News 8/28/14

Top News

CMS names Kevin Counihan to the newly created position of CEO of Healthcare.gov. The agency has high hopes for Counihan, who oversaw the state of Connecticut’s health insurance exchange. Access Health CT was the first state marketplace to surpass enrollment targets by signing up nearly 260,000 people.

HIStalk Practice Announcements and Requests

Don’t miss these upcoming HIStalk webinars:

September 4 (Thursday) 2:00 p.m. ET. MU2 Veterans Speak Out: Implementing Direct Secure Messaging for Success. Presented by DataMotion. Moderator: Mr. HIStalk. Panelists: Darby Buroker, executive director of health information exchange, Steward Health Care; Anne Lara, EdD, RN, CIO, Union Hospital of Cecil County, MD; Andy Nieto, health IT strategist, DataMotion; Mat Osmanski, senior application analyst, Steward Health Care; and Bill Winn, PhD, Meaningful Use service line executive, Navin, Haffty & Associates. Panelists will discuss the strategy and tactics of meeting the transitions of care requirements for MU2, including assembling the team, implementing Direct Secure Messaging, getting providers on board, and reporting results. 

September 11 (Thursday) 1:00 p.m. ET. Check out the video above for a fun overview of Electronic Health Record Divorce Rates on the Rise — The Four Factors that Predict Long-term Success. Presented by The Breakaway Group, A Xerox Company. Presenters: Heather Haugen, PhD, CEO and managing director, The Breakaway Group, A Xerox Company; Bill Rieger, CIO, Flagler Hospital, St. Augustine, FL. Many users are considering divorcing their EHR as dissatisfaction increases. Many are spending 90 percent of their time and resources on the wedding (the go-live) instead of the long-term commitment to new workflows, communication, education, and care outcomes (the marriage). Hear more about the findings of research published in “Beyond Implementation: A Prescription for Lasting EMR Adoption” about EHR adoption and success factors.  Registrants get a free electronic or paper copy of the book.

September 18 (Thursday) Time TBD. Save the date for a presentation with Dim-Sum, HIStalk’s very own DoD insider. The mid-day presentation will touch on the DoD’s $11 billion EHR RFP, as well as its healthcare reach, current systems, relationships with contractors and other government agencies, and selection process.

Favorite Tweet of the Week, courtesy of @pedshospdoc by way of HIStalk Practice contributor @aspooner:

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

The latest S&P Capital IQ Hedge Fund Tracker shows that IT and healthcare stocks saw the largest growth in new hedge fund buying activity during the second quarter of 2014. IT claimed the top spot for a second quarter in a row, coming in at $1.45 billion. Healthcare came in slightly under at $1.4 billion. McKesson jumps out to me as the biggest healthcare IT company mentioned. One thing is for sure: It’s a good time to be in healthcare IT, though I wonder how much of this money will actually trickle down to improved access and outcomes for patients.

Announcements and Implementations

NexGenic launches ImageInbox, an app that enables patients and physicians to securely store and send medical images and diagnostic reports to each other. The Apple version of the app includes a social-sharing feature (HIPAA red flag?), should patients be so inclined to share their latest baby ultrasounds.

McGree Medical becomes the first physician’s practice within the St. James Healthcare (MT) network to connect to its Epic Community Care EHR. (Is it just me or does the gentleman in the picture above look a little nervous about the roll out?) The health system rolled out the MyChart patient portal earlier this summer.

The Georgia Health Information Network upgrades its GeorgiaDirect product to include access to the national network of providers and facilities within the DirectTrust Community. Medicity provides the technology behind the state HIE product.

Greenway Health completes implementation of the Walgreens Health Cloud EHR – the largest cloud-based EHR system ever deployed in a pharmacy setting. Pharmacists at over 8,200 Walgreens locations now have access to patient prescription, immunization, and health testing records. Greenway’s user conference kicks off next week, and I would love to hear from attendees. Feel free to send me observations, rumors, and pictures.

North Carolina Pediatric Associates will deploy the NextGen Ambulatory EHR, PM, and patient portal.

Research and Innovation

A study finds that blood pressure management and medication changes done at home result in healthier blood pressure levels than when performed in a physician’s office. The year-long study followed 450 patients with previous heart trouble, strokes, diabetes or kidney disease. No mention is made before the paywall of what, if any, technology was used by the self-care patients. I wonder how easy it would be to replicate these findings if patients were given blood-pressure monitoring apps from a company like iHealth or Withings.

Research shows that HIV screening rates increase when clinical staff are prompted by screening alerts from EHRs. Data show that HIV testing at Urban Health Plan sites increased from 8 percent of patients in 2010 to 56 percent from January 2011 to  September 2013 after implementation of the new screening program.

A survey finds that over 50 percent of 1,100 consumers in the U.S. and U.K. say they value primary-care physicians. Respondents gauged them on putting patients first, empowerment and access, and science and innovation. The numbers shift when it comes to the perceived value of hospitals, with 54.3 percent of UK respondents and 39.3 percent of US respondents giving hospitals a rating of six or seven on a seven-point scale based on the same criteria.

Government and Politics

ONC issues a general solicitation for public input on its nationwide interoperability roadmap. Comments on the first draft of the roadmap are due Friday, September 12. Version “1.0” of the roadmap will likely be released early next year.

The VA will open a RFP for a commercial patient scheduling system in September and will award a contract by the end of the year. VA CIO Stephen Warren says the agency will “acquire a commercial, off-the-shelf scheduling system,” but then oddly adds that it wants a system “tailored specifically for our Veterans.”

People

Frank MacLeon is promoted to vice president of client relations and performance management at Continuum Health Alliance.

The local paper covers the retirement of David Scheiner, MD former physician to President Obama during his days in Chicago. Scheiner has no love for EHRs, and “has been a fierce critic of Obama’s signature accomplishment, the Affordable Care Act.”

Ryan Alverson joins WRS Health as director of customer support.

Other

The Oregon Health Care Quality Corp. releases its annual scores for primary care physicians. The scores, which for the first time include Medicare data, enable patients to compare how clinics perform in areas such as preventive care, chronic disease care, and appropriate use of healthcare services.

Sponsor Updates

• PerfectServe announces the formation of its customer advisory panel.
• NextGen Healthcare’s Ambulatory EHR earns 2014 ONC HIT Cancer Registry Certification.

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jennifer, Dr. Jayne, Dr. Gregg, Lt. Dan, Dr. Travis

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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DOCtalk with Dr. Gregg 8/27/14

Voice Recollection & Otto Collect

A wonderful ENT physician and good buddy recently decided to try a new EHR system. (Let’s call him “Charlie” to protect the innocent.) He was raving about it and sent me a letter using his new system with its incorporated voice recognition and, apparently, its autocorrect function. I don’t think he read it before hitting “Send.”

Thought you might enjoy:

High Greg,

I’m absolutely loving my new HER! As you no, I half never used voice recollection before, sew it has really been quite the new advent for me. Butt I think I’m finale starring to get the hang of it.

The new HER system has many great feats that I haven’t even begun to underhand yet, but the sales guy assumed me that I would need and us them all, eventfully. I stated with the voice recollection stuff early, because it seemed as if it might be funeral and maybe even shortchange my Daley charting work low. Thus, I’m actuarially speaking this letter too you while I’m driving down to a see Emmy seminary in Cincinnati. (Getting a little refreshment on current happing’s in eEmpty, like a cute Otis media, sinus I tis, and coop.) Donut worry, my wife is driving while I work on my I pad.

I like big butts and I cannot lie. You other brothers can’t deny. [I’m guessing he had the car radio on!]

Anyway, I think I may stat using this voice recollection to do moor of my chatting. Its fun and seems like it might bee pretty easy to.

That said, attacked is the consort note on our Mutual of Omaha patient, John Smith.

Best rigors,

Charlie

ATTACHMENT:

Subjunctive: Patient is a 3 year old wife mail who presets today for follow up of bicameral tympany tube placemats. Patient has dun well since tube placemat.

Objection: Patient is allured and active. Tympany tubes are in good position and tympany members are clear. External audit camels are clear and without train age.

Asses mat: 3 year old wife mail statist post tympany tube placemat, doing fairy well.

Plan: Flow up in sick moths to retest earring.

And they say electronic notes are easier to read than handwritten!

From the trenches…

(No slights intended to the wonderful voice recognition folks or any hardworking autocorrect programmers. Such tools really are much better than this extreme – and admittedly silly – example portrays.)

“I had to inject her with an epic penis…

…Damn autocorrect!…

…Epi Pen.”

– Actual autocorrect texts from anonymous “Dad”

Dr. Gregg Alexander, a grunt in the trenches pediatrician at Madison Pediatrics, is Chief Medical Officer for Health Nuts Media, an HIT and marketing consultant, and sits on the board of directors of the Ohio Health Information Partnership (OHIP).

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jennifer, Dr. Jayne, Dr. Gregg, Lt. Dan, Dr. Travis

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

Get HIStalk Practice  updates.
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HIStalk Practice News 8/26/14

Top News

The DoD issues the multi-billion dollar DHMSM RFP to replace many of its legacy healthcare IT systems, including the Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application (AHLTA), Composite Health Care System (CHCS), and the majority of the Theater Medical Information Program-Joint (TMIP-J). The department expects to select the solution in the third quarter of 2015, with initial operation beginning in the Pacific Northwest in 2016 and other regions added in waves. The new system will enable the DoD to share health data between the VA and private sector, ultimately supporting 9.6 million DoD beneficiaries and over 153,000 military health system personnel.

This news makes me even more eager to tune into the HIStalk mid-day webinar on September 18 featuring DoD insider Dim-Sum, who will describe the DoD’s healthcare reach, current systems, relationships with contractors and other government agencies, and selection process. Stay tuned for registration details.

HIStalk Practice Reader’s Survey

Thanks to all who took the time to fill out the annual HIStalk Practice Reader’s Survey, not to mention those that tacked on an encouraging or welcoming comment. I was pleased to see that 36 percent of respondents work for a health system or physician practice, and a majority of those are providers with purchasing authority (good news for our sponsors and a good indication of the type of news to keep covering). One such reader noted that he or she “picked a new EHR mainly on the basis of information gained here.” (And no, I didn’t make that up.)

News, rumors, and humor top the list of what readers enjoy most about HIStalk Practice (though one respondent did comment that it has become a bit too stuffy). Over 75 percent of respondents noted they have a higher interest or appreciation for companies when they read about them here, and that reading HIStalk Practice has helped them better perform their jobs. Both of those statistics correlate directly with many write-in comments like these:

“Sharing the rumors or news with my executives makes me look like I am ahead of the curve.”

“Kept me in the know, gave me some relevant talking points I could share with leadership. Now I am recognized as someone who is abreast of what is going on in the industry.”

I’m not one to shy away from constructive criticism, and appreciate readers sharing their thoughts on how we can improve coverage. More humor seems to be on the radar of many respondents, so I’ll do my best to keep things light where appropriate. Other suggestions that piqued my interest include:

• Coverage/recommendations of practice-centric healthcare IT trade associations.
• Quarterly recaps of “hot” industry topics and developments.
• How to best utilize clinical decision support.
• Ambulatory healthcare IT coverage from a government insider’s perspective (thankfully, we’ve got Micky Tripathi back on board).
• Interviews with practices dropping out of Meaningful Use.
• Talk to an ambulatory Epic user about strengths and weaknesses.

If you are an expert in any of the above areas, please drop me a line and let me know if you’re up for an interview or the role of guest contributor. Our rumors and interviews are only as juicy as the industry insiders who provide them!

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

The state of Vermont signs a revised contract with Optum to the tune of $9.5 million for additional work on the Vermont Health Connect health insurance exchange. Optum will help the state prepare for open enrollment on November 15, and assist it in transitioning away from CGI, whose contract is up on September 20. Optum will continue to fulfill its $5.6 million contract for consulting work at VHC customer service call centers.

Beedie Capital Partners commits to investing $3.5 million in Nightingale Informatix Corp., which develops the Nightingale EHR and related software services. The company plans to use the investment to launch Nexia, its next-generation EHR platform.

After a rough week in which a data center outage caused unplanned downtime for its customers, Practice Fusion announces it will partner with online appointment booking and patient review site Vitals. Patients who visit the Vitals site will now have access to physicians who use the Practice Fusion EHR and consumer-facing website Patient Fusion. Those physicians will in turn have greater exposure to those potential patients.

Government and Politics

A British newspaper points out the correlation between suits and T-shirts when it comes to productivity at the White House, shining a spotlight on Mikey Dickerson, head of the new U.S. Digital Service. “People want to know if I’m wearing a suit to work every day,” Dickerson said. “Because that’s just the quickest shorthand way of asking: ‘Is this just the same old business as usual or are they actually going to listen?’” Dickerson seems to have his wits about him on his first day at the new job, as the short video above shows, though I’m surprised the ubiquitous can of Red Bull was nowhere to be seen.

ONC Coordinator Karen DeSalvo, MD alerts followers to the fact that National Health IT Week will be held September 15-19, and will revolve around advocacy activities planned largely by HIMSS. Am I right in thinking physicians in the trenches will not be observing the festivities this year?

Announcements and Implementations

Telemedicine kiosk company HealthSpot announces it will install 100 kiosks in community pharmacies across Ohio. The company will target locations that have high ER visit rates and long wait times using information culled from patient focus groups and claims data analysis conducted with CareSource, a health plan that serves 1.2 million consumers in Ohio and Kentucky. (You can read the HIStalk Connect interview with HealthSpot founder and CEO Steve Cashman here. It would seem Cashman has not quite given up on retail clinics, which he is less than enthusiastic about in the interview.)

CarePoint Health System (NJ) selects the eClinicalWorks EHR for its 45 medical practices. It will also utilize eCW’s Care Coordination Medical Record for population health management.

People

Todd Park will reportedly step down as US CTO but will remain a White House employee, moving back to the Silicon Valley to work on brokering relationships between technology companies and the federal government.

Research and Innovation

The Washington Post delves into the impact consumer-generated health data has on public-event and -health reporting. Jawbone’s chart on sleep patterns during the recent California earthquake shows not just what time the quake hit, but also paints a picture of the collective anxiety many users felt for hours afterwards. FitBit is also in on the trend as it attempts to sell its devices to large corporations, promising aggregate group reports on things like how far employees walk and how much they exercise.

Other

Wearable technology company OMsignal and Ralph Lauren partner to outfit ball boys (and presumably girls) at the U.S. Open with connected shirts that broadcast their vitals to a smartphone or display. Given that I am one among many who has ditched a wearable activity tracker shortly after receiving it, I see the commercial allure of skipping accessories altogether and heading straight for apparel. The $200 price tag, however, would definitely give me pause should I ever be in the market to wear something like this to my next ALTA match.

Mr. H has covered the healthcare IT vendor side of the ALS #IceBucketChallenge, so now it’s my turn to showcase the viral attempts of providers. Staff at South Dakota-based Pro Motion Physical Therapy and Black Hills Neurosurgery & Spine take the challenge, and pledge to donate $100 per employee to the ALS Association. They have also officially challenged Black Hills Surgical Hospital, Black Hills Orthopedics, and Black Hills Urgent Care to take on raising awareness of the disease.

A professor at the University of Michigan makes the case for data visualization as a better way for the average patient to understand lab results. Having logged into a few patient portals to view lab results, I tend to agree with his opinion that, “The present situation, in which patients are given direct access to their lab test results in highly numerical tables, is a poor status quo. If we are going to spend money making sure that patients can see their results, we have an obligation to change the way we display them by making the format more intuitive.”

Recently released data from South Korea’s National Tax Service show that companies in that country spent just over $8.5 billion on entertainment expenses between 2009 and 2012. Given that budgets for fall conference season and HIMSS 15 are likely already set, it would be interesting to hear from readers just how much money the healthcare IT complex plans to spend on wooing its customers.

Sponsor Updates

• Atlanta Gastroenterology Associates chooses Greenway PrimeSUITE EHR/PM.
• Hayes Management Consulting is named to Modern Healthcare’s 2014 Best Places to Work in Healthcare list.
• NextGen’s NextGen Share solution achieves full DirectTrust accreditation from EHNAC.
• Kareo executives complete the ALS #IceBucketChallenge.

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jennifer, Dr. Jayne, Dr. Gregg, Lt. Dan, Dr. Travis

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

Get HIStalk Practice  updates.
Contact us online.

5 Questions with Alyson Tiedeman, Director of Practice Management, South Florida Medicine

Alyson Tiedeman is the director of practice management at South Florida Medicine, a large multispecialty group of over 100 physicians in urology, oncology, surgery, surgical oncology, thoracic surgery, and radiation. Tiedman oversees contracting and credentialing, implementations and on-boarding, integration and training, billing and revenue cycle management, practice management, financial infrastructure, accounting, banking and cash management, as well as the operations and administration of SFM’s 70 locations.

What sort of IT challenges arise with a medical group of SFM’s size? How do you ensure everyone is on the same page when it comes to moving forward with healthcare IT projects, and improving patient experience and clinical outcomes?
Some of our practices are still on paper. Even though we encourage them, we do not mandate that a practice leverages our IT infrastructure. This can present challenges as we look to implement greater connectivity strategies. Today, the majority of our practices have an EHR (there are currently seven different systems in use), and all of our practices are required to use our centralized billing services. SFM has also implemented a best practice in which we measure the success of both our central billing office and CareCloud PM system against a set of core billing and collections metrics. Monthly tracking of first-pass pay rates with payers and days in accounts receivables are not just critical for the overall success of the practice, but for the successful retention and recruitment of member physicians.

How much control does SFM give its physician members in terms of selecting healthcare IT systems?
SFM has embraced a flexible business model that allows physician members to leverage a common administrative and IT infrastructure. SFM’s hybrid IT model has allowed our group to expand rapidly, while negotiating better payer contracts for our members and gaining predictability around administrative costs along the way.

To be a successful group, you need to be able to offer choices to member physicians, especially when you support as many specialties as we do. Meaningful Use has been one of the key drivers of this for our group and getting our members to adopt IT and use it successfully.

Why did SFM decide to move to a centralized cloud-based PM system? Was each location using its own system prior to adopting CareCloud?
SFM has found that one size may not fit all when it comes to IT infrastructure; however, there are certain aspects of the business that need to be standardized, especially for compliance purposes. Given the diversity of our member practices and the speed with which they have joined, SFM offers a flexible model by which members can still choose to use their existing EHR system. At the same time, members can opt to have SFM handle revenue cycle management or stick with their current billing and collections staff. With CareCloud’s technology at the heart, disparate solutions can be integrated into the common platform so all parts work together seamlessly.

What’s next in terms of technology implementations for the practice?
Currently, we want to have all of our practices using an EHR as that lends to stronger clinical outcomes and overall operational benefits. All of our practices are required to use CareCloud’s PM system as we bill under one tax ID, and this helps facilitate that for our group.

It seems that a medical group of this size might be able to tell a compelling story for health information exchange. How are your physicians sharing information amongst each other, local hospitals, and beyond? Is SFM formally plugged into a HIE in Florida at the moment?
Although we encourage HIE for our group, we are not formally involved on the multispecialty side. However, our member physicians do exchange clinical information with outside clinicians and care delivery organizations, and are therefore very much involved in HIE.

Bonus Question: What benefits have you seen result from smaller physician groups joining SFM, especially with regard to healthcare IT?
With the direction that healthcare is going, the trends have changed and a small, one-to-five physician practice can find it very difficult to thrive in this environment, especially with ongoing Medicare cuts. Combining forces leads to many benefits, such as increased profitability by way of reduced overhead costs (IT and otherwise), higher payer contacts, better supply rates, increased referral sources, and the overall support and expertise of a bigger organization, just to name a few.

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jennifer, Dr. Jayne, Dr. Gregg, Lt. Dan, Dr. Travis

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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HIStalk Practice Interviews Baha Zeidan, CEO of Azalea Health

Baha Zeidan is co-founder and CEO of Azalea Health.

Describe how Azalea Health came to be, its current target market, and your role at the company.
Azalea was started by three founders, including myself, who worked at a regional medical laboratory company. In this role, I had the opportunity to work with many EHRs during the process of interfacing lab results and orders with physician EHRs. We noticed that most EHRs in the industry were clunky, and physicians had a hard time understanding how to use them because they did now follow their workflow.

In 2007, we recognized the opportunity to build a healthcare IT solution that would be truly cloud-based and as simple to use as an email tool. We offer a complete solution that integrates easily with existing systems.

Our target market has been focused on physician offices in small towns and rural areas. Our clients typically don’t have the resources or expertise to implement EHR and billing technologies that are now required by the Affordable Care Act. We help them with their workflow, revenue cycle, and compliance with government regulations like Meaningful Use and ICD-10.

I am the CEO and co-founder, and in this role I am responsible for driving the strategic direction of the company. With my team, I ensure Azalea Health is on track to meet its product development, customer service, and performance goals, as well as community goals. I have also, in many ways, become an ambassador for Azalea Health in our local community and in the healthcare IT community. Although I am the CEO and the visionary, every single person on the team has a say and contributes to our direction and success.

What is the status of the Azalea Health / simplifyMD partnership? Isn’t it really more of an acquisition on the part of Azalea Health?
Azalea Health has acquired and merged the simplifyMD team with our team. We are thrilled that simplifyMD customers are joining the Azalea family. simplifyMD customers will now benefit from an even greater variety of solutions and expanded capacity to support their needs. Azalea Health benefits from the addition of the highly talented simplifyMD team. It’s been a smooth transition and we are all excited about our future opportunities.

The current simplifyMD Atlanta office will continue to be in the Atlanta area. Azalea Health has its main office in Valdosta, Georgia, with satellite offices in Macon, Georgia and Gainesville, Florida. simplifyMD staff will not have to re-locate to Valdosta. We see the company as strengthening sales operations out of Atlanta with support and product development mostly in Valdosta. 

One of the great benefits of this merger is how well the products complement each other. The product teams are working to interface products immediately and to determine the combined product road map.

Mike Brozino, simplifyMD’s former president and CEO, will continue to provide guidance and input in an advisory capacity. As the transition occurs, management team and roles will be determined and announced. We will continue to use Azalea Health and simplifyMD names and branding during the transition.

It seems that the EHR market, especially vendors that serve smaller practices, is living up to predictions of consolidation. What do you foresee your part of the market doing over the next three to five years? Are additional acquisitions in the company’s future?
You are absolutely right on your consolidation view. Actually, the recent transaction of Azalea and simplifyMD is a testament of that consolidation. The market is still highly fragmented, and companies with simple/scalable end-to-end solutions and with excellent customer service will continue to win.

I also foresee that physicians will start to work more with a vendor that can help them not only with the EHR software, but also with how to navigate the complexity of the financial side of our healthcare system.

We see ourselves as a leader in the industry, and we will continue to focus on growing our customer base organically and through mergers and acquisitions.

When do you think the replacement market will settle down? What do you think Azalea Health’s role will be once this happens?
Healthcare software is going through a major revolution, likely accelerated by healthcare reform. We see customers that are on a third replacement of their EHR. This trend will likely continue through the next decade as vendors attempt to keep up with the constant changes in ICD-10 and Meaningful Use.

Some vendors have not prepared their solutions to keep up with rapidly evolving payment changes, and many will have difficulty in providing mobile applications for the providers and their patients. Also, as healthcare is becoming more and more interconnected, you will see some vendors not able keep up with the interoperability needed between systems – mobile, wearables, and clinical devices.

What are your customers’ biggest challenges at the moment with regards to healthcare technology?
Innovation and government regulation are causing healthcare technology to be in a constant state of flux. Navigating through the regulatory environment while simultaneously taking advantage of the most recent advancements from cutting-edge solutions is a daunting task for physicians and hospitals.

Providers are challenged by increasing costs, reduced reimbursements, escalation of regulatory oversight, and a need to ensure that their patient’s private health information remains private, all while providing the best quality of care possible. Our philosophy is to reduce the complexity of operating a medical practice by streamlining clinical and financial workflows, and providing services that assist with maintaining compliance and ensuring that the practice is adequately reimbursed for the services provided.

Have you seen any of your customers drop out of Meaningful Use, or avoid it altogether? Why have they done so, and has this been the best business decision in the long run?
We do see physicians dropping out of Meaningful Use, and we still see some that are avoiding it altogether. Some of them have avoided it because they see it as another layer of complexity in accommodating Stage 2, and they don’t see the advantage in doing more for less incentive.

Some are still on the fence thinking that they have a few more years to practice and maybe they’ll be able to dodge Meaningful Use altogether. This has not been a good decision for them for many reasons. More patients want to be engaged with their healthcare, and they are demanding that their clinical information be available electronically. Second, more providers are wanting to electronically send referrals and clinical data between health systems to different providers. Third, the healthcare payment system is going through changes (ICD-10, pay for performance, pay for outcome, pay for reporting). Those changes can be much easier to adopt if the provider is using a certified EHR and participating in Meaningful Use.

What are the company’s plans for next-generation product features? How will you ensure Azalea Health’s products stand out from the rest?
Azalea has a patent pending on “collaborative charting.” We are excited about this concept, which allows healthcare providers to collaborate in real time on a patient chart and see what each healthcare provider is documenting about the patient.

Also, we are very thrilled about our future mobile development. The next generation EHR is lightweight and mobile-focused. I can go on and on about our future development, including more tools for telemedicine – a key differentiator for us, as well as enabling device makers, patients, and other systems to easily and securely connect with the Azalea platform.

What is the company doing to foster innovation in your area of healthcare IT? Any future hackathons planned?
We had great success earlier this year with our first Azalea-sponsored hackathon in cooperation with local colleges and universities. We are making this an annual tradition. Also, we are planning this year on hosting an internal hackathon within the Azalea Research and Development Team!

Our VP of Technology, Duncan Kabinu, is starting a continuous learning and collaboration program within our R&D team that will look at potential innovations in new technologies, and not just those in healthcare. We’ll look to see how other industries have solved problems, and how we can learn from and apply those solutions in healthcare.

How do you see your customers responding to increased industry interest in telemedicine? Do you anticipate Azalea Health making a play in that area in the near future?
Telemedicine has been part of our strategy for several years. We have a project underway in which we are implementing the Azalea EHR in 40 schools in South Georgia in collaboration with the Georgia Partnership for Telehealth. This effort will help those schools use telemedicine in the school rather than taking the student patient out of school to see a provider or specialist.

We are also working on providing real time video chat within our platform to enable telemedicine and patient engagement. 2015 will be very exciting year for us, as we will continue to provide innovative tools for telemedicine and help connect rural patients with specialists from anywhere in the country.

It seems the company has a number of community service endeavors. Is there one service project in particular that has left a lasting impression?
Azalea Health has its roots in rural Georgia (Valdosta). We have been a huge supporter of United Way local projects. However, the most interesting and longest lasting projects we are involved in are related to helping our local schools, technical colleges, and state universities. We mentor interested students in programs designed to educate them about healthcare IT to help build and foster a local workforce that will fill our need for future innovators in the healthcare IT industry.

Any concluding thoughts?
The healthcare IT industry is going through a lot of change. It’s been very exciting to be able to help providers navigate those changes, and provide them with solutions that encourage them to focus more on patient care. Also, it is an honor for Azalea to be a company that helps patients learn more about their condition, while engaging them with their providers, and ultimately improving their overall healthcare.

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jennifer, Dr. Jayne, Dr. Gregg, Lt. Dan, Dr. Travis

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

Get HIStalk Practice  updates.
Contact us online.