Healthcare IT News

Next-Generation Medical Imaging Software Development Platform Enhances Support for Lesion Segmentation and Tracking October 4, 2012, Toronto—Claron Technology introduces Withinsight Framework (WIF) version 2.1, which adds advanced new segmentation tools, registration enhancements, and performance improvements to the company’s innovative platform supporting efficient and rapid development of medical image visualization software. Combined with Claron’s patented fast whole-body atlas-based registration technology, these features enable the development of organ-specific automated and semi-automated volumetric lesion segmentation and tracking applications. Claron also added five new sample applications which demonstrate how to optimally use the functions and features added to WIF in the new release. Since its introduction in 2008, WIF has provided leading healthcare companies with the software toolkit for the development of more than 30 applications, ranging from 3D ultrasound through MRI CAD, CTA vessel analysis, PACS image reading and sharing to therapy planning and guidance systems. Currently, these solutions are in use in thousands of clinical sites worldwide. This newest product release delivers on Claron’s commitment to providing leading edge technology that meets its partners’ evolving needs. “Claron partners with some of today’s most innovative healthcare technology developers,” says Doron Dekel, Co-CEO, Claron Technology. “With on-going enhancements to WIF, we ensure these companies maintain market leadership positions without the large software maintenance expenses that in-house development requires. In addition to many incremental improvements to performance and functionality, this release offers a number of cutting-edge features, such as single-click segmentation of blob-shaped regions and powerful 3D region editing tools. Two of our partners have already started integrating these new features into their solutions, and we expect others to follow.” The WIF software development platform provides visualization, segmentation, registration and navigation functionality to support development of standalone, thin-client and zero-footprint medical imaging applications.  Along with enhanced segmentation tools, WIF version 2.1 also provides support for additional modalities, including OPT data and multi-dimensional MR/NM, as well as additional registration techniques, while enhancing overall speed and performance. About Claron Technology, Inc Claron is dedicated to the application of image processing technology in medicine.  It has extensive experience in developing systems that help clinicians identify anatomy and tissues of interest, visualize and analyze them, and safely navigate their instruments during surgical procedures.  Claron helps healthcare vendors, ranging from young start-ups to large multi-national device and IT vendors, deliver more value to their clinical customers faster by incorporating its technology into their products.  Claron's technology is licensed in a range of formats, including low-level modules, platforms, sub-systems, applications and custom engineered exclusive solutions. For more details, please visit www.clarontech.com. Media Contact: Jeanne-Marie PhillipsHealthFlash ... Read more

State-of-the-art specialist syngo.via training courses to enhance UK expertise in the advanced clinical imaging solution from Siemens Healthcare Siemens Healthcare is to open a UK based training facility for syngo®.via customers at its headquarters in Frimley, Surrey. The Siemens syngo.via Training Academy will enjoy state-of-the-art training facilities for the provision of specialist IT and Clinical Application training courses. The aim is to support Siemens’ installed customer base to enhance their experience and knowledge with the solution’s capabilities, including efficient and structured workflows, plus networking images across modalities, mobile devices or web browsers. Over 60 syngo.via systems are currently installed in the UK alone, and the increased demand for targeted training has prompted Siemens to establish plans for a national training base. This ensures customers can have easy and cost effective access to specialist training without the need for expensive international travelling. The Siemens syngo.via Training Academy is planning to hold its first training courses in the autumn and Siemens will contact its customers with a timetable once the schedule has been finalized. syngo.via is a multi-modality advanced visualisation solution that automatically prepares cases for reading and reporting according to condition-specific requirements. As part of the syngo family of products from Siemens Healthcare, syngo.via can either be used as a standalone device or integrated with a variety of other applications from the range, such as syngo.plaza PACS. Furthermore, the use of syngo.via Mobile Applications streamlines workflow, enhances productivity and information efficiency, allowing clinicians within and outside the hospital to securely access images and reports in a standard web browser or through mobile devices such as iPads or iPhones. “The provision of a dedicated syngo.via Training Academy at Siemens’ UK headquarters marks a significant milestone in the lifecycle of the solution,” said Ronan Kirby, syngo Business Manager at Siemens Healthcare. “syngo.via’s capabilities for delivering improvements to productivity and efficient workflow management within hospitals empower healthcare professionals. The syngo.via training courses available at the academy will facilitate more efficient learning and use of the solution in practice, plus negate the requirement for customers to travel abroad to undergo their training.” About Siemens Healthcare The Siemens Healthcare Sector is one of the world's largest suppliers to the healthcare industry and a trendsetter in medical imaging, laboratory diagnostics, medical information technology and hearing aids. Siemens offers its customers products and solutions for the entire range of patient care from a single source – from prevention and early detection to diagnosis, and on to treatment and aftercare. By optimising clinical workflows for the most common diseases, Siemens also makes healthcare faster, better and more cost-effective. Siemens Healthcare employs some 51,000 employees worldwide and operates around the world. For further information please visit: http://www.siemens.co.uk/healthcare. For more information or images please contact: Siemens HealthcareLaura BennettT: 01276 696374E: laura.bennett@siemens.comW: http://www.siemens.co.uk/healthcare Marc Gossage / Jon WilcoxMedia SafariT: 01225 471202E: jonw@mediasafari.co.uk     CTRL + Q to Enable/Disable GoPhoto.it     CTRL + Q to Enable/Disable ... Read more

Hands-on customer support model expected to streamline workflow, ease implementation ATLANTA, Sept. 27, 2012 – Building on one of the most comprehensive sets of emergency department (ED) tools in the market, McKesson has now expanded its Intelligent Coding portfolio to include observation services. The new module is designed to help hospitals recognize revenue for patient observation services in an easy, consistent and compliant manner. By automating the complex manual process, providers can improve accuracy, reduce charge omissions and identify unrecognized reimbursement opportunities. McKesson’s consultative, hands-on approach to customer support, unique in the industry, is expected to speed implementation and training to support the new services. Dedicated project managers, including clinicians and certified coders, will help to design efficient coding processes. After implementation, project managers will stay involved with the hospitals, providing performance tracking, advice and best practices throughout the life of the services. “Faced with greater demand for outpatient care, especially observation services, healthcare providers must maintain a sustainable business model and generate reimbursement in an area where revenue recognition has been difficult,” said Billie Whitehurst, vice president and chief nursing officer, Workforce Management, Surgery and McKesson Intelligent Coding™, McKesson Provider Technologies. “Just as our technology has helped emergency departments (EDs) optimize their revenue, we believe that this new module can provide similar benefits for observation care.” While the ratio of observation services to inpatient admissions jumped by more than one-third from 2007 to 20091, hospitals have struggled with workflow and technical challenges related to coding these services and receiving optimal reimbursement. Inpatient-focused nurses, for example, provide observation services but often do not document the elements needed to code for the services they provide. Health systems also face evolving and complex coding rules, particularly when patients move from the ED to an observation unit. In addition to seamlessly integrating with the company’s existing coding portfolio, the new module will work with non-McKesson financial systems as well. It will help automate coding when patients transfer between ED and observation areas, simplify calculating observation units and improve charge capture for any nursing unit providing observation services. With the software designed to apply McKesson Observation Services to Optimize Outpatient Reimbursement appropriate and up-to-date coding rules, the module uses sophisticated logic for infusion and injection coding. The end result is a detailed coding summary of observation charges, ultimately streamlining the coding workflow and accelerating time-to-bill. The McKesson Intelligent Coding team supports these outcomes through knowledgeable, accessible and personalized consulting and performance tracking services. “Launching this new observation services module is a natural extension given the strong market acceptance of our core emergency department coding portfolio and our customers’ focus on expanding outpatient services,” said Chris Bauleke, president, Health Systems Performance Management, McKesson Provider Technologies. “It’s also an important illustration of our Better Health 2020™ commitment to helping customers improve financial performance and quality.” About McKesson McKesson Corporation, currently ranked 14th on the FORTUNE 500, is a healthcare services and information technology company dedicated to making the business of healthcare run better. We partner with payers, hospitals, physician offices, pharmacies, pharmaceutical companies and others across the spectrum of care to build healthier organizations that deliver better care to patients in every setting. McKesson helps its customers improve their financial, operational, and clinical performance with solutions that include pharmaceutical and medical-surgical supply management, healthcare information technology, and business and clinical services. For more information, visit www.mckesson.com. Contact: Yancey Casey 404-338-2468 ... Read more

McKesson and MedVentive Performance Management and Care Coordination Expertise Support Better Health 2020 Strategy ATLANTA, Sept. 25, 2012 – Today McKesson announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire MedVentive, a leading provider of population and risk management tools that drive transparency in healthcare cost and quality. MedVentive’s solutions will augment McKesson’s capabilities and experience to support providers as they become clinically integrated, engage physicians and patients to reduce costs, and transition to risk-bearing models such as accountable care. These areas are core to Better Health 2020™, McKesson Technology Solutions’ strategy to support customers’ use of information technology for better business, better care and better connectivity. Based in Waltham, Mass., MedVentive was founded in 2005 by Jonathan Niloff, MD, formerly an associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology at Harvard Medical School. MedVentive serves health systems, multispecialty clinics and payers nationwide, including large West Coast risk-based providers, some of the largest U.S. hospital systems, major academic medical centers and provider-based payers. This year Gartner named MedVentive as one of its Cool Vendors in Healthcare Providers, which recognizes companies for providing innovative and potentially transformative solutions that can benefit health system providers. MedVentive’s SaaS solutions, MedVentive® Risk Manager and MedVentive® Population Manager, will be strong additions to the McKesson Enterprise Intelligence™ suite of solutions to help healthcare organizations understand and manage the quality, cost and efficiency of providing patient care across settings, conditions and/or other providers. For example, Self Regional Health System in Greenwood, S.C., and Centra Health in Lynchburg, Va., both demonstration sites for McKesson’s accountable care offering, will use McKesson’s and MedVentive’s integrated operational performance, population and network analytics solutions. These solutions are designed to help Self Regional and Centra Health manage quality and cost as they transition to an accountable care service delivery model and assume financial risk for their employee populations. “More healthcare providers are beginning to assume risk as we move to value-based reimbursement,” said Pat Blake, executive vice president and group president of McKesson Technology Solutions. “Whether it’s for their employee population, a Medicare shared savings plan, or a defined disease state group, providers must understand the risk they are assuming. What providers really need – and McKesson’s solutions will help offer – is a true picture of the total cost of delivered care based on clinical documentation and claims data across all care settings.” The McKesson and MedVentive solutions also are designed to enable providers to proactively manage the clinical health of at-risk patient populations by identifying gaps in patient care and delivering actionable information to the physician and care team. “The industry has long been interested in combining insights derived from claims, clinical and population data to manage risk. With the rise of ACOs and patient centered medical homes, this need extends to any organization that has a vested interest in performance-based care delivery models,” Blake added. “Managing risk and outcomes for patient populations will remain a key focus for providers and payers alike,” said MedVentive’s Dr. Niloff. “Together MedVentive and McKesson will offer the expertise and tools to help improve the quality of care, create financial transparency, and support care collaboration across the continuum.” Healthcare reform continues to shine a spotlight on accountability for care quality, cost and risk management. To deliver healthcare in 2020 and beyond, organizations will need to optimize clinical, financial and operational performance; coordinate care across settings and stakeholders; navigate new payment models; and manage technology assets to provide a solid foundation for growth beyond the four walls of the health system. These critical success factors are the tenets of McKesson Technology Solutions’ Better Health 2020 strategy. “Because of our ability to draw on solutions and expertise across various markets, McKesson is well-positioned to lead the industry in coordinating care between various stakeholders,” Blake said. “Our goal with Better Health 2020 is to guide customers through their current crossroads – meaningful use, ICD-10 and others – and equip them for success as they deal with cost reduction, begin to coordinate care, collaborate with payers and manage complex payment models.” About McKesson McKesson Corporation, currently ranked 14th on the FORTUNE 500, is a healthcare services and information technology company dedicated to making the business of healthcare run better. We partner with payers, hospitals, physician offices, pharmacies, pharmaceutical companies and others across the spectrum of care to build healthier organizations that deliver better care to patients in every setting. McKesson helps its customers improve their financial, operational, and clinical performance with solutions that include pharmaceutical and medical-surgical supply management, healthcare information technology, and business and clinical services. For more information, visit http://www.mckesson.com. About MedVentive While healthcare was evolving the concept of an accountable care organization, MedVentive was busy operating as one. MedVentive was founded as the Provider Service Network (PSN) in 1997 by the CareGroup Healthcare System, an integrated, at-risk network of 4,500 physicians and eight hospitals that cared for more than 450,000 at-risk patients. Our origins as an ACO give MedVentive a deep understanding of provider organizations and the healthcare environment. Having been an at-risk provider network, MedVentive is uniquely qualified to support an organization’s transition from a fee-for-service payment environment to risk-based contracting, and provide the clinical integration/population management infrastructure necessary to be successful under this new model. Media Contact: Yancey Casey (404) 338-2468 ... Read more

Central New York area practice looks to McKesson Revenue Management Solutions to navigate regional billing intricacies ATLANTA – September 22, 2012 — The McKesson Revenue Management Solutions (McKesson RMS) team’s knowledge of the New York State payer market has led Binghamton, N.Y.- based Park Avenue Associates in Radiology, PC (PAR) to select RMS for coding and billing services for its radiology physician group and imaging centers. The 15-physician group expects that McKesson RMS will help the practice stabilize cash flow and strengthen compliance while providing detailed financial reporting and claims support services. Dr. Edward Santelli MD, President for PAR, said McKesson RMS’s extensive experience with payer policies, rates and procedures in New York State was of vital importance to the group. “There are a lot of complexities in this market, particularly related to supplemental Medicare and Medicaid policies,” Santelli said. “Given the declines in reimbursement that we’re seeing and the growing intricacies of the billing process, including the increased complexity of Medicare, we felt it was essential to align with a billing partner that could provide not only detailed local knowledge but also the strengths that come with being a national Fortune 500 Company.” In addition to ensuring accurate claims and payment, McKesson RMS’s payer experience should also enhance regulatory compliance, Santelli said. He added that McKesson’s comprehensive business reporting tools will give the group previously unavailable insight into a wide range of business metrics, including revenue per procedure and physician productivity. This information, in turn, will help the group quickly identify and act on significant operational trends. Pat Leonard, senior vice president and general manager, McKesson RMS, said McKesson RMS was enthusiastic about helping Park Avenue Associates in Radiology, PC meet the growing challenges of today’s radiology market. “With the addition of Park Avenue Associates in Radiology, we continue to expand our radiology billing footprint in New York state,” Leonard said. “We now have clients in the Mohawk Valley, the Central New York and the New York City region. As a result, our experience and institutional knowledge of this important market continues to grow.” McKesson RMS is a leading provider of medical billing and practice management services, with a team of more than 4,000 experienced revenue cycle professionals. The services are uniquely designed to help practices improve efficiency and grow revenues while staying current with the latest regulatory requirements. McKesson RMS supports McKesson’s Better Health 2020 strategy. Better Health 2020 is designed to provide the capabilities needed to reduce costs, improve financial performance and successfully manage complex payment models. About Park Avenue Associates in Radiology, PC Park Avenue Associates in Radiology, PC based in Binghamton, New York, was founded in 1987. This 15-physician practice provides a full range of imaging services to Wilson Memorial Medical Center, a 280-bed teaching hospital located in Johnson City, New York and Binghampton General Hospital in Binghampton. NY. About McKesson McKesson Corporation, currently ranked 14th on the FORTUNE 500, is a healthcare services and information technology company dedicated to making the business of healthcare run better. We partner with payers, hospitals, physician offices, pharmacies, pharmaceutical companies and others across the spectrum of care to build healthier organizations that deliver better care to patients in every setting. McKesson helps its customers improve their financial, operational, and clinical performance with solutions that include pharmaceutical and medical-surgical supply management, healthcare information technology, and business and clinical services. For more information, visit http://www.mckesson.com. Contact: Yancey Casey 404-338-2468 ... Read more

Full suite of pharmacy optimization solutions now available to 3,000+ acute care members ATLANTA, September 13, 2012 – McKesson today announced that its hospital pharmacy automation solutions are now available to the 3,000+ acute-care member hospitals of Amerinet, a leading national healthcare solutions organization based in St. Louis, Mo. Under the new agreement, Amerinet members can purchase McKesson’s complete suite of automation solutions to help their organizations more safely and efficiently manage key pharmacy operations, including medication ordering, dispensing, administration, charge capture and inventory management, ultimately helping their bottom line. “McKesson’s full suite of pharmacy automation solutions greatly improves efficiency,” said Gary Freeman, Amerinet vice president of pharmacy. “In addition, Amerinet members can access a broader range of products and services to address their diverse challenges, which vary based on patient population, geography, performance objectives and budgetary resources.” Solutions available to Amerinet members include the company’s AcuDose-Rx® medication dispensing cabinets, which allow hospital nurses to dispense medications faster and more efficiently, while pharmacists have greater control over cabinet inventory management. AcuDose-Rx functions in any dispensing environment, and its RightStock™ “set it and forget it” feature automatically monitors and adjusts medication levels based on usage, reducing costly stock outs and waste. As a result, hospital pharmacists can better manage inventories, help ensure that needed medications are readily available, and spend less administrative time making inventory decisions and analyzing reports. These solutions and others are supported by the latest Connect-Rx® software release, which helps close the loop on medication management by integrating automation solutions from the bedside to the loading dock. “The hospital pharmacy represents 25% of an average hospital’s total inventory value, so pharmacy inventory management is critical to the bottom line,” said Kraig McEwen, president, McKesson Automation. “Amerinet’s hospital members can now leverage a comprehensive, integrated set of pharmacy automation solutions from a single provider while benefitting from Amerinet’s purchasing efficiencies.” Also under the expanded agreement, Amerinet member hospitals can use McKesson Point of Use Supply™ to help improve inventory control and streamline caregiver involvement with supply duties, especially in critical profit centers like cardiology and surgery. McKesson Point of Use Supply helps simplify hospital supply chain management by automating critical supply functions at the point of use, including requisitioning, patient charging, inventory management and information capture with a single scan.  The integrated offering incorporates open bins, bar codes, mobile carts, and cabinets, including RFID options. Using pharmacy automation and other healthcare IT solutions to improve financial performance and quality is one hallmark of McKesson’s Better Health 2020TM strategy. The strategy is designed to help healthcare providers achieve better patient care, business health and connectivity as health reform unfolds. Critical success factors addressed by Better Health 2020 include maximizing the value of technology, reducing costs while improving quality, connecting and coordinating care, and managing advanced payment models. About Amerinet As a leading national healthcare solutions organization, Amerinet collaborates with acute and non-acute care providers to create and deliver unique solutions through performance improvement resources, guidance and ongoing support. With better product standardization and utilization, new financial tools beyond contracting and alliances that help lower costs, raise revenue and champion quality, Amerinet enriches healthcare delivery for its members and the communities they serve. To learn more about how Amerinet can help you successfully navigate the future of healthcare reform, visit www.amerinet-gpo.com. About McKesson McKesson Corporation, currently ranked 14th on the FORTUNE 500, is a healthcare services and information technology company dedicated to making the business of healthcare run better. We partner with payers, hospitals, physician offices, pharmacies, pharmaceutical companies and others across the spectrum of care to build healthier organizations that deliver better care to patients in every setting. McKesson helps its customers improve their financial, operational, and clinical performance with solutions that include pharmaceutical and medical-surgical supply management, healthcare information technology, and business and clinical services. For more information, visit www.mckesson.com. Media Contact: Yancey ... Read more

Innovative TeleSync to Help BrainsGate Systems Train Surgeons on New Ischemic Stroke Platform September 12, 2012, Toronto—Claron Technology announces release of an innovative tele-mentoring system co-developed by Claron and BrainsGate that provides simultaneous display of image guided surgeries onsite and in a remote location to enable remote surgical guidance.  Representing a significant technological breakthrough, the new BrainsGate GuideView TeleSync system was specially designed to overcome the limitations of low OR bandwidth to communicate video remotely over a network as it appears on the local navigational display. Physicians unfamiliar with advanced new medical procedures--especially those involving innovative technologies such as BrainsGate’s groundbreaking ischemic stroke system--benefit significantly from real-time support by experienced physicians. By supporting remote surgical instruction and guidance, BrainsGate enables physicians anywhere to learn from the expertise of experienced users and become proficient in performing the procedure. Additionally, with medical experts on-call to consult on the procedure as needed, the innovative guidance system will enhance post-training physician confidence and promote increased use of the system and potentially lifesaving surgical technique. According to Zami Yerushalmy, Executive for Claron Technologies, the new tele-mentoring system solves a common IT problem in the operating room (OR). “The typically low bandwidth connection of the hospital OR results in long delays in information display on remote workstations when using a desktop image sharing application, making these systems problematic for tele-mentoring where  real-time feedback is crucial,” he explains. “Moreover, desktop applications typically use compression technology to speed data transfer, significantly degrading image quality.” To provide built-in tele-mentoring support for its new image-guided ischemic stroke platform, BrainsGate collaborated with Claron to overcome these problems and create a flexible, easy-to-implement solution. “Our new SPG cerebral vasodilatation stroke treatment involves minimally invasive implantation of a neuro-stimulator.  It is an exacting procedure with a significant learning curve,” comments Srulik Dvorsky, R&D Manager for BrainsGate.  “Studies have shown that surgeons learning the procedure performed it faster and with significantly more success with real-time mentoring support. This support, however, demands precise synchronization between the local and remote workstations so that the mentor and OR physician share the same visual representation in real time and can work interactively to master new techniques and optimize the results. The advantage of the TeleSync system is its ability to transfer large amounts of information in real time, an ability which standard remote desktop applications lack.” In the new Claron-BrainsGate solution, both the OR and remote mentor workstations actually run the same image guidance application locally—it is not shared over the Internet similarly to a desktop sharing application. Prior to the start of a mentoring session, the TeleSync system synchronizes the two workstations by transmitting all large volumetric imaging data.  Following this, to minimize data transfer volume and optimize display time, the system transmits only ongoing changes.  This information triggers the update to the remote screen locally in near real-time—almost as the computations are made to update the local screen itself. Under the guidance of the system’s artificial intelligence, video updates of the surgical field are communicated at a compression level and frequency determined by the available bandwidth as well as the clinical usefulness of these images at the specific stage in the operation. “The result,” according to Srulik Dvorsky, “is that a greater number of physicians can be trained in use of the system, regardless of their physical location, and patients anywhere can benefit from more advanced, immediate stroke treatment when seconds count.” The new BrainsGate TeleSync system consists of multiple computers communicating over a digital network, usually the Internet. They include one or more local surgical guidance workstations at the healthcare institutions, one or more remote mentoring workstations, and a collaboration server. The workstations' connection to the Internet is typically controlled by firewall routers which prevent the workstations from being accessed by programs running outside the institution. To solve this problem, the collaboration server is set up to be accessible by programs running on all the other computers. In addition to typical peripherals such as a display and input devices, the local workstation is outfitted with an optical or electromagnetic tracker to sense the position of the patient anatomy and the surgical instruments as well as video cameras to capture the surgical field. Offering easy and flexible set-up, the remote mentoring workstation is typically a standard PC with no special peripherals. TeleSync was created to support immediate use for virtual training and support of physicians at more than 70 sites worldwide that are participating in a pivotal clinical trial for the BrainsGate SPG implant device and image-guided implant procedure.   This virtual training eliminates the need for BrainsGate personnel to travel onsite to provide instruction and allows maximum flexibility in the timing of training sessions. Already, the benefits of tele-mentoring in SPG procedures have been demonstrated by comparison of early surgeries performed without real-time assistance and those performed later with virtual mentors using a simple screen sharing system.  However, a more recent comparison with virtual collaborations using the new Guide View TeleSync system found that TeleSync’s superior training experience was far more beneficial for surgical performance. About Claron Technology, Inc Claron is dedicated to the application of image processing, image sharing and image distribution in medicine. It has extensive experience in developing systems that help clinicians identify anatomy and tissues of interest, visualize and analyze them, and securely distribute them on a variety of different platforms from desktop to smartphones. Claron helps healthcare vendors, ranging from young start-ups to giant device and IT vendors such as Philips, McKesson and Medtronic, deliver more value to their clinical customers faster by incorporating its technology into their products. Claron's technology is licensed in a range of formats, including low-level modules, platforms, sub-systems, applications and custom engineered exclusive solutions. For more details, visit www.clarontech.com. About BrainsGate Systems BrainsGate is a medical device company committed to developing a novel treatment modality, electrical SPG stimulation. This platform technology has been shown to increase blood flow to the brain and as a result has broad potential for treating central nervous system disorders. BrainsGate is currently focusing on improving the outcome of patients suffering from ischemic stroke, in a 24 hour window after onset of symptoms. For more details, visit www.brainsgate.com. Media Contact: Jeanne-Marie Phillips HealthFlash ... Read more

(September 7th, 2012 - MILWAUKEE, WI) TeraMedica Inc., the leading provider of true vendor neutral architecture, today announced that ClearDATA Networks, Inc. will be offering TeraMedica’s Evercore Enterprise Software Suite for cloud-based clinical image archiving. This new distribution agreement will enable healthcare organizations to significantly enhance their image lifecycle management and greatly reduce operating costs through this new cloud storage solution. “There is a strong paradigm shift occurring now relative to clinical image management, and it’s being driven by the increasing need for connectivity and clinical content exchange,” says Del Coufal, TeraMedica Vice President of Marketing. “Whether it’s due to HIE’s, Meaningful Use, ACO’s or all of the above, image storage and exchange is optimally addressed by vendor neutral solutions. Data must be made fluid and secure, instead of confined to a particular PACS vendor.  We are excited that ClearDATA has chosen TeraMedica and HP to address this growing opportunity in the most cost effective manner.” “Cloud storage is rapidly changing the way the Healthcare industry views, distributes, backs up, and hosts DICOM and non-DICOM images,” said Darin Brannan, CEO of ClearDATA Networks, Inc.  “Currently, storing medical images is cumbersome, storage intensive, and requires a significant amount of equipment on the floor.  The ClearDATA Cloud VNA solution will significantly reduce hardware expenses, support, and maintenance costs for healthcare organizations and HIEs by moving those services to the cloud.” TeraMedica’s patented Smartstore module intelligently manages the total image lifecycle of all clinical images throughout twenty-four (24) healthcare departments. Smartstore provides shared enterprise infrastructure for managing clinical content based on business policies, specifically tailored to meet the needs of individual hospitals and/or departments. Medical image storage has become one of the largest and fastest growing IT budget expenses for healthcare providers. “The old way of managing clinical content is simply not a practical solution moving forward – either from an economic sense or a clinical workflow perspective,” said Jim Prekop, TeraMedica President and CEO. “TeraMedica has installations that add a million images a year from as many as 9 different PACS systems. Different times demand different approaches.” About TeraMedica, Inc. TeraMedica, Inc., a global healthcare informatics company based in Milwaukee, WI, is the leading provider of vendor neutral, enterprise-wide solutions for unrestricted medical image management.  The Company’s roots began with the successful development of a cross-departmental, patient-centric clinical image archive for the Mayo Clinic in 2001. To date, TeraMedica has over 600 customer-driven deployments on six continents.  Such flexibility can only be achieved by an organization that is committed to exceeding customer expectations using a technology platform that has been designed for adaptation.  For more information, visit www.Teramedica.com. About ClearDATA Networks, Inc. ClearDATA Networks, Inc. is the market leader for cloud computing and information security services for healthcare providers, software vendors and VARs, and 100% dedicated to the healthcare field. ClearDATA’s services enable providers to fully automate and securely manage healthcare medical records, applications, IT infrastructure and digital storage. The company provides HITECH HIPAA-compliant cloud and hosting infrastructure and managed services, offsite backup and disaster recovery, medical image archiving, information security and world-class support. The company offers HIPAA Security Risk and Remediation services through its U.S. Healthcare Compliance division to the healthcare industry in order to ensure that they meet the rigorous standards of security required for protected health information to demonstrate Meaningful Use. For more information, call 602-635-4000, email: sales@cleardata.net or visit: http://www.cleardata.net. CONTACT INFORMATION: Jeanne-Marie PhillipsHealthFlash Marketing1234 Summer StreetStamford, CT 06905888-655-3434 ... Read more

ATLANTA, September 4, 2012 – In the summer of 1992, the landscape of hospital pharmacy operations changed dramatically when St. Clair Hospital launched McKesson ROBOT-Rx, the first robotic drug distribution system designed to automate dispensing and restocking of bar-coded medications. Today, ROBOT-Rx is the world’s leading hospital pharmacy robotic medication dispensing system, helping customers more safely and accurately dispense more than 1 million doses each day at more than 300 sites across the United States and Canada. St. Clair, a 328-bed acute care facility located in suburban Pittsburgh, was the site of the first commercial implementation of ROBOT-Rx. The hospital, which is consistently recognized for its commitment to patient safety and quality initiatives, chose ROBOT-Rx for its efficiency and ability to track medications throughout the dispensing process, helping St. Clair enhance care while lowering costs. Over the past 20 years, St. Clair’s partnership with McKesson has expanded across the hospital’s entire medication delivery process, including implementation of a new, fourth generation ROBOT-Rx in 2008. The partnership extended beyond the pharmacy to the nursing floors and surgical suites with the addition of AcuDose-Rx and Anesthesia-Rx medication dispensing cabinets in 2010. “McKesson’s pharmacy automation solutions help us streamline our medication delivery, so patients are getting the medications they need faster and more accurately,” said Ron Dermitt, director of pharmacy, St. Clair. “Our staff is able to focus on improving the quality of patient care, rather than time-consuming manual tasks.” St. Clair is consistently recognized for its quality and technology initiatives. It has been named a Thomson Reuters Top 100 Hospital and one of the 100 Most Wired Hospitals by Hospital & Health Networks magazine. The 2010 Way-Paver for Barcode Point-of-Care Award honored St. Clair as the first hospital in the United States to utilize bar-code driven, drug-dispensing robotics to enhance patient safety. “Through adopting pharmacy automation, St. Clair’s leadership has paved the way for hospitals to help achieve better medication management that supports patient safety and enhances operational efficiency, while also reducing costs,” said Kraig McEwen, president, McKesson Automation. “We look forward to continuing this partnership to provide cost-effective and efficient solutions that help St. Clair more safely deliver the right medication closer to the patient.” About St. Clair Hospital St. Clair Hospital is an independent, acute care facility that provides advanced, high quality health care to more than 400,000 residents of southwestern Pennsylvania. With 525 physicians and more than 2,000 employees, St. Clair is the largest employer in Pittsburgh’s South Hills. Providing virtually every health care service that residents might need throughout their lives, the hospital combines advanced technologies with exceptional medical expertise to ensure that the community’s health needs are met. For more information, please visit www.stclair.org. About McKesson McKesson Corporation, currently ranked 14th on the FORTUNE 500, is a healthcare services and information technology company dedicated to making the business of healthcare run better. We partner with payers, hospitals, physician offices, pharmacies, pharmaceutical companies and others across the spectrum of care to build healthier organizations that deliver better care to patients in every setting. McKesson helps its customers improve their financial, operational, and clinical performance with solutions that include pharmaceutical and medical-surgical supply management, healthcare information technology, and business and clinical services. For more information, visit http://www.mckesson.com. Contact: Yancey Casey 404-338-2468 ... Read more

Steinberg Diagnostic leads, reducing costly duplicate exams and unnecessary radiation exposure for patients Rochester, NY August 30, 2012 – HealthInsight, Steinberg Diagnostic Medical Imaging Centers, and eHealth Global Technologies (eHGT) announce the successful go-live for HealtHIE Nevada of eHealth Image Exchange™, a service that enables authorized health information exchange (HIE) participants to seamlessly share diagnostic quality images. Physicians, with a single click on a patients’ report, can view associated X-rays, MRI's, CT-scans, PET scans and ultrasounds images instantly, from the context of the patient’s full medical history. Participating HIE providers can access current and past diagnostic imaging exams to assist them in providing more effective diagnosis, care planning and delivery of healthcare services, taking advantage of a variety of tools within a state-of-the-art, zero-footprint viewing platform - eHealthViewer® ZF. “We are excited to be the first imaging center in Nevada to provide this service and its benefits to our care community,” said Don Shackley, CIO, Steinberg Diagnostic Medical Imaging Center. “Patients no longer need to retrieve and transport X-ray films or images on CDs from location to location, as reports are always accessible via the HIE. Patient records are more complete, which reduces the need for costly duplicate exams and unnecessary radiation exposure for patients, while improving the efficiency of delivering patient treatment.” “Having one of the largest providers of images in the state of Nevada take the lead on this initiative is a testament to the value eHealth Image Exchange provides,” said HealthInsight Executive Director, Deborah Huber. “Ordering physicians can access reports and images immediately as they are available so that patients get more timely care with reduced risk due to incomplete medical records.” “When a patient presents, physicians need a variety of medical information quickly and easily to provide accurate, timely care,” said Gary Larson, COO and General Manager, Health Information Exchange Services for eHealth Global Technologies. “Diagnostic quality images are an essential element of the patient record and we are thrilled to provide this service to patients across Nevada – improving their care process and reducing the spiraling cost of care.” HealtHIE Nevada is powered by Optum Health Information Exchange. Optum’s partner, eHealth Global Technologies provides eHealth Image Exchange via the Optum Image Gateway. About eHealth Global Technologies eHealth Global Technologies (eHGT) is a leading referral management and diagnostic image exchange service provider, serving over half of the nation's top 100 hospitals and leading health information exchanges (HIEs), including 13 of the top 17 hospitals selected to the prominent Honor Roll of the Best Hospitals from the 2011-2012 U.S. News & World Report. The company's services include the eHealth Referral Management Solution™ and the eHealth Image Exchange™. These solutions utilize innovative health information technology to access medical records, pathology slides and diagnostic images in any format, and then securely deliver them to providers and clinicians in a digital format to improve continuity of care. Visit www.eHGT.com About HealtHIE Nevada HealtHIE Nevada is a private, Nevada non-profit, community-based organization dedicated to connecting the Nevada healthcare community by managing real time, secure, and accurate exchange of clinical information to improve the quality and continuum of healthcare for the patient. Management of HealtHIE Nevada and its services are performed by HealthInsight, a recognized leader in quality improvement; transparency and public reporting; health information technology programs; health-care system delivery and payment reform efforts; and human factors science research and application. HealthInsight has offices in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Las Vegas, Nevada, and Salt Lake City, Utah. About Steinberg Diagnostic Medical Imaging Centers Steinberg Diagnostic Medical Imaging developed out of Dr. Leon Steinberg’s radiology practice which has served physicians, hospitals and residents of Las Vegas for the past 30 years. As a pioneering radiologist, Dr. Steinberg dreamed of a complete state-of-the-art outpatient imaging center in Las Vegas. The center would be equipped with the most advanced diagnostic tools, all conveniently located under one roof. Imaging studies that traditionally were only found in hospitals and major medical centers would be available here. Steinberg Diagnostic Medical Imaging Centers were built with these goals in mind. Our primary facility at 2950 South Maryland Parkway was opened on February 29, 1988. Since then, SDMI has kept pace with the area’s growth by opening additional facilities. Today, Steinberg Diagnostic Medical Imaging is on the cutting edge of radiology, offering the most comprehensive diagnostic services available anywhere in the world. Our five convenient imaging centers are staffed by board certified radiologists that are friendly and sympathetic of patient concerns. Our team of technologists and support staff provide the highest level of service, insuring that patients receive the courtesy and care they deserve. Media Contact: Nicole SpencerMarketing DirectoreHealth Global ... Read more

Fully integrated HIS helps hospital address meaningful use, TCO and patient safety ATLANTA, August 30, 2012 – St. Mark’s Medical Center in La Grange, Texas, recently became the latest hospital to go-live on McKesson’s Paragon® hospital information system (HIS), completely transitioning off a legacy HIS just 14 months after contract signing. With clinicians already giving up paper for electronic records, the medical center began its 90-day reporting period for Stage 1 meaningful use within a week of go-live. St. Mark’s is one of a dozen hospitals that have recently replaced systems from Meditech with the top-ratedi Paragon solution, successfully completing quick, seamless migrations. “We originally chose Paragon to help us on our path to meaningful use and qualify for incentive funds,” said Patti Sulak, Director of Information Technology at the hospital. “However, we also needed a proven, modern system that would help us improve patient care, and our clinicians are already seeing benefits. Had we stayed on our previous system, we would have continued to struggle on both counts.” St. Mark’s leaders and staff committed to make a rapid transition. To start, representatives from various hospital departments conducted a thorough review of potential replacement systems. The selection committee ranked the products on various criteria. The depth and breadth of Paragon’s fully integrated financial and clinical system, the lower total cost of ownership (TCO) and the system’s intuitive nature combined to separate Paragon from the pack. A rapid 14-month implementation process followed, incorporating training that enabled clinicians to quickly and comfortably move from paper to electronic documentation and culminated in a single, big-bang go live on all applications. “The entire process has gone smoothly, and the McKesson staff has worked so closely with us that they feel like extended family,” Sulak added. “Collaborating as partners has enabled us to act quickly and start delivering value to our patients and staff.” The Paragon HIS is built on a Microsoft Windows-based platform with a single database. The system offers a completely integrated suite of advanced clinical, financial, physician and ancillary applications. St. Mark’s expects to leverage its new HIS to more efficiently manage clinical and revenue operations, driving improvements in performance, patient safety and clinical care. Positioning organizations like St. Mark’s to achieve those goals is at the center of McKesson’s Better Health 2020™, an initiative designed to help customers achieve better patient care, better business health and better connectivity in their communities. Critical success factors addressed by Better Health 2020 include capturing the value of core systems, reducing costs while improving quality, connecting and coordinating care, and managing advanced payment models. To support these goals, McKesson plans to invest $1 billion in research and development across its technology businesses during the next two years. “We are pleased to have the opportunity to help hospitals like St. Mark’s on their journeys to attestation,” said Jim Pesce, president, Paragon, McKesson Provider Technologies. “More importantly, we recognize that these transitions are about meaningful improvements for the long-term. They are simply the first steps in integrating a hospital’s clinical and financial operations for better patient care and lower total cost of ownership.” About St. Mark’s Medical Center St. Mark’s Medical Center is a not-for-profit community hospital in LaGrange, Texas. It serves the needs of patients in the central Texas communities of Fayette and Lee Counties. St. Mark’s Medical Center provides an array of comprehensive healthcare services that range widely from surgical services, a birthing center and specialist care to cardiac rehabilitation, emergency medicine and general acute care services. St. Mark’s also offers state of the art imaging and certified laboratory services. St. Mark’s is a part of the Community Hospital Corporation (CHC) family of hospitals. About McKesson McKesson Corporation, currently ranked 14th on the FORTUNE 500, is a healthcare services and information technology company dedicated to making the business of healthcare run better. We partner with payers, hospitals, physician offices, pharmacies, pharmaceutical companies and others across the spectrum of care to build healthier organizations that deliver better care to patients in every setting. McKesson helps its customers improve their financial, operational, and clinical performance with solutions that include pharmaceutical and medical-surgical supply management, healthcare information technology, and business and clinical services. For more information, visit http://www.mckesson.com. Media Contact: Yancey ... Read more

Smart cabinets improve efficiency and promote accountability ATLANTA, August 30, 2012 – With today’s launch of McKesson’s new Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) cabinets, hospitals gain a powerful tool for managing expensive physician preference items (PPIs) such as stents, pacemakers, implants and orthopedic supplies. Part of the company’s Point-of-Use Supply solution, these smart cabinets use low-touch technology to automate control of inventory. The new cabinets enable hospital staff to manage inventories automatically and give nursing access to supplies quickly and easily. The cabinets also support efficient control of consignment items, preventing loss and reducing unnecessary charges. ?PPIs often represent the bulk of a procedure’s cost, and they are the reason supply costs are projected to soon overtake labor as the single largest hospital expense category,? said Todd Tabel, vice president, enterprise resource planning and supply chain solutions, McKesson Provider Technologies. ?Through improved supplies control and new workflow efficiencies, organizations can better maintain their profitability and position themselves for success in an increasingly value-driven healthcare environment.? Using low-touch technology, the smart RFID cabinets are easy to use. A nurse can simply scan a badge, select the correct patient case with needed supplies and then go on rounds. The cabinet does the rest. Its built-in technology automatically captures the supply data and updates the clinical case and inventory. It also helps reduce the risk of adverse drug reactions by removing human error in the selection of drugs. This streamlined workflow and integration to clinical applications frees clinicians to do what they do best— providing care for patients. The RFID cabinets, as part of McKesson Point of Use Supply™, formerly known as IntelliShelf, simplifies hospital supply chain management by automating critical supply functions at the point of use, including requisitioning, patient charging, inventory management and information capture. The integrated offering incorporates open bins, bar codes and RFID options. The RFID solution adds increased functionality to the company’s healthcare supply chain solution suite. McKesson Supply Chain Solutions™, including McKesson Point of Use Supply, McKesson Strategic Supply Sourcing™, and McKesson Supply Chain Management™, can integrate with McKesson ERP Solutions or work independently with any materials management information system, to help providers gain new supply chain efficiencies and savings. The benefits of the RFID solution align with McKesson’s Better Health 2020 initiative, which is designed to help healthcare providers use information technology to achieve better patient care, better business health and better connectivity as health reform unfolds. Critical success factors addressed by Better Health 2020 include maximizing the value of technology, reducing costs while improving quality, connecting and coordinating care, and managing advanced payment models. About McKesson McKesson Corporation, currently ranked 14th on the FORTUNE 500, is a healthcare services and information technology company dedicated to making the business of healthcare run better. We partner with payers, hospitals, physician offices, pharmacies, pharmaceutical companies and others across the spectrum of care to build healthier organizations that deliver better care to patients in every setting. McKesson helps its customers improve their financial, operational, and clinical performance with solutions that include pharmaceutical and medical-surgical supply management, healthcare information technology, and business and clinical services. For more information, visit www.mckesson.com.Any descriptions of future functionality reflect current product direction, are for informational purposes only and do not constitute a commitment to provide specific functionality. Timing and availability remain at the discretion of McKesson and are subject to change and applicable regulatory approvals. Contact:Yancey ... Read more

McKesson Breaks New Ground with Enhanced Cardiovascular Information System ATLANTA, August 15, 2012 – McKesson today announced the release of McKesson Cardiology 13.0, with enhancements acclaimed by customers and technology experts alike for its ground-breaking innovation. With this new release, McKesson becomes the only company to offer a single database solution for cardiac and peripheral catheterization, hemodynamics monitoring, electrophysiology (EP), echocardiography, vascular ultrasound, nuclear cardiology and ECG/stress/holter management. Data entered at any point of care flows into the electronic health record (EHR) without the need for potentially cumbersome interfaces or redundant documentation. This latest release further emphasizes McKesson’s commitment to help healthcare providers improve patient outcomes, boost clinical efficiencies and reduce operational costs. In the October 2011 KLAS Cardiology 2011 report, providers ranked the McKesson cardiology solution to be the most complete solution in the studyi. The solution becomes even more comprehensive with the addition of EP, stress, holter and inventory management modules. The McKesson Cardiology EP is a one-of-a-kind, complete, patient-centric solution, said Andrea Russo, M.D., director of Cardiac Electrophysiology and Arrhythmia Services, Cooper University Hospital and professor, Cooper Medical School at Rowan University. .Generally, cardiology department electrophysiology documentation is spread across at least four databases, as well as paper records. This solution integrates all essential cardiovascular information, which will ultimately lead to increased lab efficiency, improved data accuracy and improved efficiencies for cardiology staff. With McKesson Cardiology 13.0, all data—from pre-procedure and intra-procedure information to physician reporting to American College of Cardiology’s National Cardiac Data Registry (NCDR)—is integrated and immediately available to physicians to review or share with other caregivers. The more information we can acquire from one source, the less data entry required and the less chance of inaccuracy,. added Russo. She also noted the benefit of customizable reporting capabilities, an ACC ICD data capture and overall ease of use as unique benefits. As part of its research and development effort, McKesson teams worked closely with physician members of the Heart Rhythm Society (HRS), whose mission is to improve patient care through the advancement of healthcare policies and standards. The electrophysiologists from HRS praise the new McKesson release, calling for its design to become the industry standard. Until now, hospitals across the country have been using various vendor solutions with adequate functionality, but poor usability at the point of service,. said Michael Mirro, M.D., a nationally noted member of the HRS and the American College of Cardiology, as well as clinical professor of medicine at Indiana University and medical director, Parkview Research Center and electrophysiologist, Parkview Physician Group-Cardiology. Staff typically had to enter the same data in multiple places, and the available systems didn’t support real-world workflows. By harmonizing all data fields, McKesson Cardiology 13.0 simplifies the data entry, including physician reporting and ICD registry workflow. In doing so, the solution helps to save staff time and reduce operational costs. This is why the HRS is now working with other professional societies to use this solution as the foundation of new healthcare IT standards. In addition to newly added EP and stress/holter management capabilities, the 13.0 release includes a new inventory management module. Tightly integrated with the McKesson Point of Use Supply™, the new solution is designed to provide documentation, billing and management for inventory in the cardiovascular department. With a single barcode scan into McKesson Cardiology, for example, the system will automatically update clinical documentation, generate charges, adjust stock levels and electronically send orders to the hospital materials management system. McKesson has always been an active partner with professional organizations, like the HRS and our customers, to identify and develop, cutting-edge solutions,. said Kevan Torgerson, president, Enterprise Medical Imaging, McKesson Provider Technologies. .The new release supports McKesson’s Better Health 2020 initiative through the availability of more accurate, timely clinical data, which leads to faster decision making and improved staff efficiencies, all at a competitive cost of ownership. Dr. Mirro agreed and called for greater collaboration between technology providers and clinicians. This level of collaboration between the healthcare technology community and physician leaders is exactly what it takes to create the most advanced technology solutions, he said. With 13.0, McKesson has done a great thing for the entire cardiology community. About the Heart Rhythm Society The Heart Rhythm Society is the international leader in science, education and advocacy for cardiac arrhythmia professionals and patients, and the primary information resource on heart rhythm disorders. i Source: Cardiology 2011: Will the Complete CVIS Please Stand Up? report, October 2011, www.KLASresearch.com, © 2011 KLAS Enterprises, LLC. All rights reserved. About Cooper University Hospital: Cooper University Hospital is the leading provider of comprehensive health services, medical education and clinical research in Southern New Jersey and the Delaware Valley. With more than 700 physicians in over 75 specialties, Cooper is uniquely equipped to provide an almost unlimited number of medical services. As the clinical campus of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey – Robert Wood Johnson Medical School at Camden, and now the Cooper Medical School of Rowan University, the hospital is committed to excellence in medical education, patient care and research. Cooper offers training programs for medical students, residents, fellows, nurses and allied health professionals in a variety of specialties. About McKesson McKesson Corporation, currently ranked 14th on the FORTUNE 500, is a healthcare services and information technology company dedicated to making the business of healthcare run better. We partner with payers, hospitals, physician offices, pharmacies, pharmaceutical companies and others across the spectrum of care to build healthier organizations that deliver better care to patients in every setting. McKesson helps its customers improve their financial, operational, and clinical performance with solutions that include pharmaceutical and medical-surgical supply management, healthcare information technology, and business and clinical services. For more information, visit http://www.mckesson.com. Media contact: Yancey ... Read more

TAMPA, Fla. – August 14, 2012 – Vitera Healthcare Solutions, one of the nation’s largest providers of electronic health records and practice management software and services, announced today the results of its EHR Solutions and Mobile Technologies Study. The Tampa-based Healthcare IT provider, which serves more than 400,000 healthcare professionals, surveyed doctors, executives and practice managers to identify how they currently use mobile technologies and how they intend to use them in the future. The Study found that while 72 percent of surveyed healthcare professionals already use their mobile device for work purposes, only six percent are currently using their devices to connect to their EHR or to e-prescribe. However, the majority of respondents are interested in a mobile EHR solution, with physicians being the most interested (91%), followed by practice administrators (66%) and billing managers (43%). “Healthcare professionals are embracing the convenience of mobile technology to handle a number of work tasks, but want to expand this ability by having a mobile EHR solution,” said Matthew Hawkins, CEO of Vitera Healthcare Solutions. “In the same manner that other professionals are able to enjoy the benefits of their mobile device as an office on-the-go, practice physicians, executives and managers are looking for the same accessibility to provide more efficient care for their patients.” Survey results showed that the key features respondents are looking for in a mobile EHR solution are the ability to review (93%) and update (87%) a patient’s chart and order prescriptions (86%). Other key findings include: •    Respondents presently use their mobile device to email, phone, text or send other communications (55%); perform medical research on the go (20%); and as a remote desktop solution (14%). •    The ability to document a patient’s encounter (82%) and out-of-office activities (67%) are other essential elements surveyed professionals are looking for in a mobile EHR solution •    The most popular mobile devices respondents use are iPhones (60%), an iPads (45%) and Android smartphones (38%) An infographic highlighting the study results is available upon request. About Vitera Healthcare Solutions Vitera Healthcare Solutions provides end-to-end clinical and financial technology solutions so physicians and medical professionals can work with patients instead of paperwork. Serving more than 400,000 healthcare professionals including 80,000 physicians, Vitera Healthcare Solutions provides electronic health records and practice management systems, processes 33 million transactions and 1.8 million e-prescriptions monthly, and serves several specialties including primary care, OB/GYN, pediatrics, cardiology and orthopedics in all sized practices and Community Health Centers. Physician focused and patient centric, Vitera Healthcare Solutions is based in Tampa, FL. For more information, visit www.viterahealthcare.com or call (877) 932-6301. Follow Vitera Healthcare Solutions on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/ViteraHealthcare, and Twitter, ... Read more

Montage Healthcare Solutions, is looking forward to demonstrating their suite of innovative search-based radiology data mining and analytics tools, to radiology business leaders, at the upcoming American Healthcare Radiology Administrators annual meeting. Philadelphia, PA (PRWEB) August 10, 2012 -- Montage Healthcare Solutions will be demonstrating their suite of search-based radiology data mining and analytics tools at the upcoming American Healthcare Radiology Administrators (AHRA) annual meeting, the premier educational event for radiology administration every year. This will give attendees an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the novel search based approach taken by Montage Healthcare Solutions, which leverages the power and simplicity of today’s search and web technologies to provide immediate access to valuable clinical, quality and business performance information inherent in a Radiology Information System (RIS) or Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system. Rather than relying of customized reports and templates that can limit flexibility and create a dependence on others, the Montage Healthcare approach puts access and control in the hands of the decision maker With declining reimbursement making improved operational, clinical and billing efficiency an imperative, radiology administrators and radiologists alike must find tools to identify and easily monitor relevant Key Performance Indicators. “Rapid access to meaningful information enables administrators to maximize time spent leveraging information, rather than collecting it,” says William Boonn, MD, President, Montage Healthcare Solutions, adding “while more demanding quality reporting and pay-for-performance requirements make data mining a necessity.” Montage Healthcare Solutions will be in booth #632 at the AHRA annual meeting. About Montage Healthcare Solutions Montage™ is a leading software solution for healthcare data mining and performance measurement in radiology. Montage technology enables practice leaders, clinicians, researchers, and educators to search the Radiology Information System (RIS) and Electronic Medical Record (EMR) for key business and clinical data. In addition, proprietary data mining techniques allow for sophisticated and customizable marketing, quality, business, and billing/coding analytics, which can measure and enhance business performance and provide clinical decision support. For more information, visit: www.montagehealthcare.com If you have any questions regarding information in these press releases please contact the company listed in the press release. Our complete disclaimer appears here - PRWeb ebooks - Another online visibility tool from PRWeb Contact InformationDean KaufmanMontage Healthcare ... Read more

Inova Health System’s simplifies their referral process; improving timeliness of patient referral appointments, staff efficiency and data accuracy while reducing costs Rochester, NY August 8, 2012 – eHealth Global Technologies, Inc. (eHGT) continues to improve the process of integrating external medical records and imaging into referral patient workflow, more cost effectively and efficiently while improving the coordination of care for all patients transitioning to a new facility.The new eHealth Referral Management Solution (RMS) gathers patient records not generated within the system and delivers them in a digital format, incorporating an automated communication and reporting stream with the referring physician population. Inova Health System’s transplant department is one of eHGT’s first customers to deploy eHealth RMS™. “eHealth RMS enables cost effective web-based management of new patient referrals, while seamlessly integrating referred patient information into hospital information (EMR) and scheduling systems,” stated Tim Fischer, executive vice president of sales and marketing at eHGT. “This solution leverages a unified environment for managing fax, phone and electronic orders, while managing all related patient documents and images in a patient-centric, easy-to-use web interface. Our customers will appreciate how the workflow is built in making collaboration on new patient referrals for the entire care team, much easier.” “eHealth RMS has been successfully launched at Inova Transplant Center in Falls Church, VA. The system allows our clinical and clerical staff the ability to seamlessly request and view outside medical records and quality diagnostic images for pathology and radiology over a secure internet connection, anywhere in the world,” stated Adam Rabinowitz, Sr. Database Administrator. “The user friendly interface, “real-time” integration with our transplant database, and intuitive design of RMS have streamlined our processes and allowed us to spend more time caring for our patients.” eHealth RMS includes the ability to provide automated communication to the referring physicians and management reports to the hospitals. Communication back to the referring physician can be automated through customizable triggers, ensuring the referral base is updated quickly on the status of their patients - saving valuable staff time, eliminating faxes, enabling patients to be seen faster and driving direct marketing for the referral base. Real-time customizable management reports provide insight into who is referring patients and the value of each referral, for easier direct marketing. With eHealth RMS care teams can automatically route reports, information, status updates and send confirmations to the referring physician. About eHGT eHGT is a leading referral management and diagnostic image exchange service provider, serving over half of the nation's top 100 hospitals and leading health information exchanges (HIEs), including 13 of the top 17 hospitals selected to the prominent Honor Roll of the Best Hospitals from the 2011-2012 U.S. News & World Report. The company's services include the eHealth Referral Management Solution™ and the eHealth Image Exchange™. These solutions utilize innovative health information technology to access medical records, pathology slides and diagnostic images in any format, and then securely deliver them to providers and clinicians in a digital format to improve continuity of care. Visit ... Read more

New solutions free clinicians from supply roles, better capture charges and maintain inventory ATLANTA, Aug. 6, 2012 - McKesson today announced new solutions that help hospitals improve inventory control and drive greater efficiency in two of their most critical profit centers – cardiology and surgery departments. The only supply chain solutions to offer integration with cardiology and surgery solutions, McKesson Cardiology Inventory™ and the McKesson Surgical Manager™ Point-of-Use Integration Module streamline caregiver involvement with supply duties while improving management of high-cost supply items. The new solutions help reduce workflow problems by automating charge and inventory processes and integrating clinical, supply chain and revenue cycle solutions. Helping customer improve efficiencies in care delivery is just one objective of McKesson’s Better Health 2020™ initiative, which is focused on helping healthcare providers use information technology achieve better patient care, better business health and better connectivity. The Washington Hospital in Washington, Pa., recognized immediate efficiencies by deploying the solution in the cardiac catheterization lab. .The McKesson system helps us to consolidate charting, billing, and supply replenishment with a single scan,. said Marcia Deeb, CVIS coordinator, the Washington Hospital,.We’re already looking at expanding to other areas within the hospital. With McKesson Cardiology Inventory, clinicians simply scan bar-coded supply items for a given procedure and close the clinical case. The system automatically captures charges, charges the patient and decrements inventory, signaling reorders as needed. The surgery solution enables similar workflow efficiencies, and integrates McKesson Point-of-Use cabinets and/or open bins with McKesson Surgical Manager. In addition to automatic charge capture, both solutions improve and enhance profitability through optimized inventory with fewer expired or overstocked items. By reducing caregiver involvement with clinical and inventory documentation, clinicians can focus on what they do best—care for patients. Part of McKesson Point of Use Supply™, (formerly known as IntelliShelf. Supply), the new solutions will be highlighted at the upcoming AHRMM conference, Aug. 5-8, in San Antonio, Texas. McKesson Point-of-Use Supply simplifies hospital supply chain management by automating critical supply functions at the point of use, including requisitioning, patient charging, inventory management and information capture. The integrated offering incorporates open bins, bar codes, mobile carts and cabinets including RFID options. For more information, visit www.mckesson.com/supplychain. About McKesson McKesson Corporation, currently ranked 14th on the FORTUNE 500, is a healthcare services and information technology company dedicated to making the business of healthcare run better. We partner with payers, hospitals, physician offices, pharmacies, pharmaceutical companies and others across the spectrum of care to build healthier organizations to deliver better care to patients in every setting. McKesson helps its customers improve their financial, operational, and clinical performance with solutions that include pharmaceutical and medical-surgical supply management, healthcare information technology, and business and clinical services. For more information, visit http://www.mckesson.com/supplychain. Any descriptions of future functionality reflect current product direction, are for informational purposes only and do not constitute a commitment to provide specific functionality. Timing and availability remain at the discretion of McKesson and are subject to change and applicable regulatory approvals. Contact: Yancey ... Read more

Industry-first improves standardization, promotes dramatic cost savings ATLANTA, Aug. 3, 2012 - Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare in Glendale, Wisconsin, has identified multimillion dollar savings opportunities, thanks to McKesson’s new eProcurement Suite. Now generally available, the McKesson offering is the industry’s first eProcurement solution that can use a hospital’s own product formulary to stop spend leakage before it happens. The new suite works with the company’s eCommerce marketplace, enabling organizations to identify a lower cost or substitute product, validate contract prices and reconcile back orders—automatically and all at the point of requisition. The eCommerce marketplace offers a consumer-like shopping experience with full access to hundreds of vendors, showcasing more than 1.7 million items, including photographs and full-length product descriptions. Using artificial intelligence, the new eProcurement Suite sends normalized, fully attributed supply chain and industry data to any of the hospital’s information systems, including materials management, enterprise resource planning, operating room or charge masters. It helps automatically identify savings opportunities with prime vendors, volume discounts, tier-level discounts and spend consolidation. “We have already identified $3.64 million in annualized savings in the initial phase of a three-phase implementation,” said Terri Kendrick, director, purchasing, Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare. She noted that the savings came from addressing price line/product variance, contract price variance, product/vendor standardization and distribution/service fee reduction. With the combined marketplace and eProcurement solution, providers gain more accurate data and better visibility into what service lines offer the best opportunity. They can also identify consolidation opportunities by using the system to identify functionally similar and functionally equivalent items. “What if” analysis can help further clarify the level of return possible through various initiatives. In addition to helping stop spend leakage, the combined solution helps to improve workflow. The customized workflow identifies functionally similar or equivalent items and enables the hospital to direct off-formulary requests to the preferred product. This helps reduce off-contract purchases associated with physician preference items, such as stents, pacemakers, and orthopedic supplies. This new solution suite is part of McKesson Strategic Supply Sourcing. which will be on display at the upcoming AHRMM conference, Aug. 5-8, in San Antonio, Texas. The fully integrated, cloud-based sourcing solution is designed to help completely automate the healthcare supply chain. This gives providers unprecedented visibility and control over their medical-surgical supply spending. Helping to reduce costs while improving quality is one critical success factor addressed by McKesson’s Better Health 2020 initiative. This strategy is designed to help healthcare providers achieve better patient care, better business health and better connectivity as health reform unfolds. About McKesson McKesson Corporation, currently ranked 14th on the FORTUNE 500, is a healthcare services and information technology company dedicated to making the business of healthcare run better. We partner with payers, hospitals, physician offices, pharmacies, pharmaceutical companies and others across the spectrum of care to build healthier organizations to deliver better care to patients in every setting. McKesson helps its customers improve their financial, operational, and clinical performance with solutions that include pharmaceutical and medical-surgical supply management, healthcare information technology, and business and clinical services. For more information, visit http://www.mckesson.com/supplychain. Contact: Yancey ... Read more

Primary Health Care Corporation partners with Datix and Health Matrix to drive quality health services London, Riyadh and Doha – 30 July 2012: Datix, a global supplier of patient safety software for healthcare risk management today announced that State of Qatar Primary Health Care Corporation has chosen Datix to drive quality healthcare services across its 23 primary healthcare facilities and wellness centers. Health Matrix, Datix’s local partner in the Middle East region is working with Primary Health Care Corporation on the implementation of the new state-of-the-art technology which is scheduled to go live later this month. The Supreme Council of Health has created a solid and modern foundation through the establishment and development of a primary health care system for the State of Qatar. Dr Mariam Abdul Malik, Managing Director at Primary Health Care Corporation said, “As part of the aim to enhance the physical and mental health of the population of Qatar, patient safety is extremely important to us. Working in partnership with Datix and Health Matrix to implement the new Datix system, and building on the success of the processes already in place for managing incidents and complaints, supports the vision of strengthening all aspects related to health and wellness through primary healthcare. Datix was selected in preference to the other systems evaluated because of its comprehensiveness and ease of use, but above all because of the company’s extensive experience with other primary care providers.” Primary Health Care Corporation has healthcare centres covering different parts of Qatar, providing both preventive and curative health and medical services. Datix delivers safety, risk and governance through a number of integrated software modules. Primary Health Care Corporation will benefit from the following modules: incident reporting, complaint handling, patient experience, risk register, safety alerts, hotspots and dashboards to provide a comprehensive oversight of risk management activities across the organization. The majority of the 3000 staff at Primary Health Care Corporation will have access to the new system and Health Matrix will conduct extensive staff training over the coming months. “Since its foundation Datix has been dedicated to improving safety and quality for its healthcare clients and is now used by primary care professionals around the world to submit incidents via easy-to-use web forms. Users can also manage investigations of incidents in real time and run reports to help pinpoint areas for improvement.  We are pleased to be part of the drive for quality healthcare services in Qatar,” said Jonathan Hazan, Chief Executive Officer at Datix. Abdul Rahman Qasim, Chief Executive Officer at Health Matrix concluded, “We are proud to partner with Primary Health Care Corporation on such a valuable and extensive project.  Our expertise in the local health sector, combined with Datix software and the dedication and knowledge of the people within the organization, will ensure a successful implementation of a powerful patient safety and risk management framework to support the continued success of this important initiative.” About State of Qatar Primary Health Care Corporation The State of Qatar took its first steps in establishing a primary health care system as early as 1954 to cope with the increase in population. In 1978 the Ministry of Health developed a comprehensive scheme for building a primary health care system which was submitted to the Council of Ministers. The scheme included: •    The launch of primary health care services through health centres, covering different parts of the country and capable of providing excellent and comprehensive health and medical services (preventive and curative) •    Establishing modern specialized hospitals that would meet the people needs. H.H the Emir and the Council of Ministers approved the project allowing the realization of the primary healthcare system to be the instrument that would achieve the goals sought by the State. •    The State of Qatar, like many other countries in the region, from the moment of launching the project attended to all the needs of patients visiting the health centres rendering the following services: - Management of a wide spectrum of disease - Dentistry – preventive and curative - Pregnancy care - Vaccination - Health education - School health - Pharmacy and drug prescription - Laboratory analyses - Keeping of medical records - Vital statistics - Transfer of patients to hospitals For further information please visit http://www.phcc.qa About Health Matrix Founded in 2009 with operating offices in Saudi Arabia and Jordan, Health Matrix is a specialized Healthcare IT Company serving healthcare providers and regulators in the Middle East region. With a long-term strategy of improving the healthcare IT in the region, the company is focused on helping clients to adopt best-of-breed eHealth solutions developed by world-class healthcare IT corporations. These solutions were developed with a core principle of elevating the quality of care delivered to healthcare recipients in the areas of patient safety, risk management, workforce management, policies and procedures, healthcare eLearning, clinical decision support systems, as well as primary care. Capitalizing on our team’s solid experience, local knowledge of the Middle East market, client-centered service approach, and the unique association with worldwide leading software vendors such as Datix, Kronos, ICNet, MCN Healthcare & Learning, WaveMedical, and CureMD, we believe that Health Matrix is positioned to play a fundamental role in bridging the gap between the region healthcare practices and the international standards. We, in Health Matrix, are strong believers in innovation and deploying a cutting-edge technology to enhance the well being of our communities. To Learn more visit www.healthmatrixcorp.com or call: +966 1 4626625. About Datix Datix has been a pioneer in the field of patient safety since 1986 and is today the leading supplier of software for patient safety, risk management, incident and adverse event reporting.  Datix aims to help healthcare organizations build a culture and practice that drives excellence in patient safety.  It recruits and retains people committed to the healthcare sector and continually invests in its software and services to ensure that it integrates best practice and learning. Datix is focused on the health and social care sector.  Its customers include public and private hospitals, primary care providers, GP surgeries, mental health and ambulance service providers.  Its clients also include organizations delivering care home and domiciliary care services.  Within the UK this includes more than 70% of the National Health Service.  Internationally the Datix client base is growing rapidly and includes large scale deployments in Canada and the USA as well as clients in Europe and Australia.   Datix is headquartered in London, United Kingdom. To learn more, visit www.datix.co.uk  or call +44 (0)20 8971 1971For further information please contact: Health Matrix Corporation Ola AlAnqar Marketing and Communications Manager P : +966 1 4626625 F : +966 1 4631448 E:  ... Read more

TeraMedica’s Evercore Creating Large-Scale Health Imaging Exchange (HIE) Abroad (July 25th, 2012 - MILWAUKEE, WI)  TeraMedica, Inc. announces New South Wales (NSW) Health, in Australia, has successfully completed the first phase of implementation for TeraMedica's Evercore® HIE Solution.  With TeraMedica’s Evercore® Enterprise Vendor Neutral Architecture (VNA) as the framework for the project, the Health Imaging Exchange began production use in February 2012 across twelve hospitals, serving a portion of the Sydney area. This large-scale HIE deployment includes regional geographic connections that will serve a population of more than seven million people. This HIE will eventually connect nearly 110 clinical facilities, each using their own PACS, RIS, EMR, clinical and business practices, and patient identifiers. “NSW Health is a truly unique statewide health imaging exchange when it comes to scalable, vendor neutral architecture,” said Jim Prekop, TeraMedica President and CEO. “We are extremely pleased to provide our patient-centered clinical imaging management and distribution solution, Evercore HIE, to provide a direct and positive impact on the quality of patient care while simultaneously reducing NSW Health’s total cost of operations.” “By utilizing Evercore’s standards-based universal image distribution system, NSW Health should see immediate improvements in patient care throughout its remote regions. Moreover, NSW Health will realize increased efficiency, accuracy and patient satisfaction leading to decreases in time, manual labor and disparate system costs across a wide geography,” said Greg Strowig, Vice President of Client Services. The NSW Health consists of more than 110 clinical facilities and numerous disparate imaging systems across an area larger than the state of Texas. The concept of one consolidated patient-centric imaging folder, incorporating DICOM and other vital clinical content (beyond DICOM), is an innovative solution designed to provide improved care wherever the patient may be located. In all, the HIE will connect 9 PACS systems, processing over 3 million annual imaging procedures. TeraMedica’s vendor neutral architecture lays the groundwork to give NSW Health true control of its imaging future. Additionally, Evercore HIE will provide an eventual gateway to the national government’s master patient index and the ability to provide complete electronic medical records across Australia. Evercore integrates and manages patient-centric clinical content in the clinical and research settings across wide geographies, including standard DICOM objects. Evercore also possesses the ability to natively manage and distribute beyond DICOM using global standards such as MPG, JPG, PDF and many other critical clinical content such as treatment plans for cancer care or vital reports in non-standard formats. In conjunction with its universal viewer known as Univision, the remote physician gains access to a truly universal view of all content. Strowig also commented, “NSW Health, and the healthcare IT world in general, face significant data integration challenges in the delivery of meaningful use and patient-centered healthcare. Evercore’s web services architecture provides the ability to efficiently combine disparate clinical objects in a central clinical content manager, satisfying the medical team’s need for a holistic view of patient data in real time.” About TeraMedica® Inc. TeraMedica, Inc., a global healthcare informatics company based in Milwaukee, WI, is the leading provider of vendor neutral, enterprise-wide solutions for unrestricted medical image management. The company began with the successful development of a cross-departmental, patient-centric clinical image archive for the Mayo Clinic in 2001. To date, TeraMedica has over 600 customer-driven deployments on six continents. Such flexibility can only be achieved by an organization that is committed to exceeding customer expectations using a technology platform that has been designed for adaptation.  For more information, visit www.Teramedica.com. CONTACT INFORMATION:Jeanne-Marie PhillipsHealthFlash Marketing1234 Summer StreetStamford, CT 06905888-655-3434 ... Read more