Practice Fusion
Practice Fusion is a massive database of information for medical professionals and patients. The system is operated and owned by Practice Fusion Inc. based in San Franscico, CA.(1) The software, also called as Practice Fusion is the largest cloud based EMR company in the U.S. It is a free web based EMR System that is available in a software -as-a-service (SaaS) model. The SaaS startup provides private physicians and medical professionals with free, advertising-supported medical practice management technology.(2)
The company claims to be the fastest growing electronic health record community in US with more than 150,000 medical professional users with 34 million patients.(3)
Practice Fusion is a privately owned company and their private investors include but are not limited to Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Founders Fund, Artis Ventures, and Qualcomm.(1)
History
Practice Fusion Inc was co-founded by Ryan Howard and Alan Wong in 2005. With the background in technology and business, Ryan howard saw a need for affordable, easy-to-use technology to meet the needs of small medical practices.(4) In 2007, the first version of the web based Practice Fusion was launched with a small charge for support. Around 100 users were registered within next 4 months of launch.(5)
The company expanded when the product and customer support were made free in 2009.(6)(7) Band of Angels and Felicis Ventures invested in the company in May 2009, followed by Salesforce.com in June and Morgenthaler Ventures in December 2010.(7)(8) The company closed a $23 million Series B round of financing led by Founders Fund in April 2011.(7)
According to Businessweek, the company makes money by charging more than 70,000 pharmacies, 350 diagnostics labs, and 50 imaging centers for access to its captive community of medical pros. For example, labs pay for the convenience of transmitting test results rather than faxing them, while drugmakers pay to deliver targeted ads to doctors. (12)
Practice Fusion achieved ONC-ATCB Meaningful Use Certification in June 2011.(9) It has been named the No. 1 EMR for customer satisfaction among primary care providers in both 2011 and 2012 in addition to being named No. 1 for e-prescribing client satisfaction and helping doctors achieve Meaningful Use by Brown-Wilson’s Black Book Rankings.(10) In addition, Practice Fusion was named a Technology pioneer in consecutive years 2013 and 2014 by the world economic forum.(1)
On August 2014, Practice Fusion announced an acquisition of Ringadoc which is considered to be an innovator in bridging the gap between provider and patient communication. In addition, it is expected that Practice Fusion will enter the telemedicine space and leverage some of the intellectual property / tools developed by Ringadoc to scale their business and seek new market opportunities.(13)
EHR Features
Practice Fusion's EHR was developed from the real workflows of office-based physicians. Practice Fusion consists of the following features (11):
- e-Prescribing (eRx)
- Medical Charting
- Scheduling
- Referral Letters
- Lab Integrations
- Patient Management
- Clinical Collaboration
- Medical Documents
- Reporting
- Secure Messaging
- Medical Billing
- Patient Health Record
- EMR Integration & API
- Mobile EMR
- Patient Portal
- Unlimited Support
References
- "About Practice Fusion."
- Blanckenhon D. "Psst. Want a free Electronic Medical Records system?" ZDNET. 2008
- Lynley M. "More Than 50 Million Patients Use Medical Startup Practice Fusion, And It's Saved At Least One Life" 2012
- Dwivedi D. "Employee Turned Entrepreneur – Ryan Howard, CEO Practice Fusion".
- "Timeline of Practice Fusion"
- "Practice Fusion, Wikipedia"
- Roush W. Practice Fusion Bids for Dominance in the Doctor’s Office with a Free, Ad-Supported Electronic Health Record System Xconomy. 2011
- Dougherty C. & Tam PW. "Start-Ups Chase Cash as Funds Trickle Back " The Wall Street Journal. 2010
- Campbell S. "Practice Fusion’s Electronic Health Record System Achieves Complete ONC-ATCB Meaningful Use Certification" EMR Daily News. 2011
- "2012 Bacl Book Ratings Top EHR and EMR Vendors"
- "Practice Fusion EHR Features"
- "Practice Fusion Wants to Be Free"
- "Practice Fusion Acquires Ringadoc"
