December 2007

KLAS Acts

 2007 Best in KLAS Awards

General Market Software

Some new names in some top spots. eClinicalWorks and athena are dislodged from some of their previously held top spots.

Acute Care CDR, Orders and Charting (Large, 200+ Beds) - Epic

Acute Care Reg., Sched., PA (Large, 200+ Beds) - Epic Hospital

Cardiology PACS (Acute Care) - Emageon

Decision Support - Business - EPSi

Document Management and Imaging (Acute Care) - Perceptive Software

Emergency Department Systems - Wellsoft

Enterprise Scheduling - USA RMS

Financial/ERP (GL,AP,MM,Payroll,HR) - McKesson

Financial/Materials Management/Laboratory (Larbe, 200+ beds) -  Sunquest Lab

PACS (Large, 200+ Beds) - DR Systems

Pharmacy (Large, 200+ Beds) - Epic EpicRx

Radiology (Large, 200+ Beds) - GE Centricity RIS-IC

Surgery Management - USA ORMS

Transcription and Back-End Speech Rec.- eScription EditScript

Community Hospital Software

Community HIS - Overall McKesson Paragon Community HIS (Small - 200 or Less Beds)

Community Clinical Ancillary Software - Overall DR Systems Unity (Small - 1-200 Beds)

Physician Practice Software

Ambulatory Billing and Sched. (Over 100 Physicians)- Epic

Ambulatory Billing and Sched. (26-100) - athenahealth

Ambulatory Billing and Sched. (6-25) - AdvancedMD

Ambulatory Billing and Sched. (1-5)- DoctorsPartner

Ambulatory EMR (Over 100)- Epic EpicCare Ambulatory

Ambulatory EMR (26-100) - Allscripts 

Ambulatory EMR (6-25) - Greenway Medical 

Ambulatory EMR (1-5) - MedcomSoft

Professional Services

Clinical Implementation Principal- IBM Healthlink

Clinical Implementation Supportive - Coastal Healthcare Consulting

Financial Implementation Principal- ACS

ITOutsourcing (Extensive)- Eclipsys IT Outsourcing

Outsourced Transcription - Encompass Outsourced Transcription

Planning and Assessment - Hayes Management

Revenue Cycle Consulting-Transformation - Stockamp & Associates

Technical Consulting - Hayes Management

Medical Equipment

Computed Radiography (CR) - Konica Xpress CR Dual Bay

Computed Tomography (CT) - Toshiba Aquilion 64-slice CT

Hand-Carried Ultrasound - ZONARE z.one

Magnetic Resonance (MR) - Toshiba Vantage 1.5T MR

Smart Pumps - B. Braun Outlook

Ultrasound - Toshiba Xario

Other Software

Home Care - McKesson Horizon Homecare (Home Health)

Posted by Shawn Whalen on December 28, 2007 at 10:05 AM
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Whew!!, Honey I Can Get that 750i This Year

Despite the recommendations of Health and Human Services' Mike Leavitt and the hopes of EHR industry vendors, Congress approved Medicare legislation that does not include the adoption of healthcare IT as a means for doctors to increase their Medicare reimbursements.

With all the bad publicity around cutting doctors Medicare reimbursement by 10% and the impact on seniors who would get turned away from doctors (hey, Bimmer prices aren't going down), it was inevitable that Congress would do away with the cut and add a .5% increase. Bad boy Bush will sign.

But there are enough proposed bills out there for HCIT to stuff the big mouths of all the candidates. Among these bills, Sen. John Kerry has one to require docs to do e-prescribing or face financial penalties. Esteemed imbiber Sen. Edward Kennedy has the Wired for Healthcare Quality Act.  I suspect none of these will get through. HHS will continue to blow the HCIT horn. EMR PR folks can continue the dance.

Posted by Shawn Whalen on December 27, 2007 at 3:05 PM
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Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas to all and happy New Year!

Posted by Shawn Whalen on December 21, 2007 at 4:49 PM
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Health 2.0 - The Next Big Hype

Health 2.0, likes its older cousin Web 2.0 and uncle Web 3.0, is getting more and more attention. My colleague Bonnie Andersen pointed out the December 11 Modern Healthcare article, in which the magazine describes the three most important principles of what a Health 2.0 company or application is. 
 
The first principle is the software of a Web 2.0 company has to be  Web-based, has to provide a service and that service has to be structured  so that the more people use it, the better it becomes. An example is eBay;  as more and more buyers and sellers participate, the broader the eBay  market becomes, which creates more value to the customer. 
 
The second key principle is "harnessing collective intelligence," which  also is referred to by others as "the wisdom of crowds." To avail  themselves of this wisdom, Web 2.0 developers must create applications that  are dynamic, with user participation designed into the systems, so that  participation itself becomes an integral part of making the underlying  database more valuable. 
 
The third principle, "Data is the next 'Intel inside,'  notes that  specialized data, enhanced through analysis performed by the service  provider as well as by the contributions of service users, becomes the core  asset of a Web 2.0 company. Amazon wish lists, for example, are aggregated  by Amazon and used as buyer's guides.
 
Matthew Holt of the Healthcare Blog and co-founder of the Health 2.0 conference is looser in his definition, placing the qualifying emphasis on whether the service or application promotes the healthcare experience as an "ongoing process" rather than a "series of episodic events.

Another view expressed is that Health 2.0 is centrally concerned with improved outcomes and, in the spirit of consumer-driven care, giving doctors and patients the tools they need to better achieve them.

Whatever the definition, if there is money to be made I'm sure more companies will be making a land grab in the Health 2.0 landscape.  There is still a much hype on the topic. As usual the payors and employer groups will be the driving force. Much of what's bandied about around Health 2.0 is being done by larger players already.

Posted by Shawn Whalen on December 19, 2007 at 4:44 PM
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The RHIO Reality?

According to a study by Harvard researchers published this month in Health Affairs, achieving electronic clinical data exchange across the United States is still a distant reality. From the abstract: In early 2007 we surveyed 145 RHIOs. Nearly one in four was likely defunct. Only 20 efforts were of at least modest size and exchanging clinical data. Most early successes involved the exchange of test results. To support themselves, 13 RHIOs received regular fees from
participating organizations, and eight were heavily dependent on grants. Our findings raise concerns about the ability of the current approach to achieve widespread electronic clinical data exchange. [Health Affairs 27, no. 1 (2008): w60-w69 (published online 11 December 2007; 10.1377/hlthaff.27.1.w60)]

Posted by Shawn Whalen on December 12, 2007 at 4:41 PM
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Talk with Forbes' Dan Lyons

Not directly related to healthcare IT but interesting nonetheless, Fake Steve Jobs blogger and Forbes reporter Dan Lyons sat down with us recently to discuss the blogosphere.  Listen to the podcast here.

Posted by Shawn Whalen on December 4, 2007 at 10:51 AM
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