Thursday, March 25, 2010

Health Informatics News

Health Informatics News

Ingenix Acquires QualityMetric

Posted: 25 Mar 2010 08:42 AM PDT

Ingenix , an Eden Prairie, Minn.-based subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, is acquiring QualityMetric Inc. , a health survey company located in Lincoln, R.I. Through the transaction, Ingenix hopes to expand the health outcomes measurement capabilities it offers to life sciences companies, governments, health systems, payers and consumers, according to the company. QualityMetric specializes in developing and maintaining patient-reported outcomes data, which are used in clinical trials and by healthcare payers, it says. Ingenix says that the acquisition will enable it to better conduct comparative effectiveness research on behalf of governments, health systems and payers. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

KLAS: Deloitte, ACS Emerge as Leading Consultants

Posted: 25 Mar 2010 08:39 AM PDT

With more than 90 percent of U.S. hospitals still trying to reach the proposed adoption hurdle for CPOE, many organizations are looking to invest in professional services firms that can help them obtain stimulus funding, according to a new report from Orem, Utah-based KLAS . The report — entitled, Getting to Stimulus Funding: Which Consultants Can Help — reviews the clinical implementation, clinical transformation, staff augmentation and advisory services capabilities of more than a dozen professional services firms. When it comes to clinical implementations, KLAS found that Deloitte and ACS have joined CSC as key players, while IBM participates in significantly fewer projects compared with a few years ago. In terms of overall performance when acting as the lead on clinical engagements, ACS, CTG and Deloitte are in a dead heat, scoring a full 10 points above the next closest firm, Accenture. Both IBM and CSC have dropped dramatically in terms of large clinical implementations, and neither has been able to maintain the high customer ratings once enjoyed by the healthcare-focused consultancies Healthlink (acquired by IBM in 2005) and First Consulting Group (acquired by CSC in 2007). KLAS also examines smaller specialty firms in the report, nothing that firms like maxIT Healthcare and Vitalize have experience working with several vendors and offer teams of skilled consultants to fill supportive roles for providers’ smaller projects. Other services firms, including Coastal, Ingenix, Innovative Healthcare Solutions and Peer Consulting, deliver highly rated implementation services primarily focused on a particular vendor or product. The report also explores the benefits of clinical transformation engagements, which encompass not just technology but also clinician workflow and process redesign. In addition to the large full-service firms, Dearborn Advisors has the most experience in these expansive engagements.   Firms highlighted in the report include Accenture, ACS, CSC, CTGHS, Dell Perot Systems, Deloitte, IBM, Coastal, Hayes Management, Innovative Healthcare Solutions, Ingenix, maxIT Healthcare, Peer Consulting and Vitalize. To purchase the full report, healthcare providers and vendors can visit www.KLASresearch.com/reports .  

Newark Beth Israel Upgrades EDIS with RCM

Posted: 25 Mar 2010 08:38 AM PDT

Newark Beth Israel Medical Center (NBI, N.J.) upgraded its EDIS to include a RCM module from Livingston, N.J-based EDIMS to improve billing and charge capture, CPOE, and physician and nursing documentation. Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, is a 673-bed regional care, teaching hospital established in 1901 that provides comprehensive health care services to its local communities and is a major referral and treatment center for patients throughout the northern New Jersey metropolitan area. With more than 800 physicians, 3,200 employees and 150 volunteers, the Medical Center has over 300,000 outpatient visits and 25,000 admissions annually. It is one of two hospitals in New Jersey where heart transplants are performed and the only hospital in New Jersey certified to perform lung transplants. The Medical Center is part of Saint Barnabas Health Care System , a seven hospital health system in northern New Jersey.

AMGA Collaborates on Data Warehouse

Posted: 25 Mar 2010 08:38 AM PDT

Anceta, the healthcare informatics subsidiary of the American Medical Group Association (AMGA) is collaborating with Boston-based Humedica on a new analytics solution for ambulatory practices. Developed in partnership with several AMGA member medical groups, Humedica MinedShare Ambulatory is a SaaS solution that extracts, aggregates and standardizes health care data within a HIPAA-compliant environment and, says the company, enables clinical, operational and financial benchmarking and comparative analytics. According to the company, the solution facilitates comparative analytics and benchmarking by bringing together participating AMGA medical groups.

GE Eyes Physician Practices with MedPlexus Purchase

Posted: 25 Mar 2010 08:30 AM PDT

U.K.-based GE Healthcare has acquired MedPlexus Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.) and its suite of product offerings, with strengths in ambulatory EMR as well as hosted practice management and revenue cycle management software. Founded in 2000 and privately funded to date, MedPlexus currently serves physician offices in the United States, with plans to expand around the world. The company employs approximately 100 people between its headquarters and its primary development facility in Hyderabad, India. According to the company, the latest addition to the Centricity family of EMR solutions will specifically cater to small, independent clinical practices. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Report: GDSN Early Adopters Benefitting

Posted: 25 Mar 2010 08:16 AM PDT

GS1 Healthcare (Lawrenceville, N.J.) released a new industry report summarizing the experiences of 14 healthcare early adopters in synchronizing product data with one another through the GS1 Global Data Synchronization Network. The goal behind the effort is industry-wide adoption and exchange of standardized product data to improve existing processes, reduce costs, and ultimately improve patient safety. The newly published report — GDSN in Healthcare: Experiences of Early Adopters in the United States — outlines the Early Adoption Group’s objectives, critical success factors, recommended adoption plan, key performance indicators (KPIs), and lessons learned.

Survey: Privacy compliance has declined

Posted: 14 May 2006 01:56 AM PDT

Three years after federal rules governing the privacy of patients' medical records went into effect, compliance seems to have declined for 6 percent, according to an annual survey conducted by the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA). Read more about this at here.

E-book: Making E-Health Work

Posted: 14 May 2006 01:53 AM PDT

E-Health has become an integral part of present-day healthcare delivery. With healthcare consumers, increasingly the focus of most health systems, the widespread implementation of health information and communications technologies offers cost-effective opportunities to meet their increasingly sophisticated healthcare needs.Bankix Systems Ltd has released its latest e-book. It is a 200-page in-depth analysis of the issues involved in "Making E-Health Work," the e-book's title. Read more about this e-book at here.

Consumer tools: UCompareHealthCare Offers Free Reports on Hospitals, Nursing Homes and Physicians

Posted: 11 Mar 2006 01:01 AM PST

"UCompareHealthCare has just unveiled its Web site, ucomparehealthcare.com, which features free reports on the nation's nursing homes, hospitals and physicians to help consumers make informed healthcare decisions. I checked the web site and found it very informative for health consumers to help them make informed decision about their choices of doctors, hospitals and others." Read more about this at UCompareHealthCare

Articles: Direct to Consumer: Women are a powerful, but untapped, audience

Posted: 03 Feb 2006 12:04 AM PST

"Women influence many family decisions—from choosing what's for dinner to selecting the medications their children take. In fact, nearly two-thirds of women are responsible for family healthcare decisions, according to a 2004 national survey conducted by Plan for Your Health. Many women also assume the care-giving role outside their nuclear families. Today's middle-aged woman may also look after her parents and in-laws too, often determining how long they can live on their own and how to best care for them. In addition, she often influences the important health decisions of grandchildren, co-workers, and friends." Read more at PharmExec.

Consumer tools: Really Personal PHRs

Posted: 27 Jan 2006 01:05 AM PST

"If we're committed to fostering the adoption of personal health records, we should take a page out of the consumer marketing textbooks — not the primers of health IT marketers. This was my conclusion after attending a recent meeting in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the Markle Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Agency for Healthcare Quality Research and Quality. " Read more about this at iHealthBeat .

Consumer trends: Manhattan Predicts Online Health Trends

Posted: 27 Jan 2006 12:06 AM PST

"US healthcare specialist Manhattan Research has published a summary of the major trends for health and pharmaceutical marketers to consider in 2006. The trends chart the increased use of the web and other new technologies as a health information and communication tool for both patients and physicians." Read more at Daily Research News Online.

News: Wall Street Journal Looks at Tools That Identify Low-Cost Care Options

Posted: 26 Jan 2006 01:07 AM PST

"The Wall Street Journal on Thursday looked at efforts by insurers to provide patients with tools - including a cell phone Web browsing service - to help them find low-cost treatment options. Lumenos, a unit of WellPoint, in February will launch the cell phone service, which lets patients type drug names into their cell phones' Web browsers and get lists of lower-cost alternatives. The program is designed so that patients can ask their physicians about cost-effective alternatives while they still are at their appointments." Read more at iHealthBeat.

Consumer tools: Consumer Health Complete Now Available from EBSCO Publishing

Posted: 25 Jan 2006 12:09 AM PST

"In continuing with the company's goal of providing the most comprehensive collection of online health and wellness resources, EBSCO Publishing has announced the release of Consumer Health Complete (CHC). This full text database is designed to support consumer and patients' information needs as well as foster an overall
understanding of health-related topics." Read more at Managing Information News.

ER relief bill on 'life support'

Posted:

By Christine Jordan Sexton 3/25/2010 © Florida Tribune A bill that would have provided sovereign immunity protections to health care providers who treat patients in emergency situations is “on life support,” with a poor prognosis, according to its supporters. Tampa General lobbyist Jan Gorrie said, "We didn't expect to run into this buzz-saw."

Volunteer docs needed for uninsured clinic

Posted:

3/25/2010 © South Florida Sun Sentinel More than 2,000 are expected to seek free health care at a clinic April 10 and 11 in West Palm Beach. But unless more eye doctors and dentists volunteer to help, organizers say only 600 to 800 may be able to get help.
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