Healthcare IT News - August 2008 - (Page 32)

32 Healthcare IT News August 2008 ■ www.HealthcareITNews.com NEWSBRIEFS tRIzEtto ShaREholdERS oK apax paRtNERS dEal Shareholders of The Trizetto Group have approved the company’s plans to be acquired by Apax Partners, a London-based private equity firm, for roughly $1.4 billion. The shareholder meeting, held July 14, had been delayed by court action initiated by disgruntled stockholders, but TriZetto officials released information about the deal to settle all legal issues. Officials say TriZetto, a Newport Beach, Calif.-based provider of benefits-based information technology services for payers and healthcare providers, will go private after the deal is completed. A boy’s request leads Aethon to develop a special TUG. By ErIC WICkluNd, Managing Editor PITTSBURGH – A ‘Wish’ come true hEalthvISIoN EyES caNada WIth mEdISolutIoN puRchaSE Healthvision, a Dallas-based provider of healthcare IT solutions that was formerly known as Quovadx, has signaled its interest in the Canadian healthcare market with the acquisition of Montreal-based MediSolution’s Health Information Services division for $49.5 million in cash. The deal includes MediSolution’s revenue cycle management product (formerly called MediAR) as well as its electronic health record systems, patient management suite, clinical department systems, lab information systems and public health and community care solutions but excludes the company’s core resource management suite of products and blood bank product line. The JR TUG, developed by Pittsburgh-based Aethon, is being used in three children’s hospitals around the nation. A sick child’s wish to make his hospital stays a little brighter has turned into an interesting new business venture for Aethon. The Pittsburgh-based developer of autonomous mobile robots for healthcare supply chain management has announced the general availability of the JR TUG, a train-themed robot designed specifically to be used in children’s hospitals. “The robot itself … always grabs the attention of kids,” says Joe Costa, vice president of marketing for Aethon. “This was seen as a way to make the hospital more friendly, and to turn a negative event into a positive one.” Modeled after the children’s book “The Little Engine That Could,” the JR TUG was cre- ated by Jericho Rajninger, a 7year-old leukemia patient from Larkspur, Calif. who was undergoing chemotherapy treatment and wanted to make the medication routine in a hospital easier for children like him. His design was passed on to the Make-AWish Foundation, which in turn contacted Aethon. “We were honored to make Jericho’s wish to help other sick children a reality,” said Aldo Zini, Aethon’s CEO, who donated the JR TUG to UCSF Children’s Hospital in San Francisco in 2006 and has since seen the robot deployed at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin and the Carolinas Health System in North Carolina. Based on the company’s RFID-based TUG, which transports medical equipment and supplies throughout a hospital, the JR TUG has drawers in its “caboose” for the storage of children’s medications and features the voice of actor Don Tug see page 33 Benefitfocus launches Video-as-a-Service By ErIC WICkluNd, Managing Editor CHARLESTON, SC – mcKESSoN acquIRES EN-chaRt, BooStS FINaNcIal poRtFolIo McKesson is boosting its financial capabilities with the purchase of EN-Chart Scanning Program, LLC, a Dandridge, Tenn.-based provider of coding and chargecapture capabilities for EDIS platforms. The Atlanta-based company will offer ENChart’s solution as a stand-alone or in conjunction with its own EDIS, with the goal of reducing errors and improving the chargecapture process. Sometimes a sheet of paper or drop-down box on a computer terminal won’t do the job when you’re trying to explain a complicated medical procedure or make a point to customers. For that, you need video. Benefitfocus, based in Charleston, S.C., has launched Video-as-a-Service (VaaS), an end-to-end solution that offers video production, post-production services, delivery, thE NEWS: Benefitfocus debuts video service. ➔ What It mEaNS: Healthcare providers can ➔ create professionally-made videos to get their messages out to staff, customers. hosting and online distribution of content. “Video in general is such a powerful tool,” says Nina Sossamon-Pogue, vice president of Benefitfocus Media. “We create the videos and we host them as well.” An Emmy-winning former television news anchorwoman, Sossamon-Pogue oversees a 12-employee department that works out of a specially built studio in Charleston. The department’s most recent customers are Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City, which is producing e-billing videos and quarterly videos from the organization’s CEO, and the Maryland-based Bon Secours Health System, which is working on cultural vaas see page 33 mEdavaNt dEclaRES BaNKRuptcy, to SEll aSSEtS MedAvant Healthcare Solutions, an Atlanta-based provider of healthcare technology and transaction services, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and will sell its assets at an auction. The company, a trade name of ProxyMed, Inc., has sold off its laboratory services and pharmacy processing businesses as well as its national preferred provider network and posted a $36.8 billion loss last year. Company officials have acquired $8.1 million in debtor-in-possession financing and hope to rebound with a focus on their electronic data interchange business. More at HealthcareITNews.com e Connect: VeNDorS 0808 Novo Innovations keeps the Americans are hesitant to research their prescriptions system running smoothly By ErIC WICkluNd, Managing Editor ALPHARETTA, GA – ● 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 manage- ment 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 Novo see page 33 on the Web A survey asked how much do respondents rely on the Internet to provide accurate information about prescribed medications. 2% 11% 27% 48% 11% N = 1,695, taken Jan. 3-23, 2008. e ● Connect: GraPHS 0808 SOuRCE: KAISER fAMILy fOuNDATION. http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=9705

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Healthcare IT News - August 2008 Contents Closer to IT Bill PHIN or RHIOs? Making Leaps After the Flood Tidal Change Denmark Bound Bridging the Divide Robot That Could Mobile Computing Data Everywhere

Healthcare IT News - August 2008

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