Medsphere Systems Corporation and Phoenix Health Systems today announced the merger of the two companies, effectively adding Phoenix’s comprehensive and diverse information technology (IT) expertise to Medsphere’s existing focus on VA VistA and VistA-derived systems. Moving forward, Phoenix Health Systems will retain its name and operate as a division of Medsphere; the expanded company will now offer a broader menu of IT services, including hosting and cloud-based interoperability,
Read More
Vocera Expands Clinical Integration with Epic’s EHR System
Vocera Communications, Inc., a provider of intelligent, real-time communication and collaboration solutions for mission-critical mobile environments, announced a two-way clinical integration with Epic’s EHR system, furthering the company’s commitment to connectivity across the continuum of care. The enhanced functionality enables interactive communication between EHR systems and the Vocera Communication System.
This will be the first of several two-way clinical integrations with EHRs, and
Read More
Xerox, SyTrue Partner to Transform Clinical Documentation At The Point of Care
To meet the growing demand for greater transparency, simplicity, and value, Xerox has chosen SyTrue’s Clinical Natural Language Processing (NLP) and medical terminology platform in the development of Midas+ Advanced Analytics capabilities at Xerox. The combined solution will leverage NLP and interoperability solutions to transform clinical documentation and other types of data in the electronic medical record (EMR) into standard diagnosis and procedure codes in real-time; which may then be used
Read More
Consumer Partnership for eHealth Praises ONC’s Draft Interoperability Roadmap
In comments filed on Tuesday, the nation’s top consumer advocates praised the Office of the National Coordinator’s (ONC’s) draft Shared Nationwide Interoperability Roadmap for advancing full and equal interoperability, not just among health care providers but also between providers and patients and their family caregivers. The Consumer Partnership for eHealth (CPeH), a group of more than 50 leading consumer, patient and labor organizations, filed the comments in advance of the April 3
Read More
Report: Regulatory Action May Strengthen Telehealth Adoption
On Tuesday, Price Waterhouse Cooper's Health Research Institute (HRI) released an industry brief on how recent regulatory action may be the catalyst to spur the fledgling telehealth market. In October 2014, the federal government expanded Medicare reimbursement for telehealth services, including remote chronic care management and an addition of seven new covered procedure codes for telehealth, including annual wellness visits, psychotherapy and prolonged services in the office.
Providers are
Read More
HHS Awards BioCyst $12M for Experimental Ebola Drug Development
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) has awarded $12 million to Durham, NC-based BioCryst Pharmaceuticals for experimental Ebola drug development. The development also includes preparing for large-scale manufacturing of the drug and conducting related studies.
The initial work will be undertaken over the next 18 months with support from ASPR’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority
Read More
e-MDs Acquired by Marlin Equity, Merges with MDeverywhere
e-MDs, a provider of ambulatory electronic medical record (EMR) and practice management (PM) solutions has been acquired by Marlin Equity Partners, a global investment firm with over $3B in capital under management. Following the acquisition, e-MDs has been merged with MDeverywhere, an existing Marlin portfolio company and leading provider of revenue cycle management (RCM) services and credentialing for physicians.
The acquisition and merger bring together two ambulatory
Read More
EHR Physician Workflow: The Way It Is vs. The Way It Should Be
As you know, EHRs grew out of the computer system that runs a hospital’s inner workings – billing, pharmacy, lab, scheduling, and admissions. EHR physician workflow needs were an afterthought – talk to any doctor and you’ll find that typical hospital EHRs leave a lot to be desired. As a result, the typical hospital EHR frequently makes doctors who use it less efficient and productive – and more frustrated.
The infographic created by PatientKeeper depicts the way it is today for physician
Read More
Google To Create Robotic-Assisted Surgical Platform with J&J
Google is partnering with Ethicon, a medical device company within Johnson & Johnson to create an innovative robotic-assisted surgical platform with the goal of improving health care delivery in the operating room. Under the strategic collaboration, Ethicon will work with Google's Life Sciences team known as Google X led by Andrew Conrad on advancing surgical robotics to benefit surgeons, patients and health care systems.
Robotic-assisted surgery is a type of minimally invasive surgery
Read More
Connected Fitness Trackers to Exceed $5B by 2019
Global revenues from connected fitness trackers is expected to increase from over $2 billion in 2014 to $5.4 billion by 2019, according to new report from market research firm Parks Associates. The report, Digitally Fit: Products and Services for Connected Consumers examines the current adoption and usage of connected health devices with analysis of multiple nationwide surveys of U.S. broadband households.
“Our latest data finds adoption of connected health devices increased from 24% of U.S.
Read More
