Vendor News: New Apple Watch App Aids Care Coordination

Software and billing services vendor athenahealth has introduced athenaText, a mobile secure messaging app for Apple Watch.


Software and billing services vendor athenahealth has introduced athenaText, a mobile secure messaging app for Apple Watch.

The product enables quick messaging among providers, support staff and other colleagues to sync care coordination activities. Integrated with the vendor’s electronic health records system, it also is available on desktops and iPhones.

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The app links to athenahealth’s Epocrates medical reference content to automatically search for relevant information on drugs mentioned in a message to speed physician decision making. The app currently has read-only capability but various interactive functions and clinical workflow support will be rolled out starting in June.

Other recent news from information technology vendors includes:

* Ambulatory software vendor drchrono has introduced a mobile app to enable some basic electronic health record information to be displayed on an Apple Watch. The company sells an EHR along with practice management software and outsourced billing services. Clinicians are the target audience for the app and functions include a snapshot of the schedule, short messages such as reminders sent by staff members, messaging with patients, and viewing refill requests and lab results.

* Charge capture software vendor MedAptus has new advanced analytics software to augment a basic reporting module introduced in 2012.  The first generation module reported on physician work output (RVUs), charge lag, missing charge rate, and evaluation and management intensity levels. The new product, called Premium Analytics, enables access to all MedAptus transactional data with tools to create customized reports and real-time dashboards to review and trend data over time, according to the company. New measures to analyze include patient severity, readmission rates, length of stay and comparing performance against MedAptus customer best practices and external benchmarks.

* Five-hospital Erlanger Health System in Chattanooga, Tenn., will implement eight medication management modules from Mountain View, Calif.-based Omnicell Inc. The products cover automated dispensing cabinets, inventory management software, a medication carousel, controlled substance management software, an anesthesia workstation, remote authorized access to dispensing cabinets from any workstation, and data analytics focusing on diversion, compliance and inventory management.

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