Physician Vendor Launches Portal, PHR

Office Ally, a vendor of remotely hosted physician practice management/electronic health records software and claims clearinghouse services, has introduced a patient portal that includes personal health records.

The portal, called Patient Ally, enables patients to schedule appointments, complete paperwork online before a visit, and have electronic consultations. Patients can send messages to physicians, entering symptoms and answering basic questions in a templated form. Embedded decision support software offers recommendations to physicians based on patient-supplied information, according to the Vancouver, Wash.-based vendor.

Upon patient request and health plan or physician approval, the vendor can populate PHRs with such information as medications, lab results and office visit summaries.

More information is available at officeally.com.

--Joseph Goedert