Category Archives: EHR

EHR, Electronic health record, iPhone, Medical, Mobile, Nuance, Nuance Communications, Speech recognition, Voice

Nuance Adds Voice to Epic Mobile Electronic Health Record Apps

Nuance Communications, Inc.  today announced that Epic electronic health record (EHR) customers can now use voice-enabled clinical information capture through Epic Haiku for the iPhone™ and Canto for the iPad™.

“Epic’s mobile applications provide valuable EHR access both inside and outside the hospital or clinic environment,” said Dr. Jeffrey Westcott, medical director, Cardiac Catherization Lab, Swedish Medical Center. “For me, it’s important to have the on-the-go accessibility provided by tablets and smartphones. Using voice recognition to document a note in Haiku or Canto allows me to seamlessly dictate the patient narrative into the electronic healthcare record using a workflow that suits my style and ensures my focus can remain on patients.”

Nuance’s cloud-based, medical voice recognition builds off of its proven success with the more than 450,000 clinicians worldwide who use Nuance’s Best-in-KLAS clinical documentation solutions on the desktop every day. By leveraging the existing desktop-focused interface, Nuance enables Haiku and Canto customers to connect to Nuance Healthcare’s voice recognition in the cloud. This connectivity will provide maintenance-free access and automatic updates of personal speech profiles, medical vocabularies and user-defined shortcuts. Customers can also enter progress notes, histories and physical exams via voice.

“Clinicians’ work lives are not conducive to a desk and chair; they need the flexibility of a mobile environment to support their workflow – between exam rooms, clinics and hospitals – and all at a moment’s notice,” said Janet Dillione, executive vice president and general manager, Nuance Healthcare. “Still, issues surrounding the adoption of mobile technologies remain, including limitations surrounding laborious touchscreen keyboards. With voice-enabled mobile EHR applications, clinicians can enjoy the benefits of the Nuance-powered functionality anytime, anywhere.”


Athenahealth, EHR, Electronic health record, Health administration, Health Care, M&A Activity, Medical

athenahealth Acquires Healthcare Data Services

athenahealth, Inc., a  provider of cloud-based practice management, electronic health record (EHR), and care coordination services, today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Healthcare Data Services LLC (HDS), a web-based solutions provider and expert in health care data analysis and population health management for payers and providers. It is anticipated that the transaction will close in October 2012.

This acquisition is expected to expand athenahealth’s cloud-based services portfolio to include high-value, population-based cost and quality data analysis and reporting capabilities. By expanding its services in this way, athenahealth will be strengthening its ability to support health care organizations to navigate the growing number of risk-based payment models, and align care coordination with patient population needs.

“Value-based payment models are fundamentally changing the way patient care is coordinated, delivered, and reimbursed,” said Jonathan Bush, CEO and chairman of athenahealth. “With HDS, we can help health care organizations to thrive in the face of change—to drive down costs through smart, high quality care coordination and to understand the totality of services being provided. This acquisition supports our existing efforts to create an information backbone that makes health care work as it should.”

New payment models offered by the U.S. government and commercial health plans aim to create a reimbursement system that links care reimbursement to the quality of care delivered and, ultimately, to reduce overall health care expenses for populations of patients. These risk-based contracts come in a variety of models, including pay-for-performance (P4P) incentives, bundled payments, shared savings, and global capitation; each requires improved insight into patient population data so that health care organizations can gauge and manage patient needs while simultaneously tracking and adjusting their own performance against risk-based reimbursement contracts.

The addition of HDS would bring many advantages and synergies that would expand athenahealth’s recognition as a single-source provider of best-in-class workflow and data insight solutions to support all payment models:

  • Proven Innovation Excellence – HDS has led the market for population
    health tools in Massachusetts, which in turn has led the country in
    transforming toward more of an accountable care health care
    marketplace. Together, the combined organization would be able to help
    a broader set of health care organizations to drive quality and
    improvement to the way care is coordinated and reimbursed.
  • Key and Differentiating Services – The proven services and value of
    HDS would be able to leverage athenahealth’s investment, sales force
    capacity, and complementary cloud-based services. HDS complements
    athenahealth’s commitment to support risk-based payment models, as
    well as athenahealth’s mission to be the best in the world at getting
    medical caregivers paid for doing the right thing.
  • Advancement to Health Information Open Exchange – With HDS,
    athenahealth could better support health care organizations in their
    access and use of data as a means to drive clinical and financial
    improvement. HDS complements athenahealth’s clinical-cycle,
    patient-cycle, and care coordination workflows, as well as
    athenahealth’s efforts to create a health care information backbone to
    make health care work as it should.
  • Accelerated Growth within the Large-to-Enterprise Market – HDS brings
    valuable relationships within the medium-to-large health systems
    market. Greater access to these organizations would accelerate
    athenahealth’s delivery of its cloud-based services and in turn
    contribute to growing revenue streams.

“By combining HDS with athenahealth, we expect to create a comprehensive, easy-to-access platform for health care organizations to take on and succeed in the face of payment reform and the shift to accountable care,” said Jonathan Porter, co-founder of HDS. “The massive changes going on in health care reimbursement create challenges, but more so create opportunities. Together with athenahealth, we would be able to bridge the gap between providers, payers, and patients by providing ready-to-use population health management capabilities as part of EHR workflows that support restructured payment models and ensure the delivery of appropriate and necessary care to patients.”


American College of Radiology, EHR, Electronic health record, Medical, Medical imaging, Radiology

DR Systems Launches Radiology EHR for Meaningful Use Compliance

DR Systems announced that its cloud-based ambulatory EHR for radiologists – the e|HR Meaningful Use for Medical Imaging solution — is now commercially available after successfully completing beta testing.

The radiology-based EHR launch was timed so that radiologists can meet the approaching deadline for complying with meaningful use requirements. Radiologists and their practices can receive federal bonus payments of up to $44,000 per radiologist by implementing a complete, certified ambulatory EHR such as DR System’s e|HR. To receive the full incentive payment, however, meaningful use compliance – not just acquisition – must be achieved by October 3, 2012.

“Many radiology practices are concerned about the staff workflow burden of an EHR,” said Chuck Scudelari, COO of Pueblo Radiology Medical Group (Santa Barbara, Calif.), a beta test facility for DR System’s e|HR. “But there is no substantive staff workflow burden with the EHR from DR Systems. It provides excellent value for the federal bonus payments and the workflow fits nicely within the existing registration process. Plus, we’re seeing that it provides other benefits for our radiology practice in addition to satisfying meaningful use.”

An estimated 90% of radiologists are eligible for radiology incentive payments from the CMS, according to the American College of Radiology. Radiologists will have to qualify before this October to earn the full $44,000, as the total incentive payment goes down each year. Failure to comply with meaningful use requirements will eventually subject radiologists and others to financial penalties.

“Radiologists come out way ahead by deploying a system such as ours,” said radiologist Murray Reicher, M.D., F.A.C.R., DR Systems co-founder and chairman. “First, they earn a substantial, five-figure incentive payment that far exceeds the cost of the system. Second, they actually improve patient care and the efficiency of their radiology workflow, including the collection of patient information and integration of that information with the EHR.”

Dr. Reicher is a recognized authority on meaningful use and was author of an article on the subject that was published in the September 2011 issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology.


American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, EHR, Electronic health record, Health Care, Health care provider, Health information exchange, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, Medical, Medical record

Zyantus OS Records System Helps Meet Federal Requirements

Zyantus has  launched Zyantus OS Records system, a cloud-based electronic health records (EHR) system. Zyantus OS Records provides electronic storage of patient records and their secure transmission among health care facilities, health information organizations and government agencies according to national standards.

Zyantus OS Records system has earned the federal government’s Complete EHR Certification, which officially deems the EHR software capable of enabling providers to qualify for funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The certification, provided by the Drummond Group ONC-ATCB program, ensures EHRs meet the meaningful use criteria for eligible provider technology.

When fully implemented, EHR’s, such as Zyantus OS Records, should result in lower record keeping costs and improved care by facilitating shared access to consistent patient records among health care providers and facilities across the nation.

“We have been in this industry for twelve years and understand the importance of EHR in maximizing the efficiencies of a medical practice,” said Zyantus President Adam Schwindt. “We take pride in always being a step ahead and evolving our services in this ever-changing industry. Health care providers can now leverage Zyantus OS Records to not only make significant care improvements but also achieve meaningful use and qualify for incentive funds under ARRA.”

Since 2000, Zyantus has served the health care industry by specializing in management solutions for medical offices of all kinds. In that time, the company has built a reputation for easy-to-use programs, comprehensive services and rapid response to customer needs.

The Zyantus OS Records system was developed from the ground up by medical personnel who understand office management and the importance of maintaining office productivity while transitioning to new management systems. Zyantus OS Records was designed with Health Information Exchange (HIE) parameters in mind from the beginning, and will securely store and readily share health care information with new HIE systems as they are built.

Health care providers must prove their medical records systems achieve meaningful use in order to qualify for government reimbursement for their investment. The software features a simplified meaningful use section to aid medical offices seeking attestation in order to qualify for incentive payments. In addition, Zyantus OS Records already meets a number of proposed stage 2 meaningful use requirements.

As a cloud-based system, Zyantus OS Records provides a high level of security and is easily implemented across multiple sites, including Mac and PC platforms, smart phones and tablets. No additional hardware is needed to implement the system as it is hosted by the Amazon EC2 HIPAA-compliant cloud with unlimited storage capacity. There are no hidden or additional fees for support. Zyantus OS Records also features friendly, customer-service oriented personnel training and implementation and free e-Prescribe for patient medications.


CareCloud, EHR, Electronic health record, Health Care, Medical, Partnerships, Texas

Lone Star MSO, CareCloud Partner to Offer Cloud-Based Software and Services to Texas Physicians

CareCloud, a provider of web-based practice management, electronic healthcare record (EHR), revenue cycle management and medical billing software and services, today announced that it has partnered with Lone Star MSO, a practice management services organization in Texas, to offer CareCloud’s cloud-based software and services to medical practice clients. Lone Star MSO currently services hundreds of medical group clients throughout Texas and multiple other states and will look to further assist them in optimizing financial and clinical outcomes through CareCloud’s platform and services.

“We are extremely excited to partner with CareCloud and offer their cloud-based software and services to our clients across Texas and the nation during a time when medical groups of all sizes are requiring more flexible and cost effective ways to streamline their administrative operations and the patient care they deliver,” said Trey W. Schroeder, Managing Director of Lone Star MSO. “We have always looked to bring the industry’s leading web-based practice management technologies to our clients. It has become clear that CareCloud’s practice management and EHR offerings stand out from others in the industry and will be a tremendous help to administrators and caregivers as they navigate an increasingly complex healthcare regulatory environment while delivering the best care possible.”

Under the terms of the agreement, Lone Star MSO will be a value-added reseller of CareCloud’s full suite of cloud-based physician practice management products at pre-negotiated pricing to Lone Star MSO clients. CareCloud currently offers medical groups its Meaningful Use certified electronic health record solution, CareCloud Charts, which is fully integrated with the Company’s practice management offering, CareCloud Central. Additionally, Lone Star MSO customers will be able to leverage CareCloud Concierge, a complete revenue cycle management solution that utilizes dynamic rules intelligence software, expert live support and real time business analytics and reporting tools to help medical practices increase collections and streamline operations.

“Lone Star MSO continues to stand apart in its ability to bring innovative services and technology to physicians across Texas and the nation. By partnering with CareCloud, Lone Star MSO will help its clients grow their practices and deliver the best patient care possible,” said Albert Santalo, Chairman and CEO of CareCloud. “We are thrilled to team with Lone Star MSO and its management team as we look to expand the nationwide presence of our cloud-based platform to help physicians take advantage of new government incentive programs and navigate emerging payer reimbursement methodologies.”