remedy Systems.  By speech-enabling their Deep Query Engine app, they’ve enabled physicians to interact and organize their practice via voice commands, much like a mobile, medical personal assistant.  Second prize was given to WholeSlide, Inc., a technology company that creates novel tools for image viewing and analysis, for their educational program app.  With WholeSlide’s voice-enabled app, clinicians and researchers are able to rapidly annotate regions of the apps hosted histology, hematology, and pathology data via spoken form to quickly share with colleagues.

“What was evident from the broad range of speech-driven mobile applications submitted as part of the Mobile Clinician Voice Challenge, is there’s a need for a more integrated approach to the development process and we’re just starting to see a smart focus on apps that are truly user-friendly for the medical community,” said Dr. Andres Jimenez, CEO, ImplementHIT.  ”As a practicing physician, and consultant working with large healthcare organizations to implement health IT, evaluating these new mobile apps from both perspectives helped me realize that speech-enabling apps will greatly facilitate adoption by healthcare providers.”

2012 Mobile Clinician Voice Challenge Judging Panel:

• Mr. HIStalk – Leading blog on hospital IT news, healthcare technology and healthcare industry trends
• Dr. Steven Zuber – CMIO, Methodist Health System
• Dr. Andres Jimenez – CEO, ImplementHIT
• Janet Dillione – EVP and General Manager, Nuance Healthcare
• Jonathon Dreyer – Senior Manager, Mobile Solutions Marketing, Nuance Healthcare

To learn more about Nuance’s 360 | Development Platform and to catch a live demo of the winning app, SparrowEDIS, please visit the Nuance booth #3523 at HIMSS on Wednesday, February 22 at 4:30 PM PST.

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Honeywell HomMed, a provider of telehealth and remote patient care, today announced the newest addition to its Genesis™ product line – the Genesis Touch™– a personal health device running on a 7″ Samsung Galaxy Tab that is designed to address the current and future needs of patients who use telehealth to better manage their healthcare.

The Genesis Touch™ redefines available telehealth technology with a simple-to-use Android-based tablet offering patients and their families increased information and flexibility, while delivering a richer interaction between patients and their healthcare providers.

“The Genesis Touch represents the next step in the progression of remote patient care,” said Terry Duesterhoeft, president of Honeywell HomMed. “Blending the latest in widely-accepted consumer technology with all the traditional telehealth benefits that healthcare providers, patients and their families have come to expect from the Genesis family of products allows Honeywell HomMed to continue redefining how – and where – remote patient monitoring occurs.”

As with Honeywell’s other Genesis telehealth monitors, the Genesis Touch collects vital signs from patients and transmits it to Honeywell’s LifeStream™ Management Suite, so healthcare providers can track and monitor their patients’ data.  In addition, the Genesis Touch also blends HomMed’s highly-intuitive user interface with the strengths of Samsung Mobile’s Galaxy Tab™ platform and the Verizonnetwork, while acting as a portal to access a wide range of applications, such as Fuze Meeting.

“The Genesis Touch enables patients to leverage existing technology tools to improve their healthcare management,” said Duesterhoeft.  “The touchscreen platform is both efficient and familiar, while the integrated video adds a ‘personal touch’ to patient interactions with their healthcare providers.  And the anywhere-communication aspect addresses the need to have increased mobility in data management, a key offering in today’s healthcare marketplace.”

Key features of the Genesis Touch include:

• Fuze Meeting, a real-time visual collaboration and conferencing application for the Genesis Touch, features simple, integrated video capabilities for face-to-face interaction between a patient and their healthcare provider.

• Capitalizing on Verizon’s reliable 3G network and with integrated Wi-Fi capabilities, the Genesis Touch sports enhanced mobility to allow patients to securely manage their health, whether they are at home in Maine or on vacation in Alaska.

• As an FDA-cleared dedicated personal health device, the Genesis Touch delivers stability and enhanced security for patient users, securing patient data to meet HIPAA requirements.  A tamper-resistant interface protects the device and its information from the threat of viruses.

• The Genesis Touch features an open-development platform for third-party developers to continue to expand the range of applications, devices and services for Genesis Touch patients and healthcare providers.

“Our collaboration with Honeywell HomMed addresses the ever-increasing consumer demand for more efficient mobile healthcare solutions,” said Tim Wagner, vice president and general manager of B2B Sales for Samsung Mobile.  “We believe the premium hardware of the Android-powered Galaxy Tab addresses previous challenges with mobile technology adoption and positively impacts the ability to treat patients. The ability of our device to embody an FDA-cleared healthcare solution speaks to its efficiency, reliability, and versatility.”

Dr. Farzad Mostashari

The Keynote address for Thursday should be a good one as Dr. Farzad Mostashari will provide his thoughts on where we are and where we’re going with health information technology in the United States.

Prior to joining the ONC in 2009 Dr.  Mostashari served at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene as Assistant Commissioner for the Primary Care Information Project, where he facilitated the adoption of prevention-oriented health information technology by over 1,500 providers in underserved communities. Dr. Mostashari also led the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) funded NYC Center of Excellence in Public Health Informatics and an Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality funded project focused on quality measurement at the point of care. Prior to this he established the Bureau of Epidemiology Services at the NYC Department of Health, charged with providing epidemiologic and statistical expertise and data for decision making to the health department.

Health Level Seven® International (HL7®) announced today a pilot program to provide some of its key intellectual property free of charge. “HL7 is keeping its promise to lower the barriers to adoption of electronic health records by making portions of our valuable intellectual property freely available to our stakeholders,” said Charles Jaffe, MD, PhD, CEO of HL7. “We believe that care givers, academic centers and vendors will greatly benefit from this significant enhancement for access to valuable HL7 material.”

In the pilot project, HL7 will enable no-cost licensing of its domain models (DAMs) and functional profiles. This offer, a first for HL7, was announced at the 2012 HIMSS Annual Conference and Exhibition, one of the largest health information technology conferences in the United States.

The DAM is a set of requirements that explore and analyze the business of a particular clinical “domain.”Domain analysis is the first step in creating HL7 standards for a specific care or research environment.   The domain analysis process produces documentation describing the stakeholders, activities, interactions, and information for a particular domain and serves as the source of requirements used in the design of HL7 standards.

Stand-alone DAMs will be made available at no cost during the one-year pilot, including:

·         HL7 Version 3 DAM: Cardiology; Acute Coronary Syndrome

·         HL7 Version 3 DAM: Clinical Trials Registration and Results

·         HL7 Version 3 DAM:  Analysis Model: Vital Records

Functional profiles for the HL7 Electronic Health Record System Functional Model (EHR-S FM) also will be available as part of the pilot program.  The HL7 EHR-S        FM was the industry’s first standard approved by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) to specify the functional requirements for an electronic health record system.  HL7’s functional profiles outline the important features and functions of an EHR system, including criteria to support functions such as medication history, clinical decision support, and privacy and security.  Profiles that are available to support specific uses across the continuum of care include:

·         Child health

·         Behavioral health

·         Long-term care

·         Clinical research

·         Records management and evidentiary support

“HL7 standards are the most widely used in the industry,” said Don Mon, PhD, chair, HL7 board of directors.  “These standards will be especially useful to physicians, nurses and other health care professionals, as well as health information management/technology (HIM/HIT) professionals.  Making these standards available at no cost will further our mission to enhance the exchange, integration, sharing, and retrieval of electronic health information around the world.”

The HL7 DAMs and functional profiles can be accessed at the HL7 online store or through the HL7.org home page.  Users must complete a click-through license registration process to participate.

Quest Diagnostics Incorporated is using HIMSS to launch what they’re calling the industry’s first 30-day electronic health record implementation guarantee for hospitals looking to quickly enable bi-directional data exchange with their ambulatory physicians through its award winning Care360® EHR web-based solution.

This offer provides hospitals with an opportunity to accelerate the development of virtual provider networks connecting ambulatory physicians with the hospital and other care providers in the care continuum.  With health care reform and emerging Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), it is critical for hospitals to assemble networks with a sufficient number of physician providers, and with Care360 EHR, they have an opportunity to get their physicians fully adopted and utilizing a certified EHR in 30 days.

“Hospitals have historically been plagued with slow implementation of EHRs among their ambulatory physician practices resulting in costly downtime, loss of revenue and a lack of care coordination across the healthcare continuum,” says Richard A. Mahoney, vice president of Healthcare Information Solutions for Quest Diagnostics, and president of its healthcare IT subsidiary MedPlus. “Our robust Care360 EHR with bi-directional Data Exchange allows hospitals of any size to accelerate their competitive advantage by joining the existing Care360 network of more than 200,000 physicians in 80,000 offices and have their physicians up, connected, and fully trained in 30 days. That is our guarantee.”
With the Care360 30-day guarantee, hospitals can quickly and cost-effectively expand their referral networks and connect to physicians, while allowing physicians to complete a wide range of patient-care-centered clinical tasks at the point of care. The Care360 EHR is easy to use and offers hospitals and physicians a robust solution that streamlines efficiencies while improving the quality of patient care.

“We’re extremely confident in our 30-day offer because we have a robust cloud-based IT solution and a national team of IT experts that can provide quick and seamless implementation. In addition, one third of ambulatory physicians in the country already have experience using our base product – so adoption is seamless,” added Mahoney.

This announcement follows the recent launch of Quest Diagnostics’ National EHR Grant Program offered to eligible physician practices throughout 2012. The Quest Diagnostics Grant Program offers physicians subsidies of 85 percent off the retail price of Care360 EHR. Physicians who participate can receive a full, certified EHR solution, including EHR and Practice Management System licenses, training, hosting, maintenance and 24/7 support for less than $100 per month. The Grant program enables hospitals to connect to eligible physicians with virtually no ambulatory EHR subscription through 2013.  Combining that offer with the newly announced Guarantee program enables hospitals a unique opportunity to quickly and effectively begin connecting to their ambulatory physicians.

Care360 EHR is an ONC-ATCB certified*, web-based EHR solution that allows physicians to seamlessly transition workflow from paper to electronic management in a step-wise approach. The EHR solution provides anytime, anywhere access through mobile devices including the iPhone®, iPad® and most other smartphones.

Concentra, a subsidiary of Humana Inc., announced today it intends to implement a new Electronic Health Record system from Allscripts for more than 310 Concentra Urgent Care locations across the country. Through the rollout of the new EHR system from Allscripts, all patient and client data will be connected throughout Concentra’s national footprint of medical centers and employer worksite locations.

Concentra selected the Allscripts solution based on its clinical capabilities, ability to integrate with multiple third-party systems, connectivity options, and scalability.  As the leading provider of employer health services to many Fortune 500 companies, Concentra needed an EHR system that could conform to its various reporting needs.

“Concentra’s footprint continues to expand through center acquisitions and relocations, and a trusted provider like Allscripts offers an innovative solution that can scale to our growing community of clinicians,” said Concentra Chief Executive Officer Jim Greenwood. “The Allscripts EHR is a proven solution that will enable us to deliver real-time data and further enhance best practices, while supporting our expansion into new lines of medical care.”

The agreement with Concentra follows a June 2011 announcement that Humana would provide financial assistance under its Medical Home EHR Rewards Program to selected physicians nationally who adopt a covered HITECH-certified Allscripts Electronic Health Record.

Glen Tullman, Chief Executive Officer of Allscripts, said, “Allscripts is excited to expand our relationship with Humana by providing Concentra’s affiliated physicians with the information and real-time decision support they need to generate timely outcomes for their patients, at any of their national medical center locations.”

While wandering through the exhibit halls at HIMSS today it will be easy to get caught up in the technological frenzy generated by today’s EMR systems.  It’s easy to imagine that all of this has started within the past few years, but as this video shows that’s not the case at all. 

It’s a little known fact that February 18 marked the 50th anniversary of the first electronic medical records, which were installed at Akron’s Children Hospital in Ohio.  Back then, IBM, working with Akron’s Children’s Hospital, implemented a system that would be the grandfather of today’s EMR.

If you think your EMR system could use some user interface improvements check out this video to see what they were dealing with “back in the day”

Interested in learning more?  Check out this New York Times article.

Westbrook’s Fortis content management software has received the federal government’s “meaningful use” stamp of approval by earning Modular EHR Certification. The designation officially deems the electronic health record  software capable of enabling providers to qualify for funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Tested and certified under the Drummond Group’s Electronic Health Records Office of the National Coordinator Authorized Testing and Certification Body (ONC-ATCB) program, Fortis is 2011/2012 compliant in accordance with the criteria adopted by the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Fortis v. 2.5 Service Pack 2, which met the requirements for ambulatory and inpatient modular EHR, is content management software that is being used successfully in hospitals, medical offices, clinics and pharmaceutical companies. The software captures and archives a variety of information formats from paper and electronic forms, EOBs, handwritten notes and emails to X-rays, audio and video. This information can be shared between locations and departments or made part of an automated workflow. Fortis integrates with other business and healthcare management software and provides secure Web access to information to improve service to patients, insurance companies and healthcare staff.

“This certification of Fortis confirms that our software meets recognized healthcare industry benchmarks for interoperability, integration and data security,” said Einar Haukeland, CEO and president of Westbrook. “Healthcare providers can now leverage our software to not only improve administrative functions and reduce operational costs, but to also achieve meaningful use and qualify for incentive funds under ARRA.”

Drummond Group’s ONC-ATCB 2011/2012 certification program tests and certifies that EHRs meet the meaningful use criteria for either eligible provider or hospital technology. In turn, healthcare providers using the EHR systems of certified vendors are qualified to receive federal stimulus monies upon demonstrating meaningful use of the technology — a key component of the federal government’s push to improve clinical care delivery through the adoption and effective use of EHRs by U.S. healthcare providers.

“The need to leverage information technology in the healthcare industry is huge — as the quality of care and efficiency benefits that come with computerization can really make a difference in the overall patient experience,” said Rik Drummond, CEO of the Drummond Group. “We’re ready to help transform the industry by providing the sophisticated software testing services that ensure that vendors and hospitals are offering systems that are capable of meeting the meaningful use standards required to obtain incentive funds as well as the rich functionality required to move the clinical care needle forward. We have been testing software for more than a decade and are ready to leverage our extensive experience handling sophisticated systems in complex industries as well as dealing with complicated technical issues such as interoperability and security.”

This EHR Module is 2011/2012 compliant and has been certified by Drummond Group, an ONC-ATCB approved to certify any complete or modular EHR both ambulatory and inpatient, 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.

Westbrook Technologies, Inc., Certified on 2/16/2012, Fortis 2.5 Service Pack 2, Certification ID numbers: 02162012-4541-8 (Ambulatory 170.302 0-V; 170.304 C; 02162012-4542-8 (In-Patient 170.302 0-V; 170.306 B, E, H)