Aside from participating in the various special events at the Medical Records Institute annual conference Towards the Electronic Patient Record (TEPR 2006), held this week in Baltimore, several vendors made noteworthy announcements.
Allscripts announced that it is the first EHR vendor to meet requirements for participation in the federal government’s initiative to improve care outcomes. The company’s HealthMatics EHR meets the requirements for data collection and reporting of the Doctors' Office Quality-Information Technology (DOQ-IT) program for healthcare quality improvement. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) established the program to encourage physicians to adopt EHRs for collecting, utilizing, and reporting health performance measures. Electronic reporting, in turn, is a prerequisite for "pay-for-performance," Medicare's proposal to pay bonuses to physicians who attain quality benchmarks in treating patients with chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and heart disease.
Allscripts recently was recognized as the first of more than 80 vendors participating in the program to meet all 35 DOQ-IT reporting requirements. Vendors that support the Medicare quality-improvement program are asked to sign a letter of intent pledging to meet the DOQ-IT quality standards. Participation in the initiative is strictly voluntary, but it ensures that systems and products can provide physicians with tools key to improving outcomes for patients with chronic conditions.
MedPlexus, an innovative developer of mobile and internet-based administrative, financial and clinical software for physician practices, announced introductory pricing on the MedPlexus Electronic Health Records (EHR) and Integrated Practice Management Solution, available through the month of June. The company also introduced the M+Methodology Pathway, a starter-solution for physicians seeking a gradual conversion to EHR. Both initiatives are designed to address the two primary barriers physicians confront in implementing EHR: affordability and deployment disruption.
IMPAC Medical Systems Inc. showcased MOSAIQ EMR, the essential component of IMPAC’s newly expanded oncology management system. MOSAIQ is an active clinical tool that includes CPOE, customizable assessments, document and image management, and the ability to generate ‘worklists’ to help increase process efficiency and ensure high quality patient care. MOSAIQ can manage the complexities of both radiation oncology and medical oncology. With features that track patients from the moment they enter the cancer center through long-term follow-up, MOSAIQ provides a comprehensive oncology charting solution.
Because images are critical to cancer therapy, the ability to import, review, and manage images is integral to MOSAIQ and the cornerstone of MOSAIQ’s image-guided treatment management (IGTM) solution for radiation oncology. MOSAIQ RO includes IMPAC’s MLC Fit Multileaf Positioning, SEQUENCER Independent Verification, and ViewStation Clinical Image Management devices.
InterSystems Corp. launched Ensemble HIE (health information exchange), a new software edition targeted specifically for regional health information organizations (RHIOs) and other HIE organizations now forming. The software addresses the end-to-end-requirements of an HIE deployment. It is a prebuilt integration solution that includes master patient index, a terminology server, a prebuilt record locator service, an integrated clinical viewer and search mechanism.
“Ensemble HIE is a new edition of our Ensemble universal integration platform that combines advanced development and integration features with standards-based, healthcare-exchange-specific functionality,” said Paul Grabscheid, vice president of strategic planning.
Thomson Micromedex demonstrated its industry-leading integrated patient education, medication safety, and health and disease management clinical knowledge solution suite. Used by more than 3,400 hospitals in the United States and Canada, this single source of clinically consistent content provides timely, action-oriented recommendations and answers to clinical questions across the health enterprise. Its InfoButton Access enables clinicians to search treatment recommendations, confirm a dose or change the course of treatment from within the EHR or CPOE system. Micromedex Order Sets will address healthcare organizations’ needs for detailed instructions and treatment options that reflect current standards, medical evidence, and quality and regulatory initiatives for the most frequent hospital and emergency department diagnoses, procedures and complaints.