TELUS Health Solutions: Connecting health data from hospital to home
TELUS Health Solutions, headquartered in Montreal, jumped to #20 in the Healthcare Informatics Top 100, up from #33 the previous year. A wholly owned subsidiary of TELUS, one of the largest telecommunications companies in Canada, the organization's dramatic climb is the result of the Jan. 2008 acquisition of Emergis, the leading healthcare IT company in Canada. The merger resulted in the launch of an entirely new brand that is dedicated to developing, operating and commercializing a unique set of eHealth solutions for health systems around the world.
Backed by a comprehensive portfolio of solutions-ranging from sophisticated unified patient records and clinical applications to remote patient monitoring and personal health records-TELUS Health is leveraging its expertise in both healthcare IT systems and network infrastructure to create regional (and perhaps national) networks that link hospitals to each other, to outlying physician offices, and now, to patients at home.
TELUS Health's keystone Oacis Unified Patient Record solution pioneered the electronic health record industry within the United States, notes Francois Gratton, executive vice president of Healthcare Delivery Solutions at TELUS health Solutions. Deployed for more than 15 years at the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, S.C., Oacis is one of the few electronic patient record solutions that can completely unify records throughout and between healthcare departments and facilities, without the cost and risk of replacing existing IT infrastructure.
Over the past several years, TELUS Health has continued to win key installation contracts for Oacis, Gratton says. Oacis has been successfully deployed for more than three years at Montreal's McGill University Health Centre and the University of Montreal Medical University Hospital. the Montreal Region Health Authority awarded TELUS Health with a $31.5 million contract extension in May 2009 to expand the Oacis project, which will eventually connect at least 89 medical facilities including hospitals, clinics and doctors' offices.
TELUS Health is also investing in areas that foster collaboration, drive prevention and empower the patient. These innovative technologies, such as Remote Patient Monitoring, Mobile Wound Care, iScheduler for Telehealth/Telemedicine and TELUS health space are accelerating the creation of new patient-centric care delivery models that will reduce health system costs while improving patient outcomes.
In June, the Centre de Santé des Services Sociaux de Pointe-de-l'Île of Montreal committed to a five-year contract to employ TELUS Health's Remote Patient Monitoring system. Each year, at least 500 of its patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), diabetes, hypertension and/or congestive heart failure will use a home-based touchpad device to exchange vital information with their care management team.
On the consumer health front, TELUS Health is developing a pan-Canadian consumer eHealth service, TELUS health space, powered by Microsoft HealthVault. The service will be the first of its kind in Canada, allowing consumers to manage and store their personal health information and have access to applications like personal health record, chronic disease management, pediatric care and wellness products that will allow better management of their health and the health of their family.
This new service will enable the exchange of health information across the continuum of care between consumer-based PHRs, clinic-based EMRs and hospital-based EHRs, Gratton explains. “We firmly believe in empowering consumers to take over the management of their own health information,” he says. “And by integrating Oacis with TELUS health space, patient information will be able to come both from the hospital's health record and from the data entered by the patients themselves. It's the beginning of an exciting new era in health management, prevention and wellness.”
TELUS Health Solutions is passionate about healthcare-the company has committed $100 million over the next three years for capital investments in healthcare technology infrastructure to assist in moving health from the treatment of symptoms to the prevention of illness.
“TELUS Health Solutions is the number one healthcare IT company in Canada, and we intend to maintain this position as we grow into new markets,” Gratton says. “To do this, we will continue to develop and expand our portfolio to help healthcare systems change and adapt to new realities because, as we all know, medicine is constantly advancing and the information and communications technology to support it must advance as well.”
MED3OOO: Optimizing physician practices in the office and beyond
MED3OOO, a national healthcare management and technology company, is enjoying another exciting year, thanks to its new client wins and partnerships.
Ranking #34 on the Healthcare Informatics Top 100, MED3OOO is maturing through its recent investments, including the 2007 acquisition of Pathology Service Associates (PSA), the country's largest private provider of pathology revenue cycle management (RCM) services.
“PSA is a key long-term investment for us because physicians will need access to critical information, including genomic data from pathologists,” says Patrick Hampson, MED3OOO Chairman and CEO. “We believe that our 360° approach to optimizing technology and operations will enhance outcomes for physician practices as well as the patients they serve. MED3OOO services include RCM, EHR and PM technology, data warehouse capture, and data delivery at the point of care. Physicians who embrace our full spectrum of services have the diagnostic information to enhance prevention, wellness, disease management, and population health management. This comprehensive approach will deliver the most cost-effective care.”
The company's joint venture with Tenet Healthcare Corp., headquartered in Dallas, announced in May 2009, reflects MED3OOO's commitment to become a premier strategic operations partner to physicians, hospitals, municipalities, and employers. With a network reaching physicians at 51 hospitals across 12 states, Tenet is focused on providing their employed and affiliated physicians with access to a broad array of services, each focused on helping them compete successfully in the evolving healthcare industry.
“Our core management and technology services are not just commodities to sell. The strategy we developed years ago continues to provide each client with a plan to succeed and improve outcomes,” Hampson adds. “By combining MED3OOO's advantage of offering one of the few browser-based EHR and Personal Health Records, with President Obama's focus on electronic health, we are poised for growth opportunities in the U.S. and abroad.”
Across the United States, people are demanding greater access, lower cost, and better outcomes with respect to healthcare services. This type of system-wide improvement can only be accomplished through the simultaneous and symbiotic deployment of technological and operational enhancements in ways that reflect real-world issues. MED3OOO, a user as well as a vendor of healthcare and reporting technology, is well-positioned to offer this “full circle” approach to healthcare improvement.
Keane's latest offering “optimizes” healthcare IT
The Healthcare Solutions Division of Boston-based Keane, Inc. is enhancing its quiet reputation for delivering versatile healthcare IT solutions with deep features, for both hospitals and post-acute care facilities.
Ranking at #26 on the Healthcare Informatics Top 100, the company's recent big splash centered on its latest product, Keane Optimum launched in April at the HIMSS conference in Chicago.
“Keane Optimum is a full hospital information system: From scheduling and patient access, to revenue cycle management, to health information and clinical applications, like nursing documentation and physician orders, including lab and pharmacy,” explains Ed Meehan, vice president of sales and marketing for Keane's Healthcare Solutions Division. “It's a culmination of the long history we've had in healthcare IT-the best of our financial experience and our clinical experience, all under one umbrella.”
In June, Capital Health, Trenton, N.J., completed its installation of Keane Optimum in its two hospitals, taking advantage of Keane's Optimum iMed clinical components to enable physicians to access patient information at the bedside via Web devices or the 150 mobile carts used in the hospitals.
“You have to be able to be flexible enough to address your clients’ unique needs,” he says. “Some of our clients only want to run only our revenue cycle management piece or clinical modules. Other hospitals are looking for as much functionality as they can get from one vendor. You also have to be willing to do a quick installation to get a client up and running, and then go back later and turn on additional capabilities of the product.”
With 34 years under its belt, Keane's Healthcare Solutions Division has been around long enough to attest to what it takes to compete in the rapidly changing markets of healthcare IT.
“We've been in the Healthcare Informatics Top 100 for the past 16 years,” Meehan observes. “But we've always focused more on the products and our clients than on marketing, and so we view ourselves as a well kept secret.”
SCC: Preparing Labs for the Genetic Future
After 30 years on the front edge of laboratory information system automation, SCC Soft Computer (SCC), Clearwater, Fla., has plenty to celebrate. Rising 10 places to #38 on this year's Healthcare Informatics Top 100, SCC's 2008 reported revenue exceeded its 2007 revenue by more than $13 million, and the company expects double-digit growth for next few years.
“We are an anomaly in a world of corporate conglomerates, mergers, and acquisitions because we're a privately-held company with the same core management team, still going strong after three decades of progressive growth,” says Gilbert Hakim, SCC's founder and CEO.
SCC's flagship product, SoftLab, combines a CORBA-based and Web-enabled platform with an embedded master-patient index, charge capture tools, and quality control/documentation management features. The system allows data reporting and management of labs across multiple care delivery sites, and now includes en-route GPS tracking of transports carrying lab specimens.
Early R&D investments also gave SCC a head start in genetics laboratory automation. In 2007, the company launched its genetics suite just as genetics laboratories are beginning to see huge demand for more efficient workflow and automation.
With modules for cytogenetics, molecular diagnostics, flow cytometry, and immunogenetics/HLA, SCC's Genetics Information Systems Suite provides customizable tools for automating workflow, integrates with hospital and lab information systems, and allows Web access to data.
“Introduction of these applications is attracting a market that is still in its initial automation cycle,” Hakim says. “The market is pretty open.”
As the burgeoning field of genetics continues to move into mainstream healthcare, even more hospitals will need to seek laboratory information systems that can handle the sophisticated niche software and the influx of genetics data, Hakim adds.
“Traditional clinical pathology is being influenced by molecular technology already,” he says. “Within the next three to five years, labs will need that functionality anyway-they'll have no choice.”
Larger hospitals are beginning to realize the importance of automation in their laboratories to facilitate better data documentation and productivity, Hakim says. But laboratories are facing the challenges of siloed information systems, inflexible software, proprietary connectivity and lack of integration-much as radiology and other hospital departments struggled for integration and customization in previous years.
“Laboratories in teaching hospitals have both genetics and traditional CPAP (clinical pathology and anatomic pathology), and each one tends to have its own system with its own characteristics,” Hakim explains. “We have all of it, including the outreach. Our range of applications really makes us as a one-stop shop for any kind of laboratory, from commercial labs to large multisite IDNs.”
Clients can realize a significant ROI simply by implementing the features in SCC's powerful software modules, which can improve workflow, increase productivity, and maximize revenue. “This transforms cost centers into profit centers for their organizations,” Hakim says.
With 1,500 employees and a laboratory department twice the size of its nearest competitor, SCC keeps its clients up to date with the latest advancements and system upgrades, Hakim notes: “The breadth and functionality of the new software we introduce can't be matched by other vendors.”
Its corporate business model seems to be working: SCC has increased its revenue by at least $10 million every year since 2005, and has never had any layoffs. It's also one of the few IT companies with a consistent presence on Training magazine's “Training Top 125” list, ranking #3 in 2009.
The company prides itself on operating all aspects of its business-research, product development, sales, training, installation, and customer training-without outsourcing anything to third parties.
“Because we do an upfront investment in training our staff and our clients, it ultimately reduces the cost of maintaining the clients,” Hakim explains. “The more astute our employees are, the faster they can solve a problem before it escalates.”
Not long ago, only a handful of hospitals, labs, and physician offices were operating true outreach programs, Hakim notes. SCC's Outreach Information Systems Suite provides cost-effective, powerful, user-friendly solutions that are convenient and easy for physicians and personnel to learn, he explains. Combined with SCC's core laboratory information systems, the tools in SCC's Outreach suite enable hospitals, laboratories, and physician offices to do more in less time with fewer FTEs.
In the next year, SCC plans to release a “Just In Time Repository” pre-diagnosis results that will accommodate laboratory, radiology, PACS, and pharmacy data.
Agfa HealthCare: Patient Care Innovation that Reaches Beyond PACS
“The combination of capabilities that we bring together makes us different. Our experience in developing diagnostic workflow and image management results in solutions that meet clinical needs.” says Michael Green, president & CEO of Agfa HealthCare North America. “We merge that clinical know-how with our commitment to interoperability and open IT standards. Together, these capabilities have helped us develop a comprehensive portfolio focused on delivering vendor-neutral solutions to improve the quality and efficiency of patient care.”
Agfa HealthCare ranks fourth among the Healthcare Informatics 100, and the company is focused on the synergy of imaging, clinical knowledge, and information technology in improving efficiency and safety of care delivery. A key example, IMPAX is a family of leading image and information management solutions that enhance workflow efficiencies for radiologists, cardiologists, clinicians, and referring physicians, as well as provides a cost-effective strategy for managing the ever-expanding volume and diversity of medical imaging data.
“Healthcare today is increasingly reliant upon access to a longitudinal view of patient records. By extending the concept of the electronic health record, or EHR, to include support for all medical images and related information, both an organization's clinical and IT infrastructure requirements are better addressed,” says Green. “Our Imaging and Imaging Informatics solutions are designed to maximize information exchange in heterogeneous environments, delivering point-of-care access to consolidated imaging data.”
Across its RIS, PACS, and CVIS product lines, Agfa HealthCare supports more than 2,300 installations worldwide. The company is also an international leader in providing reporting, scheduling, decision support, and enterprise medical imaging repositories, as well as Digital Radiography, Computed Radiography, print solutions, film and associated consumables.
“One of the keys to our success has been our investment in standards development,” explains Green. “Our commitment is reflected in our sponsorship of the HIMSS Analytics Stage 7 Awards at this year's conference, our involvement in the IHE initiative, and DICOM support. This emphasis has guided us in developing solutions that effectively enable connectivity across healthcare stakeholders.”
With a growing R&D effort in North America and a strong foundation to grow on, Agfa HealthCare is well-positioned to carry on its tradition of enhancing value through innovation.
Cognizant: Domain Expertise for Tomorrow's Healthcare Challenges
“In healthcare, pressure to reduce costs, improve outcomes, and drive patient centricity is coming from many directions. Reform measures like the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 add another layer of urgency,” says Krish Venkat, senior vice president and general manager of Cognizant's Healthcare and Life Sciences Practice. “For Cognizant, reaching the top ten on the Healthcare Informatics 100 is a testament to our passion for addressing these challenges for our clients.”
Indeed, as a global provider of information technology, consulting, analytics and business process outsourcing (BPO) services, Cognizant boasts a diverse healthcare clientele. Cognizant has worked with leading healthcare organizations across the globe including seven of the top 10 health plans, three of the top five pharmacy benefit managers, 27 of the top 30 pharmaceutical companies, and 12 of the top 20 medical device companies.
“All of that experience rests with our people, and it's the foundation for the truly domain-differentiated services we provide,” explains Venkat. “We have in house over 13,000 professionals including physicians, pharmacologists, biomedical engineers, pharmacists, biostatisticians, software engineers, and others.”
The coming transition to the HIPAA 5010 standard for electronic transactions will no doubt be another opportunity for Cognizant to demonstrate its' domain expertise. “More than 20 health plans have leveraged our fluency with HIPAA, NPI and Medicare Part D implementations,” says Venkat. “Now we're ready to assist our clients with assessing the impacts of and preparing for the move to 5010 & ICD-10.”
Cognizant's business model brings offshore, near-shore and onsite technology and healthcare business professionals together to offer a wide range of well-established services, such as systems integration, BPO, implementation, technology strategy consulting, analytics, and change management. Some services, like offshore-based provider credentialing and anti-fraud services, are unique niche offerings.
“Cognizant's goal is to help clients navigate emerging challenges and enhance business agility,” says Venkat. “This commitment is a primary reason why we are among the Healthcare Informatics 100 as well as Fortune magazine's World's Most Admired Companies 2009. These qualities have served us and our clients well, and they'll be a strong asset as the pace of change in healthcare quickens.”
Vital Images: Picturing Anatomical Imaging in 4D
The vision of detailed multi-dimensional medical images has always been clear for Vital Images, Minnetonka, Minn. The advanced visualization software company ranks #44 this year in the Healthcare Informatics Top 100, up from #49 the previous year.
Established more than 20 years ago, Vital Images has over 5,000 installations worldwide-including customers in 83 countries. Some leading educational hospitals, such as Duke University Medical Center, were early adopters and have been users of Vital Images' advanced visualization solutions since the early days.
According to an independent study of nearly 2,400 U.S. hospitals with more than 100 beds conducted by Dominic & Irvine, a medical research firm, Vital Images was the market share leader among 3D imaging vendors. Vital Images was also cited in the survey as having the best technology and as having shown the most improvements in the past 12 months. In facilities surveyed with software from multiple vendors, respondents named Vital Images the advanced visualization software they use most frequently.
The company's flagship software, Vitrea, renders CT and MR data into multi-dimensional (2D, 3D, 4D) images. The system also features deep clinical tools needed by specialists for probing, measuring and segmenting anatomy in fields such as cardiology, neurology and gastroenterology. Vitrea software is known for setting the standard for speed and ease-of-use, which helps increase productivity and efficiency.
“Our software takes images from a CT or MR scanner, and manipulates that data into meaningful information that allows doctors to make better clinical decisions in their daily practice,” explains Michael Carrel, Vital Images' president and CEO.
At the end of 2008, the company rolled out Vitrea Web, which allows clients to access all the clinical and visual components of Vitrea software from anywhere via the Web.
“Vitrea is the product we've always been known for, and now it's available via the Web,” Carrel says. “As a Web-based solution it provides anywhere, anytime access to all of our clinical applications including tools for oncology, cardiology and other applications.”
In early 2009, the company also rolled out a new Vital Information Management System, scalable for multiple-site enterprises: “Our clients are throwing millions of images at it every day,” Carrel says.
Meanwhile, the company has its eye on emerging imaging markets: “We're getting deeper and deeper into vascular surgery,” he says. “And, if you look at the ‘ology’ market, we'll be seeing a lot more in women's imaging, as well as a continued interest in cardiology and in neurosurgery and stroke protocols.”
Vital Images continues its international efforts with a milestone reseller agreement with Chindex International, Bethesda, Md., a provider of medical equipment to China. The agreement, signed in June, will introduce Vital Images' advanced visualization imaging systems to Chindex's expansive reach throughout China, including Hong Kong. “Chindex is well established in China,” Carrel says. “We are excited to expand our reach and more broadly impact patient care through our partnership.”
In most U.S. hospitals, the focus is now on connectivity and anywhere-anytime access to advanced imaging and its clinical tools. But these days, connectivity means more than connecting departments within the hospital walls: Medical images and communication now need to cross facilities, physician offices, and referral offices.
“Hospital CFOs and CIOs are looking at broad-based solutions now, rather than the verticalized ones,” Carrel explains. “It's about distributing our software and data management capabilities to provide enterprise data exchange in a seamless and fast way, enabling better patient care.”
Through enhanced workflow tools and the ability to share robust images far beyond the radiology department, advanced visualization imaging will continue to find rapid growth in the specialty markets, Carrel predicts.
“Specialty areas like neurology, oncology and orthopedics will soon demand imaging for better clinical information,” he notes. “If you look at trends for the next five years, it's all about integration of images into the EMR. It's about getting healthcare imaging data available at the point of care and available to the patients themselves.”
In addition to high-tech solutions, Vital Images is committed to service excellence. In 2009 it became the first and only advanced medical visualization provider to achieve certification for Excellence in Service Operations by the Service & Support Professionals Association (SSPA). The SSPA, together with J.D. Power and Associates, conducted a rigorous in-depth audit of all aspects of Vital Images' customer support organization and operations, evaluating the company against more than 290 best practice criteria. SSPA noted strengths in the company's practices including executive support for service excellence, appropriate metrics, support call responsiveness and follow up, among many others.
Philips Healthcare: A Decisive Focus on Patients, Care Givers
“Whether it's financial systems, electronic medical records or image management, all healthcare IT companies have to focus to be successful,” says Deborah DiSanzo, CEO of the Healthcare Informatics and Patient Monitoring (HI-PM) business at Philips Healthcare. “Even if your objective is to serve a small segment of your market, you really must be committed. That's something we've done well in recent years; we've refined our focus and pursued a strategy with a very clear value to the medical community.”
At number eight in the Healthcare Informatics 100, Philips Healthcare is a major, global resource for healthcare providers. The company serves a broad cross-section of the care continuum, including both the hospital and the home, providing products and services that span from disease prevention to screening and diagnosis to treatment, monitoring and health management. Despite $11 billion in revenues across its five primary business units, it maintains a well-defined mission.
“Our guiding philosophy is to approach our work by first carefully looking at the people - the patients and the care providers - not the technology,” explains DiSanzo. “We search for insights into how patients and clinicians actually experience healthcare, and based on that experience, we can identify the urgent market needs and clinical opportunities. From there, we research solutions that do three things. We want to simplify clinicians' workflow. We want to save lives or improve the quality of care. And we want to enhance the organization's financial performance.”
This mindset has guided the Philips HI-PM business, which focuses on a discipline that accomplishes all three of these objectives: clinical decision support (CDS). These CDS applications perform a range of functions: expediting communications, helping to prevent errors, predicting potential complications, extending clinicians' reach through remote access, supplementing clinical expertise, or identifying patterns within large amounts of data. But they all work together toward productivity, improving workflow, quality, and economy.
A focus that generates results
Clinical decision support is a role Philips HI-PM is well prepared for. The company's healthcare informatics portfolio includes image and information management solutions for radiology, cardiology, critical care, obstetrics, and anesthesia. Philips has approximately 70 clinical decision support products commercially available or in clinical evaluation, and it is also the leading maker of patient monitoring equipment worldwide. In North America alone, Philips has more than 50 percent share of the market. Philips HI-PM's work has also translated to the “real world” with great success.
“The University of Massachusetts Medical Center reorganized its ICU operations and reported the outcomes in 2007,” says DiSanzo. “Using our patient monitoring and VISICU software systems, intensivists reduced response times and estimated that they saved 309 lives. Overall hospital length of stay fell by four days, and the cost savings amounted to $5,000 per patient.”
The Philips VISICU system extends the reach of the ICU care team through remote surveillance.
Philips ProtocolWatch, which alerts clinicians to the potential for sepsis and presents a protocol of care to follow, is another example. “Not so long ago, monitoring was just monitoring,” says DiSanzo. “With our solutions, monitoring is predictive. ProtocolWatch monitors variables such as temperature, blood pressure, and lab results. We've developed algorithms, based on our database of more than one million ICU patients, and apply them to care protocols developed by the Surviving Sepsis Campaign in order to calculate a given patient's risk of contracting sepsis. Studies have shown that when customers utilize ProtocolWatch it can reduce the time to diagnose sepsis and deliver antibiotics from 182 minutes to 112 minutes.”
One common thread to Philips solutions is their ability to help care givers work smarter, be more productive, and better serve patient populations that present increasing complex medical challenges.
“In a way, hospitals themselves are becoming giant ICUs, with sicker patients and a shortage of clinicians in a lot of clinical areas,” says DiSanzo. “We see clinical decision support as a very powerful way to help address this long-term problem.”
A growing portfolio
Philips' strategy has guided an aggressive acquisition plan to complement its organic growth. In the last several years, it has identified a range of top-rated firms whose solutions successfully streamline workflows, save lives, improve finances, or all of the above.
The Philips XIRIS radiology information system is an excellent example. It's a powerful workflow engine that provides efficient patient registration and scheduling, reducing errors in the process, while maintaining seamless connectivity with any preferred PACS, hospital information systems, voice recognition systems for dictation, lab information systems, and electronic medical record (EMR) systems.
In 2008, TOMCAT Systems and its cardiovascular information system (CVIS) joined the Philips HI-PM family. Together with Xcelera, an integrated multi-modality image management system, the solution comprises a single workspace for access to all relevant cardiovascular patient information, advanced clinical quantification and quality reporting tools, and performance management data.
Emergin is yet another building block in Philips HI-PM's comprehensive delivery model for simplifying clinician workflow. The Emergin alarm management and event notification system immediately conveys critical information to the right caregiver via his or her preferred communication device, be it pager, wireless telephone, PDA or other method. The addition of Emergin strengthens Philips' clinical IT portfolio and expands the use of information technology in healthcare - specifically in its patient monitoring business - to improve patient outcomes and help hospitals work more efficiently.
Doing something smart with patient information
“Philips Healthcare has been generating patient information in the most data-intensive areas of the hospital for more than 25 years,” says DiSanzo. “And Philips HI-PM plays a distinct role in that it touches every other segment of the business. No matter what equipment, Philips HI-PM is working with that technology to figure out how to collect, analyze and interpret patient data to present intelligent information to care givers when and where they need it.”
Acquisition of data is just the beginning. Philips HI-PM's strength lies in analyzing that data, interpreting trends and associations, and building that knowledge back into the products as the means to present it to clinicians. This is the dynamic underlying the ProtocolWatch solution. One of the business' core objectives, according to DiSanzo, is to replicate that value in other clinical areas, such as detection of acute coronary syndrome, computer-aided interpretation and diagnosis of lung images, and enhanced reading of ECG results that consider the age, race, and gender of the patient.
A commitment to the medical record
As another way to ensure that clinicians can act on information and patients can benefit, Philips has heavily invested in interoperability, particularly EMR integration. “This is critically important for us, for our clients and for the medical community,” says DiSanzo. “With our experience and resources, we're in an excellent position in terms of interoperability. Seventy percent of our installed patient monitoring solutions in North America are already integrated with an EMR. But internally we have made a conscious decision to renew our commitment. Philips data will absolutely be a part of core hospital systems.”
Philips involvement with standards development organizations underscores the commitment. For many years, the company has been an active member of organizations that are promoting the ability to share healthcare information across various systems. For example, Philips serves on the International Board of Directors for Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE), providing leadership in the domains of Cardiology and Patient Care Devices, and actively participating in several others, including IT Infrastructure, Patient Care Coordination, Pathology and Radiology. Through participation in other standards development organizations such as DICOM, HL7, and IEEE, Philips seeks to further advance the capabilities available in the industry.
Philips HI-PM represents approximately 15 percent of Philips Healthcare revenues, and it has experienced double-digit growth in the last two years. As it expands further to serve other areas that stand to benefit from advanced clinical decision support, such as women's health and oncology, focus will remain important.
“One of the aspects of our corporate culture that has helped us succeed is our clinical focus,” says DiSanzo. “Our customers tend to comment on how we gravitate toward the clinical aspects of our work. Though technology is the means, clinical decision-making is the end. Instead of merely developing elegant applications, we understand that our solutions need to be a practical part of the larger effort targeted at helping care givers do their jobs, healing patients more effectively, and improving the business of healthcare.”
Healthcare Informatics 2009 August;26(8):38-49
