News 8/31/10

CCHIT and Drummond Group are the first two entities selected as ONC-Authorized Testing and Certification Bodies. More organizations applied, but being first at this juncture has to be a mighty good thing. CCHIT says it will launch its certification program September 20 with a Web call explaining the application and testing process. Drummond says it will announce more specifics on August 31.

Sage Healthcare releases Intergy version 6.10, which includes the functionality required for physicians to meet Meaningful Use guidelines. Enhancements include MU dashboards, interoperability tools to connect with HIEs, and additional services within the Sage Intergy Practice Portal.

Interesting data points: practices managers average salaries $64,000 to $72,000 a year, depending on the geographic region. Receptionists in family practice offices make $24,000 a year; those in orthopedic offices earn $36,000. Over 90% of practices provide employees with health insurance.

Women’s Health Partners (OH) chooses the Aprima EHR/PM solution.

Ebix agrees to pay $66 million in stock to merge with A.D.A.M. The Ebix CEO says the deal “is a strategic step forward to establish Ebix as a Health Information Exchange and is likely to be followed by other strategic steps in coming months and years." Ebix is an international supplier of on-demand software and e-commerce services to the insurance industry. Ebix stock closed down 5% on Monday; A.D.A.M. jumped 72%.

AirStrip Technologies strikes a deal with Alere’s Women & Children’s Health division to market the AirStrip OB remote monitoring product. Alere is a provider of specialized health management services and will promote AirStrip’s OB product to physicians and hospitals.

Introducing, to your right, the first HIStalk Practice poll. A HIStalk reader actually suggested a similarly-worded question, which I appreciate. If you are using an EHR that is hosted by a hospital or vendor, please share what you are paying per physician per month.

gloStream adds Red Level Networks (MI) as a gold Partner, giving Red Level the opportunity to will sell and support gloStream products.

I look forward to hearing about how different RECs will set up their operations in terms of vendor selection and training offered. A senior director at the Iowa Foundation for Medical Care says her REC will charge providers between $300 and $2,0000 for two years of consulting services, depending on their needs. The cost for similar services on the open market would range from $25,000 to $50,000 a year.

A PHR embedded into a mobile device could become a game-changing killer app, according to Deloitte Center for Health Solutions. Despite strong potential for mPHRs applications and growing consumer interest, plenty of barriers still exist, including concerns about privacy, data integrity, and lack of standards.

ScriptPad releases a hot-selling, $.99 iPhone app titled “Drug and Prescription Medical Reference Guide.” But, the company’s bigger project is a soon-to-be released e-prescribing app that includes Surescripts access and voice recognition. I see they are looking for beta clients, if that’s of interest.

The head of programming and operations at MacPractice predicts that iPads will replace stationary computers in exam rooms and physicians will embrace them while rounding in hospitals. Look for MacPractice to release its iPad-specific applications this fall.

Dr. Hank Chien, the NY plastic surgeon who was crowned the Donkey Kong king last February, has been dethroned. The new champion is a hot sauce magnate who was champion before Chien beat his game record. I predict Chien will seek a comeback.

E-mail Inga.

HIStalk Practice Interviews Greg Waldstreicher, Founder, DoseSpot

Greg Waldstreicher is founder of DoseSpot of Baltimore, MD and a student at the University of Maryland. He is one of five college entrepreneurs competing for the Entrepreneur of 2010 award from Entrepreneur Magazine.

Tell me about DoseSpot.

DoseSpot is like a joint venture between two companies. One is a resell manager, which no longer exists, and Claricode, which is a healthcare software company out of Boston. Together we form DoseSpot.

I’ve noticed, reading the eligibility requirements for the college entrepreneur contest, that you can’t have any employees or made sales or provided any products through June 15, 2010. What does that mean in terms of where DoseSpot is in its current operations?

We don’t have any employees. We have our board of directors and our advisors. Regarding sales, we have been fortunate to do some business after June 15th deadline, which would still make us eligible.

Do you have customers in the queue?

Exactly. I can’t go into too many further details on exactly who those people are, but we’re definitely moving and shaking.

In the application video you did for the award, you mention your father is a doctor and he asked you to help develop a new prescribing tool. Was that the beginning of this and where the whole idea for the product came from?

More or less. He basically couldn’t stand getting all these faxes back and forth from the pharmacy and the fact that his office staff was just wasting so much time with the prescription process. He tasked me and said, “Try to figure out something.” I looked into the idea of e-prescribing and yeah, it was out there, but it was at the very beginning. This was a few years ago way before healthcare talk in Congress.

We stumbled upon Surescripts and we’re like, “We want to get in with these guys. We want to be Surescripts certified.” We entered an application with them awhile back. I don’t know how familiar you are with them, but their wait list is really long so we had to wait a few months. By the time we got off the wait list and we were ready to go, we had everything in place.

I know that you’ve already won a few awards for the DoseSpot concept. Tell me about some of those.

We entered the University of Maryland Business Plan Competition in May of 2009, but at that point, people really didn’t know what EMRs were, at least the people that we were presenting to. They know EMRs, but they didn’t know what e-prescribing was.  We were presenting a concept that these people didn’t really think anything of.

I remember someone had said to me, “Why do you think doctors are going to want to do this e-prescribing stuff if they don’t have computers in all their examining rooms?” So you know, it was a little bit of a vague concept, and then we followed this path for a year. We came back, and now with healthcare reform and all the incentives in play, everybody’s like whoa, you guys are really in this. So the news definitely played in our favor.

Which awards have you won so far?

We won the Undergraduate category for the University of Maryland Business Plan Competition. We’ve also received a few grants from the Warren Citrin fund. Mr. Warren Citrin created a Social Impact Fund for growing startups. And that’s mostly through the University of Maryland.

You’ve taken those award dollars to invest in the company. Is that right?

Yes, exactly. It has all gone towards the company, not towards vacations

Too bad.

Yeah, you’re telling me.

Have you had any other outside funding other than those sources?

No.

You said that you don’t really have any employees. How are you handling the support and building the infrastructure and product development and all that?

All that is being done in conjunction with Claricode, which I mentioned. They’re a healthcare software company. They only do healthcare software, out of Waltham, Massachusetts. They’re a great company, great guys. They’ve been really helpful and they’re helping us with all that.

And they handle the back end? When you call for support, you’re actually getting them?

Correct.

Do you have plans to move beyond them once you get out of school?

DoseSpot is not just something that as soon as I graduate I’m just going to leave behind. It’s something that I’m definitely planning on working with when I graduate. I work on it all day and all night. I live and breathe this stuff right now. I love health IT. I think it’s the place to be. Claricode is just a great partner right now and we’re sticking with them.

How are you marketing the company and the products?

We do a lot of newsletters. A lot of our leads actually come through the Web site. And just the regular old marketing tactics. We have a great relationship with Lexi-Comp, the drug database company. We’ve been pretty successful, but there are a few of the ways.

I noticed on your Web site that you say you want to target software vendors that have existing applications rather than individual doctors. Why did you elect to go that route?

Initially we had a standalone version and we were planning to market it back to individual doctors. But when we spoke to the doctors, they wanted a completely integrated system. They wanted to use the complete patient demographics. They didn’t want to have medication data in two separate systems that weren’t talking to each other. For example, in their electronic medical records; but it also entered separately in the e-prescribing system. So we basically switched our model to accommodate what the doctors wanted.

Is it safe to assume that the new customers you have going up are vendors?

Correct.

The Hinman CEO program sounds unique. Tell me a little bit about it and why you chose it.

The Hinman CEOs program was the first living and learning entrepreneurship program in the country. It’s part of the University of Maryland and it’s absolutely amazing. We’re building on the advice that we get, specifically from Director Dr. James Green. It’s pretty amazing.

Also, the access to the funding that they’ve given us through this Warren Citrin Fund, as well as the University — they’re the same competition — has really helped us take DoseSpot to where it is. There are so many other examples of amazing companies that have come out of this program.

Basically, it’s all the students in the program live in a building on campus together. A few times a week, we have classes together, but it’s not the class where you get the unique experience. It’s from living with other kids, young adults or students, that have the same kind of mindset as you. You’re always able to bounce ideas off each other.

You know, if you were just living in any typical dorm and you knock on your neighbor’s door and said, “Oh, I got this great idea,” that kid might not know what to do. Whereas when you’re with kids who have this whole entrepreneurial mindset, everybody’s like, “Oh, this is what we should do,” and, you know, “This is how we might line those up until the next thing.” It’s really been a great experience. I’ll be entering my third year in the program right now.

When do you graduate?

May of 2011.

So it’s not just all keg parties in the dorm?

Well, we still know how to party. We’re still getting the college experience.

Excellent. So what’s your long-term plan for DoseSpot?

We really see healthcare and information technology as the future. We really want to be along for the ride with this healthcare technology wave. We don’t see an exit right now.

Do you have a specific exit strategy for the company?

In my mind probably, but out on paper, no.

How old are you?

I am going to be 21 in less than a month.

Amazing. Well, good for you. Hopefully we’ll get you some votes. When you win the money, you can say it all began with HIStalk.

I’d rather have customers than the votes.

News 8/26/10

PerfectServe introduces PerfectServe Clinician, a free iPhone application that works with PerfectServe’s hospital communication system. Mr. H chatted with PerfectServe CEO Terry Edwards a couple of months ago. It’s an interesting read about a unique product.

Culbert Healthcare Solutions earns a spot on Inc. Magazine’s Top 5000 Fastest-Growing Private Companies. Culbert says that strong growth from physician practice management services and IT implementation services have helped propel the company to #988 in its first year of eligibility.

Meanwhile, Allscripts earns a #22 spot on the Fortune’s 100 Fastest Growing Companies. Allscripts ranked sixth among healthcare companies and was the only HIT company among that group.

MGMA sends CMS a letter regarding the proposed 2011 fee schedule. A few notable HIT points:

• MGMA urges CMS to revise its proposal to impose 2012 e-prescribing penalties to reflect 2012 e-prescribing activity versus the first six months of 2011.
• MGMA says CMS should exercise additional flexibility in assigning e-prescribing penalties. For example, CMS should give consideration to higher-volume prescribers who practice in geographic areas where local pharmacies do not have eRx capabilities, or to prescribers in specialties that require a high volume of controlled substance prescriptions that can’t be sent electronically.
• MGMA believes CMS should not assign any e-prescribing penalties to providers who meet Meaningful Use objectives. CMS will administer the 2011 EHR incentive program separately from its 2011 e-prescribing program and the criteria varies between the two.

For $10 a month, patients can sign up for GreatCall, a prescription reminder service available through Jitterbug cell phones. The Web site says patients get a “friendly” reminder call for up to 16 medications and consumers can indicate when they’ve taken their meds for compliance tracking. It’s unclear if the “friendly” reminder comes from real person or a computer, but I’m guessing computer.

Feeling the need to learn more about achieving EHR Meaningful Use goals? I noticed on the Industry Events link on HIStalk we have a number of webinar and conference options available. Click over and check them out.

Good read: California physician Rahul K. Parikh writes about his use of Google and the Internet for medical research. He points out it can be a great tool, but warns of potential pitfalls. Parikh recommends that providers become search savvy before relying too heavily on online research tools. “Unless you’re Internet savvy enough and have time to scan pages and pages of websites, skip Googling for diagnoses and just call your nearest specialist for help.”

Novo Nordisk introduces a new iPhone app for physicians. The NovoDose applications gives providers the ability to look up insulin dosing guidelines and blood glucose goals for their diabetic patients.

Ingenix Consulting launches a Strategic Technology Solutions practice, targeting large practices and hospitals. Scott Kolesar, formerly of  Wellspring Partners and EDS, will lead the group.

ISALUS Healthcare jumps into the mobile app craze, with the introduction of a new EMR-EHR app. ISALUS’s mobile app will give physician users the ability to access patient charts via their iPhones.

E-mail Inga.

News 8/24/10

From Ronnie James Dio: “Re: AAFP comment. What exactly does Waldren mean when he says, ‘Eligible professionals in the Medicare program must bear a heavier burden of full meaningful use compliance in their first payment year to receive the incentive payments’?”  Dio is referring to Steven Waldren’s comments on the final Meaningful Use rules. Dr. Waldren graciously agreed to clarify and I have attached his response to the original HIStalk Practice post.

From Not Clueless: “Accountable Care Organizations. I saw that you were going to be talking about Accountable Care Organizations with someone. To prep for your meeting, you may want to watch this video. Actually, it probably won’t help with your meeting, but it is pretty funny, although in a sad reality kind of way.”  Very funny! The clip features a health system CEO asking a help desk how to form one of those Accountable Care Organizations he read about in Modern Healthcare magazine. Last week I did have an opportunity to talk with Chet Speed, VP of  Public Policy for AMGA, and hopefully the interview will post later this week. Meanwhile, I’ll just say there’s probably more confusion than clarity surrounding the whole ACO concept.

Speaking of ACOs, critics are already speaking out against such networks, claiming they would create monopolies and thus would be more expensive than today’s models. Case in point: an ophthalmologist raises concerns over organizations that bring together large numbers of physicians in a single community to provide “total patient care.” He charges that such set-ups actually reduce or eliminate local competition. “The only way to decrease costs that truly works is increasing competition, but for some reason in health care, we’re supposed to believe that competition drives up costs.’’ I must say I am concerned he could be right.

New York Epilepsy and Neurology connects to NYU Langone Medical Center’s Epic system, the first private practice to do so. NYU Langone is offering subsidized access to the Epic system for the 700 affiliated private physicians.

Researchers with the Boston University School of Medicine find that their use of an EMR tracking system reduced diagnostic resolution times for abnormal Pap tests. After controlling for certain abnormalities, resolution times decreased from 108 days prior to implementing an EHR tracking system to 86 days after implementation.

I’d like to welcome Ingenix aboard as our newest HIStalk Practice sponsor. Ingenix has been a long-time supporter of HIStalk and we appreciate their spilling the love over to HIStalk Practice. Ingenix has made HIT headlines as of late for its purchase of Picis and Axolotl. However, the company has a host of other healthcare IT solutions for hospitals, pharma, payers, and physicians. CareTracker is the company’s integrated financial and clinical solution for physician practices. Other ambulatory care offerings from Ingenix include an RCM solution, EDI services, coding compliance tools, and consulting services. Thanks to Ingenix for supporting HIStalk Practice and our readers.

Preferred Health Partners (NY) and Staten Island Physician Practice each receive $100,000 in incentive payments from the Primary Care Information Project. Both practices leveraged their NextGen Health Quality Measures Reporting Modules and Ambulatory EHRs to document improvements in core quality health measures.

DrChrono.com releases a new version of its iPad EMR Platform, which now includes electronic prescribing and the ability to store and display scanned documents and lab reports.

Health care attorney J. Ryan Williams cautions physicians not to jump on the first hospital-subsidized EHR option that comes their way. Instead providers should develop their own Meaningful Use plans and consider hiring a consultant to test the various systems being offered by affiliated hospitals.

Several receptionists at a busy “surgery” in Brighton, England quit after suffering months for verbal abuse from irate patients. Apparently the doctor’s office is understaffed and patients are irate over not being able to get appointments. From one receptionist: “We get sworn at, get called jumped-up receptionists, and even threatened that someone will come down to the centre and sort us out.” Sad, of course, but why do things always sound so much cooler when the Brits say it?

E-mail Inga.

Intelligent Healthcare Information Integration 8/23/10

EHR Data Sharing – No Manhattan Transfer

A recent change in working arrangements led to the need to look into the exchange of a few hundred patients’ records, from one well-known EHR system to another very prominent company’s system. To say such an exchange is easy or, especially to say it is cheap, would be the understatement of the month.

Don’t get me wrong, it is possible — in some format or another. Demographics only via .CSV or full CCR/CCD transfer of medical data are possible. But for small practices who want to share large chunks of data from one well-built system to another, it is certainly cost-prohibitive and not a simple “have your peeps call my peeps and set it up” type of deal. You’d think that by this time we might have had enough such transfers that the cost would be decreasing and the intercourse would be, well, more satisfying.

You may not be a fan of vocal jazz as put forth by “The Manhattan Transfer,” but they have been putting out some pretty silky songs for some 40 years. Their sustainability is founded upon their ability to incorporate and appropriate from many diverse styles and formats. They bring in elements from many great musical genres and meld them into their own particular musical system.

EHRs must be able to share amongst the many, many digital “genres” now fairly entrenched throughout the country and do so in a way that isn’t another bloodletting point for small practices. If not, the whole NHIN (or whatever version or flavor or name du jour it is) concept might as well be called the Big Organization EHR Information Network. Add “Group” at the end and it’s BOEING. (Hmmmm… Big government contracts, mega-corporate mindset and attitude…there’s some association there.)

Us little guys don’t have the overhead room to afford playing in the big digital sandbox if simplicity and small guy costs aren’t a part of the plan. I know, I know — healthcare data is complicated and these multi-siloed, often incompatible systems and system architectures argue against simplicity and inexpensive costs. But, you know, we let it get built that way. There’s no rule that says we can’t reengineer.

I hope so. The more I use our EHR, the more value I see within it. It has its problems, sure, but they’re far more acceptable than the hassles associated with pen and paper. It just shouldn’t make such off-key squawks when all I want is syncopation.

From the trenches…

“Beauty of style and harmony and grace and good rhythm depend on simplicity.” – Plato

Dr. Gregg Alexander, a grunt in the trenches pediatrician, directs the “Pediatric Office of the Future” exhibit for the American Academy of Pediatrics and is a member of the Professional Advisory Council for ModernMedicine.com. More of his blather…er, writings…can be found at his blog, practice web site or directly from doc@madisonpediatric.com.