http://news.novoinnovations.com/ Welcome to Novo Absolut Engine 1.73 - http://www.absolutengine.com/ By Alok MathurFeatured in "ADVANCE for Healthcare Information Executives"Mimicking reality to solve complex challenges.As the number of physician practices adopting electronic medical record (EMR) systems grows, hospitals and health systems face a new challenge: interfacing hospital systems with a variety of remote ambulatory EMRs. In health care communities across the nation, data such as lab results and pathology reports, surgical notes, prenatal reports and discharge summaries are regularly exchanged in paper or fax form. Affiliated physician practices, however, demand that hospitals deliver the data in EMR-ready format. Strong business case Hospitals have strong business interests for providing practices with EMR-ready data: Patient care improves when a hospital distributes data directly to the referring practice's EMR. In a paper world, physicians must wait for paper-based results to be received, sorted, scanned, indexed and entered into the practice's EMR. In an electronic world, physicians can quickly administer the next level of care when results are delivered directly into their EMR. This happens within minutes of the data becoming available in the hospital. When information is delivered electronically, the physician's EMR can act on data received by, for example, alerting the physician to the arrival of abnormal results or providing rapid follow-up to critical clinical events. Hospitals strengthen their relationship with practices by interfacing directly with ambulatory EMRs. Naturally, practices want the full benefit from their EMRs by receiving less paper. This allows the typical practice to eliminate wasted time, effort and material resources that go into managing exchange through paper and telephone calls. The resulting efficiencies often lead to increased referrals for the hospital. Hospitals and their IT vendors have struggled to develop satisfactory choices for interfacing with practice EMRs. Approaches have frequently included the following: Offering an EMR to the community. Has limited appeal in many service areas because many physician offices have existing EMRs. In other cases, practices may admit to multiple hospitals; they may be reluctant to use a single hospital's EMR. Deployed portal-centric solutions. Do not interface directly with EMRs. Using traditional interface engines to distribute data. Often fails because interface engines are complex and do not provide inherent security, thus requiring a separate security solution. Moreover, interface engines can't address the wide array of exchange formats and methodologies used by the dozens of EMR vendors in the market. So then, what is preventing hospitals and vendors from developing effective solutions to the EMR-interface challenge? The issue arises from utilizing existing software architecture to deliver a solution it was not designed to solve. To achieve the desired results, however, the solution should adapt to the technical as well as workflow capabilities and limitations of each participant -- rather than requiring that each participant adhere strictly to complex and ever-changing standards. When it comes to inter-connecting diverse software and processes used in independent entities, hospitals and their IT partners have often relied too heavily on the technology from the last campaign. Grasp the reality, then mimic it My 25 years in IT have taught me that the most effective software applications are based on a broad understanding of the processes that the technology is meant to automate. These processes represent an immutable reality, and the chosen software architecture should mimic that reality. Technology that mimics the operative reality is more likely to solve the business problem at hand, be developed and deployed more efficiently, and be more readily accepted by the people who will use the software. When it comes to interfacing hospitals and practice EMRs, the defining reality is message-oriented collaboration. In our system of independent health care entities, collaboration is most often based on the exchange of messages between those entities. For example, when a physician requests a lab test or receives a lab result, that information is exchanged in the form of a message, whether in paper, fax or electronic format. Whether automated or performed manually, message-oriented collaboration can be divided into the following seven actions: 1) Recognition. A triggering action that establishes a need to collaborate around a specific patient event (e.g., a lab test, outpatient procedure, surgery, referral, order, etc.). 2) Data collection. Gathering of information associated with the triggering event. 3) Determination of interest. Analysis of the collected data to determine the entities (e.g., the practice physician and the hospital) of interest in the event. 4) Message construction. Extraction and potential modification of collected data to create an informational message that will result in effective collaboration. 5) Distribution. Transportation of the informational message from the source to the destinations. 6) Consumption. Upon receipt of collaborative information, productive utilization of the contained data. 7) Intimation (optional). Communication to inform the initiator about the reception and consumption of information. These actions are carried out millions of times a day in communities all across the country. Software architectures Agent-oriented architecture neither aggregates nor consolidates information; rather, it allows information, when needed, to be selected, delivered and consumed efficiently. Software agents are like "distributed intelligence" in that agents reside locally in collaborating entities and facilitate the exchange of information. Agent attributes include the following: Agents assess each message and determine for themselves -- based on how they are programmed and configured -- whether and where to distribute messages to and from providers involved in a patient's care. Agents can be programmed to handle each of the seven message-collaboration actions described above, or they can be programmed to wait for human intervention before proceeding with collaboration. The distributed nature of agent-oriented architectures enables health care providers to collaborate more effectively and efficiently around patient events, and it does so at a fraction of the cost of other technologies and architectures. As a distributed system, this architecture spreads the computing and connectivity burdens across many systems, eliminating the need to designate one massive system that aggregates information. Perhaps most important, agents can be configured to the workflow and technical requirements of each entity, rather than declaring a required standard and forcing each participant to conform or not participate. Agent-oriented architecture enables the greatest possible level of participation across the community with the least amount of disruption, expense and effort. Architecture for health care Although relatively new to health care, agent-oriented architecture has enabled health systems of all sizes and types (from large for-profit systems to non-profit rural systems) to interface with their affiliated practices' EMRs. It is now in place in more than 300 health care communities across the United States. This architecture has been successful because it mimics the reality of message-oriented collaboration and enables health care providers to collaborate efficiently and effectively around patient events. In waging one of health care's most important campaigns, many health care communities are learning what electrical power grid operators and military field commanders have long known: Solutions based on agent-oriented architecture mimic the defining reality and deliver real value and results. Mr. Mathur is CTO of Novo Innovations. He can be reached at alok.mathur@novoinnovations.com. http://news.novoinnovations.com/articles/rssfeed.php?articleID=20 http://news.novoinnovations.com/articles/rssfeed.php?articleID=20 Novo Article marketing@novoinnovations.com (Administrator) Wed, 01 Oct 2008 14:20:24 GMT Novo System Enables Exempla to Deliver Patient Data Directly into Practice EMRsALPHARETTA, Ga. — September 29, 2008 — Novo Innovations, the leader in software-agent technologies to improve health information exchange, today announced a three-year agreement with Denver's Exempla Healthcare, a system of three hospitals and a network of clinics.Exempla Healthcare has implemented Novo's agent-based healthcare exchange solution in all three of its hospitals, which will allow the organization to deliver patient data electronically to the ambulatory electronic medical record (EMR) systems at affiliated physician practices. The data — including facesheets, lab results and transcribed reports —populates the patient chart in the practice EMR within minutes of being available in the hospital system. Exempla Healthcare is also using the Novo system to reach practices without EMRs through Novo's "drop box" functionality, which enables practices with a PC and an Internet connection to securely receive patient data in minutes and in a format that reduces the cost and effort of handling paper. According to Dave Pecoraro, chief information officer of Exempla Healthcare, one of the organization's primary reasons for deploying the Novo Innovations system is to interface with the ambulatory EMR in use by Kaiser Permanente in Colorado. Both Exempla Healthcare and Kaiser Colorado expect to improve patient care and generate administrative efficiencies by connecting their respective EMRs. "Novo's technology attracted us right away," Pecoraro says. "We believe it represents the future in terms of how disparate, remote systems can communicate with each other. There's a very good design behind the system, which leads to simplicity and cost-efficient scalability. The system deploys rapidly and requires minimal staffing resources—it's virtually a plug-and-play application." After first learning of the Novo Innovations solution last fall and performing a limited rollout last winter, Exempla has made the Novo system a major part of its IT strategy of strengthening its service offerings to referring physician practices.Physicians have responded very positively, says Pecoraro: "Physicians are raving about the Novo system because of its improvements to patient care. And with the great reduction in the amount of paper coming into the practice, they have realized significant administrative efficiencies. From our perspective, we've been able to strengthen our relationships with our practice partners by delivering a low-cost system that meets a pressing physician need." "Hospitals and health systems recognize the competitive advantage in providing electronic EMR interfaces to their affiliated practices," says Robert Connely, CEO of Novo Innovations. "Hospitals that are physician-friendly in terms of providing data efficiently, quickly and easily stand to gain market share, and Novo Innovations is gratified to be helping Exempla Healthcare reach that goal." About Novo InnovationsFounded in 2003, Novo Innovations has pioneered a new approach to health information exchange. Novo's approach is based on the use of intelligent software agents to provide workflow automation and system integration between hospitals, physicians and other providers in the healthcare community. Novo's comprehensive service approach provides all of the necessary integration expertise and technical effort, enabling any hospital or health system to create a community exchange solution at a fraction of the time, cost and effort of other solutions. As Novo agents are deployed to address tactical interoperability challenges, they form the core of an information grid that will be able to address future strategic challenges. Novo has rapidly become a market leader, currently serving more than 250 hospital communities in the US. Learn more at www.novoinnovations.com or call 1-888-325-NOVO. Press contact information:Dave Anderson, Dodge Communications, (770) 998-0500 x229 danderson@dodgecommunications.com http://news.novoinnovations.com/articles/rssfeed.php?articleID=18 http://news.novoinnovations.com/articles/rssfeed.php?articleID=18 Press Release marketing@novoinnovations.com (Administrator) Mon, 29 Sep 2008 18:53:27 GMT Novo System Enables Exempla to Deliver Patient Data Directly into Practice EMRsALPHARETTA, Ga. — September 29, 2008 — Novo Innovations, the leader in software-agent technologies to improve health information exchange, today announced a three-year agreement with Denver's Exempla Healthcare, a system of three hospitals and a network of clinics.Exempla Healthcare has implemented Novo's agent-based healthcare exchange solution in all three of its hospitals, which will allow the organization to deliver patient data electronically to the ambulatory electronic medical record (EMR) systems at affiliated physician practices. The data — including facesheets, lab results and transcribed reports —populates the patient chart in the practice EMR within minutes of being available in the hospital system. Exempla Healthcare is also using the Novo system to reach practices without EMRs through Novo's "drop box" functionality, which enables practices with a PC and an Internet connection to securely receive patient data in minutes and in a format that reduces the cost and effort of handling paper. According to Dave Pecoraro, chief information officer of Exempla Healthcare, one of the organization's primary reasons for deploying the Novo Innovations system is to interface with the ambulatory EMR in use by Kaiser Permanente in Colorado. Both Exempla Healthcare and Kaiser Colorado expect to improve patient care and generate administrative efficiencies by connecting their respective EMRs. "Novo's technology attracted us right away," Pecoraro says. "We believe it represents the future in terms of how disparate, remote systems can communicate with each other. There's a very good design behind the system, which leads to simplicity and cost-efficient scalability. The system deploys rapidly and requires minimal staffing resources—it's virtually a plug-and-play application." After first learning of the Novo Innovations solution last fall and performing a limited rollout last winter, Exempla has made the Novo system a major part of its IT strategy of strengthening its service offerings to referring physician practices.Physicians have responded very positively, says Pecoraro: "Physicians are raving about the Novo system because of its improvements to patient care. And with the great reduction in the amount of paper coming into the practice, they have realized significant administrative efficiencies. From our perspective, we've been able to strengthen our relationships with our practice partners by delivering a low-cost system that meets a pressing physician need." "Hospitals and health systems recognize the competitive advantage in providing electronic EMR interfaces to their affiliated practices," says Robert Connely, CEO of Novo Innovations. "Hospitals that are physician-friendly in terms of providing data efficiently, quickly and easily stand to gain market share, and Novo Innovations is gratified to be helping Exempla Healthcare reach that goal." About Novo InnovationsFounded in 2003, Novo Innovations has pioneered a new approach to health information exchange. Novo's approach is based on the use of intelligent software agents to provide workflow automation and system integration between hospitals, physicians and other providers in the healthcare community. Novo's comprehensive service approach provides all of the necessary integration expertise and technical effort, enabling any hospital or health system to create a community exchange solution at a fraction of the time, cost and effort of other solutions. As Novo agents are deployed to address tactical interoperability challenges, they form the core of an information grid that will be able to address future strategic challenges. Novo has rapidly become a market leader, currently serving more than 250 hospital communities in the US. Learn more at www.novoinnovations.com or call 1-888-325-NOVO. Press contact information:Dave Anderson, Dodge Communications, (770) 998-0500 x229 danderson@dodgecommunications.com http://news.novoinnovations.com/articles/rssfeed.php?articleID=18 http://news.novoinnovations.com/articles/rssfeed.php?articleID=18 2008 marketing@novoinnovations.com (Administrator) Mon, 29 Sep 2008 18:53:27 GMT Third Annual Georgia Health Trade Faire & Conferencehttp://healthcaretradefaire.com/Georgia/08/Georgia International Convention CenterCollege Park, GA Thursday, September 25th9:00AM - Novo Presentation: Using information exchange to improve physician satisfaction and increase referral revenue The continuing growth in physician practice EMR adoption is creating a new challenge for hospitals – how to provide electronic information exchange with physician practices to maintain physician referral loyalty. Traditional information exchange solutions are too expensive and technologically challenging to allow most hospitals to justify the investment. However, as large, influential practices deploy EMRs, they are demanding electronic exchange in order to lower administrative costs and improve clinical decision-making. This trend is rapidly creating competitive pressures for hospitals as national and regional reference labs, competing acute facilities and other outpatient service providers offer electronic exchange. This session will introduce a new solution to the electronic exchange challenge. In this session, you will learn how any hospital can easily and rapidly deploy an exchange solution with minimal budget, utilizing existing technical resources. Learn how other hospitals have used this new generation of exchange technology to improve physician loyalty and protect – even increase – their referral business http://news.novoinnovations.com/articles/rssfeed.php?articleID=17 http://news.novoinnovations.com/articles/rssfeed.php?articleID=17 Novo Event marketing@novoinnovations.com (Administrator) Mon, 15 Sep 2008 15:26:52 GMT Third Annual Georgia Health Trade Faire & Conferencehttp://healthcaretradefaire.com/Georgia/08/Georgia International Convention CenterCollege Park, GA Thursday, September 25th9:00AM - Novo Presentation: Using information exchange to improve physician satisfaction and increase referral revenue The continuing growth in physician practice EMR adoption is creating a new challenge for hospitals – how to provide electronic information exchange with physician practices to maintain physician referral loyalty. Traditional information exchange solutions are too expensive and technologically challenging to allow most hospitals to justify the investment. However, as large, influential practices deploy EMRs, they are demanding electronic exchange in order to lower administrative costs and improve clinical decision-making. This trend is rapidly creating competitive pressures for hospitals as national and regional reference labs, competing acute facilities and other outpatient service providers offer electronic exchange. This session will introduce a new solution to the electronic exchange challenge. In this session, you will learn how any hospital can easily and rapidly deploy an exchange solution with minimal budget, utilizing existing technical resources. Learn how other hospitals have used this new generation of exchange technology to improve physician loyalty and protect – even increase – their referral business http://news.novoinnovations.com/articles/rssfeed.php?articleID=17 http://news.novoinnovations.com/articles/rssfeed.php?articleID=17 2008 marketing@novoinnovations.com (Administrator) Mon, 15 Sep 2008 15:26:52 GMT By Eric Wicklund, Managing Editor of HealthcareITNews Article featured in: Healthcare IT News Academy Award winners always thank their agents, while star athletes wouldn't get anywhere without their trainers and coaches and politicians would fall flat without their aides. The proposition holds true in the healthcare IT industry as well. "Just about every hospital, healthcare provider and healthcare information vendor struggles with that last mile of connectivity," says Doug Arent, director of program management for Novo Innovations. "That's what we're here for – to connect them to information that's been difficult to get to." Novo, based in Alpharetta, Ga. , provides the workflow automation and system integration software to connect hospitals, physicians and other healthcare providers. It's not necessarily a glamorous job, but somebody has to help build the foundation upon which the house will be built. In May, Novo partnered with Shared Health, Inc., one of the nation's largest health information exchanges, to help provide greater access to Shared Health members' clinical health records. And last month, the company announced an agreement with Palomar Pomerado Health of San Diego to improve information exchange with physician practices. According to Arent, Novo's technology is usually part of an IT initiative – and one that healthcare providers sometimes think they can do on their own. "A lot of our customers did it themselves first," he says, "until they found out it was challenging, resource-intensive and not scalable." Such was the case, Arent says, with Intermountain Healthcare of Salt Lake City, which signed a multi-year program agreement in May with Novo Innovations. The two had already partnered to interface Intermountain's hospital systems with electronic medical record systems located in several affiliated physician practices and clinics. Now Intermountain wanted to interface electronic lab results with its 200 physicians. "A number of practices and clinics needed automated delivery of laboratory results directly into their EMRs, and we understood the importance of such a capability for improving patient care and adding business value," said Ryan Smith, assistant vice president of e-business services at Intermountain Healthcare. "Novo allows us to bypass the job of building an interface for each EMR in our community, which is an extremely resource-intensive job that's also non-scalable," added Marc Probst, CIO and vice president of information systems at Intermountain Healthcare. Article featured in: Healthcare IT News http://news.novoinnovations.com/articles/rssfeed.php?articleID=16 http://news.novoinnovations.com/articles/rssfeed.php?articleID=16 Novo Article marketing@novoinnovations.com (Administrator) Tue, 02 Sep 2008 14:25:57 GMT By Eric Wicklund, Managing Editor of HealthcareITNews Article featured in: Healthcare IT News Academy Award winners always thank their agents, while star athletes wouldn't get anywhere without their trainers and coaches and politicians would fall flat without their aides. The proposition holds true in the healthcare IT industry as well. "Just about every hospital, healthcare provider and healthcare information vendor struggles with that last mile of connectivity," says Doug Arent, director of program management for Novo Innovations. "That's what we're here for – to connect them to information that's been difficult to get to." Novo, based in Alpharetta, Ga. , provides the workflow automation and system integration software to connect hospitals, physicians and other healthcare providers. It's not necessarily a glamorous job, but somebody has to help build the foundation upon which the house will be built. In May, Novo partnered with Shared Health, Inc., one of the nation's largest health information exchanges, to help provide greater access to Shared Health members' clinical health records. And last month, the company announced an agreement with Palomar Pomerado Health of San Diego to improve information exchange with physician practices. According to Arent, Novo's technology is usually part of an IT initiative – and one that healthcare providers sometimes think they can do on their own. "A lot of our customers did it themselves first," he says, "until they found out it was challenging, resource-intensive and not scalable." Such was the case, Arent says, with Intermountain Healthcare of Salt Lake City, which signed a multi-year program agreement in May with Novo Innovations. The two had already partnered to interface Intermountain's hospital systems with electronic medical record systems located in several affiliated physician practices and clinics. Now Intermountain wanted to interface electronic lab results with its 200 physicians. "A number of practices and clinics needed automated delivery of laboratory results directly into their EMRs, and we understood the importance of such a capability for improving patient care and adding business value," said Ryan Smith, assistant vice president of e-business services at Intermountain Healthcare. "Novo allows us to bypass the job of building an interface for each EMR in our community, which is an extremely resource-intensive job that's also non-scalable," added Marc Probst, CIO and vice president of information systems at Intermountain Healthcare. Article featured in: Healthcare IT News http://news.novoinnovations.com/articles/rssfeed.php?articleID=16 http://news.novoinnovations.com/articles/rssfeed.php?articleID=16 2008 marketing@novoinnovations.com (Administrator) Tue, 02 Sep 2008 14:25:57 GMT PDF version By Robert E. Connely Article featured in Advance for Health Information Executives For any attempt at information exchange to be successful, significant connectivity hurdles must first be cleared. Specifically, participants in a given community need to be connected with each other at a reasonable cost and without excessive effort. In telephony, this connectivity challenge is known as the "last mile," and it is often the most complex, time-consuming and expensive element of the communications infrastructure. Fortunately for health care communities, the last mile need not be costly or difficult. In the case of health information exchanges, the last mile refers not to the "pipes" that deliver data to its destination, but rather the integration of the many and varied IT systems, including EMRs, within a community. Residing in multiple locations, these systems also present differing degrees of interoperability. As physicians and hospitals increase their rate of deployment of EMRs, effective systems integration will only grow in importance. A new software technology has recently emerged that is proving particularly useful in addressing health care exchange connectivity. Agent-grid technology leverages software agents -- which are, in essence, intelligent software "robots" -- to deploy adaptive intelligence into participants' networks across the community. These agents can connect to any system, map any data format and exchange information with other agents in different locations over a secure message infrastructure using the Internet as the transport vehicle. Multiple collaborative agents form an agent grid, which can achieve interoperability across large, diverse communities such as those found in health care. Agent grids provide immediate value because of their ability to reduce the "transactional friction" that occurs hundreds of times a day as orders, results, reports, referrals and other transactions move between hospitals and physician practices. Agent grids also offer the strategic ability to "push" information to other locations, including clinical repositories, portals and other systems that need to be updated from the continuous information flowing through the grid. Thus, agent grids complement repository-based solutions by liberating the information trapped inside the "last mile" of the community. As health information exchanges evolve, applying technology that addresses the last-mile challenges is essential to success. Agent grids offer an approach that solves the problem effectively and creates business value through the reduction of labor involved with the transactional friction that exists between providers. Using agent grids as the "plumbing" offers a solid platform upon which to build a community exchange infrastructure. Mr. Connely is president and CEO of Novo Innovations in Alpharetta, Ga. He can be reached at robert.connely@novoinnovations.com. Article featured in Advance for Health Information Executives http://news.novoinnovations.com/articles/rssfeed.php?articleID=15 http://news.novoinnovations.com/articles/rssfeed.php?articleID=15 Novo Article marketing@novoinnovations.com (Administrator) Wed, 13 Aug 2008 16:39:29 GMT PDF version By Robert E. Connely Article featured in Advance for Health Information Executives For any attempt at information exchange to be successful, significant connectivity hurdles must first be cleared. Specifically, participants in a given community need to be connected with each other at a reasonable cost and without excessive effort. In telephony, this connectivity challenge is known as the "last mile," and it is often the most complex, time-consuming and expensive element of the communications infrastructure. Fortunately for health care communities, the last mile need not be costly or difficult. In the case of health information exchanges, the last mile refers not to the "pipes" that deliver data to its destination, but rather the integration of the many and varied IT systems, including EMRs, within a community. Residing in multiple locations, these systems also present differing degrees of interoperability. As physicians and hospitals increase their rate of deployment of EMRs, effective systems integration will only grow in importance. A new software technology has recently emerged that is proving particularly useful in addressing health care exchange connectivity. Agent-grid technology leverages software agents -- which are, in essence, intelligent software "robots" -- to deploy adaptive intelligence into participants' networks across the community. These agents can connect to any system, map any data format and exchange information with other agents in different locations over a secure message infrastructure using the Internet as the transport vehicle. Multiple collaborative agents form an agent grid, which can achieve interoperability across large, diverse communities such as those found in health care. Agent grids provide immediate value because of their ability to reduce the "transactional friction" that occurs hundreds of times a day as orders, results, reports, referrals and other transactions move between hospitals and physician practices. Agent grids also offer the strategic ability to "push" information to other locations, including clinical repositories, portals and other systems that need to be updated from the continuous information flowing through the grid. Thus, agent grids complement repository-based solutions by liberating the information trapped inside the "last mile" of the community. As health information exchanges evolve, applying technology that addresses the last-mile challenges is essential to success. Agent grids offer an approach that solves the problem effectively and creates business value through the reduction of labor involved with the transactional friction that exists between providers. Using agent grids as the "plumbing" offers a solid platform upon which to build a community exchange infrastructure. Mr. Connely is president and CEO of Novo Innovations in Alpharetta, Ga. He can be reached at robert.connely@novoinnovations.com. Article featured in Advance for Health Information Executives http://news.novoinnovations.com/articles/rssfeed.php?articleID=15 http://news.novoinnovations.com/articles/rssfeed.php?articleID=15 2008 marketing@novoinnovations.com (Administrator) Wed, 13 Aug 2008 16:39:29 GMT UPMC Connects to Emergency Medical Services and Physician EMRs Using Integration Technology PDF version University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) of Pittsburgh, PA recently implemented a technology solution that helps emergency medical services personnel provide better patient care and allows them to get bills out more efficiently. Before the change, EMS crews bringing patients to one of UPMC's 20 emergency departments couldn't leave immediately after completing their run. They had to wait for an ED employee to print a paper with patient demographic information that was used for ambulance services billing. That slowed the EMS workers down, took away clinician time, and prompted questions about patient privacy, according to Lisa Khorey, chief information officer at UPMC Shadyside, Pittsburgh, PA, and UPMC Braddock, Braddock, PA. New EDIS Took Away Paper Printing Option for EMS "Providing paper information really delayed their ability to move quickly and caused a lot of problems getting out into the field again," adds Myron Rickens, director of UPMC's prehospital care program. "EMS services workers want to arrive, drop off the patient, restock if necessary, and get back out there. Any delay in that process is a problem." But even that paper option looked good after UPMC deployed FirstNet, an automated ED system from Cerner. It didn't make sense to use that paperless system to print EMS information sheets. UPMC could have created a separate printing system, but that seemed impractical, Khorey says. Patient privacy would still have been a problem, but more importantly, clinicians getting used to a new ED system didn't need new paper-based tasks added to the mix. In addition, clinicians' patients aren't registered until clinicians have evaluated them. EMS crews could wait and still not get the information. UPMC Developed Integration with EMS System UPMC collaborated with local EMS providers to develop an integrated solution that transfers patient information electronically. Eighty percent of the area EMS companies use emsCharts, a prehospital charting and clinical information management system marketed by a company of the same name, also located in Pittsburgh. UPMC connects to those systems using an interoperability solution from Novo Innovations of Alpharetta, GA. "Novo acts as a bridge because it provides the ability to link our two systems across secure connections. It also identifies the EMS system as a trusted partner for data exchange," says Khorey. "Once we had the infrastructure in place, the process went very quickly." In fact, says Khorey, it took about three months to bring the first EMS service provider up, but only three weeks for the most recent one. Patient Information Is Sent Directly to EMS Systems UPMC sends patient name, date of birth, insurance information, and social security number to the Novo system. Technicians dropping off an ED patient can log on to the charting system from the ambulance or their office to access the patient's data. The system matches the information to the emsCharts system. Both EMS and UPMC clinicians have benefited. "Each time EMS arrived at the ED, they used to have to seek out a particular person, get them to print out the right information, and then re-enter that information into another system later," Rickens says. "There was a lot of room for error. Now, all they have to do is return to their ambulance." Same Technology Also Used to Integrate Physician EMRs UPMC has found other use for Novo's technology. It is using Novo's bridge system to send information to physician practices, including test results and medical images, that was mailed or sent by courier before, says Khorey. That information is now transferred directly to the physician's EMR in real time. "We did a little survey in April of this year and found that for EMS, the system relieved the technician from having to provide this patient information to the billing office," Khorey says. "For physician practices, they said that by enabling electronic transfer of information, they could act on results faster because information came up within their own decision support system. It enabled them to take more advantage of their own EMR. Both responses were very compelling." - Correspondent Maureen McKinney http://news.novoinnovations.com/articles/rssfeed.php?articleID=14 http://news.novoinnovations.com/articles/rssfeed.php?articleID=14 Press Release marketing@novoinnovations.com (Administrator) Wed, 13 Aug 2008 01:04:32 GMT