Nashville Technology Council

The Nashville Tech Story (8/8/09)

This week we heard from several leaders in healthcare and technology about micro apps and EHRs.  Yesterday, the DOD announced a new initiative to entrust Google and Microsoft with the housing of their EHR.  This seems to be a major tipping point for our country and possibly for Nashville.

So it started us thinking about what is Nashville’s EHR strategy.  I believe every health system in town is working on something, but shouldn’t we, the Silicon Valley of Healthcare, be doing something as a community?  We would really like to hear from the providers, payers, and consumers about your thoughts on this critical topic.

We will meet again on August 27, 2009, at 7:30 am at Midtown Noshville to talk EHRs.  This breakfast will focus on micro apps as they relate to the EHR.  What could we build to provide base analytics to the community?

The Nashville Tech Story (8/05/2009)

Today, the Nashville Technology Council traveled to visit the offices of Qualifacts. We met with David Klements and his team to learn more about what Qualifacts brings to Nashville, what services they offer and how the Nashville Technology Council could better serve their needs.

Qualifacts is an Electronic Health Record (EHR) software developer provider for behavioral health care. They pride themselves as being known as the largest provider of software as a service (SAS) for the behavioral health industry.  Qualifacts designs their software offering based on the individual needs of their client’s.

Qualifacts is also the leading vendor for internet-based clinical, administrative and financial management applications.  Clients use Qualifacts software to improve services and to become more efficient. Qualifacts software handles the end-to-end process of a medical visit, from the scheduling of an appointment to the doctor’s assessment of the patient to the treatment plan and billing of that patient.

Currently, they are working on a marketing campaign that is based solely online. Online strategies include the use of social networking opportunities such as Twitter to market their company and they also host an online web cast twice a month for thier client base.

As Qualifacts looks to the future they are hoping to move into other areas of health care such as primary care centers and eventually tap into the physical therapy market.

For more information on Qualifacts and how the can help you organization, visit their website at www.qualifacts.com.

The Nashville Tech Story (8/4/2009)

The Nashville Technology Council will be hosting “The Naked Hospital” on Thursday, August 6th at the Hillwood Country Club.  This is a special Super Roundtable event that will be a provocative look at transparency and eHealth.  We will discuss how and why health systems and hospitals should focus on quality and value as part of their business strategy.

The half day event will feature expert speakers including:

• U.S. Congressman, Marsha Blackburn
• Paul Keckley, Executive Director, Deloitte Center for Health Solutions
• David Jarrard, CEO, Jarrard, Cate, Phillips, Hancock

Panel discussions will also be included and focus on Measuring Quality/Value as well as Personal Health Records, Electronic Health Records, and Electronic Medical Records.  Companies represented on panels include: HMS, Emdeon, Healthways, CHS, HealthStream, and Credence Healthcare.

Don’t miss out on this exciting event that is targeted at health care and technology industry professionals. Registration for this event will end tomorrow (8/5) at noon.  Click here for more information

The Nashville Tech Story (July 15, 2009)

Each year the concern over environmental protection continues to grow.  New programs are formed everyday to find new ways to recycle and make the world a more efficient and cleaner place.  The EPA estimates that a single person uses more than 700 pounds of paper products each year.  The health care industry has been a major contributor to that consumption in the past.  However, health care professionals have been continuously experimenting and working to implement electronic medical and health record programs (EMRs / EHRs) into their organizations.

With more than 300 EMR and EHR programs, electronic medical records continue to be a hot topic in the health care industry.  Not only does an EMR program offer a new way to chart patients, but it also offers health care professionals and their organizations advantages that can be overlooked.  While the most noticeable advantage of the programs is going “paperless,” these programs also offer:

• E&M coding advice
• electronic prescribing and formulary
• bi-directional laboratory integration
• pay-for-performance tracking
 
An EMR program can be tough to implement because most are designed for certain specialties and sizes of clinics.  Electronic medical records is similar to a CRM database for a business where the EMR can be purchased billing software or medical practice management software within a fully-integrated suite.

Another fact that some health care professionals tend to overlook is the help that the federal government can provide.  The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, was recently put in place by congress as part of the national stimulus package.   It states that providers that qualify as “meaningful users” of EHR systems are eligible to receive $40K – $60K in incentive payments paid out over a five year period in the form of Medicare and Medicaid premiums.

While EMR and EHR programs are definitely important to the health care industry, some professionals still need to learn the in’s and out’s of the process and what resources are available to them.  The Nashville Technology Council can be one of your resources.

The Council will be hosting our Super Roundtable event, “The Naked Hospital” on August 6th at the Hillwood Country Club.  We will be hosting a panel during the event based specifically on PHR, EHR or EMR.  For more information on this panel or the other elements of this event, please click here.

The Nashville Tech Story (6/25/09)

Are we ready for the next WebMD?  Why aren’t the next generation of EHR companies springing up all over Nashville?  We have the talent, funding, and experience.  Is it too soon?  No business model?

To be honest, I don’t know the answer, but I do know enough people are interested in the topic to warrant a breakfast or two.  I presented this topic at HealthCamp 2.0 and there was a lot of interest in continuing the discussion.  If you are interested in the topic and want to dive deeper into the conversation, let’s meet up at Noshville (on Broadway) next Wednesday morning at 7:30 – 8:30 AM.  If there is sufficient interest/discussion, we can meet more frequently.

Experts at our local hospital companies have been integrating virtually every healthcare platform for the past 30 years.  Every time they do an acquisition, they integrate the clinicals and financials.  They integrate physician data and practice management systems.  We have more experience than any other city at this task.  As was evidenced today at the Nashville Health Care Council Luncheon, Nashville is rich in healthcare talent and there is a lot of interest in this topic at all levels.  We are so blessed to have the Nashville Health Care Council.

This is my view of the opportunity – NASHEHR – The Nashville Electronic Health Record.  This is only meant as an outline.  I have a really cool graphic of the information below to show how this all fits together.  I drew on a whiteboard at Lipscomb University.  Do you think it is still there?  Probably not.  I will try to re-create it before next Wednesday and give everyone a copy.  I am sure a lot of people will argue with me about the parts and I welcome the criticism and feedback.

1.    First some Definitions – PHR, EHR, EMR

a. Personal Health Record – Consumer lead compiling of health record
b. Electronic Health Record – Consumer/Provider partnership with integration
c. Electronic Medical Record – Hospital/Physician Based Information Systems with Clinician Data Access

2.    Regional Health Data Repository (1.5 Million Records CBSA / 6 Million if we want to do it statewide)

3.    Interface Engines (SeeBeyond (Sun) and Cloverleaf (Healthvision)

4.    Secure Connections – HTTPS/Tunneling

5.    Providers – Hospitals, Physicians, Home Health, Surgery Centers, Nursing Homes, Pharmacy, Labs

6.    Payers – BCBS, TNCare, CIGNA, Wellpoint, United

7.    Consumers – Google, HealthVault, BCBS, TNCare, H2U

8.    Analytics/Surveillance/GIS – Draw Maps, Charts, Red/Green Lights

9.    Potential Companies in Nashville that are leading or could lead the way.

a. Vanderbilt lead Tech Transfer from Center for Better Health
b. Credence Health (Quality)
c. Change Healthcare
d. HMS
e. Data Advantage
f. Emdeon
g. Others/New Entrants?

Below are some needs in Nashville that we could focus on together and these should have a long term return to the city and tech community.

1.    Experienced Government Grant writers to get some stimulus money
2.    Public/Private Cooperative to make a Regional Health Data Repository Operational
3.    Seed funding for 4-5 companies that can focus on PHRs, EHRs, and EMRs.
4.    The NTC will even donate a domain name to a new startup – http://www.nashehr.com

So, let’s start a discussion about EHRs.  Maybe we can stimulate a few businesses or at least some ideas.

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