July 29, 2008 | Digital HealthCare & Productivity | The Open eHealth Foundation (OeHF), an open source initiative for the efficient exchange of medical information based on existing standards, is officially registered as a nonprofit organization in Delaware. This milestone enables the foundation (which was launched at HIMMS 2008 by Agfa HealthCare, InterComponentWare and Sun Microsystems) to begin operations. As the OeHF’s first Chairman of the Board, the foundation members elected Lindsy Strait from Sun Microsystems. Additional board members include Thomas Liebscher, Evgueni Loukipoudis, Alexander Ihls, and Richard Golden. The OeHF will use existing IHE (Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise) profiles as a guideline for its development activities.

Microsoft announced a strategic collaboration with RelayHealth, McKesson Corp.’s connectivity business, to accelerate and improve the relationship between doctors and patients. Together, Microsoft HealthVault and RelayHealth will enable affordable patient connectivity with doctors’ offices and hospitals so patients can have security-enhanced, easy online access to medical care, information and records. HealthVault will provide physicians using RelayHealth’s Software as a Service (SaaS) platform with the technology to facilitate enhanced online patient service and communications. Physicians can easily employ the RelayHealth service, which includes electronic prescribing, through a Web browser as the initial step toward clinical automation of their practice. The service is also designed to integrate with electronic medical record systems already in use. For patients, the combined solution allows access to their personal health information and an online interaction with their personal physician.

Logical Images has released VisualDx 6.0, a Visual Diagnostic Decision Support System that offers health care providers real-time point-of-care access to clinical information and more than 16,000 medical images presenting diseases in variation of severity, skin type, age, and passage of time. Key additions to the system include a new browser architecture which improves accessibility and refined user interfaces. For example, with VisualDx 6.0, clinicians simply enter the patient’s clinical features, such as lesion morphology, body location, symptoms, medical history, etc., to build a customized pictorial differential diagnosis in seconds. Results are color coded with the most relevant findings listed at the top.

MediVoice has formed a strategic partnership with VisionTree, a leading provider of interactive, web-based, patient-centered health record management and provider communication systems to integrate and market its mobile voice-activation solution with the VisionTree Optimal Care (VTOC) system. VisionTree customers will be able to utilize MediVoice's software platform to access the SureScripts network for ePrescribing and eHealth management. MediVoice provides the world's first commercially available mobile voice-activated e-health care solution and utilizes the most innovative technology in speech solutions.

HIMSS has designed a new membership program specifically for healthcare providers called Organizational Affiliate or “OA.” Besides the initial cost-savings advantage, every employee has access to HIMSS high-quality educational content, professional development resources, and networking for IT stakeholders. Participants in the Organizational Affiliate Program receive complimentary registrations (the number depends on the level of membership) and discounts to various HIMSS events, including the Annual HIMSS Conference & Exhibition. Additional registrations can be purchased at the individual member discount rate. Organizational Affiliates also receive exclusive access to the HIMSS eLearning Academy, which provides 24/7 access to content-rich online education. Refreshed regularly, the Academy provides best practices, case studies, certification and content-rich education that can be shared by employees throughout an organization, thus serving as a cost-efficient, flexible education tool for Organizational Affiliates.

A special task force created by the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology to provide strategic guidance on development for certification of personal health records (PHRs) has completed its work, recommending a strong focus on patient privacy, with attention to security and interoperability as well. Last week, the PHR Advisory Task Force delivered its recommendations to the Certification Commission, which approved them unanimously. The PHR certification program is expected to launch in mid-2009. Information about the Advisory Task Force’s recommendations and its members can be found at http://cchit.org/phratf.

Wolters Kluwer Health and The Nielsen Company announced the Healthcare Consumer Informatics Alliance, providing healthcare-related manufacturers and media companies with a comprehensive understanding of consumer behaviors and attitudes to enable more effective and efficient product messages, sales and media planning. The two companies created the HealthScape platform to evaluate and measure the patient as a consumer of health-related products and services. The result bears an entirely new class of healthcare informatics—combining Nielsen’s knowledge of the consumer health and media space with Wolters Kluwer Health’s expertise in prescribed pharmaceuticals—providing new insight and metrics for healthcare marketers. As today’s healthcare consumers are faced with an increased level of choices and influencers in making those choices, the two organizations reveal a more comprehensive view of what drives healthcare related purchases through the alliance and pooled data resources.

Arnot Health has selected Surgical Information Systems (SIS) to be the perioperative systems provider for Arnot Ogden Medical Center, a not-for-profit, 256-bed medical facility serving southern New York and northern Pennsylvania. The SIS Essentials perioperative solution, featuring the AHA-endorsed SIS Surgical Scheduling and HFMA Peer Reviewed SIS Rules-Based Charging, was chosen to replace Arnot Ogden’s current system provided by Mediware Information Systems. Due to Mediware’s recent announcement that it would no longer invest in its operating room software products, Arnot Ogden was in search of a long-term, financially stable surgical partner as well as a proven and powerful system that would allow physicians to uphold a high quality of care for years to come.

VisEn Medical has received $3.5 million in venture debt financing from GE Healthcare Financial Services. VisEn will use the credit facility to support its working capital needs and expanding commercialization efforts worldwide. VisEn is a leading developer of fluorescence-based agents and system solutions that enable non-invasive in vivo imaging.