athenahealth, of Watertown, Mass., has announced that it will offer its Web-based EHR service, athenaClinicals, as a standalone offering. Historically, clients were required to adopt athenahealth’s Web-based billing and practice management service, athenaCollector in order to use athenaClinicals as part of a fully-integrated platform. The athenaClinicals standalone option will offer athenahealth’s hospital and enterprise clients more flexibility as they execute on their affiliated and clinical community connectivity programs. The standalone EHR service will reside on athenahealth’s national Web-based platform, athenaNet, and will be supported by the company’s clinical document management service as well as athenahealth staff.
AirStrip Technologies, a San Antonio-based mobile medical software development company, announced that it has closed a financing round with venture firm Sequoia Capital. The Sequoia Capital investment will help drive adoption of the AirStrip OB solution as well as accelerate further development, partnerships and marketing efforts for AirStrip Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) solutions. AirStrip RPM technology targets the need for remote patient monitoring in a wide variety of patient environments. The AirStrip RPM solution received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance last month. The federal clearance allows AirStrip to extend its virtual real time monitoring technology for mobile devices to virtually every acute patient clinical environment, including the intensive care unit, the emergency department, the operating room, the neonatal ICU and other similar settings.
Cabinet NG, Madison, Ala.-based provider of document management and workflow software, announced it has signed a Value Added Reseller (VAR) agreement with Novacc Technology Inc., adding to its list of companies that offer its electronic filing system, CNG-SAFE, as part of a turnkey solution for their SMB client base. Headquartered in Markham, Ontario, Novacc Technology provides infrastructure and document management products and solutions for the Canadian SMB segment. With twenty two years of experience in network infrastructure and ten years in the document management field, the company targets the manufacturing, mortgage, finance, legal and real estate industries, ensuring that a client’s critical business documents are 100 percent secure, easy to access and always available.
Capario, of Santa Ana, Calif., a provider of revenue cycle management solutions that connect healthcare payers and providers nationwide, announced it has launched Portal 3.6, which includes the most significant advances to its exclusive online portal application to date. Portal 3.6 was developed based on user requests, extensive customer surveys and industry focus groups. According to beta testers, Portal 3.6 has enhanced management efficiencies, improved first-time pass-through rates and accelerated the revenue cycle.
ChartWise Medical Systems, of Wakefield, R.I., is pleased to announce that it has established an OEM relationship with MicroStrategy, a worldwide provider of business intelligence software. ChartWise:CDI is a new software program that assists hospitals to improve clinical documentation to help maximize DRG-related reimbursements, reduce Medicare audit risk, and provide oversight and compliance. Through the MicroStrategy Business Intelligence platform, the ChartWise: CDI system will include a dashboard that will provide detailed reporting and comprehensive analysis of documentation data available in ChartWise: CDI. The dashboard will provide administrative users of ChartWise: CDI with access to key facility-wide financial and medical metrics and the data to measure improvement program effectiveness. In addition, customers will be free to analyze and present their data in a wide variety of formats. The new business intelligence functionality of ChartWise: CDI is an additional option that will be available by the end of 2010.
SRS, the Montvale, N.J.-based maker of hybrid EMRs, has announced that Sacramento Maternal-Fetal Medicine (Sac MFM) has selected the productivity-enhancing SRS hybrid EMR for its high-risk pregnancy practice. With offices located in Sacramento and Chico, Sac MFM provides exceptional care to expectant women in Northern California. SRS was designed with direct input by its high-performance physicians to provide them with a system that fits their needs, helps them to work more efficiently, and enables them to achieve a rapid return on their investment. SRS, which has built the largest national network of high-performance practices that successfully use an EMR, attributes its unmatched adoption rate to ease of use, fast implementation, and an accelerated timeframe for training physicians and office staff.
CareTech Solutions, a Troy, Mich.-based information technology and Web products and services provider for more than 150 U.S. hospitals, announced that Holzer Consolidated Health System in Gallipolis, Ohio, selected the company’s 24/7 Service Desk and Infrastructure Performance Monitoring solution for its six-facility integrated delivery network. CareTech Solutions Service Desk is staffed 24/7/365 with more than 100 client support analysts who respond to approximately 60,000 calls per month utilizing a proprietary information technology infrastructure knowledge base that supports all major hospital clinical applications including: Allscripts, Carecast, Centricity, Cerner, Epic, IDX, McKesson, Meditech, and Nextgen.
CSI Financial Services, of San Diego, has entered into a co-marketing alliance to offer its patient-friendly, easy-to-implement loan programs through Irvine, Calif.-based Cymetrix, which provides hospitals with comprehensive revenue cycle solutions. CSI Financial Services has been providing “peace of mind” to healthcare providers and patients by funding more than $500 million in no- and low-interest patient loan programs to hospitals nationwide, thereby allowing patients to meet their self-pay obligations and avoid going through the collections process. The partnership agreement allows for CSI’s Zero- and Low-Interest bank loan programs to be marketed in conjunction with Cymetrix and its proven comprehensive revenue cycle solutions, including its self-pay solution. This model has the flexibility to accommodate the specific needs of each client while providing a seamless approach to total revenue cycle management that integrates Patient Access, Health Information Management and Patient Financial Services.
CompTIA, of Oakbrook Terrace, Ill., the leading non-profit trade association for the IT industry, and MSP Partners have announced new tools and resources designed to assist providers of managed information technology (IT) services. The four new business templates cover critical elements of operating a successful managed IT services business, including developing appropriate customer service level agreements; strategies for on-boarding new customers; how to price services; and deciding which services to offer. The templates are available to CompTIA members through the Member Resource Center and to master level members of MSP Partners.
Symantec, of Mountainview, Calif., announced the successful compatibility testing between Symantec Health, a cloud-based medical image archiving solution, and Siemens Healthcare’s picture archiving and communication system (PACS) solutions. The Siemens SYNGO Connectivity Competence Center (CCC), in collaboration with Symantec, conducted connectivity tests between Symantec Health and several Siemens imaging IT applications – syngo.plaza and syngo Imaging for Radiology, and syngo Dynamics for Cardiology. Symantec is the first DICOM archive – a standard for handling, storing, printing and transmitting information in medical imaging – to complete validation testing with Siemens’ new syngo.plaza agile PACS solution where 2D, 3D and 4D reading come together in one place.
Elsevier, the Amsterdam-based publisher of scientific, technical, and medical information products and services, has announced an exclusive partnership with The American Society of Radiologic Technologists (ASRT) to provide a complete series of computed tomography modules through Mosby's Imaging Suite for technologists' continuing education. This partnership will provide technologists access to the highest quality continuing education, and will give hospital management the best tools to ensure patient safety. Mosby's Imaging Suite is the first fully integrated, online solution developed to meet the routine communication, workflow, education, and compliance challenges of radiologic technologists and managers. Hospitals will be able to license the CT Basics modules through Mosby's Imaging Suite, and allow access to the entire radiological staff.
PerfectServe, a Knoxville, Tenn.-based clinical communications system for hospitals and physician practices, has recently signed agreements to standardize clinician-to-clinician communications for the following health systems and hospitals: Orlando Health, a $1.7 billion not-for-profit health care organization and a community-based network of hospitals and care centers that serves more than 1.6 million patients annually; advocate Good Shepherd, in Barrington, Ill., a 183-bed hospital that is one of a handful of U.S. community hospitals to move solely to 100% computerized physician order entry.Good Shepherd will serve as the demonstration site for Advocate Health Care, Illinois' largest integrated health system, with 200 sites of care, nine acute care hospitals, two children’s hospitals and the most Level I trauma centers in the state. In addition, PerfectServe has signed an agreement with Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach, Calif., to expand its services to Hoag’s new Irvine facility, which will include state-of-the-art technology and expanded operating rooms. It is scheduled to open in the fall of 2010.
Solzon Corporation, a Nashua, N.H.-based leading provider of data mobility solutions and services, has announced that Brian Kolek is now President and CTO as well as sole owner of the corporation. Solzon was founded by Kolek in 1995 and has grown to become a respected supplier of rugged computer hardware and software for supply chain applications and a solutions provider to countless companies. Kolek was previously Vice President and co-owner of the company and has purchased the equity interest of partner Philip Przybyszewski. Przybyszewski will remain on as Vice President of Business Development and will focus on expanding business relationships with key partners and customers in addition to developing new business opportunities.
RamSoft, of Toronto, has launched ReadFromAnywhere.com, which was developed specifically to feature the value and convenience of web-based medical imaging software and to serve as a primer for potential clients new to digital imaging or for those who are seeking new, cost-effective solutions. RamSoft's PowerServer products feature: Fully web-based and secure applications; single database, one worklist; customizable workflow; flexible purchase options.
