FollowMyHealth

Jardogs ,LLC is a provider of interphase systems for patient access to their electronic medical record (EMR). The company was founded in 2009 and is based in Springfield, Illinois. In March, 2013, Jardogs, LLC was acquired by Allscripts Healthcare Solutions, Inc. It's products include patient kiosks and integrated patient portals that allow patient management of their health records(1).

History

The group noticed that patients typically were required to use anywhere from 3-6 different portals to connect with the various local hospitals, multi-specialty groups, physician offices, and other entities that together provided their local care. This spawned the questions: How can we create a single point of access to allow patients to interact with all of the disparate systems within a single community? How can we take all the best features of a patient portal, combine them with a personal health record (PHR) and the components of a health information exchange (HIE), and roll them into one product?

These questions were exactly what lead to the creation of the Jardogs FollowMyHealthTM Patient Portal, which is a Universal Health Record – Jardogs’ term for an integrated patient portal that also combines the global connectivity and patient management aspects of a personal health record. The Jardogs solution allows patients to own their data and give permission for that data flow to their physicians, as opposed to an HIE, where the data is just flowing. “This model,” says Hewitt, “puts the patient in the driver’s seat – they own the data, they control the data – but we give them the connectivity of a traditional, ‘tethered’ portal.”

With the sheer volume of EHR systems in the marketplace right now, and complications like the requirements of Meaningful Use, Hewitt says their customers are also struggling with major issues such as how to integrate those multiple systems and how to present a single view to patients. Jardogs has solved both. Their solution has the ability to pull data from multiple, disparate systems, convert it to a common nomenclature, and then present it to patients in a format that they can use and interact with in a meaningful way. In addition, the process can be run in the reverse, translating the data back into each originating system’s native language.

Another facet of the Jardogs solution is the communication vehicle it provides between physicians and patients, allowing physicians to engage their patients to become more actively involved in their own healthcare. Looking toward the future of healthcare, Hewitt and his team next asked themselves what services they could bring to the patient at home. Because of their solution’s cloud-based infrastructure, Jardogs had that conduit already in place, and the team is currently developing a “Home Therapy + Wellness” application. Its initial physical therapy component was shown for the first time at MGMA. Still in testing, the concept is for patients to complete physician-prescribed physical therapy in the comfort and privacy of their homes, via an Xbox 360 + Kinect system. With a physical therapy app, an online connection and minimal additional hardware, patients are walked through their prescribed physical therapy, then perform it themselves while wearing a heart rate monitoring cuff. The system tracks patients’ movements for accuracy, monitors heart rate, and counts down the repetitions as prescribed. The prescribing physicians receive real-time, unique feedback on patients’ progress and compliance with their physical therapy program.

Other potential areas of development for this product include metabolic monitoring for needs such as diabetes and post-surgical, and pulmonary monitoring for conditions such as sleep apnea. The business intelligence within the cloud performs the monitoring, notifying appropriate care teams and reporting back into the physician workflows. This type of technology allows physicians to stay connected to patients in a real and meaningful way, once they leave the medical setting.

This is one of several future innovations on Hewitt’s and Jardogs’ broad horizon.

Jardogs, a Springfield company that has seen use of its FollowMyHealth online health record grow to about 13,000 hospitals and other health-care providers nationwide, was acquired this week by Allscripts, the electronic medical records software giant.

Allscripts plans to keep Jardogs and its 40 to 50 jobs in Springfield and encourage even greater use of FollowMyHealth among Allscripts’ 180,000 customers nationwide, according to Steve Schwartz, Allscripts senior vice president of business development.

“We’re very, very excited about it, and our clients are excited,” Schwartz said Wednesday. “It’s a great company. They’ve built a patient-engagement platform that customers really, really love. It’s a differentiator in the market.”

Read more: http://www.sj-r.com/top-stories/x1037520458/Medical-records-giant-buys-local-online-innovator#ixzz2eCW0FrsC

FollowMyHealth, which Jardogs launched in January 2011, gives patients free use of a single online portal to send and receive information to and from their doctors, hospitals and other health-care organizations. It gives patients immediate access to their medical records, including test results and doctors’ notes.

FollowMyHealth can help hospitals and doctors qualify for some of the $27 billion that the federal government plans to make available in incentive payments over the next 10 years to health-care providers as they adopt “meaningful use” of electronic medical records and expand online access to patients, Schwartz said.

An Allscripts news release says FollowMyHealth “enables patients to actively participate in their care, critical for at-risk populations, and empowers consumers with the solution they need to monitor and optimize health status. It also provides seamless work-flow integration among patients, physicians and other caregivers, including secure health messaging, prescription reordering, bill paying and scheduling of appointments.”

Patients of several central Illinois health-care providers have access to FollowMyHealth. Among them are Springfield Clinic; Memorial Health System, which operates Memorial Medical Center and Memorial Physician Services; Hospital Sisters Health System, which operates St. John’s Hospital and HSHS Medical Group; and Quincy Medical Group.

Give me some background about yourself and the company.

I started in healthcare IT back in 1989 with a startup company named Enterprise Systems out of Bannockburn, Illinois. They were focused on hospital-based systems. Their CEO at the time had this vision that PCs and networks were going to be the future, so we needed to migrate everything off of the mainframe into this client-server environment. I started as a developer there and have been focused on healthcare IT pretty well my entire career.

I did a short stint in the financial space for the Options Clearing Corporation, which was a very unique opportunity to do some work for them. But really, my heartstrings were back in healthcare. I left the OCC and joined Allscripts just as they were starting. I spent about six and a half years with Allscripts as their CIO.

I left there for family reasons and moved to Central Illinois. I got a call from one of the Allscripts’ customers, Springfield Clinic, to ask me to come help them implement their EMR. I decided to do a short-term stint with them to help them do their EMR implementation, which was very successful throughout all of their locations.

At that point in time, I was getting the itch to get back into the vendor side of the world. I decided to start a new company, which was Jardogs. I started that a little bit over three years ago. The clinic had come back and asked me to stay on with them as their CIO and have the clinic incubate Jardogs for us. That brings us to current state. I’m still CIO of Springfield Clinic and I’m also CEO of Jardogs.

Jardogs was founded on my vision that as you look at healthcare as a whole, healthcare IT really started in automation of those back-end systems within the hospital. Over the years, we’ve evolved to be ambulatory focused, where the dawn of the EMRs have come about. As I was looking at that trend as well as where we are nationally in a healthcare state, I truly believed that the next big thing and focus was around patient engagement.

That was the basic premise of starting Jardogs three years ago — to look at the evolution of how to engage the patient as part of this whole healthcare system and how we can add value both to the patient as well as those connected organizations.

Tell me about the name. I don’t think I’ve ever heard where it came from.

It’s a closely-kept secret. It is an acronym, but the mystique is much better than what the actual name means.

We went through a very long and tedious process. It’s almost impossible to find a unique name that isn’t already taken from a domain name standpoint, so we had run a contest three years ago. We asked a bunch of people to submit different names and ideas and then we brought that to our board. Jardogs won without anyone knowing what it actually meant. It won because it stuck out in everyone’s mind. After the name was selected, that’s where the logo and the branding and that fun component of the company came into play.

It’s hard for me to get a grasp of exactly what you do. Is it population health? Is it interoperability? Can you characterize all the things that are out there circling around in your ecosystem and where you fit?

It’s a great question. Honestly, we have hard time putting ourselves into a specific niche because we are a very unique offering into the industry.

The primary system is our FollowMyHealth, which we call a Universal Health Record, which is different from a patient portal or a personal health record. It’s a combination of a multitude of different systems. At its core is that it is a national personal health record, but it has all the attributes of a connected patient portal.

When I was sitting back and looking at personal health records and that concept, it’s very important to our nation that we have central repositories for patients to manage their healthcare. But the downside is if you look at HealthVault, or Google Health at the time, those products did not really add any value to the patient. They were very difficult to manage because they weren’t connected to their healthcare providers. You had to go in and manually update all of your information. I go see the doctor, then I have to go home and remember to key in all that information.

That’s what’s so great about what they call a tethered patient portal. The patient portal is directly connected to the organization or your provider. The downside with that is it’s not national, and it doesn’t share information with everybody else.

The concept was to come up with a national or local community-based portal where all of your information could be aggregated and managed by that patient. To do that was very complex, because it was really building parts of an HIE, building a tethered patient portal with all the integration into a multitude of different EMR vendors, as well as creating a national infrastructure to share that data like a personal health record. It’s a culmination of all of those things together which creates the Universal Heath Record.

That would be different from something like Epic’s MyChart in that you’re not vendor specific. Is it otherwise similar?

That’s exactly right. Epic is trying to do some things with trying to share that record outside of their organization, but they haven’t built the framework to translate all of their data into a common nomenclature and then allow that to easily flow with patient consent to all other healthcare organizations.

There are some differences. The reason that Epic is at that national level is because they are widespread throughout the United States. We do have customers that are on Epic that actually use the FollowMyHealth system to aggregate data and provide that inside their own entity.

Who buys your product and how do they roll it out?

Our customers are clinics and hospitals throughout the US. The providers or those hospitals will buy a license. They get a customized website. They have all the attributes of a tethered portal — their own branding, their own information — but then that entire system is connected into the national FollowMyHealth infrastructure across the board. It’s free to the patient.

If a hospital has its own practices or affiliated practices, they can connect those electronic medical record systems, whatever they are, to integrate with the product?

There are really two different scenarios. The first scenario is that I’m a large IDN, and I have multiple EMR systems within inside my organization. The main problem that they’re trying to solve in that case is how to provide a single portal across their entire entity. How do I aggregate the data inside my own organization and then provide that through a single portal to my patient population?

In that case, our infrastructure allows us to very easily pull that all together and then drive that into a single portal for the patient. On the flip side, when the patient tries to communicate back to that entity, we can then route that information and integrate it into the appropriate hospital system or EMR on the back side. It provides that one fluid portal to this large complex entity.

In another case, you may have a community in a large city where you have multiple hospitals, clinics, multi-specialty groups, and single-specialty groups that all have different portals, but have come to the realization that patients want to manage their health information in a single location. That’s where we’re seeing multiple entities go into those communities and say, “We need a community-based solution. We’re going to all have separate portals and separate entry points, but we’re going to have one central repository for the patient to manage all that data.” There are multiple storefronts on that single repository.

You’re not just showing the patients stuff from different systems — you’re reposing data and doing something with it in addition to presenting it to them.

That’s correct. We have national master patient index, and one of our key components is translation services. When a patient connects to an individual organization and that organization releases the information to the patient or makes that connection, we translate all that data into a single nomenclature and put it up into that patient’s personal health record or repository. When they connect to another organization, we do the same thing, and we translate it into a common nomenclature and bring that in to the repository. The patient has a single view of their data across those multiple systems.

If they want to share back into those individual organizations, the aggregated sum of the data then comes back down. It can be discretely brought into those EMRs for verification by the healthcare provider.

Will there be capabilities on the provider side to do public health or surveillance or anything like that with the data that didn’t necessarily come from their own system?

Sure. We bring it back in to their systems, so then they have the capability if their systems support it. The first phase for us is building that national infrastructure and connecting patients with the physicians. For me, that was Phase I.

But if you look at trying to solve the overall healthcare issues that we have today, we know that we have to engage the patient. We know that we have to be proactive within our healthcare. Once we have this conduit in place, how can we leverage that to actually engage the patient and become proactive? That’s where population management, monitoring compliance, home health and wellness components layer on top of that to provide that true engagement at home.

The three product lines that we’re working on right now that sit on top of that infrastructure are exactly those. We have a population management component, we have a monitoring and compliance component, and then we have a home health and wellness component. Each one can live individually, but the entire suite together is what rounds out our whole patient engagement solution.

HITECH grant money is funding development of HIEs. How does your offering fit into the situation where somebody is already getting HIE money? What are they not doing that they could do if they had your product?

I’m on the board of Lincoln Land HIE here in Central Illinois, so I understand the HIE. I know what they’re trying to do. The way that I break it up is that current HIEs today are more focused on B2B transactions. You’re going to have data moving from organization to organization without the patient being involved.

That’s great. I love the concept of standardized interfacing for orders, results, documents across a large area, even potentially across multiple states. That’s much better for healthcare. The struggle is, how do you use those systems to engage the patient? They do provide value to the physician side, but I don’t see that patient engagement component.

What some of the HIEs are gearing up to do is to try to create a central repository and then do population management on that central repository, but organizations are really struggling with data ownership and competitive issues. If there’s five primary care physician groups all using that same repository trying to do population management, is the patient going to get five notices on some health maintenance reminder from five different people? That’s where the struggle is from an HIE perspective.

Where we’re a little different is that the data is managed by the patient and released by the patient. The patient decides, “I want this organization to be my primary care manager of that information,” and that’s where it’s going to flow and be managed.

So they’re not specifying data element by data element, saying, “This is OK to release. This isn’t.”

Right. There’s two different levels of release we’re building. The first level is based on request. The healthcare organization, based on an appointment reminder, will request information. What is being built with these new solutions is that the patient can set up a real-time flow of information back to an individual organization. That’s where that organization is going to get a lot more value, because all that information can flow real time to them.

Other than seeing their own data and controlling who else can see it, what patient engagement tools are possible?

From the Universal Health Record standpoint, all of the standard stuff that you get from a tethered portal. You can pay your bill online, prescription renewals, lab results, health maintenance reminders, online consults, either direct scheduling in or requesting a schedule appointment. I’m sure I’m probably missing something, but all of those basic features that you get from a tethered portal.

Other features you get are forms, but also sharing that information across different organizations. We also have a mobility suite for them, so if they are travelling, they can either fax or e-mail their health information directly from their phone. If I’m in Florida and my kid gets sick or I’m sick, I can provide that information directly to them if they’re not a FollowMyHealth user already. We have proxy support, so I can manage my parents’ health information if they give me access. There’s a lot of features I’m just managing and reviewing my information.

The other big thing that we see within our customer base is that most of them are doing a full release of information. They’re releasing all chart notes and scanned documents. You’re really getting a full release of information as opposed to just problems, allergies, meds, immunizations, and results. Our system is delivering a lot more tangible information to the patient.

A physician can set up a monitoring and compliance program and order that through the EMR system. That will monitor and notify care teams if a patient isn’t being compliant or if a data range became out of range. We can be very proactive in saying that we want you to either go through the patient portal and enter this information, or we want you to take one of these connected devices at home and we want you to take your blood pressure every day or whenever it may be. If you fall out of compliance, the system will automatically notify care team, nurse, physician … however you want that to be configured. Because of that connectivity, we have the ability to do some pretty cool things.

The trend everywhere, but especially on the interoperability side, is to open up the platform and let other folks build apps to sit on top of it and add value.

We’ve already done that. We provide a software development kit. Organizations, either our customers or non-customers, can come in and build applets that snap directly into the FollowMyHealth infrastructure. We provide that for free. There’s no fees for that. We believe in complete open systems and allow the consumer to choose. We are very, very open. We also have a very open standard on all of our interfacing into different systems. We’re trying to be as easy as possible to use.

People have shied away from the term “personal health record” since Google Health left a stench over it. What did you learn from the failure of Google Health?

There were really two issues. One was concern about privacy of data. Number Two was adding value to the end users. The Google Health mindset was to have the consumer or the patient come in, create an account on their own, and then manage it. If their organization someday decided to be a Google Health user, you might get some data to flow.

We’re taking a completely different approach. We are engaging the healthcare organization upfront, having them engage the patients to connect, and then providing real value in that connection. They get their data immediately. They have the ability to request appointments. They can get prescriptions refilled or renewed. They can go through that entire process and have real data right there upfront.

I’m really concerned about HealthVault as well. They take the same approach of, “Let’s have consumers come to us, create that record, and then hopefully connect someday.”

Any concluding thoughts?

We have to figure out ways to engage the patient. Not only sick patients, but healthy patients as well. We need to move to a model where the patient is engaged, the patient cares about their health, and they are being compliant. The focus need to be on how we can do that effectively. How can we create engaging tools that will allow our patient populations to help us manage their health?

That’s the true way we’re going to get cost out of healthcare. Whatever system it may be, we need to figure that out and make sure that we are engaging those populations.

Jardogs, LLC Advances Patient Engagement Platform with FollowMyHealth(TM) Version 1.5

Feb 26 13

Jardogs, LLC has announced the newest release of its product, FollowMyHealth(TM) Universal Health Record. FollowMyHealth is a patient engagement solution that combines the value of a personal health record, the power of a patient portal and the connectivity of a health information exchange (HIE). Functionality enhancements for FollowMyHealth version 1.5 lay the groundwork for upcoming Meaningful Use requirements, while markedly expanding patient usability and enhancing the user experience. Patients overwhelmingly want the type of online access to their health information that FollowMyHealth provides. And with Meaningful Use rules requiring patient portals, providers and organizations are in dire need of a solution that integrates with disparate EHRs to produce one comprehensive health record. FollowMyHealth empowers providers to engage patients so they can access and manage their health and wellness information in a secure, online environment. Accessible by any computer, smartphone or tablet, patients can easily view test results, communicate with physicians, request appointments and prescription refills, pay bills and complete forms prior to a visit 24 hours a day /7 days a week. Patients can also keep track of their fitness and well-being with online tools such as wireless scales, blood pressure devices and blood glucose monitors. With FollowMyHealth, a patient can now instantly transmit glucose values to his or her Universal Health Record, while a provider can use that data to better manage a patient's course of care. It's this type of combined interaction and access to previously unavailable and actionable clinical data that will help drive higher patient engagement levels and improve overall outcomes.

Jardogs and Healthland Announce Patient Engagement Collaboration

Dec 13 12

Jardogs, LLC has partnered with Healthland, Inc. to make their FollowMyHealth(TM) Universal Health Record solution available as Healthland's exclusive patient engagement portal. This collaboration will provide deep integration with Healthland's electronic health records (EHR) solutions, as well as help their 500-plus clients across the country meet Meaningful Use Stage 2 requirements.

FollowMyHealth Universal Health Record is a patient engagement solution that combines the value of a personal health record, the power of a patient portal and the connectivity of a health information exchange (HIE).

FollowMyHealth is used by hundreds of healthcare organizations and thousands of physicians across the country as the “power” behind their hospital or clinic’s specific patient portal.

For patients: FollowMyHealth lets you access and manage your health information in a secure, online environment – 24 hours a day/ 7 days a week. Easily download, fax or email records for your entire family from any computer, smartphone or tablet.

In addition to monitoring health and wellness, patients can:

>> View test results

>> Refill prescriptions

>> Communicate with physicians

>> Request appointments

>> Fill out forms prior to visit

>> Pay bills

For providers: FollowMyHealth solves the many challenges presented when portions of a patient’s care is provided by medical organizations other than yours. By providing a solution that connects multiple organizations, providers and EHRs, you can give your patients a comprehensive view of their entire health record.

Accuracy and security are built in with an Enterprise Master Patient Index (EMPI), while customization enables you to set release thresholds for results/documents, and choose settings/functionality by organization or even provider.

Features also include:

>> Patient-owned, patient managed

>> Real-time health updates

>> Data aggregation

>> EMR-agnostic

>> Discrete data back into EHR

“The biggest barrier that patients encounter with traditional PHRs is manually entering and maintaining their personal health information.With FollowMyHealth, all of the patient’s information that is stored in the EHR can easily populate and remain synchronized with the patient’s record.”

FollowMyHealth is used by hundreds of healthcare organizations and thousands of physicians across the country as the power behind their hospital or clinic's specific patient portal. While your portal may have a different name, the technology is the same.

With FollowMyHealth, you can: ■Review your medical records online in a safe, secure environment

■Communicate privately with physicians via secure messaging

■View test and lab results, read medical notes from their doctor

■Update your health information (allergies, medications, conditions, etc.)

■Request Rx refills

■Schedule or change appointments

■Fill out and submit forms prior to appointments

■View and pay bills

                  ...and more!

And it's available online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week via any computer, tablet, or smart phone!

Jardogs, LLC was founded in 2009 in Springfield, Illinois and is the realization of a vision to research the newest emerging technologies and creatively integrate them into innovative market solutions. Our goal is to improve the productivity of businesses and individuals through the use of our solutions and to pave a new way of interacting with technology to increase the availability of information in our everyday lives.

ONC Certifies FollowMyHealth™ for Enterprise and Pro EHRs

FollowMyHealth™ Receives Meaningful Use EHR Certification

Allscripts Announces Strategic Acquisitions of dbMotion and Jardogs

Jardogs Advances Patient Engagement Platform with FollowMyHealth™ v 1.5

Jardogs and Healthland Announce Patient Engagement Collaboration

Jardogs Strengthens Leadership Team with the Addition of Two Seasoned Healthcare Executives

Fujitsu Laboratories of America and Jardogs Collaborate on Bio-Data Collection for Patient Monitoring and Reporting

Iowa Health System Selects Jardogs FollowMyHealth™ Universal Health Record

Memorial Health System Selects Jardogs’ FollowMyHealth™ Universal Health Record

Springfield Clinic Selects Jardogs’ FollowMyHealth™ Universal Health Record

Mankato Clinic Selects Jardogs’ FollowMyHealth™ Universal Health Record

Central Utah Clinic Selects Jardogs' FollowMyHealth™ Universal Health Record

Jardogs’ FollowMyHealth™ Universal Health Record Receives ONC-ATB Certification

Starting in 2014, portals are a requirement – regardless of your stage. That means that even if your organization is only in Stage 1 in 2014, you will be required to provide all information necessary for a patient to be able to access his/her health information online. You will be required to do this for 50% of the patients you see.

Increasing patient adoption takes time; that’s why it’s imperative that you continually and proactively encourage your patients to participate with your version of FollowMyHealth.

Meaningful Use: Why You Really Do Have To Start Now

The dark side of MU is that the penalties are costly! In 2015, eligible providers (EP) will be subject to payment reductions if they have not shown 2 years of MU. And those payment reductions increase each year an EP does not demonstrate MU, starting at 1% up to a maximum of 5%. So that means you must start this year!

•Core requirement: Patient education

What it means: Provide patient specific education to 10% of unique patients seen, based on their problems, medications and lab results.

•Core requirement: Provide clinical summaries for patients for each office visit.

What it means: EPs must provide summaries to patients within one business day for more than 50% of office visits. (Not applicable to hospitals)

FollowMyHealth Addresses Meaningful Use Guidelines:

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) set aside approximately $19 billion to accelerate adoption of healthcare IT by certain healthcare providers. More specifically, ambulatory physicians can receive up to $44,000 per physician for adopting Electronic Health Records (EHRs). In order to qualify for these incentive funds, the adopted technology must meet certain capabilities requirements and physicians must actively use the technology. Collectively, these federal standards are called “Meaningful Use Guidelines.” Requirements for patients to have access to their information and healthcare providers are key among these criteria.

FollowMyHealth Meets the Patient Access Aspects of ARRA Requirements:

Our product’s robust features provide more than sufficient functionality to address the patient access aspects of the ARRA requirements. In order to qualify for ARRA incentive dollars, physician’s technology must:

•Provide health maintenance reminders

•Provide patients with electronic copies of test results, problem lists, medications and allergies

•Provide patients with electronic copies of office visit clinical summaries

•Share information with other patient-authorized providers

•Share information with public health registries as needed

FollowMyHealth is ONC-ATCB Certified, Supporting Meaningful Use:

This EHR Module is 2014 compliant and has been certified by the Drummond Group, Inc., an ONC-ATCB, in accordance with the applicable certification criteria for eligible provider adopted by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. This certification does not represent an endorsement by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, or guarantee the receipt of incentive payments.

The Jardogs, FollowMyHealth UNIVERSAL HEALTH RECORD, Version 2.0 was certified on June 13, 2013 with certification number: 06132013-2039-1. The product complies with the criteria for both Ambulatory and Inpatient, meeting certification criteria for: Patient Education; View, Download and Transmit; Secure Messaging; Automated Numerator Recording; and Quality Management System.

FrontDesk Patient Kiosk is an automated administrative solution that streamlines the patient registration, billing and data collection process. Incorporating cutting-edge technology with superior customizability, FrontDesk provides immediate value for both the patient and the organization.

Collecting and inputting patient data is a critical component in the delivery of care. It’s also a time-consuming set of tasks that eats up costly hours of your staff’s valuable time. With a user-friendly and intuitive solution like FrontDesk, you can improve the patient experience and significantly reduce wait times.

Features:

>> EHR integration, including health alerts

>> Unlimited language support

>> Meaningful Use data collection

>> Insurance card/driver’s license scanning

>> Customizable branding

>> Credit card co-pay, with printed receipts

Benefits:

>> Significantly reduced patient wait times

>> Improved privacy & security of information

>> Streamlined workflows

>> Increased accuracy of patient data

>> Reduced costs

AchieveHealth™ Monitoring & Compliance is a healthcare solution that enables care plans to be applied and monitored among a specific patient population.

AchieveHealth helps improve care coordination between providers and patients by enabling providers to:

>> Assign patients to monitoring programs within an EHR

>> Set custom auto-notifications

>> Leverage patient/provider communication methods

>> Create patient-specific custom rules

>> Utilize device integration for patient-reported measures

The GE Centricity EMR features a robust user interface which supports the accurate and consistent documentation for a wide range of clinical and demographic patient information (1). The Centricity EMR tracks medical information for patients over time and allows clinicians to compare clinical outcomes against their peers (1).

Information stored in the Centricity EMR includes:

• medical setting
• diagnosis
• patient complaints/reason for visit
• medications
• laboratory tests/results (3)

The Centricity EMR is easily combined with other Centricity software packages to allow clinicians to further optimize the management of information (1).

The Centricity EMR Research Database

Approximately 5,000 clinicians provide data to the medical quality improvement consortium (MQIC) which in turn uses the data for a research database (3).This database is quickly becoming a powerful tool as it allows investigators to:

• examine large patient populations
• de-identify patient data
• perform retrospective cohort studies
• determine the primary reason for the visit
• determine clinical outcomes (5)

By 2008, there had been 12 journal publications and 31 poster presentations using data collected by clinicians using the GE Centricity database (3).

Centricity Advance

Centricity Advance is GE Healthcare’s integrated electronic medical record (EMR), practice management and patient portal system delivered through the web. Specifically designed for use by primary care providers and other physicians in smaller offices, Centricity Advance helps streamline office management, enhance delivery of patient care, and enable expanded communication with secure online exchange between physicians and patients.

Unlike many other healthcare IT systems, Centricity Advance is delivered in a true Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model. With this web-based system, practices can get up and running quickly, with minimal disruption, at a modest startup cost. Technology upgrades and maintenance are delivered automatically, with virtually no practice involvement.

Centricity Advance

On August 8, 2011, GE Healthcare announced the release of Centricity Advance – Mobile, a native Apple iPad® application designed for primary care physicians in small practices.

EMR Features:

• Integrated EMR
• Practice Management Software
• Self-Service Patient Portal
• Secure Medical Management Software
• Web Based EMR Software

Centricity EMR offers a broad range of embedded clinical content, plus the flexibility to design your own encounter forms, add content, and adapt the program to suit the way you work best:

• Intelligent decision support tools built into your workflow bring critical information right to the point of care, facilitating informed treatment decisions • Automatic reminders alert you to needed tests or procedures to proactively manage care and avoid potential medical problems • ePrescribing can alert you to potential drug interactions and lets you offer added convenience to your patients • Powerful evaluation and management (E&M) advisor assists with coding accuracy • Robust tools for communicating with patients and giving them access to care information to increase patient satisfaction • Automated workflows and rapid documentation streamline repetitive tasks and instantly update patient charts

References

1. GE Healthcare: Centricity Advance. https://www2.gehealthcare.com/portal/site/usen/ProductDetail/?vgnextoid=23738fdab5219210VgnVCM10000024dd1403RCRD&productid=03738fdab5219210VgnVCM10000024dd1403____
2. EMR, EHR, and Practice Management Software - Centricity Advance - GE Healthcare. http://www.gehealthcare.com/centricityadvance/
3. GE Healthcare Releases Centricity Advance - Mobile. http://www.genewscenter.com/content/detail.aspx?ReleaseID=12968&NewsAreaID=2

External links

1. GE Healthcare Newsroom http://newsroom.gehealthcare.com

References

1. GE Healthcare: Centricity Electronic Medical Record (EMR). [1]
2. Centricity - Wikipedia. [2]
3. Crawford, A.G., et al. [http://ca3cx5qj7w.search.serialssolutions.com/OpenURL_local?sid=Entrez:PubMed&id=pmid:20568974 Comparison of GE Centricity Electronic Medical Record
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