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Mission: Finding Patient Data
August 1, 2008
eHealth Global Technologies Inc. is expanding its eHealthConnect health data exchange outsourcing service.
The service, launched in early 2007, is designed to enable data sharing by collecting a patient’s electronic and paper medical records from multiple providers, digitizing the paper or film, and transmitting the records to the requesting provider or making them viewable via a secure Web site.
Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, for instance, uses the service to make patient records available to specialists at the time of service.
Penn State Hershey Medical Center’s organ transplant program is using it to collect all possible records of transplant candidates.
Earlier this year, the Rochester, N.Y.,-based vendor launched two new versions of its outsourcing service–one for clinical trials and another for regional health information organizations or health information exchanges.
The Rochester RHIO, for instance, will use the service to enable the exchange of radiology images pulled from picture archiving and communication systems at eight participating provider organizations.
As a result, eHealth Global Technologies has three core products to serve three distinct sectors “where there are customers with the need to access unconnected information and willing to pay for it,” says Michael Margiotta, CEO.
Easing Use
Recent workflow enhancements also make it easier for clients to request records collection services, Margiotta says. Previously, such requests were either faxed to the vendor or completed online via a templated form. Now, online forms are customized for each client, and the software remembers user preferences so subsequent requests are quicker to complete.
The enhanced online request function also automatically generates appropriate authorization forms, says Ken Rosenfeld, president and chief technology officer.
The vendor also has complementary outsourcing services to support the transition to new information systems or personal health records.
The eHealthLoader service collects and digitizes paper medical records and X-ray film to place in a new electronic health records system or PACS.
The new eHealthRetriever service, sold to personal health records vendors, collects a consumer’s paper and electronic medical records from providers and loads the data into the PHR. Three PHR vendors have partnered with the vendor to offer the service, Margiotta says.
Looking Ahead
Next year, the company expects to offer two new services, either developed in-house or acquired, to further complement the core eHealthConnect outsourcing services, Margiotta says.
One will ease the release of information process in medical records departments. The other will enable basic data mining of information collected for clinical trials clients to provide pertinent information up-front in a patient summary screen.
As eHealth Global expands services, it does not plan to evolve from being an outsourced service provider to becoming a software vendor, Rosenfeld says. That’s a decision he and Margiotta wrestled with as they put the company together in 2005 and 2006, he adds. “We are a service company, and we’re not selling and installing a product.”
With 10 new accounts added during the first quarter of 2008, eHealth Global now has more than 30 clients. Revenue in the first quarter of 2008 increased 978% from the same period last year, and rose 114% from the fourth quarter of 2007. The vendor hopes to post its first profitable quarter by the end of 2008, Margiotta says.
The company has had three serious inquiries from potential buyers so far this year, he adds. “We wouldn’t be doing our due diligence if we were not at least willing to be acquired. But we need a good strategic partner whether it is us acquiring or being acquired.”
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