Healthcare IT News July 2010

Published in partnership with

By Molly Merrill, Associate Editor

LEAWOOD, KS – The benefits of the National Demonstration Project on the patient-centered medical home, an initiative by the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) and its subsidiary TransforMED, are still being realized two years after the project ended.

The project, which was undertaken by TransforMED and funded by the AAFP, ran from June 2006 to May 2008. It was the first and largest “proof-of-concept” project to determine empirically whether the TransforMED Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) model of care could be implement-ed successfully and sustained in today’s healthcare environment.

The demonstration project also

served as a learning lab to gain bet-ter insight into the kinds of hands-on technical support family physi-

cians want and need to implement the PCMH model of care.

“Recommendations for the patient-centered medical home model will continue to come forth, but the TransforMED NDP achieved what it set out to do,” said

AAFP President, Lori Heim, MD.“From the beginning, the nation-

al demonstration project was viewed as more of a learning lab than a research or demonstration project,” added Terry McGeeney, MD, presi-dent and CEO of TransforMED. “The model was changed seven times dur-ing the project,” he explained. “When

By Mike Miliard, Managing Editor

CHICAGO – “Any time a business deci-sion is client-driven, it’s much more likely to be successful,” says Allscripts CEO Glen Tullman.

And so, he says, he has high hopes for his company’s $1.3 billion merg-er, announced in June, which will see Tullman serve as CEO of the combined company, with Eclipsys’s president and CEO Phil Pead becom-ing chairman and focusing on smoothing the transition, tending to key client and strategic relation-ships and developing international opportunities.

“We share with Eclipsys now more than 20 joint clients” including Columbia University Medical Center,

the Lahey Clinic and Hartford Hospital, says Tullman. “And they’re very interested in having us work

together. We have a unique benefit in that both companies use Microsoft .NET as our fundamental architecture,

and conse-quently having the two systems work in an inte-grated fashion is much easier to do. I’ve known Phil for years. We both have a healthy degree of respect for each other, and a friendship. So as we began to show up at the same meet-ings, and those clients suggested we put the companies together, we start-ed to have some conversations.”

As Tullman sees it, the two compa-nies’ strengths are complementary. Allscripts is well known for its presence in the ambulatory market, and Eclipsys is a leader in acute care settings.

Together, the new company will make for a combined client base that includes 180,000 physicians, 1,500 hospitals and 10,000 post-acute organizations – resulting in the

Practice management: Market saturated page 34

news

on tourHealth IT leaders stop by George Washington University Hospital PaGe 3

end gameRegional Extension Center chiefs begin work of IT uptake. PaGe 9

commentary

Hidden costsMobile is the way to go in healthcare, says Motorala’s Vivian Funkhauser, who explains why. PaGe 13

HosPitaLs & iDns

Big bang rolloutCatholic Health Initiatives takes on EHR project throughout 72 facilities in 18 states. PaGe 17

PHysician Practices & ambuLatory care

i am womanStudy shows women are top users of e-visits with doctors, and likely to drive uptake. PaGe 23

Payers

accountableAnthem Blue Cross signs up for pilot Accountable Care Organization, new model for care.PaGe 27

VenDors

Growth aheadObservers say market for HIE tech is due for growth spurt. PaGe 31

www.Healthcareitnews.comMedTech Media / Vol. 7 No. 7

Capital celebrationIndustry leaders at National Health IT Week celebrated unprecedented progress for health IT. PaGe 20

ManaGeMent Solutions

Seeking partnersStand-alone PM vendors looking for EHR match. PaGe 34

CliniCal toolkit

all about metricsProof of pay-for-performance programs is in the outcomes. PaGe 35

t H e n e w S S o u r C e f o r H e a l t H C a r e i n f o r M a t i o n t e C H n o l o G y n J u l Y 2 0 1 0

nAtIOnAL HEALtH IT chief David Blumenthal, MD, announced on June 18 that electronic health records certified under a new temporary certification program would be on the market by fall,

Certification is a critical piece to proving meaningful use for hospitals and physician practices to be eligible for Medicare and Medicaid incen-tives under ARRA, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Read more about certification and other ARRA programs that promote health IT in “ARRA Revisited” a special publication of Healthcare IT News and Healthcare Finance News that accompanies the July 2010 issues.

Allscripts, Eclipsys soon to be one

Eclipsys CEO Phil Pead, left, and Allscripts CEO Glen Tullman announced a merger of the two companies on June 9. The merger awaits the usual approvals.

Merged company to figure in physician, hospital markets.

Reaction from Allscripts customers

on P. 14

MerGer see page 14

Pilot see page 25

Mayo Clinic President and CEO John Noseworthy walks with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius through the lobby of the Gonda building on the Mayo Clinic campus in Rochester, Minn. Thursday morning June 3, 2010. Sebelius was at Mayo to spotlight its use of information technology. (AP Photo/ Post-Bulletin, Ken Klotzbach)

Medical home pilot still reaping benefits

Terry McGeeney, MD

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www.HealthcareITNews.com Industry news July2010 ■ Healthcare IT News 3

By DIana Manos, Senior Editor

WASHINGTON – As part of the National Health IT Week, held June 14-18 in Washington, DC, leaders of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) urged Congress to make haste on meaning-ful use, without losing sight of what can be realistically achieved by the industry.

HIMSS leaders prepped members at the ninth annual HIMSS Policy Summit, held June 15-17 at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C. prior to storming Capitol Hill to push HIMSS’s 2010 advocacy agenda.

Barry P. Chaiken, MD, HIMSS board

chair, encouraged National Health IT Week participants to ask lawmakers to ensure that any future policy pertaining to elec-tronic health record incentive programs under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act balance meaningful use criteria and measures with industry readi-ness, without delaying the timeline for implementation

Chaiken said HIMSS’ policy agenda this year also calls for Congress to enable the study of an informed patient identity solution.

HIMSS is also pushing for Congress to work with the Obama Administration to make the current physician self-referral regulation exemptions, or Stark exemptions, and anti-kickback safe harbors permanent.

Neal Neuberger, executive director of the Institute for e-Health Policy,

said the healthcare system is complex and diverse, and solutions to move healthcare IT forward need to be equally complex.

“These are not so much technological issues, but complex organizational issues that require some sophisticated approaches involving lit-erally millions of players,” Neuberger said.

Neuberger said he doubted Congress would work on any actual healthcare IT legislation this year, because most of its healthcare IT focus is already on the

Capital all abuzzBy DIana Manos, Senior Editor

wITH SO many things coming to a head to a d v a n c e

electronic health record adoption like never before, you could say it’s the summer of health IT.

Last month saw a flurry of meetings in Washington associated with the fifth annual National Health IT Week, June 14-18, themed “One Voice, One Vision: Transforming Health and Care.” The week boasted the support of 178 organizations

that thronged Washington to send the nation’s leaders “a powerful mes-sage on the impor-tance of fostering

the widespread use of health IT to improve patient safety and healthcare quality.”

Participants included vendors, provider organizations, payers, phar-maceutical/biotech companies, govern-ment agencies, trade associations, research foundations and consumer protection groups.

The Health Information Management and Systems Society (HIMSS) held its ninth annual HIT Policy Summit June 16-17 before swarming Capitol Hill to push its health IT agenda. Government Health IT hosted a conference and exhi-bition June 15-16 called “Innovation 2010: On the Threshold of Meaningful Use.”

The eHealth Initiative, College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME), National eHealth Collaborative, Women in Government, and the Institute for eHealth Policy also

n e w sI n d u s t r y

HIteCH ACt ‘lIt A fIre’ under HeAltH systemsThe nation’s employers can expect a 9 per-cent jump in medical costs in 2011, accord-ing to a new report from Pricewaterhouse-Coopers, which details the reasons for the anticipated hike and highlights the possibil-ity for savings over the long term – including the increasing use of electronic health records. “The mandates of the HITECH Act, passed in 2009, lit a fire under health systems because of the potential bonuses and future penalties for not complying with the new regulations,” the report asserts.

mobIle teCH touted As boost to veterAns HeAltHCAreFor the three million veterans living in rural areas, access to healthcare remains a major barrier, Rep. Michael F. Michaud (D-Maine), chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Health, said in his opening remarks at a hearing Wednesday. But wireless technology shows promise for veterans, he said. “It is no surprise that our rural veter-ans have worse health outcomes compared to the general population,” Michaud said. “This is where I see the great potential of innovative wireless health technologies.” Michaud acknowledged VA as a recognized leader in using electronic health records, telehealth, and telemedicine. “However, wireless health technologies also include mobile health, which truly is the new frontier in health innovations,” he said.

It AdoptIon Is About more tHAn teCHnologyThe message from the HIMSS Virtual Conference and Expo session “The Roadmap of EMR Adoption and IT Hospital Success” was clear: IT implementation isn’t just a tech-nology project. It’s a clinical one. The complex-ity of these projects has been steadily increas-ing, said Jim Deren, director of IS planning at Troy, Mich.-based CareTech Solutions. “Moving into the 1990s, hospitals were using more technology – patient scheduling and emergence of Web-base technology – and started embracing the PC world,” said Deren. “Now, it’s been getting much more complex. Organizations have a lot of data output and usage. And over the last two years, meaning-ful use has become the number-one thing IT people have been talking about.”

IndIAnA HeAltH InformAtIon exCHAnge expAndsLeaders of the Indiana Health Information Exchange (IHIE) announced the exchange would expand to serve patients in Terre Haute and Clinton, Ind. Union Hospital, a 380-bed community healthcare facility with 2,400 employees, is the largest nonprofit healthcare provider between St. Louis, Mo. and Indianapolis, serving patients from west central Indiana and east central Illinois. It will join 60 other hospitals serving more than 6 million patients throughout the state as part of IHIE. Manos see page 4

A visit to The George Washington University Hospital In Washington D.C. gave several health IT leaders a first-hand look at electronic health record implementation June 14 at the start of National Health IT week. From left to right: Sian Spurney, MD, hospitalist with the Medical Faculty Associates; Renee Patrick, project manager – Physician IT Services at GW Hospital; unidentified; Bettijoyce Lide, senior advisor and program coordinator for health IT - NIST; Kathie Westpheling, manager - public policy, HIMSS; Sharon Canner, senior director of advocacy, CHIME. The two people at the far right are not idenitified.

HIMSS presses IT agenda on Capitol Hill

Barry Chaiken, MD

➔tHe news: HIMSS continues to press its national agenda on health IT.

➔wHAt It meAns: Though there has been more legislative attention and action on health IT in the past couple of years than ever before, HIMSS sees advocacy as critical.

aDvocacy see page 4

Leaders aim for progress, but ask for gauge of industry readiness.

By BernIe MonegaIn, Editor

WASHINGTON – Health IT stakeholders received a first-hand look at health information technol-ogy and electronic health record implementation during a visit to The George Washington University Hospital last month as part of National Health IT week in the nation’s capital.

The facility, which is the closest hospital to the White House, welcomed representatives from several government agencies including the Food and Drug Administration, Health Resources and Services Administration, National Institute of Standards and Technology and Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.

“The tour of GW was a valuable opportu-nity to showcase EHRs to a broad segment of federal agency staff,” said Sharon Canner, CHIME’s senior director of advocacy. “It was extremely successful in that it provided a real-

world glimpse of how hospitals are preparing for achieving meaningful use.”

The tour included demonstrations of GW Hospital’s emergency department information systems, radiology PACS, order management and nursing documentation systems, as well as physician documentation and workflow.

While information technology analysts explained how the systems work, clinicians were also on hand to share how these systems assist them in patient care.

“Inviting representatives from federal agen-cies to view health IT systems in action and learn about efforts in progress for achieving ‘meaningful use’ helps the health policy com-munity better understand the benefits and challenges of real-world implementation,” said Gretchen Tegethoff, CIO and director of infor-mation technology at the George Washington University Hospital. ■

GW tour connects technology to policy

4 Healthcare IT News ■ July2010 Industry news www.HealthcareITNews.com

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hosted Health IT Week events.The 60 Regional Extension

Centers, or RECs, began launching their services in May and June, with many of them represented at National Health IT Week. With $642 million in federal funding, these centers are expected to help some 100,000 providers adopt health IT and qualify for meaningful use incen-tives within the next two years.

As this column goes to print, the industry eagerly waits the final rule on meaningful use, which will guide vendors and providers toward mea-suring healthcare data to improve care, boosted by federal incentives over the next five years.

Even though many stakeholders are frustrated with the fast pace required to qualify, most are thrilled with the significant advances health IT is making and the overarching effect it is having, and will have, on U.S. healthcare.

Neal Neuberger, head of the Institute for e-Health Policy told Healthcare IT News that despite how the Department of Health and Human Services was mandated by the legislation to make certain pro-visions in its rulemaking, “90 percent of it is spot on.”

“It’s amazing how much of it is great,” he added. Neuberger and many other industry leaders expect health-care IT adoption measures will develop in cycles over the coming years as the stipulations for incentives are tweaked closer to realistic goals.

Beginning in October – just a few short months away – providers who want to reap the first of the incen-tives available under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act must start collecting health data elec-tronically. It’s easy to see why there is a hum in Washington – and across the country – as stakeholders and providers scramble to begin a U.S. healthcare revolution from paper to EHRs and from geographically-based variations in medical care to nation-wide evidence-based practice. ■

ManosContinued from page 3

HITECH measures in ARRA.Like other leaders – both federal

and industry stake-holders – Neuberger predicted meaning-ful use regulations will see many itera-tions and adapta-tions over the com-ing years.

Justin Barnes, immediate past chairman of the HIMSS Electronic Health Record Association, said EHR Association members are “commit-ted to achieving interoperability” and “to designing products that enhance patient safety.”

The EHR Association represents a majority of the commercially avail-able, installed and operational EHRs in the United States. ■

aDvocacyContinued from page 3

Justin Barnes


WASHINGTON – Industry leaders gave a thumbs up for healthcare IT advancement over the past year and offered encouragement for achieving “lofty goals,” at a press briefing June 15 hosted by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS).

The briefing was part of the Fifth Annual National Health IT Week, supported by 170 organizations and

held June 14-18 in Washington, D.C.Neal Neuberger, executive direc-

tor for the Institute for e-Health Policy, and president of Health Tech Strategies, LLC, said he was pleased with the progress, but warned efforts to advance healthcare IT must come from the ground up. States, localities and organizations such as the Regional Extension Centers will provide the needed push to make it work, he said.

Collaboration among organiza-tions, stakeholders and vendors will be critical to getting the kind of healthcare information technol-ogy adoption antic-ipated under the HITECH provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Neuberger said.

“The whole effort, now, will be to

reach all these organizations in a timely fashion,” he said. Rural and minority communities are a par-ticular concern, he added.

Speaking on behalf of the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME), David Muntz, senior vice president and CIO of Baylor Health Care System in Dallas said, “So much has happened since we met for National

Health IT leaders hail progress in past year

David Muntz

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CHICAGO – The Certification Commission has selected two new, all-volunteer panels to develop cri-teria for electronic health records in women’s health and in oncology, the latest domains to be added to CCHIT’s independently-developed c e r t i f i c a t i o n p r o g r a m s .The commission also announced the slated launch of new certification programs for Behavioral Health,

Dermatology and Long-Term and Post-Acute Care on July 26, 2010. “We rely on the broad expertise of

our work group volunteers for devel-opment of the criteria and inspection processes for our CCHIT Certified programs for special practice areas,” said Karen Bell, MD, chairwoman of the commission. “This develop-ment process includes evaluating provider needs, understanding cur-rently available standards, analyzing

public response to drafted criteria and test scripts and publishing a future roadmap of certification requirements.”

More than 75 people vol-unteered to participate in the new work groups, Bell said. The response “under-scores the continued high level of interest and dedication of the health-care community to work with the commission in achieving its mission

of accelerating the adoption of health IT,” she said. The volunteers – 13 for Women’s Health and 15 for Oncology – were appointed by the Certification Commission following an open application process.

The members represent a diverse range of healthcare stakeholders chosen for their individual experience and fair balance, including physi-

CCHIT to add women’s health, oncology criteriacians, hospitals and other providers, health IT developers, and other rep-resentative organizations, according to CCHIT.

To achieve an even higher level of accountability and transparency, CCHIT limits health IT vendor par-ticipation on the commission’s work groups to no more than 33 percent, including any provider applicants who may receive compensation from a vendor. ■

Karen Bell, MD


CHICAGO – Healthcare providers and payers face complex challenges when trying to maximize the value of their clinical data, but their expectations for clinical analytics vary signifi-cantly, according to a new study.

“Can Organizations Maximize Clinical Data,” was conducted by HIMSS Analytics and sponsored by San Diego-based clinical analytics company Anvita Health.

HIMSS Analytics conducted a focus group study of chief medical officers and chief medical informat-ics officers at payer and provider organizations. The study examines how members of each group define clinical analytics, how they analyze clinical data, which tools they use to analyze the data, and the chal-lenges of using clinical data to improve their business.

“Anvita Health sponsored this study to gauge the readiness of the payer and provider markets for the onslaught of new data that will come from rapid adoption of electronic medical records and medical devic-es,” said Anvita Health CEO Richard Noffsinger. “We wanted to uncover the disparities in the understanding and use of available data today, and bring to the surface the shared pain points between the two groups.”

lImIted expeCtAtIonsMost of the study participants indi-cated they are collecting and lever-aging clinical and/or claims data to enhance patient care, cost, safety and efficiency, and data are examined on a variety of levels:

■ Evaluating a specific patient or member

■ Evaluating a population■ Evaluating a specific provider

or provider network■ Evaluating prevalence or treat-

ment of a specific condition, such as diabetes or hypertension

“A key finding for us was that both payers and providers had limited expectations for how clinical analyt-ics could improve the quality of patient care – especially at the point of care – and lower costs through that improved quality,” said

Expectations for clinical data use low

sTuDy see page 9

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CHICAGO – Carl Dvorak, executive vice president of Epic Systems, has been elected chairman of the HIMSS Electronic Health Record Association, and Charles Jarvis, vice president of healthcare services and government relations for NextGen Healthcare Information Systems, has been elected vice chair.

The EHR Association announced the new appointments June 16, along

with executive committee elec-tion results based on voting by the full membership during May and June.

The Association is com-posed of 44 companies that supply the majority of EHRs in use in hospitals and physi-cians practices in the United States.

Dvorak was a founding member of the association, now in its fi fth year. He also served on the executive com-

mittee from 2004 to 2006, and was re-elected in 2009.

Jarvis was fi rst elected to the executive committee in 2007 and has also served as chair of the Communications Workgroup, the Government Initiatives Workgroup and the

Ambulatory Special Interest Group.Both will begin their one-year

terms on July 1.“I’m excited about the opportu-

nity to lead the EHR Association as a resource for our collective custom-ers in achieving ‘meaningful use,’ helping the industry and policymak-ers defi ne open standards, and shar-ing best practices among EHR developers and users for safe and effective use of EHRs,” said Dvorak.

Re-elected to the Executive Committee for two-year terms are:

■ Rick Reeves, senior manager, product development services at

Epic systems VP to head EHR vendors association CPSI, who has served as Certifi cation Workgroup chair and on the Executive Committee since 2006;

■ Jacob Reider, MD, chief med-ical informatics offi cer, Allscripts, who has served as chair of the Quality and Clinical Decision Support Special Interest Group and vice-chair of the Acceleration Workgroup, and joined the Executive Committee earlier this year to complete the term of a former Allscripts representative; and

■ Mickey McGlynn, director, government and industry affairs for Siemens, who is current chair of the Government Affairs Workgroup where she has served since 2008.

■ Pamela Chapman, director of clinical product management for eMDs, also joins the Executive Committee as a new member with a one-year term.

“We have an important opportu-nity to support the transformation of our nation’s healthcare system by working with policymakers and pri-vate organizations that share our mission of improving the quality and effi ciency of healthcare through information technology,” Jarvis said.

Dvorak succeeds Justin Barnes, vice president of marketing, corporate development and government affairs for Greenway Medical Technologies. Jarvis succeeds Mark Segal, vice president, government and industry affairs, GE Healthcare IT.

Barnes will continue to serve on the Executive Committee and as chair-man emeritus. Segal will also con-tinue to serve on the Executive Committee and as past vice-chair. ■

Health Information Technology Week just nine months ago.”

The HITECH Act and healthcare reform legislation have helped lay down the foundation for “dramati-cally improving” healthcare delivery, he said.

“But why the focus on healthcare information technology? Becausethe proper use of healthcare information technology will allow the U.S. to achieve its appropriately lofty goals,” he said.

Earlier, HIMSS had anticipated Reps. Tim Murphy (R-PA), Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) and Kathy Dahlkemper (D-PA) would speak at the briefi ng, but the Gulf oil spill called for their immediate attention on Capitol Hill.

In a statement prior to the brief-ing, Kennedy, who is co-chair of the 21st Century Health Care Caucus, said he “has long advocated for the adoption of electronic health records as an effi cient means to lower health care costs and reduce medical errors.

“Increased adoption of health information technology will help ensure that all Americans are receiv-ing the highest quality health care our nation has to offer,” Kennedy said. ■

progressContinued from page 4

Carl Dvorak

www.HealthcareITNews.com Industry news July2010 ■ Healthcare IT News 9

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WASHINGTON – The Regional Extension Centers aimed at helping physicians across the coun-try convert to digital records have begun their work, and some of the centers’ leaders were trumpeting their goals at the 2010 Government Health IT Conference and Exhibition June 15-16 in the nation’s capital.

Jennifer Brockman, director of Com-munications and Organizational Growth at the Virginia Health Quality Center (VHQC) said her organization has now partnered with the Center for Innovative Technology, Community Care Network of Virginia and the Medical Society of Virginia to form the new Virginia-wide REC.

The Virginia Health Information Technology REC will use its two-year, $12.4 million federal REC grant to target some 2,300 physicians, or 20 percent of the pri-mary care providers in Virginia.

“Quality is the end game for us,” she said. “That’s why we’re interested in healthcare IT. It’s a means for improving healthcare.”

Like many of the organizations that received REC grants, VHQC is a federally designated quality improvement organiza-

tion (QIO), already experienced in helping organizations achieve quality in healthcare.

Brockman said the Virginia REC would provide discounted group pur-chasing rates from selected healthcare IT vendors. However, the REC will also help doctors if they wish to use systems they already have.

Healthbridge Tri-State Regional Extension Center based in Cincinnati, will serve physicians in parts of Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio.

David Groves, executive director of Healthbridge, said the REC has its work cut out for it. “Dismal statistics” show fewer than 6 percent of prima-ry care physicians in the area use electronic health records, with even fewer in rural areas. Healthbridge plans to help 1,800 of them achieve meaningful use by 2012.

The Healthbridge REC will use its $9.7 million grant to offer group purchasing, health-

care IT connectivity, educational resources and personal help. “We don’t want this to be just proof of a pilot, but a true transforma-tional change,” he added.

Beth Schindele, project director of new Delaware Regional Extension Center, affili-ated with the West Virginia Medical Institute and Quality Insights of Delaware, said the REC would try to get 1,000 physicians to qualify for meaningful use.

This is a “very aggressive” goal, she said, because most of the physicians serve rural areas and are without broadband service. The REC will use 90 percent of its grant money to provide incentives to get physi-cians to participate.

Getting a physician buy into healthcare IT is difficult, Schindele said. But so far, the new REC has more than 150 physicians who have contracted to participate. ■

Extension center leaders aim for meaningful change

The goal of the government’s Health IT Regional Extension Center program is to help 100,000 more physicians implement and use electronic health records in a meaningful way.

“Quality is the end gAme for us.”

–JenniferBrockman

Noffsinger. “Comprehensive real-time analyt-ics can take these stakeholders beyond just evaluation, and provide a blueprint for action by physicians, care managers and others in the care continuum.”

Hurdles to better use of dAtAWhen asked about obstacles for better use of clinical data within their organizations, par-

ticipants provided a core list of common challenges:

Payers: Clinical data exists in multiple codes and formats resulting in the need to map varying administrative or claims codes to a common language for analysis.

The process of clinical analysis, from data input to data integration to data analysis was perceived as cost-prohibitive, with the ben-efit falling short of the expense.

Providers: Clinical data appears in mul-tiple places, including notes on paper. Capturing

discrete patient data and entering that data in a format that’s computable was perceived as a daunting, resource-intensive task.

lIttle use for deCIsIon-mAkIngThe two groups reported that most clinical data was analyzed retrospectively. In addition, the study found little use of data for real-time decision making, even with significant inter-est in using clinical data to drive a clinician’s decision in real time at the point of care. The implementation of meaningful use guidelines

will begin to address this challenge.“The ability to access and interpret clinical

data in real-time can help clinicians and other healthcare professionals evaluate and enhance patient care, healthcare costs and overall efficiency,” says John P. Hoyt, execu-tive vice president, organizational services at HIMSS. “The results of this study identi-fied areas of improvement for data capture and data access so that clinical analytics become a more valuable tool for healthcare organizations.” ■

sTuDyContinued from page 6

10 Healthcare IT News � July 2010 WEB FEATURES www.HealthcareITNews.com

HealthcareITNews.comWEB FEATURES

Podcast withAllscripts CEOabout merger

HEAR WHAT Glen Tullman has to say about what led to the merger of health IT company Allscripts, which until now has focused its business pri-marily on ambulatory care

technology, with Eclipsys, which markets to hospitals and intergrated delivery systems.

In a Podcast recorded shortly after June 9 when the two companies announced their agreement to merge, Tullman discusses the challenges of integration of both products and culture. He talks about why the merg-er is the right deal at the right time for both companies and for the market at large.

Everyone is looking for an enterprise EHR, he says, one that fulfi lls both inpatient and ambulatory needs, and now there will be a market leader.

He discusses how he and Eclipsys CEO Phil Pead, who will become chairman, will work together to create a successful merger.

Tullman also talks about competitors, such as Cerner, Epic, McKesson and others and what will distinguish the new Allscripts from them. He responds to the criticism that has been leveled at Allscripts’ Enterprise EHR (formerly TouchWorks).

Finally, he talks about the recent books he’s listened to while running and how they give him ideas he applies to business.

healthcareitnews.com/tullman

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Can EHRs prevent human-based medical errors?“A medical overdose resulted in death at a Maine hospital in early June. A man who was admitted to the emergency room was initially given a drug and then given 10 times the original dose a second time when his symptoms reappeared. The hospital has a medication distribution system that tracks all medications and coding, but it was human error that resulted in the man’s death. The hospital does not have an EHR installed, although it is implementing one and a practice management system in October and will go live with the systems in 2011.” Excerpt from EHRWatch – Patty Enrado

Approaches to privacy and security for HIEs“An HIE virtual round table hosted by Symantec discussed the different approaches states are taking to protect patient health information in health information exchanges. Oregon is blessed with having a culture for well-documented public processes and embracing the planning process, according to Carol Robinson, State Health IT Coordinator for Oregon State Health Information Technology Oversight Council or HITOC. The state also enjoys a high rate of EHR adoption, she said.” Excerpt from NHINWatch – Patty Enrado

5 Best practices for HIPAA 5010, ICD-10, and CORE!“Still looking for that fi rst step toward HIPAA 5010 and ICD-10? Then you’re not alone, at least according to HIMSS and a whole host of consulting companies. One such consultancy, No World Borders, published a white paper titled HIPAA 5010, ICD-10 and the CORE Operating Rules: What You Need to Know and How to Transition Successfully. Most of the document’s 12 pages are spent outlining the services No World Borders offers but amid the sales pitch is a list of best practices the fi rm recommends, which is worth pulling out for ICD10Watch readers.” Excerpt from ICD10Watch – Tom Sullivan

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action, it seems, can relieve some of the anx-iety of waiting for the “i’s” to be dotted and the “t’s” to be crossed.

The proposed rule put forth a graduated approach, which would raise the bar each year from 2011 and 2012 through 2015. cHIME and HIMSS support the phased approach, but they are among the industry organizations that caution against raising the bar too high, too soon.

The government is not pushing too hard or moving too fast, the nation’s healthcare IT chief David Blumenthal, MD, countered in his Health IT Buzz blog on June 14.

“Historically, adopting our most fundamen-tal medical technologies, from the stethoscope to the X-ray, were met with signifi cant doubt and opposition,” he writes. “So it comes as no surprise that in the face of change as trans-

formational as the adoption of health IT – even though it carries the promise of vastly improv-ing the nation’s healthcare – some hospitals and providers push back.”

We expect some fi ne-tuning of the meaning-ful use defi nition, but no big changes from the proposed rule. It’s impossible to get the rules and timetable just right for every single entity, but we hope and expect that the jump-start the HITEcH Act gave healthcare will keep the momentum going through transfor-mation, that out of the uncertainty and dis-ruption will be born a system that is safer, more effective and more effi cient.

It’s up to you.Barry chaiken, MD, chairman of the HIMSS

Board of Directors put it this way during his opening remarks at the annual HIMSS confer-ence in Atlanta last April.

“Through the implementation of compelling healthcare IT solutions, you must transform the way healthcare is provided in this country, not the president, not congress, not clinicians – you. If you don’t do it, it will not happen. You must step forward and you must lead.” ■

eDitorial inDePenDenceHealthcare IT News is published in partnership with the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS). HIMSS members are eligible to receive Healthcare IT News and related publications – both in print and online – as a benefi t of member-ship. With the exception of the HIMSS Insider, which is produced by the staff of HIMSS and appears within the pages of Healthcare IT News every month, HIMSS and its leadership exercise no control over the editorial content of the newspaper and related publications.

Health IT tipping point is nowi

t’S ONE week into summer, and healthcare professionals across the country are anx-iously awaiting the fi nal defi nition of

meaningful use. To say they are eagerly wait-ing would also apply, but anxiously seems more precise because there is plenty of anxi-ety to go around.

Will the criteria set for achieving meaning-ful use be attainable? Will it be too much too soon? It’s the timeline that has even the most loyal of champions worried.

Then there is the issue of certifi cation. By law, to be eligible for meaningful use health-care organizations are required to be using certifi ed technology. Will the health IT certi-fi cation organizations – known as ATcBs, or

Authorized Testing and certifi cation Bodies – be in place and operational in time to get the job done? Will the makers and vendors of elec-tronic health record systems be ready?

There are many moving parts that have to work together. Talk about interoperability! Here’s a challenge for organizational interop-erability. There are plenty of unknowns to fan the fear.

In January David Muntz, senior vice president and cIo of Baylor Health care System, had this to say in a statement cHIME issued regarding the proposed meaningful use criteria:

“Adequate time to understand the impact of these new systems and to implement them, are some of my secondary concerns. My pri-mary concern is the time and effort required to achieve successful organizational change management.”

concerns like Muntz’s remain as the time draws closer for the fi nal rules, which were expected in late spring.

But, in the past six months most organiza-tions have not been simply waiting. They have been preparing to meet the specifi c objectives they expect will be part of the fi nal rule. Taking

Bernie monegaineditor

“there are many moving parts that have to work

together.”

EHR tech cannot be equated to banking systems

thE tEChNOLOGY underlying the elec-tronic health record and the electron-ic medical record seems to be signifi -

cantly driven by sales to a perceived market.That market is controlled by parameters

designed to report data to regulatory agencies and insurance companies, rather than to increasing the interactivity and effectiveness of actual professional medical care decision making for individual patients.

The importance of interoperability, porta-bility and other standards of data collection and use cannot be overemphasized. The infu-sion of national quality medical standards is laudable, as long as they keep pace with real-ity and are dynamic and accurate.

However, the fl y in the ointment is the tre-mendous importance of direct medical evalu-ation of the patient, assessment of fi ndings that require action tailored to the individual problem list, and to the evolution of the indi-vidual plan of treatment. It is ironic that for example, MUMPS, the program that evolved out of the context of research attempts to invent a healthcare computer language, that in my opinion, was originally designed to

enhance some of these functions, is now, according to Wikipedia, “...currently used in electronic health record systems as well as by multiple banking networks and online”.

Indeed, either banking networks have become closely aligned to health record systems or vice versa. In any event it is clear that the level and length of training that physicians need to treat and manage the complexity of human biological function and dysfunction cannot be equated to “multiple banking net-works” data processing.

As someone who supervised the comput-erization of an occupational health system over some 12 years ago, I recognized that it was essential to develop what I call physician computer subset decision interfaces.

These interfaces are not only where the value of the intense medical training and intellectual competence required of physicians, coupled with the computational capacity of the software and hardware, are realized, but also where they meet interactively to solve medical problems in fl uid clinical contexts.

This involves focused human contact, rather than only treatment of the isolated

“medical chart.” If software design is concen-trated only on profi table sales which are driven by healthcare data collection, and which are heavily constrained by bureau-cratic demands, the effi cacy of this massive investment in healthcare IT is fraught with failure. ■

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EDITORIAL BOARD John Glaser, Vice President, CIO,

Partners HealthCare, Boston

Denni McColm, CIO,Citizens Memorial Healthcare, Bolivar, Mo.

Jane Olds, COO,Louisiana Health Network, New Orleans

Wes Rishel, Vice President, Gartner, Inc.

William Spooner, Senior Vice President, CIO, Sharp Healthcare, San Diego

Paul Tang, Vice President, CMIO,Palo Alto Medical Foundation, California

Steven Waldren, Director, Center for Health IT,American Academy of Family Physicians

2006JESSE NEAL AWARD

WINNER

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www.HealthcareITNews.com commentary July2010 ■ Healthcare IT News 13

The potential benefits of electronic health records are far from a new idea. Their prom-ise is both welcome and familiar to admin-istrators and practitioners alike: a health-care system where patient care information is freed from a paperwork prison so that caregiver productivity is improved and medical errors are greatly reduced or even eliminated.

But that promise remained elusive without a broad-band investment to support it. Though techno-logically feasible since the advent of the Internet, there

was no solid fiscal incentive to invest in the data pipeline needed to realize it in real healthcare settings until the FDA began mandating the use of barcodes on pharma-ceuticals in 2005. Though healthcare IT departments have been hard at work on their “barcode strategy” since then, many were slow to respond out of understandable concern that any investment would entail too much expense and risk, at too high a cost, with too slow a deployment.

The goal must be broader than just the widespread adoption of EHRs. Forward-looking planners realize this is about transforming an industry, not reducing paperwork. It’s about using broadband connectivity to deliver patient care with newfound agility across the entire continuum of care. It’s about getting connectivity with enough capac-ity to manage all the data transfer needs throughout an organization today, with room to expand. With that goal in mind, IT managers in healthcare need to weigh broad-er concerns than EHR file formats and content conver-sion. They need to be weighing the specific drivers for broadband solutions in their organization to achieve reli-able interoperability factors like:

■ Number and physical location of facilities to be con-nected

■ Kind of data to be “pushed through the pipe.” (i.e. data, voice, video, images, all of the above)

■ Reliability, integrity and security require-ments of the data supplied to a facility

■ Authentication and credentialing of those accessing the data to ensure a secure environment that meets HIPAA regulations.

Whatever the need or profile, today’s wireless solutions

are uniquely suited to help healthcare organizations of any size realize the full potential of what broadband can offer them, their employees and their patients. Yet, para-doxically, the common misperception that wireless broad-band solutions are more expensive, less secure, and too difficult to maintain means that the very organizations that could benefit from them might question them as a

viable solution. Many organizations in rural or hard-to-reach areas, for instance, may assume that wireless broadband is the wrong fit for them, when in reality those challenges make them the perfect candidate.

The bottom line is that wireless broad-

band delivers real healthcare systems improvement. Real-time access to reli-able patient data saves staff time and makes for greater productivity while

reducing the potential for medical errors. Wireless networks can be implemented more quickly and easily – delivering a time and cost advantage in areas where laying down cable is cost-prohibitive. Moreover because it owns the network, the hospital IT department is in control of its own infrastructure, never feeling like it’s at the mercy of a carrier or service provider. It is secure and can give administration visibility into the network, right down to automatic HIPAA compliance auditing.

Healthcare organizations need no longer limit their goals to reactive ones, prioritizing those technology invest-ments which merely fill gaps in their existing systems. Instead, they can set goals according to the kind of service they plan to deliver in the future by investing in scalable technology available today that can help them meet their goals of providing access to electronic patient records anywhere in a reliable and secure manner. Wireless broad-band offers clear cost and implementation advantages over other solutions in healthcare settings. Is your organization realizing the benefits of wireless broadband yet? ■

Vivian J. Funkhouser, principal, Global Healthcare Solutions,

Motorola, Inc. has worked in healthcare marketing and sales glob-

ally for more than 20 years. At Motorola, Vivian serves as the

global business development principal for health care solutions,

covering everything from wireless infrastructure equipment to

devices.

c o M M E N T A R Y

NewsmakeriNterview What was the genesis of the Allscripts merger? Some people are saying you should have done it sooner.“Any great merger always begins with clients. We’re fortunate to share some of the really, really good clients – some of the market leaders, such as columbia New York Presbyterian, Lahey clinic, Hartford Hospital or West Penn, names that are kind of legendary names and, of course, North Shore Long Island Jewish. Those organizations, who are long-time and satisfied Eclipsys users, are also users of Allscripts electronic health records and other services. They’ve pushed us to work together more close-ly. So the good news is that for people who say we should have started sooner, we have started. could we have done it sooner? We think the timing was perfect.

What does Allscripts bring to Eclipsys in terms of organization, management, culture and market development skills?First and foremost the market is demanding an end-to-end integrated solution. What hospital customers want most is to connect to physician groups out in the market because that’s where hospitals get their revenue. Each physician is worth between $1 million and $3 million based on some recent stud-ies. Allscripts has more than 40,000 practices for these hos-pitals to connect with. The strategic rationale for the business makes sense. We think that we bring very solid management that builds on their successful management team. We do think that, given the quality of their software, we can help them market and sell it even more than they have in the past. This is software that, according to KLAS, was No. 1 in cPoE for the last seven years.

What is your biggest challenge going forward?In any merger or acquisition, the first place you always start is people. We have to make sure that everyone shares in this joint vision. We believe they do. We believe we’ll spend a lot of time communicating internally to our folks in painting the breadth and scope of the opportunity and how they would fit into the future. The next step is technology. The good news there is that because we share a common architecture (Microsoft.Net), and because we’re both close with Microsoft

Glen TullmanCeO of allscripts

Joined allscripts in 1997 and led the iPO

CeO of enterprise systems, inc. from 1994-1997

the wireless effect

TullMAn see page 14

VIVIAn J.FunkHouSerMotorola

72%72%

yes

“Healthcare is an enormously fragmented industry with many competing standards and dozens of solutions aimed at solving the same problem. Open source helps drive industry standards and allows software providers to focus on core solutions providing for offerings that are more aligned with the customers real needs.”

- Andrew Aitken, consultant

“The goal is interoperability and data exchange. These concepts are ingrained in open source software and open platforms.”

-Anonymous

“Open source software is truly important to support flexibilty as the EHR grows. There should be some level of plug and play capa-bility in order to acheive the best solutions

for our organizations.”–DanBauman,Torrance

MemorialMedicalCenter,Torrance,Calif.

“Open source will drive stan-dards. Just watch how the open source products produced by NCI’s caBIG program are already driving standards like BRIDG (an implementation of HL7, CDISC, FDA requirements, and NCI requirements).”

–ThomasP.CarusomBusinessAmbitions

no

“We don’t have open source fighter jets in the military for the same good reason.”

–Anonymous

“Open source software appeals to the DIY market. It may be slightly cheaper in acquisition costs and pos-sibly allow for the development of modules that regular vendors don’t support. But the average doctor’s office isn’t going to go DIY, and there are essentially no price benefits to buy open source software from a

vendor. At that point, it becomes only a matter of which vendor you trust. When you don’t know anything about software, you are more likely to go with a name you know (many trust studies have shown this empirically), even if it’s not a company you hold in particularly high regard. Products like OpenVista will gain a niche in the market, but are unlikely to do more than that, just as Linux, despite its passionate true believ-ers, will never take over the desktop.”

–Anonymous

Open source has strong support in recent poll 1

is open source technology a good fit for healthcare?

HealtHcare it newsmonitor

Q

To take future surveys, subscribe to our e-newsletter, HealthcareITNewsWeek, or visit us daily at HealthcareITNews.com.

no

80%

60%

40%

20%

0%yes

71%

29%

142 reader responses

news

mONitOr

14 Healthcare IT News ■ July2010 news www.HealthcareITNews.com

who will step in and help us in terms of any of the integration work we have to do, that one is further along. The last piece is a simple one – it’s simple to say; it’s harder to do – and that’s execution. We demonstrated with the merger with Misys that we know how to do these. We know how to execute. We have an industrial-strength management team with a group of people who’ve been through this before.

Which products do you need to integrate and how will that work?The products are working in an integrated fashion today at certain of our sites. This is really about enhancing and extending the integration as opposed to beginning a process. There were teams working before the transaction because our clients had asked two inde-pendent companies to work together. our integration with Eclipsys, will, of course, be much deeper and much richer than it is with some of those other companies. That process has been under way. It will accelerate now, and we will have one application, which will be the market leader when that’s done.

What distinguishes the new Allscripts from your competitors, such as Cerner and McKesson and the others? Every competitor is a little bit different. The hospital companies – the cerners, the McKessons, the Epics have always been hos-pital focused and they never really had a usable product for the ambulatory physicians out there. That was oK until recent-ly when people started to under-stand that those ambulatory physicians represented the life-blood of large hospitals and integrated delivery networks. So, it became very critical to connect to those communities.

What are you reading? I don’t actually do as much read-ing as I used to, but I do when I run. I listen to books on tape. With one or two of these I actu-ally had insights that led us to changing what we’re doing in our business. “The Age of the Unthinkable,” by Joshua cooper Ramo, which talks about how you plan for what you can’t imag-ine. That’s true in business. Two years ago, did we think there would be a $30 billion stimulus? And did we think that hospitals like North Shore Long Island would not only be buying EHRs for their 1,200 physicians, but also for 7,000 unaffiliated physi-cians? We didn’t think that.

– Bernie Monegain interview

TullMAnContinued from page 13

industry’s largest network of clients on one product platform.

The merg-er also better positions the c o m b i n e d company to help its cli-ents more effectively access the approximate-ly $30 billion in federal

funding for hospital and physician adoption of EHRs provided by the A m e r i c a n R e c o v e r y a n d Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

“Both Eclipsys and Allscripts share a vision of a connected system of health in which critical information follows the patient and informs all providers that assist the patient across the complete care continuum,” said Pead on a conference call announcing the deal. “This merger will turn that vision into a reality.”

With both the Eclipsys Sunrise Enterprise and Performance Management solution for hospitals and the Allscripts portfolio of solu-tions for physician practices running on .NET, and with both companies sharing an “open architecture” approach, which simplifies connec-

tion to third-party apps across care settings, the pair seem well matched.

“Given our respective architec-tures,” said Pead, “we believe we’ll be able to deliver this integration very quickly.”

Indeed, says Sean W. Wieland, senior research analyst at Piper Jaffray, the merger is “a match made in heaven on a PowerPoint slide.” But as always, the devil is in the details. While Tullman called the marriage “about as crisp and clean a merger as you’re every going to see,” it will still be a “very complex” process, says Wieland.

He notes that while there’s not much overlap on the hospital side of things, there is some duplication on the physi-cian side. He also wrote that he’d heard “from some customers that the Allscripts E n t e r p r i s e HER needs some work and the merger could be a dis-traction to the management.”

Nonetheless, Wieland was inclined to “believe that they will be able to execute.” His conviction is borne out by recent history, he said; he gives Allscripts “a lot of credit” for the way

it handled the relatively seamless merger with Misys in 2008.

(The deal, which is accretive to Allscripts’s non-GAAP earnings start-ing in calendar year 2011, will mean

that Misys’s c o n t r o l l i n g i n t e r e s t in Allscripts is reduced to 8 percent through share buyback and a secondary offering, with the remainder of the company d ivv ied up b e t w e e n Allscripts (55

percent) and Eclipsys (37 percent) shareholders.

“I don’t ever want to say that any integration is easy,” says Tullman. “We’re going to focus a lot of time

and attention, much as we did with the Misys integration. We have a very solid plan in place already, and we feel confident.”

In the meantime, he and Pead are excited to be leaders in “the single fastest transformation of an indus-try that we have ever seen,” says Tullman.

“Allscripts is a leader in the ambu-latory space. Eclipsys is the leader in cPoE, and has been there for seven years; out of the top 21 Best Hospitals from U.S. News and World Report, 18 use Eclipsys software. That gives you a sense of the qual-ity there.”

Meanwhile, “it’s clear that Phil loves the space. He’s very customer focused. He’s very smart about technology. And so his vision was to build a great company. What we concluded togeth-er was that there was enough work for both of us to do.” ■

By BernIe MoneGAIn, Editor

ChICaGO – Leadership and execution are key to the success of the Allscripts-Eclipsys merger, accord-ing to Allscripts customers, who say the deal pres-ents both challenges and opportunities.

chicago-based Allscripts, a company focused on selling electronic health record systems to physician practices and community clinics, announced on June 9 it would enter the hospital market by merging with Eclipsys corp. in a stock deal valued at $1.3 billion. Allscripts customers say the deal is a good match, though some caution that how the merger turns out will depend on how well Allscripts can execute. It will require strong leadership, they say.

“I continue to be impressed with Glen’s leader-ship,” said William Spooner, senior vice president and cIo of Sharp Healthcare in San Diego, refer-

ring to Allscripts cEoGlen Tullman. “It will be a great opportunity for him to demonstrate it once more.”

However, Spooner’s endorsement was not without reservation.

“It’s good to see another enterprise vendor in the market,” Spooner said. “I hope they can exe-cute on the planned integration, yet my focus continues to be interoperabilty between Allscripts and cerner – my two EHRs.”

“I believe this merger will be positive for the healthcare industry,” said Michael o’Rourke, senior vice president and cIo for Denver-based

catholic Health Initi-atives, which operates 72 hospitals and is ranked as the third-largest faith-based health system in the nation. “At cHI, we recently con-tracted with Allscripts to provide their ambula-tory health record and practice-management solution to our more than 1,000 employed physicians across the 18 states in which we have a presence.

As o’Rourke sees it, the merger of Allscripts with Eclipsys represents the ongoing evolution of the health information technology industry, which recently has been propelled by the neces-

sity to address the exchange of health information and to meet the require-ments of meaningful use.

“I think that as these two organiza-tions combine their market strengths, it will translate into new, highly inte-

grated services and products,” o’Rourke said. Integration will, indeed, be critical says Todd

cozzens, cEo of Picis, the Wakefield, Mass.-based technology company that sells high-acuity systems for emergency departments, intensive care units and operating rooms.

“on the surface it makes sense,” cozzens said of the merger. He added that proof of success would be in the rollup of products to be able to offer an enterprise-wide system that is robust.

Allscripts, he notes, is moving from working with small systems with small price points to large integrated systems.

George Brenckle, cIo at UMass Memorial Health care, says the merger looks like a good fit to him.

“Allscripts is one of our key strategic partners, and the merger with Eclipsys will help make Allscripts a stronger, more diverse company, which can only be good for UMass Memorial Health care,” said Brenckle. “In the near term, we don’t see it having any negative impact or change in focus on Allscripts as our ambulatory EHR for our employed physicians and our pre-ferred EHR for private physicians in the com-munity.”

“We’ve had an outstanding partnership with Allscripts as we work to deploy Allscripts Enterprise product with our physician practices and community,” said chuck McDevitt, cIo of Self Regional Healthcare in Greenwood, S.c., which serves as the referral hospital for the seven South carolina counties. “We don’t expect that to change per our discussions with Allscripts. We can certainly see these things being a distraction but given their recent merger with Misys, it is our expectation that their level of service and support will continue to be as good as it is today if not better.”

Spooner said Allscripts made the merger with Misys work, and he expects it will set the stage for the Eclipsys merger.

“The Allscripts-Misys merger brought some benefits as they brought in new technical capa-bilities and made organizational changes to sup-port transition to larger company and larger client base,” Spooner said. “I expect that similar oppor-tunities may present in this next stage.” ■

Customers weigh in on allscripts deal

michael O’rourke

william spooner

“it’s good to see another enterprise

vendor in the market.” –WilliamSpooner

“as these two organizations combine their market strengths, it will translate into new, highly

integrated services and products.”–MichaelO’Rourke

MerGerContinued from page 1

the merger of allscripts and eclipsys, two well known players in the healthcare it market, has been lauded as a smart move by customers and analysts alike, but most also caution that the proof will be in the execution.

“Both eclipsys and allscripts share a vision

of a connected system of health in which critical information follows the patient and informs all

providers that assist the patient across the care

continuum.” –PhilPead

Phil Pead

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www.HealthcareITNews.com July2010 ■ Healthcare IT News 17


PHILADELPHIA – The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) has a shiny, new $504 million dollar, 12-story research center where scientists can discover treatments to save the lives of countless children with cancer, brain tumors, mitochondrial disorders and a host of other diseases. But this type of life-saving work would be impossible without information technology, says Thomas Curran.

Curran, who studies childhood brain tumors, serves as deputy scientific officer of The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute, where scientists undertake research biochemistry, genetics.

“Biomedicine has become a much more information-intensive field,” Curran says.

“Pretty much everything we do is dependent on information technology.”

Always top for mind for the researchers, says Curran, is bridging the gap between basic research and clinical applica-tions,” he adds.

It’s what Philip R. Johnson, MD, chief scientific officer at CHOP, calls “trans-lational research” – transforming scientific dis-coveries into medical innovations.

“Those innovations are aimed at improving the lives of children and families,” Johnson says. “Having state-of-the-art space, equipment and technology will help us attract top-level research-ers to join the preeminent scientists already here.”

Vast amounts of data are used for the research and information technology systems are key to collecting, organizing and interpreting the data, Curran says. CHOP’s electronic health record system (from Verona, Wis.-based EPIC Systems) is also critical. Researchers extract data from the EHRs to help them in their research.

The data – stripped of patient identification – help researchers identify markers for various diseases, create models, consider new treatments

NEWSBRIEFSMaIMoNIdES addS caRE MaNagEMENt tEchNologyMaimonides Medical Center, an academic hospital in Brooklyn, N.Y. has adopted the Allscripts Care Management solution to increase the efficiency of utilization manage-ment and discharge planning and improve the coordination of care. Maimonides, which also uses the Allscripts emergency depart-ment technology, implemented the Web-based care management application in less than four months and has been using it since the end of March. The feature the staff loves most is having all the forms online, said Madeline Rivera, Mainonides vice president for care management

d.c. hoSpItal goES dIgItal WIth ItS oRdER SEtSSibley Memorial Hospital, a 328-bed hos-pital in Washington D.C., has selected Wolters Kluwers’ ProVation Order Sets, powered by UpToDate Decision Support, as its elec-tronic order set solution. The hospital will implement the latest version of the software, which includes the unique One Click Updates tool, enabling easy and automatic updating to keep order sets current with the latest medical evidence. The hospital will imple-ment the latest version of the software, which includes the unique One Click Updates tool, enabling automatic updating to keep order sets current with the latest medical evidence.

BoStoN hEalth NEtWoRk autoMatES chaRgE captuRECaritas Christi Health Care in Boston, a six-hospital network, has implemented charge capture software from Boston-based MedAptus. Caritas Christi selected MedAptus’ Practice Plus Edition on BlackBerry smart-phone devices and Web-enabled workstations for the capture of physician inpatient charg-es. In addition, Caritas Christi is rolling out the MedAptus Facility Edition for the capture of outpatient clinic charges, starting in the area of cardiology.

oRlaNdo hEalth RollS out platFoRM FoR IMagE ShaRINgOrlando Health, a not-for-profit healthcare organization, will implement the SeeMy Radiology.com diagnostic image sharing technology platform to exchange diagnostic imaging information during trauma transfers from referral facilities and for imaging exchange throughout Orlando Health’s eight hospitals and care centers. As part of the triage process, the technology, developed by Atlanta-based Accelerad, allows clinicians to review vital medical image information via the Web or on mobile devices to assess a patient’s condition before a transfer is made.


DENVER – Catholic Health Initiatives, a Denver-based health-care system, will hire more than 200 high-tech workers to help roll out its new clinical system across the country.

The work requires an increase in a number of specialized positions

– including techni-cal analysts, clini-cal informaticists, engineers, manag-ers, database administrators, application devel-opers and also security and iden-tification-manage-ment personnel.

CHI expects to fill more than 100 positions over the next three months. An additional 100 posi-

tions will be filled over the next 12 months for a wide variety of operational projects within the information

technology organiza-tion. The new employ-ees will supplement a group of approxi-mately 800 informa-tion technology employees at CHI.

The $1.5 billion project, which will include technology

from Cerner, MEDITECH and Allscripts, will be implemented over the next five to seven years.

By Kyle Hardy, Community Editor

BOSTON – Massachusetts General Hospital, a 900-bed care center located in the heart of Boston, has been using a new secure file trans-fer solution that has helped solve one piece of meaningful use.

Mark Haas, associate director of health information services at Mass General, has been working with Chelmsford, Mass.-based Biscom to implement the com-pany’s electronic file transfer solu-tion in an effort to ensure security

against confidentiality breaches.“There’s two transmissions,”

said Haas. “One is a simple e-mail with

a link to the patients health information. The recipient has to then input a user ID and pass-word to view the actual record. It’s a lot like online banking, and provides better security for patients.”

Mass General has been lever-aging the Biscom Delivery Server to facilitate the exchange of

medical records, and has seen benefits ranging from easy implementation to increased productivity.

The idea of uploading data to a secure network came to Haas while working with the Social Security Administration’s Web site. Patient records would be uploaded to the site and gated with a user ID and password. “The Social Security Administration has created a secure Web site

CHI to launch 18-state EHR rolloutHealth system to hire more than 200 IT personnel.

IT at the core of research at new CHOP facility.

“catholic health Initiatives has launched

a national clinical information-technology

program that is very ambitious and very

comprehensive.”–CristinaThomas

Philly center goes for cures

“pretty much everything we

do is dependent on information technology.” –ThomasCurran

The new Colket Translational Research Building at Chidren’s Hospital of Philadelphia provides 12 stories of labs and the newest in technology.

researcH see page 19

Transfer see page 19

rollouTsee page 18

Mass General at work on file transfers

Philip R. Johnson, MD

Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston guards against potential security breaches during file transfers.

pacESEttINg RESEaRch➔MItochoNdRIa: Testing tiny power plants of

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➔gENoMIcS: Reasearching genes involved in asthma, autism, diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, obesity, schizophrenia, neuroblastoma

➔gENE thERapy: Studying clinical-grade vectors – bio-engineered viruses that deliver therapeutic genes to patients suffering from genetic diseases

➔IMMuNothERapy: Harnessing elements of the body’s immune system to attack cancer cells of patients suffering from genetic diseases

18 Healthcare IT News ■ July2010 hoSpItalS & IdNs www.HealthcareITNews.com

It is among the largest information-technology initiatives of its kind in healthcare, and will likely involve additional high-tech positions, Catholic Health Initiatives executives say.

The implementation will include 72 hospitals in 18 states.The clinical information technology project, which includes plans for a system-wide electronic health record in both the acute care and ambula-tory settings, a health information

rollouTContinued from page 17

exchange and physician and patient portals.

“Catholic Health Initiatives has launched a national clinical information-technology program that is very ambi-tious and very com-prehensive,” said Cristina Thomas, CHI’s vice president for clinical information strategy. “We need the best people available to supplement our existing staff and to help us achieve our goal, which is to put new electronic tools to work

for patients, clinicians and providers. We are making an aggressive effort to hire the best candidates for these important positions.”

Thomas is optimistic about finding the right people for the right positions to add to CHI’s 850-member health IT team. The fact that the jobs are available across a wide geographic area and that some can be worked virtu-ally will help, she said.

Betsy Hersher whose healthcare executive recruitment firm Hersher Associates in Chicago has been in busi-ness 30 years, says the firm is seeing a growing demand for director and senior director level personnel, report-ing directly to the CIO.

“What organizations are trying to do is gear up for a project before they are in the middle of a project and are starting to sink,” she said

Judy Kirby, president of Kirby Partners, a healthcare IT recruitment firm in Altamonte Springs, Fla., says she’s seeing demand in three areas: security; high level executives – CIO or CTO, and clinical IT.

Kirby said filling those positions is taking longer than in did in past years.

Many of the new jobs at CHI will be based in Denver, where CHI has been headquartered since its formation in 1996. Some key positions will be “virtual,” allowing employees to work remotely. Other positions will based in or connected to CHI markets across the country, including Tacoma, Wash.; Des Moines, Iowa; Chattanooga, Tenn.; Little Rock, Ark.; Denville, N.J.; Lexington, Ky.; Dayton, Ohio; Cincinnati, Ohio; Nebraska; Minnesota; and North Dakota.

The organization’s clinical informa-tion technology program includes a wide array of initiatives that focus on technology, clinical tools and system-wide infrastructure to achieve the organization’s quality goals.

Besides electronic health records to support CHI’s 350 medical-group practices, the project will focus on the standardization of clinical documents, bar-coded medication administration and computerized physician order entry, among other areas. ■


WASHINGTON – The Department of Veterans Affairs plans to spend $10.9 million to improve HIPAA compli-ance for VistA, its enterprise-wide electronic health record system.

The government contract recent-ly awarded to Engineering Services Network (ESN) is valued at $7.9 million for the first year. If all options are awarded, it will be worth a total of $10.9 million.

Under the contract, ESN will

upgrade the VA’s Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA) to meet Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) elec-tronic transaction standards, enabling third-party healthcare rev-enues/payments - 5010/D.0.

The enhancements must be ready for external testing by January 2011 and be in production by January 2012.

Under the contract, ESN is tasked with providing 13 specific enhance-

ments to VistA legacy products.“ESN is pleased to support the

VA in this critical project supporting HIPAA compliance for VistA legacy systems by providing IT solutions to the department’s internal custom-ers, end-users and our veterans,” said ESN President and CEO Raymond F. Lopez, Jr.

Working with ESN on the project are team members from Harris Patriot Healthcare Solutions, Vangent and 7 Delta. ■

VA awards contract for work on VistA

Judy Kirby

“What organizations are trying to do is gear up

for a project before they are in the middle of a

project and are starting to sink.”

–BetsyHersher

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www.HealthcareITNews.com hoSpItalS & IdNs July2010 ■ Healthcare IT News 19

where we post PHI securely,” said Haas.

“We started thinking, ‘Why couldn’t we build something like this?’ That’s how this whole thing got started.”

The exchange of electronic med-ical records is a big part of meaning-ful use, Haas says, and Mass General had been doing such exchanges three years prior to the rule’s conception.

“The process of sending records

used to be laborious,” said Haas. “It’s all about efficiency. The fact that we were under budget constraints pushed us to look to technology to help. By leveraging this technology we now send about 52,000 medical records annually, per request of the patient and noticed that using the server was doubling our productivity.”

The Biscom project, based on Haas’s experience using the Social Security Administration’s Web site, began as a pilot at the hospital. There was virtually no IT team, with the excep-tion of a few officials from both sides.

“We worked closely with Mark to deploy a solution that worked within MGH’s processes,” said Bill Ho, Biscom’s vice pres-ident of internet products.

“The goal of this solution is to help healthcare organizations send sensi-tive patient records more securely and more easily, especially with respect to satisfying meaningful use criteria.”

Haas said that using this

model of PHI exchange has been helpful on its way to getting ready for meaningful use, but, the rule is huge. Haas expects to see real improvements when patients start to realize that requesting their med-

ical information electronically is actually a big part of the rule.

“Right now we force the issue by telling our patient they can request their medical information,” said Haas. “We ask them whether they would prefer it in electronic format or paper. Most of the patients said they would prefer the electronic copy.”

Robert Matthews, in charge of business development at Biscom, said that providers need to realize that there are many paths to achieve meaningful use, and “there is no one-size-fits all solution.” ■

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and develop clinical trials. The researchers also employ high-

level image processing technology to study cancer cells, reviewing hundreds of MRIs (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) against a model.

Informatics has accelerated the rate at which researchers can do their work and also the depth, Curran says, which leads to more targeted and more effec-tive treatments.

“This points to the underlying principal of personalized medicine,” he says.

An initial $25 million contribu-tion by long-time board members Ruth M. and Tristram C. Colket, Jr. helped to launch construction of the new 12-story research center called the Colket Translational Research Building.

The goal is for scientists across a variety of disciplines, all dedicated to developing treatments for a spe-cific pediatric disease, to work side-by-side. Physical proximity will foster close collaboration, thus pro-viding more opportunities for new ideas and expedited results.

“This facility provides a new, custom-designed setting to advance our already robust research to the next level,” said Stephen B. Burke, chairman of the Board of Trustees of Children’s Hospital. “We are build-ing more than glass and steel; we are building 21st century healthcare for children worldwide.” ■

TransferContinued from page 17

researcHContinued from page 17

“the goal of this solution is to help

health organizations send SENSItIVE patient records more SEcuREly

and more easily.” –BillHo

Survey to dig deeperCHICAGO – HIMSS Analytics, the not-for-profit subsidiary of the Healthcare Information and management System Society (HIMSS), announced would add new questions to their annual study on meaningful use to gauge hospitals’ readiness.

With hospitals expected to complete the first phase of deadlines for mean-ingful use by 2011 to qualify for bonuses under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009,

HIMSS Analytics , which tracks 5,000 U.S. hospitals, will ask their CIOs about the inclusion of structured document standards to convert nar-rative data to a structured format importable to an electronic medical record. ■

HIMSS announced the formation of HIMSS Analytics Europe (HAE), a German-based

company, to provide healthcare organizations, governments and IT companies extensive data resources and services about the adoption and use of health IT in Europe. A full launch of resources is planned for late September.

HIMSS’ recent acquisition of assets from Hospital IT.Net serves as the foundation of the new entity and will be the basis for a new port-folio of products and services for the European healthcare market. HIMSS Analytics Europe will offer a full array of services to healthcare organi-zations such as comparative IT adoption bench-marking, a European-formulated EMR Adoption Model (EMRAM) scale, resources to help better

understand IT operations and how they compare to others, and resources for country-level policy makers and supplier companies that provide insight into the health IT marketplace.

Uwe Buddrus, former owner of Hospital IT.Net, will serve as managing director for the Leipzig-based HIMSS Analytics Europe.

More information about HIMSS Analytics Europe will be unveiled at the HIMSS Europe Health IT Leadership Summit in Rome on Sept. 29 – Oct. 1. The event will attract European IT directors, managers and CEOs. To attend, visit www.hitleadershipsummit.eu. For more informa-tion about HIMSS, and upcoming webinars and presentations on HIMSS Analytics and other products, visit emea.himss.org. n

HIMSS Analytics Europe Launched—Bringing New Data Resources to European Health IT Decision Making

20 HIMSS Insider n July 2010 www.himss.org

Heading up the HIMSS Board of Directors, four officers and four board members began their newly appoint-

ed posts earlier this month. C. Martin Harris, MD, MBA, FHIMSS, assumed the one-year term as chair of the board, replacing Barry P. Chaiken, MD, MPH, FHIMSS, chief medical officer, DocsNetwork Ltd. John H. Daniels, CPHIMS, CHPS, FACHE, FHIMSS, started his term as vice chair of the board, replacing Liz Johnson, RN-C, MS, CPHIMS, FHIMSS, vice president, applied clinical informatics, Tenet Healthcare Corp.

Chair

Dr. Harris is the CIO and chairman of the IT Division of Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. Additionally, he is executive director of e-Cleve-land Clinic, a series of e-health clinical programs offered over the Internet. Dr. Harris’ interest and expertise in the area of improving the prac-

tice of medicine through the inno-vative application of IT, is reflect-ed in his numerous appointments to national technology.

Vice Chair

Mr. Daniels is senior vice president and CIO for Evolvent Technologies. He is a retired Air Force officer with over 20 years of military ser-vice. Mr. Daniels served as CIO of the USAF Academy Hospital in Colorado Springs, Colo., the first and only Air Force hospital named on the 25 Most Wired Small and Rural list by Hospital & Health Networks (2005 and 2006).

Chair Elect and Vice Chair Elect

In recent elections by the board, Charlene S. Underwood, MBA, FHIMSS, was selected as

chair elect, and Holly Miller, MD, MBA, FHIMSS, as vice-chair elect. Ms. Underwood is director of government and industry affairs for Siemens Medical Solutions. Dr. Miller is the chief medical officer of MedAllies.

New Board Members

Beginning their three-year terms this month, the Society’s four new board members include: Steven Arnold, MD, MS, MBA, CPE, FHIMSS,

chief medical officer, Virginia Commonwealth University Health System; Scott T. MacLean, MBA, CPHIMS, FHIMSS, CIO and corporate director, Newton-Wellesley Hospital/Partners HealthCare System; Judith A. Murphy, RN, FACMI, FHIMSS, vice president, Aurora Health

Care; and Carol Steltenkamp, MD, MBA, FAAP, FHIMSS, CMIO, University of Kentucky HealthCare.

New Nominating Committee Members

The following individuals began their two-year term on the Nominating Committee: Kim Brant-Lucich, MBA, PMP, FHIMSS, director, process redesign, St. Joseph Health System; Susan Kay Newbold, PhD, RN, FHIMSS, associate professor, Vanderbilt School of Nursing; and Timothy E. Schoener, CPHIMS, FHIMSS, administrative director, IT, Susquehanna Health.

New Advisory Board Members

The two new Advisory Board Members are Harry Greenspun, MD, executive vice president, chief medical officer, Dell Inc (via acquisition of Perot Systems); and Keith M. Kerman, managing director, Primus. n

New HIMSS Board Members, Officers Begin Their TermsA p u B L I C A T I o N o f T H E H E A L T H C A R E I N f o R M A T I o N A N D M A N A g E M E N T S y S T E M S S o C I E T y n V o L u M E 6 n N u M B E R 7

use of RfID Technology Summary: Several recent news articles have highlighted the use of RFID tech-nology for uses ranging from tracking patients and equipment to monitoring com-

pliance with medication regimens. Nearly one-third of respondents believe widespread use of RFID applications will benefit healthcare organizations in the area of patient safety, which includes items such as positive patient identification. A similar percentage indicated the ability to impact patient safety and/or reduce medical errors is the most critical influencer for the use of RFID applications in healthcare. In terms of actual utilization, respondents were much more likely to report RFID technology is used for non-patient items, such as asset/biomedical equipment tracking or inventory management. Area in Which Widespread Use of RFID Applications Would Benefit Healthcare Organizations the Most

For more information, visit www.himss.org/vantagepoint.

Health IT Stakeholders Celebrate National Health IT WeekHealth IT stakeholders from throughout the coun-

try gathered in Washington, DC June 14-18 for the 5th Annual National Health IT Week (www.heal-thitweek.org). Working to raise awareness on the benefits of health IT and help educate policymakers on health IT priority issues, partner organizations held numerous events throughout the city. HIMSS

held two cornerstone events during the week, the Government Health IT Conference & Exhibition and the HIMSS Policy Summit.

At the Government Health IT Conference, 400 attendees heard first-hand perspectives on health IT initiatives underway among federal agencies. Keynote speakers included Farzad Mostashari, MD, ScM, deputy national coordinator for Programs & Policy with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, and Doug Fridsma, acting director, Office of Interoperability and Standards with ONC.

During the 9th Annual HIMSS Policy Summit, attendees joined together to discuss priority policy issues among the community. When carrying their message to Capitol Hill, attendees commended Congress’ commitment to transforming healthcare through the use of IT, and recommended that “any future regulatory or legislative action pertaining to the EHR incentive programs under the American

Recovery and Reinvestment t Act appropriately balance meaningful use criteria/measures with industry readiness without delaying the timeline for implementation.” Also included in the message to

Capitol Hill were requests to “enable the study of an informed patient identity solution” and to “work with the Obama Administration to make permanent the current Stark exemptions and anti-kickback safe harbors for EHRs.” Additional information on the HIMSS messages can be accessed on the HIMSS website, www.himss.org/policysummit.

Those who were not able to make it to Washington this year can still make their voices heard on Capitol Hill by taking part in HIMSS’ “Virtual Advocacy.” Visit HIMSS’ Legislative Action Center (www.himss.org/advocacy/action center.asp) today to send a letter to members of Congress. n

John H. DanielsC. Martin Harris

Holly MillerCharlene S. underwood

HIMSS State Legislator of the year Award Recipient Julie Hamos delivers the keynote address at HIMSS’ policy Summit. Ms. Hamos was appointed Director of the Illinois Department of Healthcare and family Services (HfS) in April. She served in the Illinois House of Representatives since 1999, where in 2005, she sponsored legislation that created the Electronic Health Records Taskforce. This year, Ms.Hamos successfully sponsored the Illinois Health Information Exchange and Technology Act. This legislation will establish a public-private Health Information Exchange Authority to work, in con-junction with the governor’s office of Health Information Technology, to enable providers throughout Illinois to securely share patient health information—a step toward the adoption of statewide EHRs.

Dr. garth graham, Deputy Assistant Secretary of HHS for Minority Health, speaks at the Institute for e-Health policy’s Health Information Technology Showcase and Demonstration on Capitol Hill during National Health IT Week. Dr. graham was honored at the HIMSS poli-cy Summit with the HIMSS federal policy Leadership Award.

HIMSS policy Summit delegates from North Caro-lina prepare to carry their message to Capitol Hill.

5.43%8.60%

23.98%31.22%

13.57%

4.07%3.62%

Patient Safety

Asset/Equipment Tracking

Improvement in Patient Flow

Supply Chain Management

Inventory Management

Medical Records Chart Tracking

Lab Products/Specimen Tracking

Other

Temperature Tracking

Surgical Trays

Don’t Know

2.71%0.09%0.09%

4.98%

HIMSS Europe Health IT Leadership Summit Sept. 29 – Oct. 1Romewww.hitleadershipsummit.eu

HIMSS Asia10 Health IT Leadership Summit and Congress Oct. 26-29Koreawww.himssasiapac.org

HIMSS Middle East10Nov. 8-10Dubaiwww.himssme.org/10

www.himss.org July 2010 n HIMSS Insider 21

PLATINUM

Compellentwww.compellent.com

Stratus Technologieswww.stratus.com

GOLD

Adroitent Inc.www.adroitent.com

CenTrak Inc.www.centrak.com

Eldorado, a division of MphasiS Healthcare Solutionswww.eldocomp.com

Emulex Corp.www.emulex.com

Long Island patient Information Exchange (lipix)www.lipix.org

Mcfarland and Associateswww.mcfarlandassociate.com

Qbasewww.qbase.us

QlikTech (QlikView)www.qlikview.com

utech products Inc. (Endosoft)www.endosoft.com

WhiteCloud Analyticswww.whitecloudanalytics.com

Wisconsin physicians Service Insurance Corp.www.wpsic.com

To learn more about the benefits of corporate membership, visit www.himss.org/

membership or contact HIMSS Senior Manager of New Account Sales Rebecca Washler at

[email protected] or 319-393-3117.

WELCoMENEW CORPORATE MEMBERS

PUBLICATIONS STAFF

MANAgER, puBLICATIoNSNancy Vitucci

pRogRAM MANAgER, CoMMuNICATIoNSCari McLean

The Office for the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) has announced the Final Rule on the Temporary Certification Program for Electronic Health Record (EHR) Technology. HIMSS’ experts have developed several analysis and resource documents on this and other regu-lations related to meaningful use. Find them all at www.himss.org/economicstimulus. n

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Nominations are now being accepted for positions on the HIMSS Board of

Directors and the Nominating Committee. Nominees must be a Regular or Life Member or the senior executive represen-tative of an Organizational Member who has achieved and maintained advanced membership status. Nominations must be received by Aug. 1.

Please send all nominations to:

H. Stephen Lieber, President/CEOHIMSS230 East Ohio Street, Suite 500Chicago, IL [email protected]

To obtain further information on the advancement process and/or access the application, please visit www.himss.org/advancement. n

Now Accepting Nominations for Board and Nominating Committee positions

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By Molly MerrIll, Associate Editor

ROCHESTER, MN - Recent surveys show patients want to be able to e-mail their doctors, but this type of communication is largely "still in the waiting room," even when the technology to make it happen exists.

This is according to Scott Gode, vice president of product manage-ment and marketing for Seattle based Azaleos, which specializes in unified communications. Gode says technology for patient com-munication is being used in "a minor way or not at all." He says the blame lies mostly with poor usability and implementation.

“There is a ten-dency to over-pilot technology adop-tion to the point where there is a requirement to see better results with the new system

than with the old one,” says Gode. But he says this shouldn’t be

the case. “As soon as you see that a new system provide the same quality as face-to-face care, make the switch.”

John Bachman, MD, a consul-tant in family medicine at Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo

Clinic, says there is “no question” that e-visits can provide the same quality of care. He believes that for areas like chronic disease man-agement, e-visits could even help providers to follow patients more closely online.

Bachman was part of a pilot study of online visits conducted in Mayo Clinic’s Department of Family Medicine from Nov. 2007 through Oct. 2009. The study was part of a larger effort to develop an online portal to be used throughout all departments.

NEWSBRIEFSStudy REvEalS ERx hElpS pREvENt aSthma attackSA new study finds patients are more likely to routinely take medications for asthma control when physicians keep close watch over their adherence by reviewing detailed electronic prescription information. The study was conducted by researchers at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, who studied the use of inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) for asthma control. Researchers found that when doctors used e-prescribing to access detailed infor-mation such as how often patients fill their prescriptions and the estimated number of days each prescription would last, medication adherence was significantly higher.

mINNESota hIE to oFFER E-pREScRIBINg vIa poRtalThe Minnesota Health Information Exchange (MN HIE) plans to offer healthcare providers access to e-prescribing through its portal. MN HIE officials say it will be using Rcopia, an e-prescribing application from DrFirst, to link its providers to patients’ clinical informa-tion so they can create an electronic prescrip-tion. The application will help them meet state regulatory requirements for electronic prescribing effective Jan. 1, 2011, said officials.

Ny ExtENSIoN cENtER to Roll out EmRNon-profit NYC Regional Electronic Adoption Center for Health (NYC REACH), the feder-ally designated Regional Extension Center (REC) for New York City, will be offering an electronic medical record and practice man-agement system to its providers in New York City. NYC REACH officials said it would use a $21.7 million grant awarded by the fed-eral department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to help roll out an EHR/PM system from Westborough, Mass.-based eClinicalWorks to providers within New York City’s five boroughs.

WESt vIRgINIa lauNchES It cENtER to hElp pRovIdERSWest Virginia has established a Regional Health Information Technology Extension Center (WVRHITEC) designed to help pri-mary care providers across the state imple-ment electronic health records systems. Starting this summer, the WVRHITEC will begin working with regional and community-based organizations to provide information, guidance and technical assistance to eligible participants, who will include doctors, nurse practitioners and physician assistants in primary care settings. This includes provid-ers in rural and medically underserved areas; community health centers and certain pub-lic, not-for-profit or critical access hospitals.

Women’s role in e-visits

Women made up the majority of patients using e-visits in a pilot study

conducted at Mayo Clinic.

71%

MAYo FouNDATIoN FoR MEDICAl EDuCATIoN AND RESEARCH

Women begin managing their children’s care even before they are born, which is why nurse-midwife Amy Romano believes they’re ideal candidates for the e-movement. Photo courtesy of Kristen Oganowski.

woMen see page 24

Women to drive e-visits


SEATTLE – “You can’t find a pro-vider that doesn’t want more patients paying in cash,” says the president of a new Web site that aims not only to link cash-paying patients to providers, but also to offer patients greater transpar-ency for making a decision about where to seek medical care.

PriceDoc provides comparative pricing information for various medical, dental, vision, chiroprac-tic, cosmetic, medispa and allied health and elective procedures. Procedures which are mainly “low risk and non diagnostic,” says the company’s president, Pat Bradley.

The site also gives patients infor-mation about providers’ education, training, credentials, services and amenities, as well as photos and videos of procedures, he said.

Bradley says the site is not unlike dating sites or other Web sites where consumers pay a monthly fee to have their profile displayedHe says in some cases providers post their procedure prices, but then allow

patients to make an offer. “Through PriceDoc, we offer a

discount of 20 to 30 percent off our usual fees,” says Robert M. Stark, MD, medical director of Cardiovascular Prevention Program at Greenwich Hospital/Yale-New Haven Health, who signed up to use the service seven months ago.

“Pricing transparency is most important for patients who are self-pay or who want to have some control over their healthcare expenditure,” said Stark.

Cashflow for doctors

Ami Laws, MD, is a primary care physician that practices concierge medicine.

➔thE NEWS: New Web site links cash-paying patients with providers.

➔What It mEaNS: Hopefully increased exposure for the concierge model of care, which aims at providing patients a higher level of care.

cashflow see page 25


NORWALK, CT - Less than one in 10 American adults use electronic medical records or e-mail their doctor, according to a new Harris Interactive/HealthDay poll.

Nearly half of respondents of the poll, which was con-ducted among 2,035 U.S. adults online from June 8-10, weren't even sure if their physician offered these tech-nologies.

The majority of those polled said they would like their doc-tors to access their medical records online, but only about a third (30 percent) believe their insurer should have the same access.

Overall, "the general public only has a vague idea, only a very limited understanding, of what all this is about," rea-soned Humphrey Taylor, chair-man of the Harris Poll, a ser-vice of Harris Interactive.

The poll results show that despite the Obama adminis-tration's campaign to expand the use of health information

Patients vague on IT

vague see page 24

CHICAGO – Four healthcare orga-nizations have been named as finalist for the 2010 HIMSS Davies Ambulatory Care Awards of Excellence, recognizing their use of electronic health records.

Winners will be determined after site visits and final commit-tee votes in mid-September.

Daviesfinalists named

amBulatoRy caRE aWaRd FINalIStS ➔Family Practice Associates,

Wilmington, Del.➔Grove Medical Associates,

Worcester, Mass.➔The Diabetes Center, Ocean

Springs, Miss.➔Miramont Family Medicine, Fort

Collins, Colo.

Scott Gode

24 Healthcare IT News ■ July2010 phySIcIaN pRactIcES & amBulatoRy caRE www.HealthcareITNews.com

technology, public attitudes toward electronic medical records haven't budged much over the past few years.

In 2009, 78 percent of adults indicated that they "strongly" or "somewhat" agree that doctors should have access to their elec-tronic medical records. In 2007, 80 percent were in agreement on physicians' access to those records.

The polls showed only nine percent of patients can commu-nicate with their doctors by e-mail, up from four percent in 2006. Eight percent can schedule a visit online, up from three percent, and eight percent can get diag-nostic test results by e-mail, up from two percent in 2006.

A little more than a quarter (28 percent) of those polled thought their doctor used EMRs, but 42 percent said they didn't know if their primary care physician had the technology.

A similar online survey con-ducted for Norwalk, Conn.-based Xerox Corporation by Harris Interactive showed that only 16 percent of U.S. adults who have a healthcare provider/institution have been approached by their healthcare provider/institution to discuss EMR conversion.

"There is much for the patient to gain when records go digital, it's just a matter of communicat-ing and demonstrating the ben-efits – like improved patient safety," said Mara Bryant, associ-ate vice president, organizational excellence and health information management, White Memorial Medical Center, a not-for-profit, teaching hospital in Los Angeles.

According to experts, patients also remain skeptical about the inappropriate use of health infor-mation stored electronically.

"Ideally, the government only allows 'covered entities' access to your entire health history, called your 'personal health information,'" said Erin Stevenson, a digital health-care consultant at Redwood Medical Consulting in Bayside, Calif. But the law is vague and full of loopholes, he explained.

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This portal is in the final stages before roll out to 350 com-munity-based physicians and then to specialists.

In the pilot it was found that women made up 71 percent of the patients using e-visits.

“The people that will drive [e-visits] are the people managing healthcare and that’s women,” says Bachman.

Women begin managing their children’s care even before they are born, which is why Amy Romano thinks they are uniquely positioned

to take part in the e-patient movement.

“Women’s access to infor-mation is changing. We need to reach out to women where they are,” said Romano, a nurse-midwife that does online advocacy work for Lamaze International, a

nonprofit organization for pregnant women.

With 4.2 million women expect-ed to give birth in the next year, she believes that access to online health-care for this demographic could “ do a lot to improve healthcare for an important part of the population times two.”

“It’s a major resource for fixing what is wrong with healthcare,” she said. ■

woMenContinued from page 23

John Bachman, MD

4.2 million women will give birth this

year. BOSTON - A recent study finds that online visits with dermatologists achieved equivalent clinical outcomes for acne patients. The study con-cluded they could be used as a model for chronic conditions.

"This data shows that digital images and patient survey respons-es provide sufficient information for dermatologists to make appropriate treatment decisions; e-visits achieved comparable clinical results, were

time-saving for patients and well-received by patients and physicians,” said Alice Watson, MD, the study’s lead author and corporate man-ager Center for Connected Health, which conducted the study.

The e-visits platform has proven to be a true visit replacement rather than just an addition to conven-tional care,” said Joseph C. Kvedar, MD, director, Center for Connected Health and a dermatologist.

E-visits prove equivalent

Humphrey Taylor

vague Continued from page 23

www.HealthcareITNews.com phySIcIaN pRactIcES & amBulatoRy caRE July2010 ■ Healthcare IT News 25

CHARLOTTESvILLE, vA - The University of Virginia Health System is preparing for its new EMR launch starting in September. It will begin rolling out technology from Verona, Wis.-based Epic on Sept. 28, when all ambulatory care clinics will switch to the new system, and the entire Medical Center will use it for communicating and retrieving results. On Dec. 1, adult oncology will make the switch, with all in-patient units and the ER implementing on March 5, 2011.

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As for future developments, Bradley says, “We are leaning towards a full loop, where you could book your appointments though our site.”

They are also thinking of offering providers a pay-per-lead model where they would only be required to make a payment if a patient was delivered through their service. “The main ben-efit for providers is increased exposure and the opportunity to attract new cash-paying patients,” says Bradley.

Attracting cash-paying patients is something that con-cierge practices know a little about. Although they may differ by name (often referred to as direct healthcare or retainer-based medi-cine among others) or by pricing structure, the aim is the same –pro-viding higher quality care.

PriceDoc.com provides listings for six concierge practices: Care Practice in San Francisco; Essential

Medical Care in College Park, Ga., Anchor Medical Clinic in Mukilteo, Wash; Qliance - Primary Care Specialists in Seattle; Dr. Mac in San Antonio; and Guardian Family Care in Mill Creek, Wash.

"Operating a direct healthcare practice allows my office to offer primary care at an affordable price," says Heidi S. Rendall, MD, of Anchor Medical Clinic, who signed up to be listed on PriceDoc last year. "But it also gives me and my staff the time and flexibility to provide the patient-focused healthcare that today's

healthcare delivery system has derailed," she said.

“I can absolutely say this is a better model of medicine,” says Ami Laws, MD, a Palo Alto primary care physician who has approximately 200 patients. She says her patients receive a better level of care and comfort than they would receive at a regular practice.

Although Laws says her fee-for-service is higher than that of a typi-cal clinic she says, “My patients almost never have to go into an emergency room,” which she says saves on over-all healthcare dollars. ■

cashflowContinued from page 23

Patrick Bradley

UVA on track for IT switch

something wasn’t working, we changed it, with the end goal of devel-oping a viable model of care with the tools and resources to support it.”

Trinity Clinic-Whitehouse in Texas, a participant in the demonstration, is about where its medical director thought it would be two years after the pilot. “I am sure most participants in the project took a break. We did,” said Melissa Gerdes, MD. “Healthcare reform put everyone on pins and needles.” At that time the economy was also “tanking” and it was hard for practices to put out money for this, she said.

But now the clinic is back on track and in the process of applying to the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) for Level 1 rec-ognition for PCHM in the primary care division, which has a deadline of May 2011.

Gerdes says one of the reasons for applying for medical home recogni-tion is that it will afford the clinic the opportunity to participate in other pilots. At the time Healthcare IT News spoke to Gerdes the clinic was meeting with officials from the Texas Medical Home Initiative (TMHI), a two-year pilot, which aims to develop, implement and evaluate the PCMH primary care delivery model in Texas. The pilot, which is expected to start soon, will have physician organizations, payers and primary care practices in Texas collaborating. One of the require-ments for participation is that pro-viders are at Level 1 of the PCMH.

Ninety-five primary care providers at Trinity Clinic will be applying for Level 3 recognition as well, says Gerdes – no small feat considering the application alone can take 60-70 man-hours to complete, she said.

The clinic is taking advantage of the Web resources for providers that were developed as a result of the dem-onstration project. For example Gerdes is a member of Delta-Exchange, an online social networking site that addresses the need for additional sup-port through peer-to-peer learning. “It’s basically Facebook for the medical home,” says McGeeney. ■

PIloTContinued from page 1

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NEWSBRIEFSPORTICO PARTNERS TO SPEED HEALTH PLAN EXPANSIONPortico Systems, a maker of Integrated Provider Management (IPM) solutions, and Glenridge HealthCare Solutions, a professional services and data management firm specializing in provider network development, managed care contracting and health plan operations, are announcing a new partnership that will inte-grate Portico’s Provider Management Platform with Glenridge’s provider network development and provider contract services. The integration enables health plans to reduce their admin-istration costs, while accelerating their growth into new geographic markets and/or rapidly creating new provider networks.

MICROSOFT DEvELOPS NEW CRM PLATFORM FOR PAyERSMicrosoft announced the Health Plan Sales Solution for Microsoft Dynamics CRM, a stra-tegic customer relationship management (CRM) platform that will allow health plans to more easily move their marketing and sales pro-cesses online to better manage sales, member service and retention. As a result, health plans will be able to better compete in the indi-vidual and small-group market, reduce mul-tiple points of failure in their current sales, service and retention processes, and interop-erate with state insurance exchanges.

INTELIMEDIX PARTNERS WITH TC3 FOR COST-MANAgEMENTIntelimedix, a Lakeland, Fla.-based business intelligence company focused on multi-rela-tional data mining and advanced analytics, announced a strategic partnership with inte-grated loss control service provider TC3 Health, of Irvine, Calif. The partnership will combine the company’s core capabilities to offer pub-lic and private health plans a comprehensive medical cost-management solution that includes identification of preventable condi-tions and unnecessary treatment, clinical code editing, and fraud, waste and abuse detection.

SCAN UNvEILS NEW WEB-BASED EDUCATIONAL INITIATIvESCAN Health Plan, a Medicare Advantage plan serving more than 110,000 members in California and Arizona, announced the launch of a new online initiative dedicated to improv-ing education and patient care in the field of geriatrics. Through Web-based training and access to expert instructors, the new site (scancme.com) offers learning modules focused on educating physicians and other healthcare professionals in the management of chronic disease and geriatric conditions. SCAN’s Continuing Medical Education/Performance Improvement Education (CME/PIE) Program will focus on the introduction of new skills, practices and technologies, and the dissemi-nation of new research findings.

By MIke MIlIard, Managing Editor

HARTFORD, CT – Anyone who’s languished on hold or suffered through a maze of touchtone mes-sage options while try-ing to get a simple question answered will appreciate Aetna’ new invention. Her name is Ann.

The health plan recently unveiled an online assis-tant to help members who have questions about how to navigate Aetna’s secure member Web site. She’s pretty, with curly hair and a mellifluous voice. And she’s made entirely of ones and zeroes. Ann, Aetna’s personalized, virtual assis-tant, offers 24-hour support for members who are new to the Web site or need help logging in.

Members get the same informa-tion from Ann they’d receive when calling customer service – but they don’t have to leave the Aetna site.

Ann is interactive and easily interprets ques-tions, helping them with the registration process or with recov-ering forgotten user names or passwords.

“In the past, members who encountered an issue with the log-in and registration process had to pick up the phone or send an e-mail to get help,” says Stephen Schneider, Aetna’s head of member enrollment and communication solutions.

“But now with Ann, we can pro-vide real-time assistance when and


WAYNE, PA – MEDecision has partnered with NaviNet to assist payers in delivering patient clinical summaries to providers enrolled in the NaviNet Network.

MEDecision, which develops patient-centric health manage-ment solutions, will work with NaviNet to enable health plans distribute MEDecision Patient Clinical Summaries – clinically validated, payer-based health records – and advanced referral and authorization technology to any provider enrolled in the nationwide NaviNet Network.

“MEDecision has long advo-cated collaboration and interop-erability as a means of improv-ing healthcare, and our alliance with NaviNet demonstrates our commitment to that belief,” said Scott A. Storrer, president and CEO at MEDecision. “Together, we will deliver a powerful solu-tion that facilitates the growing need among payers and provid-ers to enable the best clinical decisions.”

MEDecision’s data will be

delivered via NaviNet’s multi-payer Web por-tal directly into the provider office workflow, giving doctors easy access to more robust, actionable patient information at the time of service, Storrer said. This can help payers and providers increase adminis-trative and operational efficien-cies, control costs and improve care coordination and quality.

“NaviNet is committed to streamlining health information exchange among stakeholders,” said Brad Waugh, president and CEO of NaviNet. “Combining NaviNet’s Web-based healthcare communications solutions and our vast network of electroni-cally enabled providers with MEDecision Patient Clinical Summaries results in a best-of-breed solution that offers a true differentiator to health plans seeking innovative ways to improve care coordination and manage costs.” ■

Anthem joins ACO demo

Brad Waugh

aNN see page 29

MEDecision, NaviNet help with clinical summaries

At Aetna.com,ask ‘Ann’ anything


IRVINE, CA – Anthem Blue Cross, alongside two physician-gov-erned medical groups in California, has been selected to participate in an accountable care organization (ACO) pilot project, led by the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform at Brookings and The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice.

Accountable care is a new healthcare model that rewards providers for improving patient outcomes and slowing cost growth. Anthem Blue Cross will collaborate in the pilot with Monarch HealthCare, of Irvine, Calif., and HealthCare Partners, of Torrance, Calif., both independent physician associations. The demonstration project is already under way in three other communities across the country. The goal is to produce a successful model of care that

will be replicable nationwide.Anthem Blue Cross expects that

its PPO members in Los Angeles and Orange counties whose phy-sicians participate in the

HealthCare Partners and Monarch ACOs will benefit from the care coordination, chronic disease management, and improved infor-mation for decision-making inher-

ent in the new model."Accountable Care Organi-

zations will be built around the collaboration between payers and healthcare provid-ers to better man-age the total care of a defined pop-ulation," said Peggy Hinz, pub-lic relations direc-tor with Anthem Blue Cross.

"Anthem views this collabora-tion as an opportunity to provide additional electronic data direct-ly to Monarch and Healthcare Partners to coordinate care along the continuum. This will include information on eligibility, phar-macy, and medical management. At the same time, future elec-tronic data transfer will allow additional non-claims data to flow to Anthem to help measure

aCO see page 29

Leslie Margolin

Anthem Blue Cross will join two providers in California to form an Accountable Care Organization, a new model model for care.

The big switch

Source: ICD10watch.com

14%

86%

On Oct. 2, 2013 will you be ICD-10 native or dual processing with ICD-9?

Dual Processing

ICD-10 Native

28 Healthcare IT News ■ July2010 PAyERS www.HealthcareITNews.com

A new weekly e-newsletter providing original news to health plan executives and other professionals, covering the areas

of IT, finance and policy surrounding the current landscape of

regulated reimbursements.

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By erIC WICkluNd, Contributing Editor

LAS VEGAS – Fresh off a visit to the White House and a shout-out at this year’s American Telemedicine Association conference, American Well President and CEO Roy Schoenberg is eager to keep the momentum going for his Online Care product.

Schoenberg was in Las Vegas last month at America’s Health Insurance Plans Institute 2010 to tout the com-

pany’s latest two successes: a new contract with Indianapolis-based WellPoint, Inc., the nation’s largest health benefits company by medical membership, and an announcement that BlueCross BlueShield of Western New York and BlueShield of Northeastern New York have gone live with the Online Care platform.

“What we’ve done here is intro-duced a whole new dimension to healthcare,” Schoenberg said. “We

are the magic glue in the middle,” allowing healthcare providers and patients to work out care delivery “on their own terms.”

The Boston-based firm’s product essentially creates an online portal through which patients can contact physicians immediately, from their homes, by video, phone or secure chat. The company contracts with health plans to set up the portal, which creates a network of creden-

tialed physicians from the plans’ established provider networks who can review clinical infor-mation, chat with the patient, pre-scribe medication and suggest follow-up care.

WellPoint plans to roll out the Online Care provider platform to select markets in its 34-million-

member network by the fourth quar-ter of this year.

“WellPoint is committed to help-ing improve the access of all Americans to quality, affordable healthcare,” said Dijuana Lewis, executive vice president and chief executive officer of WellPoint’s Comprehensive Health Solutions business. “We recognize the need for healthcare to become more acces-sible and convenient than ever before, especially for individuals living in rural areas. We are pleased to work with American Well in the develop-ment of this new option.”

“Providing more people with access to insurance – a primary goal of healthcare reform – was just the beginning,” added Alphonso O’Neill-White, president and CEO of BCBSWNY/BSNENY, at AHIP. “Through Online Care NY, our plans are addressing the very real need to transform how, when and where they receive care. Without it, physi-cians will become even more over-whelmed while patients ignore healthcare needs or continue to inap-propriately use urgent care. Now, both physicians and patients alike have an option that better meets their changing needs.”

While contracting with health plans – American Well has had suc-cessful launches in Hawaii and Minnesota, among other locations, as well as the St. Louis-based Ascension Health network – remains the core of the company’s business, Schoenberg said he’s excited to see American Well head in two new directions.

The company has developed a platform for physicians’ offices, called Online Care Team Addition, that allows physicians to link with spe-cialists and patients; and it is also offering Online Care to its first large employer, Delta Air Lines, through a partnership with Golden Valley, Minn.-basedOptumHealth.

In addition, American Well signed an agreement in April with Rite Aid, paving the way for Online Care por-tals in select Rite Aid pharmacies around the country. The arrangement, the first between American Well and a drugstore chain, brings pharmacists into the Online Care loop.

“Frankly, there are more pharma-cies close to where people live than there are emergency rooms,” Schoenberg pointed out. ■

At AHIP, American Well showcases successes

Roy Schoenberg

“We’ve introduced a whole new dimension

to healthcare. We are the magic glue in the middle allowing providers

and patients to work out care delivery on their own terms.”

–RoySchoenberg

www.HealthcareITNews.com PAyERS July2010 ■ Healthcare IT News 29

©2010 Hyland Software, Inc. All rights reserved.

Bring the missing 25% of patient information into your EMR

Most EMRs concentrate on capturing patient data – name, age, basic medical histories. It’s certainly a key part of the patient record, but what about everything else? Physicians also need content that most EMRs miss – paper charts and notes, faxes, images, photos, forms.

That’s where OnBase document management comes in. It converts paper documents to electronic files and integrates clinical content into the EMR. Physicians simply click a link in the patient record, and the rest of the patient’s information is right there.

It’s time for physicians to have a full patient story from beginning to end and improve patient safety. It’s time for IT to do it with simple, proven integration practices in a system that’s low maintenance.

Learn more at Hyland.com

time to make a difference.

where the member needs it.” “Ann is an extension of the indus-

try-leading service we provide to Aetna members,” said Frank Cobbin, Aetna senior vice president of service operations. “Many people turn to the Web for service. There are about 2,500 chat sessions between our members and Ann every day. This is evidence that Ann is engaging and makes it easy for our members to get help while they’re online without taking an extra step to call us.”

When mem-bers visit the Aetna Navigator site, they can click on Ann to open a chat win-dow and enter a question. Ann is programmed to understand the intent of the

question by recognizing the natural language members use to ask it. She then provides an immediate written and spoken response in a friendly voice to create a personal and inter-active experience.

Moreover, says Schneider, “Ann is always learning. As we review the quality of the interactions mem-bers have with Ann, we can con-tinually expand her vocabulary recognition and responses.”

Developed by Spokane, Wash.-based Next IT, the technology behind Ann emulates the look and voice of a human. The technology “transforms self-service information access from frustrating and one-sided to satisfy-ing and dynamic by intelligently accommodating individual commu-nication styles and preferences, engag-ing users through natural language dialog and precise knowledge to suc-cessfully find answers and resolve issues across every touch point.”

Data has shown she’s having an immediate impact. More than half of people registering on the site for the first time engage with Ann, and calls to Aetna’s customer service technical help desk have been declin-ing since Ann was introduced. Between May and June, those calls decreased 29 percent.

“We have received very positive feedback from members,” says Schneider. “We have a feedback mechanism built directly into Ann and review that feedback regularly. It has been an extremely positive experience both for members and Aetna.”

“We are committed to delivering information and resources that help our members get the information they need to make the right health-care decisions, and maximize their benefits,” said Cobbin.

“Ann is another way we are investing in technology to improve the experience our members have with us on the Web. We will con-tinue to expand her functionality and capabilities to help members,” he added. ■

the quality of care."Without advances

in health IT, "such data exchange would not have been pos-sible in the past," said Hinz – adding, "future opportuni-

ties are significant.""Anthem Blue Cross is excited to

be leading the way in California and nationally to transform the current

delivery model by collaborating with employers, members, hospitals and physicians to provide our members with the right care, at the right time, and at the right cost," said Mike Ramseier, vice president, provider engagement and contracting with Anthem Blue Cross.

Since the ACO model encourages payers and providers to work more closely, and introduces incentives for physicians to collaborate and to meet or exceed quality benchmarks, it holds great promise for enhancing patient outcomes and increasing

efficiency, leading to "a provider-led organization willing to be account-able for the full continuum of care for its patients," said Elliott Fisher, MD, co-leader of the Brookings-Dartmouth project.

Leslie A. Margolin, president of

Anthem Blue Cross, called the par-ticipation in the ACO an example "of our commitment to work togeth-er along with hospitals and medical groups to drive quality, cost and safety improvements across [California's] system of care."

Added Jay Cohen, MD, president and chairman of the board at Monarch HealthCare: "This is a very exciting development for anyone who supports innovative ideas designed to improve health-care delivery in the communities we serve." ■

aCOContinued from page 27

aNNContinued from page 27

Elliott Fisher, MD

The ACO model introduces incentives for

payers and physicians to collaborate and

meet or exceed quality benchmarks.

new name.same quality.more opportunities.

MedTech Publishing is now MedTech Media.

www.medtechmedia.com

What’s in a name? In this case, a whole new world. Reflecting its broader experience and capabilities in interactive technologies, MedTech Publishing Company, LLC is now MedTech Media. As always, we’re laser focused on healthcare and technology, but we’ve expanded

our core brands, Healthcare IT News & Healthcare Finance News, to include highly customized multimedia content and extensive lead generation programs. It’s working – in a time when others are retrenching. MedTech Media has grown by 50 percent in the last two years. So while our name has changed, our fiercely loyal audience can continue to depend on our news products and opportunities to engage with the pressing issues of the day. And our valued clients can expect even greater opportunities to reach our ever-growing markets.

For more information on MedTech Media, contact Danielle Hartley, VP, Associate Publisher,at [email protected].


NEWSBRIEFSPFIzER makES mEdIcal INFo avaIlaBIlE vIa IPhoNEPfizer and Epocrates announced a collabora-tion to give healthcare providers mobile access to the Pfizer Medical Information Group to obtain scientific answers to their product questions or to report an adverse event. Clinicians can make direct contact through the Epocrates drug reference app on their iPhone to pharmaceutical manufacturers and immediately apply findings to patient care. Pfizer enables this direct access to its medical information services via the Epocrates channel in an effort to enhance the safe and effective use of its medicines and help improve the quality of patient care.

SRS ENcoURaGES docS To REPlacE lEGacY SYSTEmSSRS, a Montvale, N.J.-based maker of hybrid EMRs, announced the launch of its EMR Replacement Program for medical practices seeking to de-install legacy EMRs. Created in response to increasing market demand for usable and effective EMRs that boost physician productivity, the program helps practices tran-sition smoothly from an unsuccessful EMR implementation to the SRS hybrid EMR, com-pany executives say. To ease the financial burden on these practices, which have already made significant investments in one or more EMRs, the EMR Replacement Program offers a unique transfer pricing structure.

EmIX addS daTa ShaRING To cloUd TEchNoloGYeMix, a new venture from San Diego-based DR Systems, announced that its cloud-based technology for sharing imaging studies and reports has added a new capability: importing and sharing data from CDs, DVDs and other external media. Although eMix replaces the need to share radiology data via hard copy media such as CDs and DVDs, many facilities still receive a significant number of radiology files in CD form. The innovation allows them to import CD files into eMix, and to use eMix as a convenient place to hold the exams before deciding what they want to do with them.

mERGE makES NEW PRodUcTS FoR clINIcal ImaGING Merge Healthcare announced the launch of a complete workflow solution for imaging in clinical trials. The new CIMS solution is the first open platform in the industry that allows organizations to transparently execute the imaging portion of clinical trials within the overall electronic trial management solution. CIMS is the first commercially available Title 21 CFR Part 11-compliant network for man-aging all aspects of imaging in clinical trials. The CIMS platform automates the full workflow of image submission, image storage in a vendor-neutral DICOM archive, and image analysis and viewers.


Boston – A recent in-depth assess-ment of health information exchange (HIE) vendors from IDC Health Insights is predicting “sig-nificant growth over the next 12 months or so,” according to Lynne Dunbrack, program director at IDC Health Insights.

The HIE market “is relatively immature,” said Dunbrack, during a presentation about the report’s finding. Of the 14 examined in the assessment, “only four vendors have 50 or more customers.”

Dunbrack added that today, “the HIE market is made up pri-marily of small privately held vendors,” with just a few excep-tions, such as Microsoft, Oracle, and RelayHealth, which is a divi-sion of McKesson.

But, she said, “we can expect

dramatic changes in the next 12 to 18 months as HIE t e c h n o l o g i e s become a com-modity and dom-inant players acquire their way into a crowded market.”

Many HIE vendors “have large healthcare customer bases that lend them expertise in providing cross-selling opportunities, so we expect that they’ll be adding cus-tomers over the next year, par-ticularly in light of meaningful use,” said Dunbrack.

Indeed, as David Blumenthal wrote in a recent open letter on HHS.gov, “the federal government is working to enable a wide range of innovative and complementary


LonDon – EMRs and CPOE are all well and good. But what about one of the lesser discussed areas of healthcare IT? What about on-demand movies and touch-screen computers and whizz-bang video games? When patients are laid up in hospital beds, don’t they deserve to have a little fun while these new advancements in infor-mation technology are helping to keep them healthy?

As it turns out, those two func-tionalities aren’t as divergent as they may appear.

“Hospital stays can be a lonely and daunting time for patients of all ages, so it’s important to ensure that patients feel connected to the outside world,” says Ben Packman, commercial and media director for Hospedia, the UK’s largest patient bedside entertainment provider.

And so Hospedia develops tech-nology that offers phone call pack-ages, radio, TV and wi-fi. It’s recently unveiled a new, fully digital 15-inch touch-screen that offers better viewing quality and “paves the way for on demand and inter-active services such as films and games,” says Packman.

But Hospedia’s bedside systems also “have the capability to deliv-er over £14 million in savings for the NHS in England every year,” he says, as they’re also used for tasks such as real-time patient surveys and bed management.

“As well as remaining a source of entertainment and communication for patients, the systems could be


CHICAGo – When the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) released its report “Electronic Health Record Usability: Vendor Practices and Perspectives” this past spring, its first words of warning were that design and ease of use were major sticking points.

Although the vendors surveyed “described an array of usability engineering processes and the use of end users throughout the prod-uct life cycle,” it read, “practices such as formal usability testing, the use of user-centered design processes, and specific resource personnel with expertise in usabil-ity engineering are not common.”

Rigorous, thoughtful, and pro-active design, the report made clear, was essential for making EMRs that are easier to use – thus leading to more widespread accep-tance and better patient outcomes.

Central to that goal was encour-aging “formal usability testing early in the design and development phase as a best practice, and [dis-couraging] dependence on post-

deployment review supporting usabil-ity assessments,” the report read. “By not identifying critical usability issues through a wide range of user testing during design and devel-opment, vendors are opening the door to potential patient safety incidents and costly post-release fixes.”

At a session at June’s HIMSS Virtual Conference and Expo, Jeffery Belden, MD, a physician with the department of family and community medicine at the University of Missouri, and Janey Barnes, the human factors spe-cialist at User-View Inc., pre-sented a detailed and user-focused design process for ven-dors developing EMRs.

“Don’t forget the buyer’s side of usability,” were Belden’s march-ing orders, as he led attendees through the stages of efficacious EMR design and development, from initial note-taking and information gathering, through

exchange see page 33

enTerTaIn see page 32

TV screens not just for fun and games

Paper and pencils make good EHRs

HIEs poised for growth, change

Jeffery Belden, MDLynne Dunbrack

Richard Cooke

PaPer see page 33

HIS Boom Projected compound annual growth rate, next seven years

Source: GlobalData

EMR

CPOE

Practice Management 10.8%

12.1%

15.3%

Hospital executives are looking to entertainment systems that engage patients in their care as well as keep them entertained.

32 Healthcare IT News ■ July2010 vENdoRS www.HealthcareITNews.com

integrated into the day-to-day lives of hospital staff, used by everyone from porters and cleaners to clinicians and management,” says Packman. “As the technology develops, it would be pos-sible to integrate the Hospedia system into the patient stay from beginning to end.”

Richard Cooke is CEO of Dublin-based Lincor. His MEDIVista is a leading bedside clinical computer and digital entertainment and communi-

cations solution. It’s mostly in Europe and Asia right now, but Lincor has been making recent forays stateside, with installations in Holy Name Hospital in Teaneck, N.J. and several MultiCare clinics in Washington State.

Above all, says Cooke, Lincor is in the “access business” – that means patients accessing entertainment, but also docs getting at clinical information. “With the big push to get EHR adop-tion in the U.S., after hospitals decide to put in electronic records, the next thing they’re trying to fi gure out is: How am I going to get access to them.”

Enter Lincor’s product, which offers “a full multimedia experience,” says Cooke: telephone, IPTV delivery, mov-ies on demand, Web browsing, and more. A magnetic credit card reader

on the machine allows patients to purchase entertainment services – and “allows hospitals to make up a lot of recoupment through patient revenue, effectively buying time on the system at a rate usually set by the healthcare provider.”

More importantly, the system offers physicians “access to whatever the backend clinical system is, whether it’s from McKesson or Meditech or whatever. They log in directly from the terminal straight into the HIS system.

That sort of functionality is crucial,

Cooke says. After all, “if it’s an unreli-able entertainment system it’s annoy-ing, and the patient won’t be happy. But it’s not as serious.” A malfunction-ing clinical system is a bit more serious.

Michael O’Neil, founder and CEO of Bethesda-based GetWellNetwork, which specializes in turning hospital room TV monitors into interactive communication devices for patients, families and clinicians, came up with the idea for his company when he was a non-Hodgkins lymphoma patient, in and out of hospitals over the course of his treatment.

Feeling, he says, “like we were on the outside looking in on our own care experience,” was a strong impetus in his development of what O’Neil calls “interactive patient care.”

Healthcare IT is “very clinician-focused,” he says. The goal of GetWellNetwork is to deliver entertain-ment while also – and much more importantly – “proactively engaging patients and families throughout the care process, leveraging the very work-fl ows the clinicians are doing.”

For example, if a physician orders a new pain medication for a patient, “we take that order, then create prompt, overlaying over a live tele-vision feed of, say, ESPN or the local news: ‘You’ve just been prescribed a pain medication by Dr. Anderson. Please click here to let us know what kind of pain you’re in.’ In another instance, the system might show a video on fall-prevention as a pre-c u r s o r t o a Hollywood movie.

The point, is to “leverage entertain-ment to get folks involved,” says O’Neil. “This is not about a patient going on-demand and fi nding cool things to watch. This is about understanding the systems and process of care and integrating the patient’s involvement very deeply into that.”

Not to discount the importance of entertainment, he clarifi es. “In hospi-tals, patients might sit for hours or for days. Certainly there’s some healing in allowing them to relax and enjoy their time. But entertainment is a means to an end. The nicer the user-interface is, the more offerings we present, the more it gives us a better chance to engage the patient and thus drive an outcome.”

Manick Choraria, managing direc-tor of ICE Middleware, a London-based maker of bedside communication technology, sees this dual use of enter-tainment portals increasing. “Just see how the fi eld of airline passenger enter-tainment” has expanded with person-alized Web and touch screen options.

“Patient centric features will increase with the addition and availability of greater choice,” he says.

But, he says, “it will be the develop-ments on the hospital-centric features that will spur this sector and lead to a more effi cient, safer and secure work-ing practice. As the platform becomes commonplace it will encourage devel-opments of various applications with their own utility.” ■

enTerTaInContinued from page 31

Michael O’Neil

A bedside system from Lincor

ADJUST THE SPINE WIDTH AS NEEDED 6 INCHES

9 INC

HE

S

HIM

SS

Diction

ary of H

ealthcare In

formation

Tech

nolog

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erms, A

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ms an

d O

rganization

s, Secon

d E

dition

About the Dictionary

This authoritative and timely health information technology dictionary has been signicantly expanded since the rst edition, now with 2,700 terms and acronyms, and over 300 organizations included.

Painstakingly reviewed by industry experts, this valuable resource includes an exhaustive list of acronyms and denitions used in health information technology and clinical informatics. It also includes a listing of organizations and associations that have some relationship to healthcare informatics (listings include contact information, mission statements, and Web addresses).

The HIMSS Dictionary of Healthcare Information Technology Terms, Acronyms and Organizations is the ideal quick reference for health IT professionals and the essential resource for executives, clinicians, academics, consultants, government staff and other professionals who need a reference tool for understanding the terminology and acronyms for this growing eld.

About HIMSS

The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) is a comprehensive healthcare-stakeholder membership organization exclusively focused on providing global leadership for the optimal use of information technology (IT) and management systems for the betterment of healthcare. Founded in 1961 with ofces in Chicago, Washington D.C., Brussels, Singapore, and other locations across the United States, HIMSS represents more than 23,000 individual members, of which 73% work in patient care delivery settings. HIMSS also includes over 380 corporate members and nearly 30 not-for-prot organizations that share our mission of transforming healthcare through the effective use of information technology and management systems. HIMSS frames and leads healthcare public policy and industry practices through its educational, professional development, and advocacy initiatives designed to promote information and management systems’ contributions to ensuring quality patient care.

ISBN: 978-0-9800697-5-4

Order Code: 540230 E. Ohio St., Suite 500Chicago, IL 60611–3270312-915-9295www.himss.org

Second Edition

The Definitive Source for Healthcare IT Terminology Including

� Authoritative, Timely Definitions

� Comprehensive Acronym Listings

� Organizations and Associations Linked to Healthcare IT

� Healthcare Credentials

HIMSS Dictionary of Healthcare Information Technology Terms, Acronyms and Organizations

Nursing and Inform

atics for the 21st Century, Second Edition

Weaver | D

elaney | Weber | Carr

About the BookNursing and Informatics for the 21st Century: An International Look at Practice, Education and EHR Trends is the follow-up to the highly-successful, award-winning first edition. Published in 2006, the first edition was a critical resource in chronicling the huge historical shift in nursing linked to the explosion of electronic health record (EHR) national strategies and health policies around the globe. This updated edition examines the revolution that has occurred in nursing in the past four years and explores the role information technology is playing in this transformation, with a thoughtful examination of nursing practice, science and research, and education across the globe.

With nearly 50 case studies written by nursing’s leading innovators and recognized leaders across specific segments of the healthcare industry and the globe, Nursing and Informatics for the 21st Century presents a “snapshot” of nursing and information technology adoption around the world. The book provides an in-depth analysis of nursing developments in the United States and an expanded global focus including profiles of EHR initiatives in the Middle East and Asia. In addition, new developments featured in this second edition include nursing faculty development; the Technology Informatics Guiding Education Reform (TIGER) Initiative in the United States; advancement of data terminology standards, and the results of a five-country international survey on nursing clinical documentation.

About the EditorsCharlotte A. Weaver, PhD, MSPH, RN, FHIMSS, is Senior Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer for Gentiva Health Services, Atlanta, Ga., and serves as Adjunct Professor at the University of Kansas, School of Nursing and the University of Minnesota, School of Nursing. Previously, she was with Cerner Corporation from 1999 to 2008 where she served as the first chief nurse officer in the IT industry.

Connie White Delaney, PhD, RN, FAAN, FACMI, is Professor and Dean of the School of Nursing at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Delaney is the first nurse informatician Fellow in the American College of Medical Informatics to be selected as dean for a major university in the United States, a position she has held since August, 2005. She also holds an appointment in the Institute for Health Informatics, University of Minnesota.

Patrick Weber, MA, RN, is Director and Principal of Nice Computing in Lausanne, Switzerland. He has more than 30 years of healthcare experience, with more than 20 years in the field of health informatics. Mr. Weber has served as his country’s national representative to the International Medical Informatics Association-Nursing Informatics (IMIA-NI) for over 10 years and is a recognized informatics leader across Europe.

Robyn L. Carr, RGON, is Director of Informatics Project Contracting at IPC & Associates, Cambridge, New Zealand, and serves as an international consultant in countries as far ranging as Taiwan and South Africa. Prior to starting her own IT consulting company in the Asia-Pacific Rim countries, Ms. Carr served in various clinical management and administrative positions in New Zealand Health Services for over 35 years. Ms. Carr has served as country representative into IMIA-NI, and has been the IMIA-NI chair and executive leader over the last decade.

About HIMSSThe Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) is a comprehensive healthcare-stakeholder membership organization exclusively focused on providing global leadership for the optimal use of information technology (IT) and management systems for the betterment of healthcare. Founded in 1961 with offices in Chicago, Washington D.C., Brussels, Singapore, and other locations across the United States, HIMSS represents more than 23,000 individual members, of which 73% work in patient care delivery settings. HIMSS also includes over 380 corporate members and nearly 30 not-for-profit organizations that share our mission of transforming healthcare through the effective use of information technology and management systems. HIMSS frames and leads healthcare public policy and industry practices through its educational, professional development, and advocacy initiatives designed to promote information and management systems’ contributions to ensuring quality patient care.

About AMIAThe American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) is dedicated to promoting the effective organization, analysis, management, and use of information in healthcare in support of patient care, public health, teaching, research, administration, and related policy. AMIA’s 4,000 members advance the use of health information and communications technology in clinical care and clinical research, personal health management, public health/population, and translational science with the ultimate objective of improving health.

ISBN: 978-0-9821070-4-1Order Code: 561

230 E. Ohio St., Suite 500Chicago, IL 60611–3270312-915-9295www.himss.org

E D I T E D B Y

Charlotte A. Weaver

Connie White Delaney

Patrick Weber

Robyn L. Carr

Nursing and Informatics for the 21st CenturyAn International Look at Practice, Education and EHR Trends

Second Edition


10 INCHES

Inform

ation S

ecurity in

Health

care: Managing R

isk H

erzig

About the BookInformation Security in Healthcare: Managing Risk is the essential guide for implementing a

comprehensive information security management program in the modern healthcare environment.

Combining the experience and insights of top healthcare IT managers and information security

professionals, this book offers a detailed survey on myriad topics, including IT security governance;

risk management and strategic planning; data management and portability; audit logging;

identity and access management; sharing patient information; portable devices; medical device

security implications; remote access; workforce training; incident response; disaster recovery and

business continuity; developing compliance strategies; outsourcing; physical security; information

assurance; and personal health records. Special features include a sample security plan and links

to scores of additional tools and resources.

About the EditorTerrell W. Herzig, MSHI, CISSP, is Information Security Of�cer of the UAB Health System,

Birmingham, Alabama, the UAB HIPAA Security Of�cer, and an Adjunct Professor of Health

Informatics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Mr. Herzig teaches graduate

courses in Information Engineering, Programming, Computer Networks, and Information Security

in the UAB School of Health Professions. During his tenure at UAB, he has served as Director of

Information Technology for the Civitan International Research Center and Director of Informatics

for the Pittman General Clinical Research Center. Mr. Herzig has also consulted on numerous

informatics projects with external groups, including Southern Nuclear and the US Army Medical

Command.

About HIMSSThe Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) is a comprehensive

healthcare-stakeholder membership organization exclusively focused on providing global

leadership for the optimal use of information technology (IT) and management systems for the

betterment of healthcare. Founded in 1961 with of�ces in Chicago, Washington D.C., Brussels,

Singapore, and other locations across the United States, HIMSS represents more than 23,000

individual members, of which 73% work in patient care delivery settings. HIMSS also includes

over 380 corporate members and nearly 30 not-for-pro�t organizations that share our mission

of transforming healthcare through the effective use of information technology and management

systems. HIMSS frames and leads healthcare public policy and industry practices through its

educational, professional development, and advocacy initiatives designed to promote information

and management systems’ contributions to ensuring quality patient care.

ISBN: 978-0-9821070-2-7

Order Code: 558

230 E. Ohio St., Suite 500

Chicago, IL 60611–3270

312-915-9295

www.himss.org

Edited by Terrell W. Herzig, MSHI, CISSP


9 INCHES

Make I.T. Known: M

arketing Strategies and Case Studies in the Healthcare Environm

ent

About the BookThis book is a guide to marketing your IT department within and to your hospital, health system, or organization. Communicating and promoting the purpose of your IT department, its importance to the healthcare organization, and how the IT team’s efforts make everyone’s job easier and more productive are crucial to your department’s…and your personal success. The book will help senior healthcare IT management understand what marketing is and the role it plays; define the role of marketing within a healthcare IT department/division; and view how other healthcare IT organizations approach marketing. The book contains 40 case studies that provide keen insights from senior IT leaders’ experiences with marketing their own IT divisions. Specific topics covered are developing a healthcare IT marketing plan; creating a customer-focused culture; public relations; social networking; and crisis communications.

About the AuthorsCharles E. Christian, FCHIME, FHIMSS, is the Director of Information Systems and CIO of Good Samaritan Hospital, a 101-year-old free-standing, acute care community hospital in southwest Indiana. Mr. Christian is serving his 20th year in this role and his 38th year in healthcare. Mr. Christian is a Fellow of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) and served as the Chair of the Board of Directors, 2008-2009. He is a Fellow and charter member of CHIME (College of Health Information Management Executives) and served on the CHIME Board of Directors from 2003 through 2004. He is currently serving on the Board of Directors of the Indiana Health Informatics Corporation by appointment of Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels. Prior to joining Good Samaritan Hospital, Mr. Christian worked in healthcare IT for Compucare and Baxter Travenol, in both management and implementation roles. Mr. Christian holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Lacrosse University.

Judith A. Kirby, CPC, has recruited exclusively in the Healthcare Information Systems field since 1992. In April, 1994, Ms. Kirby purchased an Orlando, Florida franchise. The company recently changed its name to Kirby Partners to enhance its brand specialty. Ms. Kirby has worked with and coached hundreds of healthcare IT professionals in their search for new opportunities. In addition to overseeing operations and managing the company, Ms. Kirby continues to recruit and has received numerous awards. She is a member of CHIME and HIMSS and has presented at HIMSS, CHIME and MUSE. Prior to her move into executive search, Ms. Kirby spent seven years in social work and four years employed by the Council of Girl Scouts, providing training and support for their volunteers. Ms. Kirby has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology.

Steven R. Bennett, MA, is a Vice President with Kirby Partners (formerly Snelling Executive Search), a recruiting firm that specializes in healthcare IT with hospitals and consulting firms nationwide. His career background includes nearly 25 years with regional and national advertising agencies. Mr. Bennett owned an advertising firm for five years, has been a newspaper reporter, publisher of a medical magazine for physicians, and a college instructor in public speaking and mass communication. Mr. Bennett has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, and a Master of Arts degree in Communication Studies from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

About HIMSSThe Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) is a comprehensive healthcare-stakeholder membership organization exclusively focused on providing global leadership for the optimal use of information technology (IT) and management systems for the betterment of healthcare. Founded in 1961 with offices in Chicago, Washington D.C., Brussels, Singapore, and other locations across the United States, HIMSS represents more than 23,000 individual members, of which 73% work in patient care delivery settings. HIMSS also includes over 380 corporate members and nearly 30 not-for-profit organizations that share our mission of transforming healthcare through the effective use of information technology and management systems. HIMSS frames and leads healthcare public policy and industry practices through its educational, professional development, and advocacy initiatives designed to promote information and management systems’ contributions to ensuring quality patient care.

ISBN: 978-0-9821070-1-0Order Code: 557

230 E. Ohio St., Suite 500Chicago, IL 60611–3270312-915-9295www.himss.org

Christian/Kirby/Bennett

Charles E. Christian, FCHIME, FHIMSSJudith A. Kirby, CPC

Steven R. Bennett, MA

Marketing Strategies and Case Studies in the Healthcare Environment

Second Edition


� Authoritative, Timely Definitions

� Comprehensive Acronym Listings

� Organizations and Associations Linked to Healthcare IT

� Healthcare Credentials


E D I T E D B Y

Charlotte A. Weaver

Connie White Delaney

Patrick Weber

Robyn L. Carr

Nursing and InformaticsNursing and InformaticsNursing and

for the 21st Centuryst Centuryst

An International Look at Practice, Education and EHR Trends

Second Edition

Second Edition


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Information Security in Healthcare

Managing RiskTerrell W. Herzig, MSHI, CISSPEdited by Terrell W. Herzig, MSHI, CISSP

Charles E. Christian, FCHIME, FHIMSSJudith A. Kirby, CPC

Steven R. Bennett, MA

Marketing Strategies and Case Studies in the Healthcare Environment

Stock your library with great new resources from HIMSS!

Practical implementation guides, exciting industry trends, proven management strategies and more.

Gain the information, tools, training and guidance you need TODAY to stay competitive – for personal and organizational growth!

Purchase your copies today at www.himss.org/store.HIMSS members enjoy special discounts! www.himss.org/store

� Healthcare CredentialsCharles E. Christian, FCHIME, FHIMSSJudith A. Kirby, CPC

Steven R. Bennett, MASteven R. Bennett, MA

www.HealthcareITNews.com vENdoRS July2010 ■ Healthcare IT News 33

brainstorming and storyboarding, to beta testing, launching and beyond.

Understanding the end-user’s tasks is critical, said Belden, recommending that EMR makers make one or more on-site visits to observe phy-sicians and clinicians at work. Make special note of the “workfl ow and environment of the users,” Belden said, “specify how users carry out their tasks in a specifi c process.”

Perhaps ironically for an industry that seeks nothing less than the wholesale replacement of paper-based health records, Belden said design-

ers should make generous use of paper, and that “pencil works just fi ne.”

Because sketches, note cards and sticky notes are perfect vehicles for brainstorming screen design, he said – easily grouped and regrouped and clustered and rearranged again.

“Paper is cheap and quick,” said Belden. And card sorting “aids information design,” allowing the EMR developers a spontaneous way to work through the fi nding of “latent structures in an unsorted group of ideas.”

Having surveyed physicians and surmised their workplace wants and needs, Belden says designers should then rank those necessary and/or desirable features and functions, and then use the fungibility of notecards and a bulletin board to move various components around, helping them discover “users’ mental model” and hopefully arriving at an optimal design.

Visual design is “not just about pretty colors,” said Barnes. It’s about “communicating informa-tion organization and priority.”

For electronic health records, that means making technology that’s easy and appealing for doctors and nurses to use – and, in turn, trans-lates into better outcomes for patients. ■

approaches that will allow secure and mean-ingful exchange within and across states.”

He cautioned, however, “all of our efforts must be grounded in a common foundation of standards, technical specifications, and policies” and must “encourage trust among participants and provide assurance to con-sumers about the security and privacy of their information.”

Certainly, said Dunbrack, arriving at a com-mon set of HIE specifi cations has been a chal-lenge with such a crowded fi eld of small play-ers. One wants to start with standards the community accepts,” she said. “This has been a source of chal-lenge for organizations trying to identify their own sets of standards and then working with other organizations.”

Meanwhile, she said, it’s crucial that vendors work with customers early on, proving that information can be shared safely and securely and demonstrating value immediately: “Implementation does not equal adoption,” she noted.

Among other fi ndings from the report: A vendor’s ability to continue to invest in its HIE solution is another imperative, said Dunbrack, “since the business, clinical and technical requirements for HIEs are rapidly evolving.”

She also highlighted the importance of iden-tifying data limitations and working to remedy them. “One of the reasons many HIEs have failed in the past is that few have contributed data,” she said. “As a result there’s not been much data to share, and providers get frustrated when they don’t fi nd what they’re looking for.”

Finally, Dunbrack insisted, “resolving workflow is a key issue in provider accep-tance. If it’s disruptive the provider simply will not use it.”

“The IDC report predicts the paradigm shift toward collaborative care through HIE models, which we see as a pivotal opportu-nity to drive improvements in the quality of medical care delivery and patient outcomes,” said Gary Zegiestowsky, CEO of Informatics Corporation of America. ■

Changes ahead...Among other predictions highlighted by

IDC’s vendor assessment:■ The HIE market will continue to evolve

and mature over the next 12-24 months.■ Enterprise HIEs will be the fastest

growing segment.■ Cloud will become a viable option

for platform deployment, “particularly as we look at larger initiatives like regional and statewide efforts.”

■ Mergers and acquisitions will continue as the various vendors look to build out HIE solution portfolios.

■ Partnerships to reach “the last mile” will be important, particularly around the areas of patient engagement.

-MM

PaPerContinued from page 31

DavidBlumenthal, MD

exchangeContinued from page 31

“We can expect dRamaTIc chaNGES in

the next 12 to 18 months as hIE technologies

become a commodity.” –LynneDunbrack

“design is not just about pretty colors.”

–JaneyBarnes

July 27-28, 2010Hyatt Regency Denver Tech Center

Denver, ColoradoTopics Include:• Meaningful Use – Where do we go

from here?• Implementation of SaaS EHR with

greater than 99.999% Uptime • Innovation in HIT: Meaningful use as a

driver and detractor• Effective IT Adoption and

Physician Engagement: Achieving buy-in throughout the healthcare continuum

• Implementing a Comprehensive Security Program: From the data warehouse to the point of care

• Interoperability: Challenges for Architecture more than Applications

Speakers Include:

To learn more or register today visit www.ihealthtran.com or call (646) 502-7563

Summer Health IT Summit

Michael O’RourkeVP & CIO

Catholic Health Initiatives

Lynn Harold Vogel, Ph. D. VP & CIO

University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center

Barry Chaiken, MD, FHIMSS

Chief Medical Officer DocsNetwork, Ltd.

HIMSS Chair

Lisa KhoreyDirector of

InteroperabilityUPMC

Chris Wood, MDMedical Director,

Information Services Intermountain

Healthcare

Mark Levine MDCMO, Denver Region

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid

Services

Health IT Solutions

CONNECTING DOCTORS, PATIENTS & COMMUNITES

“Adoption, Implementation, and Meaningful Use”

Summer Health IT Ad.indd 1 6/23/2010 3:27:36 PM

34 Healthcare IT News ■ July 2010 product spotlight www.HealthcareITNews.com

PM market saturatedBy BernIe MonegaIn, Editor

practice management functionality really hasn’t changed much in many years, according to Mark Wagner, an analyst with Orem, Utah-based research firm KLAS. There have been changes to accommodate

new regulations and some to better share data with EMR systems, he says, but not many others.

There are older, standalone systems still being used by many practices and groups that have been around for nearly 20 years (such as Sage Medical Manager and GE Centricity Business, which was IDX Flowcast), he says.

Wagner notes there are also newer systems that were built from the ground up, weaving PM and EMR func-tionality into a single, truly integrated application, such as eClinicalWorks. Some of these systems have a “fan-tastic workflow for the physicians,” he says, but they miss important functionality for the billing office.

As for the market, it’s saturated, Wagner says. Most offices have a PM system and most would prefer not to replace it. Small practices using older applications, like Sage Medical Manager, are content with the older look and feel because it’s paid for and requires little to no maintenance costs.

Mark Wagner, an analyst with research firm KLAS says there are three key factors having an effect on the practice management software market today.1. dance partners: Standalone PM vendors are scrambling to find an EMR dance partner (for instance, AdvancedMD buys PracticeOne).2. icd10: All vendors are facing significant issues preparing for ICD10 and HIPAA 5010, not to mention the additional report-ing requirements HITECH is mandating. 3. no thanks: Vendors won’t get many kudos for meeting or exceeding expectations

Few physician practices are eager to replace their practice management system, prefering to avoid the high maintenance costs associated with newer technology, according to KLAS.

allscriptsAllscripts Professional PMAllscripts Professional PM (formerly HealthMatics Ntierprise) is among the most advanced medical management systems available today. Its user-friendly interface and extensible design make Professional PM the perfect practice management system for medical practices, MSOs and integrated delivery networks. Allscripts Enterprise PMAllscripts Enterprise PM (formerly TouchWorks PM) provides an ideal system by combining sophisticated scheduling and financial management tools in a single cost-effective package.

aprimaAprima PMAprima’s PM features include revenue cycle management, credit card processing, electronic data interchange, messaging and workflow, interfaces and reporting. Aprima’s built-in reports are customizable and provide immediate access to information on HIPAA compliance, billing and productivity, clinical orders, medication management and other critical data.

athenahealthathenaCollectorathenaCollector is a Web-based physician billing and practice management solution that reduces administrative red tape. It allows you to efficiently assess, plan, and improve practice performance while increasing revenue. There are no start-up costs for software licensing, no investments in hardware and servers, and no hidden ongoing expenses for maintenance, upgrades and data back-up. athenaCollector is easy to use, saves time, and dramatically improves your bottom line.Medical billing and practice management saves time and increases revenue.

eclinicalworkseClinicalWorks PMeClinicalWorks Practice Management (PM) system is established and reliable for practices of all sizes, small to large, and instantly streamlines medical billing management. Unified with its electronic medical records solution, it allows customers to reduce their accounts receivables and improve collections.

emdseMDs Solution SerieseMDs Solution Series, with more than 26,000 users nationwide, is the standard for affordable and integrated EHR and practice management software solutions, including clinical, financial and document management modules designed to automate medical practice processes and chart management.

epicPractice ManagementEpic’s practice management technology features ambulatory registration, Cadence Enterprise Scheduling and Resolute Professional Billing that helps reduce A/R days, produces accurate claims, allows paperless collection processes and streamlines data entry, and call management.

ge healthcareCentricity Practice SolutionCentricity Practice Solution combines GE Healthcare’s EMR and Practice Management systems to help practices enhance workflow efficiency, business performance and quality of care. The integrated, CCHIT Certified solution supports clinicians from the first point of contact with a patient to final reimbursement, including scheduling appointments, managing documents and automating billing processes.

Practice Managementproduct spotlight

pm tech keeps practice running

More information at healthcareITnews.comrecent news

➔➔ Big growth projcted for HIS market➔➔ Perfect example of why medical home demo proved so important➔➔ athenahealth and Physicians Practice rank the payers➔➔ EHR software market share analysis➔➔ Doylestown Hospital serves as a community HIE model➔➔ Top hospitals ‘hard wire’ quality, safety➔➔ Docs pessimistic, frustrated with insurers➔➔ Vendors aim to take fear out of EMR choice➔➔ Electronic medical records come to the iPhone and iPad➔➔ What to do if your vendors are late with HIPAA 5010, ICD-10 updates➔➔ MacPractice medical applications now available for iPad➔➔ Physician practices need help navigating the EHR Gold Rush➔➔ Midwest’s largest health system implements EMRs

three trends to watch

“Since implementing Centricity Practice Solution in 2007, we have seen marked improvements in

our workflow efficiencies and cost savings – we were able to eliminate transcription costs within the first year. We recently launched a patient portal as part of the Centricity

system, and we have received overwhelming positive feedback from our patients. They love the flexibility of communicating with their physicians, scheduling appointments and paying bills online, while our staff appreciates the ease with which they can manage patients, documents and the billing process.”

– Barbara Fahl-Watkins, administrator,

Heart & Vascular Center of ArizonaUSER

REV

IEW

greenwayGreenway PrimeSuitePrime Suite utilizes single click drag & drop scheduling, wizard, or template-based for larger practices. It also gives at-a-glance patient demographics, demographics and rules view directly within the patient scheduling software system, and user-friendly Web browser interface. Client/Server or ASP Hosting.

mckessonMcKesson Practice CompleteMcKesson Practice Complete is the single, comprehensive billing and accounts receivable solution that answers the financial, administrative and clinical challenges faced by physicians. McKesson Practice Complete provides complete physician billing services, complete clinical services, and complete connectivity services.system, and user-friendly Web browser interface. Client/Server or ASP Hosting.

medinformatixMedInformatix EMR/PMMedInformatix EMR/PM is the 1-stop, turn key solution for today’s healthcare practices. Its fully integrated billing/collection modules and state of the art web-referring module truly set MedInformatix PM/EMR apart from all its competitors. With 15 years of experience in the industry, MedInformatix is one of the pioneers in the Fully Integrated PM/EMR system.

sageSage Practice ManagementSage Practice Management software integrates easily with other functions of the practice, giving providers a forward-looking perspective needed to deliver high quality care efficiently and profitably.

www.HealthcareITNews.com ManageMent solutions July2010 ■ Healthcare IT News 35

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Yellow Pages

A special print and onlinenews supplement

Visit www.HITECHWatch.com to access this special supplement including:

• News and information on how to qualify for the stimulus funds; how to choose an EHR that will meet certification requirements; and much more.

• A Buyer’s Guide of EHR products and services.

July 2010

ARRA

EHR BuyER’s GuidE

S o l u t i o n S S e r i e S

IncludIng

The Road to Meaningful Use

Revisited:

and list of CCHiT Certified EHRs

Supplement to Healthcare IT News and Healthcare Finance News n www.HITECHWatch.com

Published in partnership with

t h e n e w s s o u r c e f o r h e a l t h c a r e i n f o r m a t i o n t e c h n o l o g y

arra reViSited:the road to Meaningful Use

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EHR BuyER’s GuidE

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and list of CCHiT Certified EHRs

Supplement to Healthcare IT News and Healthcare Finance News

Visit www.HITECHWatch.com today!

By John Andrews, Contributing Editor

real data and real results tell the story of the pay-for-performance movement, but market specialists say it starts with

the vision of what an organization aspires to be and the priorities it sets.

Still burgeoning as a payment model, P4P has taken various shapes in its genesis, though it is primarily intended to nudge providers toward quality and efficiency with financial rewards. Medicare’s Physician Quality Reporting Initiative serves as a P4P template for providers to follow. Yet experts recom-mend each organization customize its own program according to its goals.

As John MacDonald, managing director of Devon, Pa.-based LECG SMART explains: “To make P4P work, you have to invest time and money to make sure that you are able to measure performance in line with the organization’s philosophy about pay, business objectives and goals. It depends on what you want to accomplish and the level involved.”

Any well-designed IT system can serve as the infrastructure for P4P, MacDonald said – the key is in the planning. Determine a set of metrics to measure and keep it small, he said.

“Too many metrics is too diluted. You won’t be able to do much with it,” he said. “Usually two to four metrics is enough and customer satisfaction should be one of them. This is something that should be qualitative rather than quantitative.”

The metrics should be specific, but should also be tailored for each individual’s respon-

sibility, MacDonald said.“You can’t just plug in the same numbers

for everybody – similar maybe, but they should vary depending on what the team is doing and what you want them to accomplish. These metrics should be subjective with some shades of gray, but you should ultimately be able to say ‘yes, we did it or no, we didn’t do it.’”

For Summit Medical Group in Berkeley Heights, N.J., instituting a P4P system means

the largest multi-specialty physician practice in the state is on its way to becoming an accountable care organization, said chief medical officer Robert Brenner, MD. With 10 offices in central New Jersey, the group has 165 doctors in its organization.

Introducing a process like P4P into an established physician culture is not easy, Brenner said, because it deviates dramati-cally from the routines doctors learn in

medical school. Moreover, P4P changes the entire payment dynamic and that takes some adjustment, he said.

“Physicians are trained for productivity,” Brenner said. “The current healthcare system doesn’t reward outcomes in patient care, it rewards seeing lots of patients.”

Using PQRI metrics and a clinical quality solutions system linked to Chicago-based Allscripts, the Summit Group received $239,000 from CMS last year under a Medicare formula that pays 2 percent more to providers that use the outcomes measure-ments. Among the metrics used are hemo-globin and lipid levels in diabetics, post-operative infection rates and systolic blood pressure levels.

Each year the clinic holds back 5 percent of its compensation amounts and distributes it to the physicians that show improvement in quality metrics. The group also backs gain sharing plans with hospitals in which both organizations should split the residuals from efforts to prevent patient admissions.

P4P ‘Here to stay’When the PQRI movement started in 2007, Atlanta-based Ingenious Med immediately “jumped on the bandwagon,” said Steven Liu, MD, chairman and founder.

As a result, the company created a P4P module that creates core measurements and has increased its functionality in preparation for what Liu expects to be an escalating num-ber of adoptions.

P4P process is all about measuring results

Physicians across the country are investing time and money in keeping track of metrics that will ensure them additional income when they can prove certain outcomes. Pay-for-performance programs are here to stay, say industry insiders.

MeAsUre see page 36

Practice Management Software Ingenix

12125 Technology Drive Eden Prairie, MN 55344 Phone: 877-EHR-0845 Email: [email protected] www.ingenix.com/ehr inGenix careTracKer ingenix careTracker is a cloud-based, ccHiT-certified® pm/eHr solution fully integrated with all the operational functions of the practice. accessible through any internet-connected computer, providers can easily access patient records and review medications, patient history, recent orders and test results. The system fuses clinical, billing and administrative workflows together and integrates them with ingenix coding and compliance solutions. Guar-anteed to meet stimulus “meaningful use” requirements, careTracker helps practices achieve smoother day-to-day operations with an improved rOi.

“P4P is absolutely here to stay and getting tweaked more and more to handle wide-

spread pilot programs,” he said. “P4P will get bigger not just because the gov-ernment is pushing it, but because so many changes are happening in health-care finance – margins are tighter, so if they focus on P4P, it will generate more revenue.”

Carmel, Ind.-based Zotec Partners sees its role in the P4P as providing the “pay in pay for performance,” said CEO Scott Law.

“We offer ideas to clients with the data we’ve amassed over the years,” he said. “We have a lot of information to bring to bear, including outcomes, clinical infor-mation, patient satisfaction and quality.”

Zotech software performed more than 40 million radiology transactions last year, which accounts for 6 percent of the mar-ketplace, Law said.

“That data can be sliced and diced to include diagnosis code, reports, procedures and demographic information,” he said.

“There are quality tracking mechanisms for PQRI and we help clients with those requirements.”

One of the major challenges Law sees for P4P going forward is standardization.

“Each carrier will have its own version of P4P, so getting it standardized should be the first thing to happen,” he said. “Healthcare reform requires P4P, but it will be up to the individual states and interme-diaries to determine.”

For connectivity and analytics, Indianapolis-based Bostech serves as the platform to link physicians and hospitals with labs and manages the labs’ workflow to send reports into electronic medical records systems. The company recently

launched an agree-ment with local biopsy evaluation firm Know Error for quality assur-ance on tests.

“ The system provides a work list of what they need

to do, workflow optimization that augments and connects with the systems for ordering the lab test, accessing, processing and return-ing the report to the physician,” said Founder and Chairman Brad Bostic. “This fits the P4P model because clinics can boast they perform tests faster and more accurately to provide optimal outcomes.” n

36 Healthcare IT News n July 2010 www.HealthcareITNews.com

New ProductsNew mammograPhy techNology from ge looks PromisiNgWAUKESHA, WI – GE Healthcare has introduced a new technology in to aid in breast cancer diagnosis. The SenoBright, which features Contrast Enhanced Spectral Mammography (CESM) technology, reduces ambiguity in mam-mography results, enabling physicians to detect and diagnose cancer with more confidence – even in the densest part of the breast tissue more rapidly and accurately, said officials. SenoBright uses X-rays at multiple energies to create two separate exposures, which specifi-cally illuminate and highlight areas where there is angiogenesis, growth of small blood vessels potentially related to the presence of cancer. The technology also shows potential for mea-suring the extension of the lesion to help to plan surgery and treatment. The new technol-ogy development was carried out in collabora-tion between GE Healthcare and Qatar Science & Technology Park (QSTP). The goal of the joint research program is to develop new and innovative technologies for aiding in the diag-nosis of breast cancer using the latest develop-ments in digital mammography. The new tech-

nology works with an upgrade to GE Healthcare’s Senographe DS and Senographe Essential digital mammography equipment.

techNology to imProve care for NewborNs oN veNtilatioNSAN DIEGO – CareFusion has launched an auto-matic oxygen controller to improve care for newborns needing mechanical ventilation. The global medical device company says its Closed Loop Controller of Inspired Oxygen system or "CLiO2," is the first automatic oxygen control-ler of its kind designed to keep the oxygen level in the blood within a safe range for newborns needing mechanical ventilation. This new soft-ware algorithm is an enhancement to the CareFusion AVEA ventilator. The CLiO2 system non-invasively and continuously measures the oxygen level in a newborn's blood using Masimo SET Measure-Through Motion and Low Perfusion pulse oximetry technology to provide accurate and reliable oxygen saturation (SpO2) measurements, even under challenging clinical conditions. The CLiO2 system processes blood oxygen saturation levels by a computer algorithm that then anticipates trends and modifies the

amount of oxygen delivered. If necessary, adjustments can be made on a second to second basis, something not cur-rently possible with manual control. The CLiO2 system is currently available in most Western European and Asian countries through CareFusion and its authorized distributors, with future availability in the United States and Canada.

workstatioN offers oN-board PowerWObOrN, MA - A free-wheel-ing workstation from Woburn, Mass-based Newcastle

Systems offers on-board power that makes it possible to run a computer, a printer and other devices simultaneously. The PC Series Workstation, used to record inventory in real time and print labels as each product is handled, has a rechargeable battery that offers power for up to 12 hours of normal use. Carts are available with dimensions up to 24 x 48 x 37 inches and five different battery/inverter/charger pack-ages. Accessories include an additional shelf, drawers (including a keyboard drawer), a lap-top holder, an 18 x 20-inch pullout printer shelf with a capacity of 60 pounds, a CPU holder, two types of flat-screen holders, and a barcode-scanner holder.

New solutioN aims to combat lab errors, boost ProductivityINDIANAPOLIS – Bostech Corporation has launched a new solution to combat lab errors and increase lab productivity. The solution leverages the know error system, which officials say represents the new standard of patient safety in the biopsy evaluation process. ChainBuilder Labs, Bostech’s lab-specific

workflow improvement technology, delivers faster, more accurate results directly to a patient’s electronic medical record. Combined with the know error system, which decreases the risk of biopsy switching errors through bar code technology and DNA-based specimen verification, the solution optimizes connectiv-ity between lab processes, providing seamless workflow integration and real-time reporting in a browser-based interface.

eXteNsioN uPdates softwareFOrT WAYNE, IN- EXTENSION, INC. officials announced that version 2.0 is now available for integration. Version 2.0 – replacing EXTENSION version 1.4 – offers features and functionality that further enhance clinical and operational workflows and overall communications among clinicians, healthcare staff and patients. The EXTENSION appliance-based software solution suite allows clinicians to automatically receive and respond to intelligent notifications derived from pre-defined rules and workflows. EXTENSION aggregates data, such as HL7 standards, from disparate systems and delivers the context-aware notifications to the appropri-ate caregiver at the point-of-care via a Cisco IP Phone or Web-enabled mobile device. n

CareFusion’s new automatic oxygen controller is designed to improve care for newborns needing mechanical ventilation.

Image of breast using SenoBright CESM technology, that reveals three cancerous lesions. Photo courtesy of Gustave Roussy Cancer Institute, France.

Newcastle System’s free-wheeling workstation offers onboard power to run devices simultaneously.

MEASUREContinued from page 35

“the current healthcare system doesn’t reward

outcomes in patient care, it rewards seeiNg lots of

patients.”– Robert Brenner, MD

Robert Brenner, MD

By BERnIE MonEgAIn, Editor

SAN FrANCISCO – A healthcare price-compar-ison startup started by the founder of RelayHealth and the co-founder of athenahealth has raised $60 million in funding, including an investment from the Cleveland Clinic.

Giovanni Colella, MD, who founded RelayHealth, and later sold it to McKesson, started Castlight Health with Todd Park, a founder of Watertown, Mass.-based athe-nahealth in 2008. Park now serves as CTO of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The company also names Bryan Roberts, partner at Venrock, one of the firms participating in the funding, as a co-founder.

“The drive toward patient responsibility in healthcare combined with the complete lack of information to support that transition has landed Castlight Health in the middle of the perfect storm,” said Roberts.

Delivered as a Web-based service, Castlight Health is working with companies – super-market chain Safeway is its first customer – to provide employees with individual level views of their healthcare benefits and costs. As Castlight executives see it, this granular detail

enables employees to become informed con-sumers and shop for healthcare services by revealing out-of-pocket costs, alerting users about cost saving opportunities, as well as offering additional information about physi-cians and procedures.

Castlight Health Series C round of funding included new investors Morgan Stanley Investment Management, and The Wellcome Trust, U.S. Venture Partners, as well as Cleveland Clinic. The funding round also included existing investors Maverick Capital, Oak Investment Partners and Venrock.

The funding will be used to accelerate hir-ing and further product development.

“The continued dramatic rise in healthcare costs has propelled consumer financial respon-sibility for medical care as companies seek to rein in benefit expense growth. said Colella.

“Understanding the health care system is a daunting task,” said David Singer, partner at Maverick Capital, which led the round of financing. “The strength of this team, combined with the power of their vision, makes Castlight Health an exciting venture with tremendous potential. They are addressing one of the top issues facing the United States today.” n

Price comparison startup draws $60M in funding


Jobspot


NEW YORK – A majority of employers and recruiters (52 percent) expect to hire more career professionals in the second half of 2010 than they did in the first half of the year, according to a new survey by Dice Holdings, Inc., which operates specialized career Web sites for professional communi-ties, including healthcare.

Jobs in medical records and health informa-tion technology are expected to grow by 20 percent through 2018, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Industry insiders estimate 50,000 new jobs will be created by the push to transform healthcare from a mostly paper-based industry to a digital one.

“Several factors – a growing industry with vast employment needs, a societal concern with federal backing for broad reform, and a solution incorporating advanced knowledge and skills among workers – combine to form a strong base for workforce development and employment opportunity for the coming decade,” said Mark Cafferty, San Diego Workforce Partnership president and CEO

“Businesses seem to be gradually loosening their grip on the hiring process as the econ-omy improves,” said Scot Melland, chairman, president and CEO of Dice Holdings. ■


WASHINGTON – U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced a $250 million federal investment aimed at increasing the number of primary care health professionals.

The money comes from prevention and public health funds in the Affordable Care Act. The plan, which was announced last month, is focused on training new primary care providers.

It does not include funding specific for health information technology. However, the new program benefits from federal investments from the health reform legislation and from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

aimed at encouraging the meaningful use of health infor-mation technology, said Mary Wakefield, administrator, HHS Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).

HHS announced these five programs:

■ Creating additional pri-mary care residency slots: $168 million for training more than 500 new primary care physicians by 2015;

■ Supporting physician assistant training in primary care: $32 million for supporting the development of more than 600 new phy-sician assistants, who practice medicine as

members of a team with their supervising physician, and can be trained in a shorter period of time compared to physicians;

■ Encouraging students to pursue full-time nursing careers: $30 million for encour-aging over 600 nursing students to attend school full-time so that they have better odds of completing their education;

■ Establishing new nurse practitioner-led clinics: $15 million for the operation of 10 nurse-managed health clinics that assist in the training of nurse practitioners. These clinics are staffed by nurse practitioners, which provide comprehensive primary healthcare services to populations living in medically

underserved communities.■ Encouraging states to plan

for and address health profes-sional workforce needs: $5 million for states to plan and implement innovative strate-gies to expand their primary care workforce by 10 to 25 percent over 10 years to meet increased demand for prima-ry care services.

Sebelius said the “severe shortage” of primary care phy-sicians is well known, and that doing something about it is “a personal priority of President Obama.”

“Our health system has not valued prima-ry care providers enough,” Sebelius said.

Joining Sebelius at the news conference in addition to Wakefield were U.S. Rep. Lois Capps, co-chair of the House Nursing Caucus and HHS Assistant Secretary for Health, Howard K. Koh, MD. Koh said the programs would also focus on prevention.

“We want to promote prevention at all levels of society,” he said. “I’ve seen firsthand the need for more prvention. He said the country’s healhcare system should focus on wellness and prevention rather than a sys-tem that is “focused almost solely on treat-ment, often delivered late.” ■

Primary care workforce gets $250M boost

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced last month a five-point program to help build the floundering primary care workforce.

Kathleen Sebelius

Indicators have health IT jobs on upward curve

applIcaTIons analysT – surgIcal servIcesVCU Health SystemRichmond, VA

applIcaTIons analysT – nursIng InforMaTIcIsTVCU Health SystemRichmond, VA

applIcaTIons analysT – aMBulaTory HealTH recordsVCU Health SystemRichmond, VA

applIcaTIons analysT – Is TraInIngVCU Health SystemRichmond, VA

Manager, daTa analysIsQualis HealthSeattle, WA

dIrecTor, InforMaTIon TecHnology assIsTanceNACHCBethesda, MD

claIMs conTracT Manager/adMInIsTraTorWI Department of Health ServicesMadison, WI

adMInIsTraTor of InforMaTIon servIcesFlagler HospitalSt. Augustine, FL

Manager, revenue cycle sysTeMsH. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research InstituteTampa, FL

HealTH InforMaTIon TecH – InpaTIenT coderPalomar Pomerado HealthSan Diego, CA

asr. sysTeMs/sofTware applIcaTIon analysTOverlake Hospital Medical CenterBellevue, WA

lead daTaBase adMInIsTraTor IArkansas Blue Cross Blue ShieldLittle Rock, AR

clInIcal analysTsSaint Peter’s University HospitalNew Brunswick, NJ

clInIcal analysTFauquier HospitalWarrenton, VA

JoBs currenTly posTed

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For more InFormaTIon on recruITmenT opporTunITIeS, conTacT:

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Siemens Healthcare announced the appointment of longtime Partners Healthcare CIO John Glaser as CEO of Siemens Health Services Business Unit, where he’ll be responsible for leading the company’s global healthcare IT business. The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) has promoted John Hoyt to the position of executive vice president, organiza-tional services; in this role, Hoyt will also serve as the executive head for HIMSS Analytics. Dale Alverson, medical director for UNM Health Sciences Center’s Center for Telehealth and Cybermedicine Research, was named

president of the American Telemedicine Association. athenahealth’s Chief Operating Officer David E. Robinson resigned July 1 and was replaced by Ed Park, athenahealth’s former chief technology officer; Jeremy Delinsky will be appointed chief tech-nology officer. Merge Healthcare has appointed Jeff Surges to its board of directors. Polycom has named Andrew Miller president and chief executive officer. Johns Hopkins Children’s Center neonatologist Christoph Lehmann, MD, has joined the National Quality Forum (NQF), as a member of its newly formed Health Information Technology advisory committee. Henry Schein,

Inc. has promoted Keith Slater to vice president and general manager of Henry Schein Medical Systems; the company also named Grace Monahan as vice president and chief information officer, global information services. Michael P. Dugan has joined the Federation of State Medical Boards executive leadership team as chief information officer. DocuSign, a provider of SaaS-based electronic signature platform technology, has appointed Mike Dinsdale as chief financial officer. CredenceHealth, which provides real-time clinical intelligence to providers and payers, announced that Dan Lynch has

joined the company as senior vice president of business development. Toshiba America Medical Systems has promoted Catherine Wolfe to senior director, corporate and strategic communica-tions, leading the new corporate and strategic communications team. Nuance Communications, Inc. has announced that Mark Laret, chief executive officer of University of California San Francisco Medical Center, has joined Nuance’s board of directors. Health Language, Inc. announced that Ailene Thiel has joined the company as the European sales director. MEDecision, Inc., a provider of collaborative healthcare management solutions, has named Eric Demers senior vice president of life sciences. Three medical technology profes-sionals have been selected as new members of AAMI’s Technology Management Council: Joseph Dysko, director of clinical engineering and capital services for Catholic Healthcare West; Barrett Franklin, a clinical engineer with the Department of Veteran Affairs; and Heidi Horn, VP of clinical engineering services for SSM Healthcare.

38 Healthcare IT News ■ July 2010 www.HealthcareITNews.com

QUOTEDSuzanne Accordino ........South Jersey Hospital ......................17John Bachman ...............The Mayo Clinic ........................ 23, 24Janey Barnes .................User-View, Inc. ................................31Jeffrey Belden ................University of Missouri .....................31Karen Bell ......................CCHIT ................................................6David Blumenthal .........ONC .......................................... 12, 31Brad Bostic ...................Bostech ...........................................36Pat Bradley ....................PriceDoc ..........................................23George Brenckle ............UMass Memorial Health Care ..........14Robert Brenner ..............Summit Medical Group ...................35Jennifer Brockman .........Virginia Health Quality Center ..........9Mara Bryant White ........Memorial Medical Center ................24Stephen B. Burke ..........Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia ..19Mark Cafferty ................San Diego Workforce Partnership ....37Sharon Canner ..............CHIME ...............................................3Barry P. Chaiken ...........HIMSS ........................................ 3, 12Manick Choraria ............ICE Middleware ...............................32Frank Cobbin .................Aetna ..............................................29Jay Cohen ......................Monarch HealthCare .......................29Richard Cooke ...............Lincor ..............................................32Todd Cozzens .................Picis ................................................14Thomas Curran ..............CHOP ...............................................17Jim Deren ......................CareTech Solutions ...........................3Lynne Dunbrack .............IDC Health Insights .........................31Carl Dvorak ...................Epic Systems.....................................8Elliott Fisher ..................Dartmouth .......................................29Vivien J. Funkhouser ......Motorola ..........................................13Scott Gode .....................Azaleos ............................................23David Groves .................Healthbridge .....................................9 Mark Haas .....................Massachusetts General Hospital ....17Lori Heim .......................AAFP ..................................................1Betsey Hersher ..............Hersher Associates..........................18Peggy Hinz .....................Anthem Blue Cross .........................27Bill Ho ...........................Biscom ............................................19John P. Hoyt ...................HIMSS ...............................................9Charles Jarvis ................NextGen .............................................8Philip R. Johnson ...........CHOP ...............................................17Rep. Patrick Kennedy ....D-R.I. ................................................8Judy Kirby ......................Kirby Partners .................................18Howard K. Koh ...............HHS .................................................37Scott Law ......................Zotec Partners.................................36Ami Laws .......................Concierge Medicine .........................25Dijuana Lewis ................WellPoint .........................................28Stuart W. Lewis .............Lewis Research Solutions ...............12Steven Liu .....................Ingenious Med.................................35Raymond F. Lopez .........Engineering Services Network .........18John MacDonald ............LECG SMART ...................................35Leslie A. Margolin ..........Anthem Blue Cross .........................29Robert Matthews ...........Biscom ............................................19Terry McGeeney ..............TransforMED .....................................1Scot Melland .................Dice Holdings ..................................37Rep. Mike Michaud ........D-Maine ............................................3David Muntz ..................Baylor Health Care System ................4Neal Neuberger ..............Institute for e-Health Policy ......... 3, 4Richard Noffsinger ........Anvita Health ....................................6Michael O’Neil ...............GetWellNetwork ...............................32Alphonso O’Neill-White ..BCBSWNY/BSNENY ..........................28Michael O’Rourke ..........Catholic Health Initiatives ..............14Ben Packman ................Hospedia .........................................31Phil Pead .......................Eclipsys ...........................................14Mike Ramseier ...............Anthem Blue Cross .........................29Heidi S. Rendall ............Anchor Medical Clinic .....................25Bryan Roberts ................Venrock ...........................................36Amy Romano .................Lamaze International ......................24Kathleen Sebelius ..........HHS .................................................37Beth Schindele ..............Delaware REC ...................................9Stephen Schneider ........Aetna ..............................................27Roy Schoenberg .............American Well .................................28David Singer ..................Maverick Capital .............................36William Spooner ............Sharp Healthcare ............................14Robert M. Stark .............Greenwich Hospital .........................23Erin Stevenson ..............Redwood Medical Consulting ..........24Scott A. Storrer ..............MEDecision .....................................27Humphrey Taylor ............The Harris Poll ................................23Gretchen Tegethoff ........GW University Hospital ......................3Cristina Thomas ............Catholic Health Initiatives ..............18Glen Tullman .................Allscripts .............................. 1, 13, 14Mark Wagner .................KLAS Research ................................34Alice Walter ...................Center for Connected Health ...........24Brad Waugh ..................NaviNet ...........................................27Sean W. Wieland ...........Piper Jaffray ....................................14Gary Zegiestowsky .........Informatics Corp. of America ..........33

The William Blair Health Care IT Index (WBHCIT), an equal-weighted basket comprising 31 HCIT stocks, has been created to capitalize on trends in the industry that include a heightened demand for clinical information systems. The index aims to capture the aggregate stock performance of the majority of industry participants focused on healthcare IT. The chart above shows healthcare IT stocks compared with the Nasdaq Index between May 17 and June 18 For a list of the companies on the William Blair index, visit www.williamblair.com/WBHCIT.

Healthcare IT stocks

HEALTHCARE IT NEWS (ISSN 1547-3139) is published monthly by MedTech Publishing Company, 71 Pineland Drive, Suite 203, New Gloucester, ME 04260. Phone: 207-688-6270; FAX: 207-688-6273. Periodicals postage paid at New Gloucester, ME and additional mailing offices. Qualified subscribers receive HEALTHCARE IT NEWS free of charge. Non-qualified subscribers in the U.S. are charged $72/year. Canadian subscriptions $96/year. Foreign subscriptions $150/year, includes airmail delivery. Single copy, $8. POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to HEALTHCARE IT NEWS, P.O. Box 9369, Lowell, MA 01853. ©2010 by MedTech Media. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

JUly12-14 – Object Management Group’s “SOA in Healthcare – Improving Health through Technology: The role of SOA on the Path to Meaningful Use,” Arlington, Va. 13-15 – 3rd Annual WEDI 5010 and ICD-10 Implementation Forum, Fairfax, Va.13-16 – AMDIS 18th Annual Physician-Computer Connection Symposium, Ojai, Calif.22 – National Forum on Health Information Exchange (HIE), Washington22-23 – The 3rd Annual World Congress Leadership Summit on “The Road to Interoperability,” Boston27-28 – World Health Care Congress Leadership Summit on Wireless Health, Boston 27-28 – Institute for Health Technology Summer Health IT Summit, Denver

AUgUsT1-4 – AHRMM10 Annual Conference & Exhibition, Denver

lOOKAHEAD

ON THE MOVEAD iNDEx

CDW ...................................................................................... 25ARRA/HITECHWatch.com ..................................................... 35Datalogic .................................................................................4Dell Computer Corp ............................................................. 15EHR Watch/Greenway .............................................................7Emdeon Business Services ................................................. 19Fujitsu Computer Products ................................................. 22GE Healthcare ...................................................................... 40Healthcare Payer Newsletter ............................................... 28Hyland Software ................................................................... 29HIMSS Publications ............................................................. 32HITN Job Spot ....................................................................... 37HITN eNewsletter .................................................................. 39ICD10 Watch/Infosys ........................................................... 18Ingenix ............................................................................21, 35Institute for Health Technology ........................................... 33Intersystems............................................................................2Laserfiche ............................................................................. 33LG Electronics ...................................................................... 11LINKMED Tools ..................................................................... 35MedTech Media .................................................................... 30Navicure ..................................................................................5Ontario Systems ................................................................... 26Spectrosoft ..............................................................................9St. Bernard Software ........................................................... 16The Marshfield Clinic ........................................................... 24Vital Images ............................................................................6Wolters Kluwer Health ............................................................8

John Glaser

Grace Monahan

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Catherine Wolfe

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Together, these efforts make an impact on patients that’s bigger than IT. We’re delivering information where it means the most: the center of care. And to people around the world, that truly means something.

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Healthcare IT News July 2010

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