• Impact Advisors Named to Modern Healthcare’s Best Places to Work in Healthcare List for Eighth Consecutive Year

    CHICAGO, IL – May 22, 2017 — Impact Advisors, LLC, a leading provider of healthcare information technology services, is pleased to announce that it has been selected, for the eighth consecutive year, as one of Modern Healthcare’s Best Places to Work in Healthcare. Specific rankings will be revealed during Modern Healthcare’s awards gala in Las Vegas on September 28.

    “It is a great honor to be named to Modern Healthcare’s Best Places to Work in Healthcare list,” said Andy Smith, President and Co-Founder of Impact Advisors. “Creating a culture of caring and collaboration is one of our greatest guiding principles and it is reflected everyday by our team of passionate professionals. This award will be shared by everyone in our firm.”

    Modern Healthcare’s Best Places to Work in Healthcare recognition program, now in its tenth year, honors workplaces throughout the healthcare industry that empower their employees to provide patients and customers with the best possible care, products and services. This year, 150 companies are recognized on the list which was compiled using information gathered from employers and employees of companies with at least 25 employees. Employees are surveyed to evaluate their employer in several areas including leadership and planning, culture and communications, role satisfaction, working environment, relationships with supervisor, training and development, pay and benefits and overall satisfaction. To view the complete alphabetical list of honorees, click here.

    “We are extremely proud of our team members for making Impact Advisors a great place to work and look forward to celebrating this exciting achievement,” said Michael Nutter, Vice President and Happyologist at Impact Advisors. “We are most grateful to be celebrating our 8th consecutive year on Modern Healthcare’s Best Places to Work in Healthcare list.”

    Impact Advisors is committed to maintaining and enhancing firm culture and Associate satisfaction. The firm continuously invests in providing opportunities for its team to test and enhance their capabilities and is dedicated to providing year-round employee engagement events. In addition to recognition by Modern Healthcare on its Best Places to Work in Healthcare list, Impact Advisors has earned a number of other workplace awards including Consulting magazine’s “Best Small Firms to Work For,” Becker’s Healthcare “150 Great Places to Work in Healthcare” and Achiever’s “ 50 Most Engaged Workplaces.”

    For more information on Impact Advisors, visit impact-advisors.com or visit the company on Facebook facebook.com/impactadvisors.

    About Impact Advisors, LLC
    Impact Advisors is a nationally recognized healthcare information technology consulting firm that is solving some of the toughest challenges in the industry by delivering strategic advisory, implementation and optimization services. Our comprehensive suite of patient access, clinical and revenue cycle services span the lifecycle of our clients’ needs. Our experienced team has a powerful combination of clinical, revenue, operations, consulting, and IT experience. The firm has earned a number of prestigious industry and workplace awards including Best in KLAS® for eight consecutive years, Healthcare Informatics HCI 100, Crain’s Chicago Business Fast Fifty, as well as “best place to work” awards from: Modern Healthcare, Consulting Magazine, Becker’s Hospital Review and Achievers. For more information about Impact Advisors, visit impact-advisors.com.

    Contact
    RoseAnn Haedt
    Chartwell Agency
    815.742.0573
    [email protected]

    Posted 5.22.2017

  • Clearwater Compliance Partners with NIST on Guide to Meet Critical Cybersecurity Needs for Healthcare Sector

    Practice Guide Offers Cybersecurity Guidance to Better Protect Wireless Infusion Pump Ecosystem

    NASHVILLE, TN – May 18, 2017 —Clearwater Compliance, a leading healthcare cybersecurity company, has been working closely with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) on a cybersecurity project for the healthcare sector. As part of this collaboration, NIST has released a draft practice guide, titled NIST SP 1800-8, Securing Wireless Infusion Pumps in Healthcare Delivery Organizations, to demonstrate how healthcare delivery organizations can use best practices along with standards-based, commercially available cybersecurity technologies to better protect their wireless infusion pump ecosystem.

    The guide explores methods that healthcare delivery organizations (HDOs) can use to address assets, threats, and vulnerabilities by completing a NIST-based risk assessment to the pump ecosystem, with the aim of creating defense-in-depth protection against threat sources and threat events. The guide also maps security characteristics to standards, guidance, and best practices from NIST, other standards organizations, and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Security Rule.

    “Collaborating with stakeholders such as members of industry, technology providers, and integrators to produce viable cybersecurity solutions is key to the NCCoE’s success,” said Gavin O’Brien, Computer Scientist at NIST. “The Wireless Infusion Pump practice guide is another successful example of how these stakeholders engage with NCCoE to produce solutions to real world problems that can be adopted to reduce the level of risk for owners and operators in the healthcare sector.”

    The NCCoE is a collaborative hub where industry organizations, government agencies, and academic institutions work together to address businesses’ most pressing cybersecurity challenges.

    “Reducing cybersecurity risk, developing and executing in-depth cybersecurity strategies and offering best practices for healthcare organizations especially as it applies so directly to patient safety issues is critical to Clearwater’s mission,” said Bob Chaput, CEO of Clearwater Compliance. “We are honored to collaborate with NIST on a guide that improves the awareness as cybersecurity has rapidly evolved to become a patient safety, and therefore, a significant business risk management issue for HDOs.”

    The draft is available for download on the NCCoE website.

    About Clearwater Compliance
    Clearwater Compliance, LLC is a leading provider of healthcare compliance and cyber risk management solutions. Its mission is to empower hospitals and health systems to successfully manage healthcare’s evolving cybersecurity risks and ensure patient safety. Exclusively endorsed by the American Hospital Association, Clearwater solutions have been deployed within hundreds of hospitals and health systems, Fortune 100 organizations and federal government institutions. Clearwater’s award-winning solutions have earned the trust of many of today’s largest and most prestigious hospitals by consistently delivering innovative solutions that address today’s evolving cyber threats. More information about Clearwater Compliance is at clearwatercompliance.com.

    About the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE)
    The National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE), a part of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), is a collaborative hub where industry organizations, government agencies, and academic institutions work together to address businesses’ most pressing cybersecurity challenges. This public-private partnership enables the creation of practical cybersecurity solutions for specific industries or broad, cross-sector technology challenges. Working with technology partners—from Fortune 500 market leaders to smaller companies specializing in IT security—the NCCoE develops modular, easily adaptable example cybersecurity solutions demonstrating how to apply standards and best practices using commercially available technology. The NCCoE documents these example solutions in the NIST Special Publication 1800 series, which maps capabilities to the NIST Cyber Security Framework and details the steps needed for another entity to recreate the example solution. The NCCoE was established in 2012 by NIST in partnership with the state of Maryland and Montgomery County, Md. Information is available at: nccoe.nist.gov.

    Contacts
    Clearwater Compliance, LLC
    Kelly Motley, 615-483-0365
    [email protected]

    Posted 5.19.2017

  • Clinical Workflow & Staff Response Improved with Rauland Responder®, Vocera Platform Integration

    PROSPECT, IL – May 18, 2017 — Streamlined patient-to-caregiver communications and enhanced workflow interoperability is now available through a new interface between the Rauland Responder® intelligent nurse communications solution and the Vocera Communications platform.

    Linking Responder’s Direct Connect and ResponderSync® software with the Vocera platform allows patients to simply press a button from their hospital room and connect instantly with the right care team member’s hands-free Vocera® Badge or Vocera Collaboration Suite smartphone app, which enables secure text messaging, alerts and voice communication.

    ResponderSync® integrates staff assignment information across multiple hospital systems to improve nursing team workflows and deliver a more complete and timely picture of staff and patient assignments. Previously, clinicians were required to sign into multiple systems independently to enter staff assignment information and make changes to assignments in each system separately.

    Integrating ResponderSync® with the Vocera platform allows information to be shared seamlessly across multiple systems, promoting more efficient transition of critical patient care information between caregivers during shift changes and eliminating data entry redundancies. The integration is complemented by Responder 5’s Direct Connect SIP, which delivers improved and direct connectivity of nurse call information to the Vocera smartphone app or wearable badge without the need for third-party middleware.

    “Patient care can involve many individuals from both inside and outside the facility, including the patient’s clinical specialists, nursing team and technicians who need to communicate with one another and locate each other when needed,” said Jennifer Holden, Rauland’s Vice President, Healthcare Product Strategy. “This integration with ResponderSync, Direct Connect and Vocera helps enhance patient care, improve overall communication, and deliver a more efficient team workflow.

    About Rauland Responder®
    Rauland Responder critical communication solutions enhance overall communication and workflow within a hospital – patient-to-staff, and staff-to-staff. Responder helps staff deliver the best possible patient care, with fast, direct communication, flexible integration, intelligent call routing and real-time reporting. Responder is installed in more than one million acute care beds in 40 countries, helping hospital providers and staff to improve workflow, drive patient satisfaction and automate communications. For more information, visit rauland.com, or follow Responder on Twitter. Rauland is a division of AMETEK, Inc.

    About Vocera
    The mission of Vocera Communications, Inc. is to simplify and improve the lives of healthcare professionals and patients, while enabling hospitals to enhance quality of care and operational efficiency. In 2000, when the company was founded, we began to forever change the way care teams communicate. Today, Vocera continues to offer the leading platform for clinical communication and workflow. More than 1,400 hospitals and health systems around the world have selected our solutions for care teams to text securely using smartphones or make calls with our hands-free, wearable Vocera Badge. Interoperability between our platform and more than 120 clinical systems helps reduce alarm fatigue, speed up staff response times, and improve patient care, safety and experience. In addition to healthcare, Vocera is at home in luxury hotels, nuclear facilities, libraries, retail stores and more. Vocera makes a difference in any industry where workers are on the move and need to connect instantly with team members and access resources or information quickly. Learn more at www.vocera.com, and follow @VoceraComm on Twitter.

    The Vocera logo is a trademark of Vocera Communications, Inc. Vocera® is a trademark of Vocera Communications, Inc. registered in the United States and other jurisdictions. All other trademarks appearing in this release are the property of their respective owners.

    Contact
    Mark Baxter
    847.590.7725

    Posted 5.18.2017

  • Informatica Delivers Trusted & Secure Data with Automated Data Governance & Compliance for the Enterprise

    Informatica Data Governance & Compliance Solution is the Industry’s First Intelligent, Single Solution to Engage Business, IT & Security in Governing All Enterprise Data

    • Powers holistic enterprise data governance and compliance initiatives by making data easy to access, understand and use, across the enterprise
    • Leverages CLAIRE – intelligence built into the Informatica Intelligent Data Platform
    • Integrates with Informatica’s industry-leading portfolio of data management solutions across on-premise, cloud and big data

    SAN FRANCISCO, CA – May 17, 2017 — Informatica®, the Enterprise Cloud Data Management leader accelerating data-driven digital transformation, today announced Informatica Data Governance & Compliance, the industry’s first governance solution designed specifically to power holistic enterprise data governance and compliance initiatives. Informatica Data Governance & Compliance is the only solution available that engages the business, IT and data security teams in governing data of all types – cloud, on-premise and big data – across the entire enterprise.

    Informatica Data Governance & Compliance is delivered as part of the Informatica Intelligent Data Platform™. Informatica’s metadata- and Artificial Intelligence-driven platform spans on-premise, cloud and big data. This ensures data is trusted, secure, governed, accessible, timely, relevant and actionable, enabling the world’s best companies to deliver data-driven digital transformation outcomes.

    “As the volume and strategic importance of data continues to grow, and as regulations become increasingly complex and dynamic, traditional data governance programs are no longer a viable option,” said Jitesh Ghai, vice president and general manager, Data Quality and Governance, Informatica. “Organizations must take a holistic and automated approach to governance and compliance to succeed in the digital age. To help solve this problem, Informatica brought together the most comprehensive governance and compliance package available, empowering all constituents from non-technical business users to IT to effectively collaborate and govern any enterprise data, anywhere.”

    “It’s critical that companies focus on data governance and compliance to ensure secure and trusted data across their organization, especially considering current and new regulations such as BCBS 239 and GDPR,” said Albrecht Powell, managing director, Accenture Analytics, part of Accenture Digital. “Accenture and Informatica work together to help customers solve business and technical data challenges with intelligent data governance. The result of applied intelligence is greater business agility, faster time to value and ongoing operational efficiency.”

    Integrated, Holistic and Intelligent
    Informatica Data Governance & Compliance is comprised of an integrated set of innovative, intelligent products that are all recognized leaders in their respective spaces:

    • Informatica Axon engages all constituencies, technical and business, and from data owners to the chief data officer, to effectively govern an organization’s data and encourage collaboration.
    • Informatica Secure@Source® discovers, analyzes and visually maps sensitive data proliferation wherever it resides, detects and scores potential risk, and orchestrates remediation across sensitive structured and unstructured data stores across the enterprise.
    • Informatica Data Quality ensures that all key business initiatives and processes are fueled with relevant, timely and trustworthy data.
    • Informatica Enterprise Information Catalog provides a machine learning-based engine that automatically scans and catalogs data assets across the enterprise, and indexes them for enterprise-wide discovery.

    These products are built on top of the Informatica Intelligent Data Platform, which uses the CLAIRE Engine™ for metadata-driven Artificial Intelligence to provide automation and personalized recommendations that boost user productivity, accelerate the implementation of data governance programs, and drive ongoing operational efficiency to comply with complex and dynamic regulatory requirements.

    Informatica Data Governance & Compliance and its component products also integrate with other elements of the Informatica Intelligent Data Platform, including Informatica industry-leading solutions for Master Data Management, Informatica Cloud® and Big Data Management®, and data connectivity and integration. This enables customers to bring even more capabilities to bear on their data governance initiatives.

    Specific benefits of Informatica Data Governance & Compliance include the ability to:

    • Address the full spectrum of data governance requirements with a single intelligent, highly automated solution.
    • Adapt to continuously changing risk and compliance challenges, including GDPR, CCAR, HIPAA and many more.
    • Drive collaboration between business and technical staff to meet governance goals.
    • Govern data for any use case, user and deployment type, including cloud, on-premise, hybrid and big data environments.
    • Quickly spot, monitor and protect sensitive data across all data types.
    • Obtain visibility into sensitive data risks and detect anomalous activities using machine learning and quickly act on them.

    About Informatica
    Informatica, the Enterprise Cloud Data Management leader, accelerates data-driven digital transformation by enabling companies to become more agile, realize new growth opportunities and create new innovations. With 100 percent focus on everything data, the Informatica Intelligent Data Platform is the industry’s most complete and modular solution, built on a microservices architecture. With over 7,000 customers worldwide, Informatica allows organizations to unleash the power of data. For more information, call +1 650.385.5000 (1.800.653.3871 in the US), or visit informatica.com. Connect with Informatica on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

    Note: Informatica, Informatica World, Intelligent Data Platform, Informatica Cloud, Secure@Source, Big Data Management and CLAIRE Engine are trademarks or registered trademarks of Informatica in the United States and in jurisdictions throughout the world. All other company and product names may be trade names or trademarks of their respective owners.

    The information provided herein is subject to change without notice. In addition, the development, release and timing of any product or functionality described today remain at the sole discretion of Informatica and should not be relied upon in making a purchasing decision, nor as a representation, warranty or commitment to deliver specific products or functionality in the future.

    Contacts:
    Maureen O’Connell
    Informatica
    +1 650.385.4022 – office
    +1 408.679.0648 – mobile
    [email protected]

    Shira Frantzich
    Informatica
    +1 650.385.5674 – office
    [email protected]

    Posted 5.17.2017

  • Informatica Accelerates Leadership Momentum in Master Data Management Solutions Worldwide

    Informatica MDM Growth Driven by Product Innovation, Versatility & Strong Alignment with Customer Needs

    • Market’s only modular and end-to-end solution enables customers to start small and grow with a single solution for all MDM requirements
    • Available in any deployment model, cloud or on-premise, to support data at big data scale – any volume and any variety
    • Master data-fueled applications to provide trusted-data to business users and help organizations gain MDM benefits quickly

    SAN FRANCISCO, CA – May 17, 2017 — “Businesses of all sizes and in many industries continue to struggle to maintain a consistent, shareable and accurate single version of master data across their organizations – a requirement that is growing in importance,” states Gartner, a leading IT research and advisory firm.*

    Having a data management solutions partner attuned to this rising requirement – and equipped to help organizations execute a comprehensive master data management (MDM) strategy – is paramount to business success in an increasingly digital world.

    Informatica®, the Enterprise Cloud Data Management leader accelerating data-driven digital transformation, today announced its market momentum and leadership in the crucial MDM space, marked by product vision, rapid pace of technical innovation and market presence. Informatica has grown its base of MDM customers to more than 1,200 around the globe, signaling a strong alignment with customer needs and a strong partner ecosystem.

    Meeting the Need for Modular, End-to-End MDM
    Informatica MDM empowers customers to gain a single view of their business-critical data and achieve a 360-degree view of relationships and a complete view of all interactions. Informatica’s acknowledged market leadership in this endeavor is reflected in recent industry analyst reports, including:

    Central to Informatica’s unique MDM product vision and roadmap is providing an end-to-end, yet highly modular, solution that allows customers to select the path that best fits their needs. This enables customers to start big or small to meet pressing needs first, and then expand their deployment over time while leveraging just one solution for all their master data requirements: customer, product, supplier, location, or other types of data. No other vendor delivers this level of flexibility.

    “Informatica delivers a modular and comprehensive MDM solution that provides a flexible framework for all use cases and domains. As organizations proceed on their journey with MDM, we help them grow the solution based on their unique requirements,” said Suresh Menon, senior vice president and general manager, Master Data Management, Informatica. “Our business-ready, cloud-enabled solutions empower customers to rapidly create a trusted, authoritative view of business-critical data from disparate, duplicate and conflicting information. Informatica’s ability to recognize the individual needs of each company and provide an adaptive and category-leading solution that fits their strategy is helping to propel us in the marketplace.”

    Ultimate Deployment Flexibility
    Informatica MDM also supports any deployment model — cloud, on-premise or hybrid — and the ability to run on leading cloud ecosystems, such as Amazon and Azure, and natively as a Force.com app. This gives customers multiple deployment choices and cloud migration paths based on their business needs. Customers can deploy Informatica solutions with the help of Informatica services, in conjunction with Informatica partners, or for themselves.

    Focus on the Business: Master Data Fueled Business Apps
    Designed to enhance collaboration, the Informatica MDM user interface offers intuitive ways for both data stewards and business users to interact with master data. This includes intelligent high-performance search, with auto suggestions for locating data quickly and intuitively, and rich new page layouts that make it easier to view, add and update data and relationships.

    As part of delivering a modular, end-to-end, multidomain MDM solution, Informatica offers a growing set of master data-fueled business applications. These include Informatica MDM – Product 360, Informatica MDM – Supplier 360, Informatica MDM – Customer 360, Informatica Customer 360 for Salesforce, and Informatica MDM – Relate 360. Additional master data-fueled services include Big Data Management, Data as a Service (DaaS), Data Quality, Business Process Management and Data Security. These solutions are built for specific industries, functions or business roles, and help to power customer experience, compliance and governance, and accurate decision making initiatives.

    Intelligent MDM to Drive Meaningful Business Outcomes
    Informatica MDM is built on the Informatica Intelligent Data Platform™, and is also an integral component of Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services. Informatica MDM works synergistically with other components of these platforms, including data integration, data quality and data governance, to ensure the business-critical data about customers, products, suppliers, location and other domains can be trusted and used to provide insights that predict best actions, inform customer centricity strategies and improve operations across the enterprise.

    Informatica MDM also leverages the CLAIRE Engine™ which provides the metadata-driven intelligence in the Informatica Intelligent Data Platform. This intelligence enables both business and technical users to deliver value faster with master data projects. The following are examples of how the CLAIRE Engine can increase MDM productivity:

    • Automation for Developer Productivity – Machine learning-based suggestions for business entity definition, mapping, data quality, matching and survivorship rules.
    • Smart and Guided Stewardship – Smart and guided stewardship to address the exponential growth of data and the users who participate in the management of master data.
    • Next Best Action – Suggests alerts for increased risk in mastered entities, change in contact strategy, the next best offer and more.

    Leading organizations use Informatica MDM to deliver better customer experiences, more efficiently address compliance and support governance initiatives, and enable critical decision making. Companies around the world have gained significant and tangible business benefits in the form of improved marketing campaigns, increased customer satisfaction and more efficient operations.

    Supporting Quotes

    “Enterprises trying to master their digital transformation are looking for fast time to value, ease of use and the scale of big data volumes, often in real time,” said Andy Hayler, The Information Difference. “Informatica, positioned as a leader in the Information Difference MDM Landscape, is one of the pace-setters for the next phase of master data management, with their modular approach enabling a scalable approach to an end-to-end MDM platform.”

    Digital transformation is a top priority for organizations, and the fear of being disrupted by non-traditional competitors is real in the boardroom and CxOs,” said Holger Muller, Constellation Research. “Master Data Management is a critical capability required for successful digital transformation. Informatica offers a modular, nimble approach and is best positioned to help companies manage their most strategic information about customers, products, suppliers and more to ensure organizations are on a successful path to business transformations.”

    “Master Data Management is critical to organizations in every industry,” said Satish Puskoor, specialist leader, Deloitte Consulting. “Deloitte leverages the end-to-end capabilities of Informatica MDM to help our clients accelerate time-to-value and see a faster return on their investment in MDM.”

    About Informatica
    Informatica, the Enterprise Cloud Data Management leader, accelerates data-driven digital transformation by enabling companies to become more agile, realize new growth opportunities and create new innovations. With 100 percent focus on everything data, the Informatica Intelligent Data Platform is the industry’s most complete and modular solution, built on a microservices architecture. With over 7,000 customers worldwide, Informatica allows organizations to unleash the power of data. For more information, call +1 650.385.5000 (1.800.653.3871 in the US), or visit informatica.com. Connect with Informatica on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

    *Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Master Data Management Solutions, Bill O’Kane, Terilyn Palanca, Michael Patrick Moran, January 2017. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

     

    Note: Informatica, Informatica World, Intelligent Data Platform and CLAIRE Engine are trademarks or registered trademarks of Informatica in the United States and in jurisdictions throughout the world. All other company and product names may be trade names or trademarks of their respective owners.

    The information provided herein is subject to change without notice. In addition, the development, release and timing of any product or functionality described today remain at the sole discretion of Informatica and should not be relied upon in making a purchasing decision, nor as a representation, warranty or commitment to deliver specific products or functionality in the future.

    Posted 5.17.2017

  • Lydon Neumann Named One of Consulting Magazine’s Top 25 Consultants for 2017

    Impact Advisors’ healthcare leader receives accolades from Consulting Magazine

    CHICAGO, IL – May 16, 2017 — Lydon Neumann, Vice President at Impact Advisors, a leading provider of healthcare information technology services in Naperville, IL, was named one of the “Top 25 Consultants” of 2017 by Consulting Magazine. Lydon was one of three to be recognized in the Excellence in Healthcare category. He will attend the Top 25 Consultants awards dinner on June 15 at The Mandarin Oriental in New York.

    Each year, Consulting Magazine ranks those consultants making the greatest impact within their industry. In addition to Neumann, leaders in consulting and the firms they represent were recognized in various categories including Excellence in Leadership, Client Services, Financial Services and Technology. This year the magazine received nearly 400 nominations including more than 100 client nominations.

    “Being recognized by Consulting Magazine is both humbling and gratifying,” said Neumann. “I am especially honored to accept this award because it celebrates an unwavering dedication to the field that I have served and loved for 39 years.”

    Lydon has almost four decades of professional experience in the global healthcare industry. His background includes executive leadership, information system planning, and project management for large, complex organizations, software development, and executive management for healthcare software companies and professional services firms. Lydon has been with Impact Advisors since 2012 and is a frequent speaker at national events and regularly contributes articles to national publications.

    For more information on Impact Advisors, visit impact-advisors.com or visit the company on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter.

    About Impact Advisors, LLC
    Impact Advisors is a nationally recognized healthcare information technology consulting firm that is solving some of the toughest challenges in the industry by delivering strategic advisory, implementation and optimization services. Our comprehensive suite of patient access, clinical and revenue cycle services span the lifecycle of our clients’ needs. Our experienced team has a powerful combination of clinical, revenue, operations, consulting and IT experience. The firm has earned a number of prestigious industry and workplace awards including Best in KLAS® for eight consecutive years, Healthcare Informatics HCI 100, Crain’s Chicago Business Fast Fifty, as well as “best place to work” awards from: Modern Healthcare, Consulting Magazine, Becker’s Hospital Review and Achievers. For more information about Impact Advisors, visit impact-advisors.com.

    RoseAnn Haedt
    Communications Strategist
    Chartwell Agency
    chartwell-agency.com
    120 W. State St.| Suite 305| Rockford, IL 61101
    Direct: 815.708.6157 | Cell: 815.742.0573
    Rockford: 815.282.9976| Madison: 608.239.0745
    Quad Cities: 309.738.1662

    Posted 5.16.2017

  • CTG Announces Application AdvantageTM Solution Portfolio

    Expands the availability of application portfolio management & help desk services across all industries & geographies served by the Company;
    reports results from current clients

    BUFFALO, NY – May 16, 2017 — CTG (NASDAQ: CTG), a leading provider of information technology (IT) solutions and services in North America and Western Europe, announced today the formal launch of Application AdvantageTM to companies in all industries and geographies served by the Company. Recently developed as part of the Company’s ONE CTG initiative, Application Advantage consolidates several existing services into a new, comprehensive solution that is designed to maximize the value, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness of the application management services it provides.

    CTG’s Gary Mann, Managing Director and Solution Owner, Application Advantage, commented, “I’ve been in the application management business for more than 35 years, and our clients in this space are facing more challenges than ever. Cloud networks, virtualization, multi-lingual support, and complexity of applications are all examples of the many issues pushing our clients’ IT organizations to their limit. In this environment, the imperatives to reduce costs and improve IT team productivity have become critically important.”

    Mann continued, “Application Advantage is helping CTG clients work through these challenges in order to achieve the results their teams are expected to deliver. The solution is demonstrating real results for CTG clients across our served markets, including average first call resolution rates over 90 percent, call abandonment rates below five percent, and a speed to answer calls under 30 seconds—all while committing to helping our clients reduce costs.”

    Modular by design for added flexibility, Application Advantage helps CTG’s clients maximize the value of enterprise applications through a suite of integrated assessment and roadmap, application management, and help desk services. These services help CTG clients meet their evolving business and technology needs, while reducing operational costs, creating scalable workforce capacity, improving technology as well as process efficiencies, and increasing end-user satisfaction. Services in the portfolio include:

    • Assessment and Roadmap: Leveraging Information Technology and Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and industry best practices as benchmarks, this comprehensive assessment results in a complete Report of Findings and a Performance Improvement Roadmap, which address operational processes and optimization possibilities, IT outsourcing strategy, and other opportunities based on the organization’s application management and support model.
    • Application Management: Tier 2 and 3 services ensure 24×7 support for some, or all, of an organization’s application portfolio by providing analysts and technicians with the technical, application, and in some cases specialized, knowledge necessary to provide troubleshooting capabilities beyond Tier 1. Designed to augment CTG’s client resources, Tier 2 and 3 services are scalable to accommodate any size organization or effort.
    • Help Desk: Experienced Tier 1 help desk analysts provide “first line of defense” incident and request resolution in order to quickly and efficiently address end-user calls and improve first call resolution. Reliable help desk services allow CTG’s client organizations to focus their in-house analysts’ attention on more critical projects and optimization efforts.

    Application Advantage engagements include dedicated account management, service level reporting, continuous process improvement initiatives, and regular quality monitoring. Additional value-add services are recommended for every project, based on client need, and can include offerings such as legacy data archiving support and access to CTG’s private cloud-based network. Application Advantage offers multiple delivery approaches and provides location versatility in order to address the unique needs of each client. Delivery models currently include offshore and onshore options, while also providing 24×7 or on-demand support. Additionally, delivery of CTG’s services can be decentralized/virtual, collocated, centralized on client site or in one of CTG’s delivery centers, or a blended model.

    “Application Advantage demonstrates our ongoing commitment to the development of industry-leading IT solutions that draw upon CTG’s wide range of capabilities to help our clients meet the challenges facing their organizations and industries. It also underscores our progress in expanding our existing solutions across all lines of business—a key initiative of CTG’s three-year strategic plan,” said Bud Crumlish, CTG President and Chief Executive Officer.

    “By building out and formalizing our expertise in areas that deliver high-value, reliable results for our clients, we are demonstrating our continued commitment to expanding our expertise in new ways that provide increased benefits to our clients,” Crumlish continued.

    For more information about Application Advantage, visit ctg.com/application-advantage or email [email protected].

    About CTG
    Over the last three decades, CTG has provided reliable IT solutions and services to more than 165 application management and help desk clients, and has supported more than 900 applications for clients in 45 countries. Delivered by expert analysts and application specialists, CTG’s teams provide dependable, high-quality management, maintenance, and support for both legacy and current production applications, including specialized help desk offerings that meet the unique needs of companies in various industries, including manufacturing, energy, government, healthcare and life sciences, telecommunications, and financial services. CTG’s help desk analysts currently provide support in seven languages. CTG has operations in North America, Western Europe, and India. The company regularly posts news and other important information online at ctg.com.

    Safe Harbor Statement
    This document contains certain forward-looking statements concerning the Company’s current expectations as to future growth, financial outlook, business strategy and performance expectations for 2017 and three-year performance targets, a share repurchase program, and statements related to cost control, new business opportunities, financial performance, market demand, and other attributes of the Company. These statements are based upon the Company’s expectations and assumptions, a review of industry reports, current business conditions in the areas where the Company does business, feedback from existing and potential new clients, a review of current and proposed legislation and governmental regulations that may affect the Company and/or its clients, and other future events or circumstances. Actual results could differ materially from the outlook guidance, expectations, and other forward-looking statements as a result of a number of factors, including among others, the availability to the Company of qualified professional staff, domestic and foreign industry competition for clients and talent, increased bargaining power of large clients, the Company’s ability to protect confidential client data, the partial or complete loss of the revenue the Company generates from International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) and/or SDI International (SDI), the uncertainty of clients’ implementations of cost reduction projects, the effect of healthcare reform and initiatives, the mix of work between staffing and solutions, currency exchange risks, risks associated with operating in foreign jurisdictions, renegotiations, nullification, or breaches of contracts with clients, vendors, subcontractors or other parties, the change in valuation of capitalized software balances, the impact of current and future laws and government regulation, as well as repeal or modification of such, affecting the information technology (IT) solutions and staffing industry, taxes and the Company’s operations in particular, industry and economic conditions, including fluctuations in demand for IT services, consolidation among the Company’s competitors or clients, the need to supplement or change our IT services in response to new offerings in the industry or changes in client requirements for IT products and solutions and other factors that involve risk and uncertainty including those listed in the Company’s reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission as of the date of this document. Such forward-looking statements should be read in conjunction with the Company’s disclosures set forth in the Company’s 2016 Form 10-K, which is incorporated by reference, and other reports that may be filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking information contained in this release.

    Contacts:

    Investors
    John Laubacker
    Chief Financial Officer
    [email protected]
    716.887.7368

    Media
    Amanda LeBlanc
    Vice President, Marketing
    [email protected]
    225.772.8865

     

     

    Posted 5.16.2017

  • Informatica Reinvents iPaaS with Next-generation Cloud Services Reimagined to Address Data Management Challenges

    Innovative Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services Delivers New User Experience & New Microservices Architecture for Successful Business Outcomes

    • Expands key capabilities of iPaaS to include end-to-end data management
    • Advances productivity with CLAIRE – metadata-driven Artificial Intelligence
    • Scales enterprise-wide to manage complex hybrid data environments
    • Adheres to the broadest security certifications

    SAN FRANCISCO, CA – May 16, 2017 — Informatica, the Enterprise Cloud Data Management leader accelerating data-driven digital transformation, today announced Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services, the most advanced Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) solution available for end-to-end enterprise cloud data management. Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services will feature a next-generation user experience based on a modern API-based microservices architecture, powered by Informatica’s innovative enterprise unified metadata intelligence – known as CLAIRE Engine.

    Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services expands Informatica’s leading application and data integration iPaaS capabilities to now include critical end-to-end cloud data management. This includes industry leading and enterprise-class data integration, API management, application integration, data quality and governance, master data management and data security, all re-imagined for the cloud. Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services is built on the Informatica Intelligent Data Platform™, and has reimagined the front- and back-end experience for the modern cloud environment, enabling organizations to efficiently unleash the power of all their data, wherever it resides, to fuel successful digital transformation initiatives.

    “As the industry’s number one iPaaS leader, we are driving innovation in this market,” said Amit Walia, executive vice president and chief product officer, Informatica. “With this launch, we are completely re-inventing iPaaS. We are delivering the industry’s broadest end-to-end data management solution for the cloud, with a next-generation user experience running on an API-based microservices architecture. Powered by metadata and Artificial Intelligence, we help enterprises accelerate their cloud-powered digital transformations.”

    Data Management Reimagined for Cloud
    Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services moves past the traditional definition of iPaaS to include cloud data integration, cloud application and process integration, API management and connectivity. Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services delivers the industry’s first, and only, family of clouds that provides industry-leading data management capabilities, powered by CLAIRE from Informatica.

    The family of clouds available in Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services include:

    • Informatica Integration Cloud – Modern digital strategies require a variety of integration approaches and patterns. Integration Cloud greatly expands the traditional definition of iPaaS to include advanced, unique functionality, such as Integration Hub and B2B. This also includes application integration, data integration and API management. For example, Cloud Integration Hub provides pub-sub-hub integration capabilities for hybrid data management.
    • Informatica Data Quality & Governance Cloud – Modern digital strategies require trusted data. Data Quality & Governance Cloud includes functionality that delivers the data quality and governance foundation for all cloud projects and initiatives. For example, Cloud Data Quality Radar provides the ability to assess and fix data quality issues within cloud applications, such as Salesforce and Marketo.
    • Informatica Master Data Management Cloud – Modern digital strategies require authoritative data. Master Data Management Cloud provides single, complete and accurate views across all forms of master data, in a single source of truth. For example, Cloud Customer 360 for Salesforce provides cloud MDM capabilities that scale to the most demanding enterprise requirements with a laser focus on business self-service and self-management of master data.
    • Future Clouds – Additional, modular data management clouds, products and solutions will be seamlessly added to Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services over time.

    Adopting cloud and using data to drive disruption requires excellence in data management. The innovative combination of a modern user experience and API-based microservices architecture, built on the industry’s only Intelligent Data Platform powered by CLAIRE, enables Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services to deliver increased productivity and address new use cases, at scale.

    Next-Generation Experience and Architecture: Innovative Approach for Maximum Productivity
    All the clouds that comprise Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services share a consistent, next-generation user experience across the entire spectrum of data management capabilities. The API-based microservices architecture delivers common services (e.g., user authentication, workflow creation, asset management, search, tagging, and more) that not only look the same, but also operate exactly the same wherever they are invoked across the cloud. This user experience dramatically reduces the learning curve for new tools and drives self-service across the environment.

    The reimagined next-generation user experience includes a single, personalized home page with tiles for items such as personal tasks and connections, plus tiles that are dashboards for the projects that person has underway in each of the data management clouds. This home page gives them visibility and access to all the data management projects they may have underway across all the clouds of Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services.

    Additionally, the new microservices are based on open REST APIs. This will enable a continued rapid pace of innovation for Informatica, allowing the company to bring new services and advance existing services at a rapid pace. It will also enable quick integration with customer and partner reference architectures.

    Powered by CLAIRE: Intelligence Throughout the Cloud
    CLAIRE—with clairvoyance in mind and AI in the center—is the industry’s most advanced metadata-driven Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology and is embedded in the Informatica Intelligent Data Platform. CLAIRE delivers intelligence to the entire portfolio of Informatica data management solutions that includes data integration, master data management, data quality and governance, data security, cloud data management, and big data management capabilities. CLAIRE delivers AI by applying machine learning to technical, business, operational and usage metadata across the entire enterprise. This scale and scope of metadata is transformational and allows CLAIRE to help data and integration developers by partially or fully automating many tasks, while business users find it easier to locate and prepare the data they are looking for from anywhere in the enterprise. Meanwhile, data scientists gain a faster understanding of data and data stewards find it easier to visualize data relationships.

    Enterprise-wide Management for a Hybrid World
    Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services is built to enable enterprises to run complex hybrid environments. It provides operational insights delivered through a single dashboard for monitoring and managing all data management clouds and products and their data. Customers benefit from easy connectivity to all cloud, on-premise and big data sources across the enterprise using pre-built Informatica connectors.

    Cloud with Industry-leading Security and Trust
    Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services is built for the enterprise with security as a core design principle. It has the following certifications and standards for industry leading security:

    • AICPA SOC 2 Type 2 and SOC 3 attestations.
    • Externally audited HIPAA compliance.
    • ISO 27000-aligned Information Security Management System, and EU-US Privacy Shield and compliance security program.
    • Member of Cloud Security Alliance and Salesforce AppExchange certified.

    About Informatica
    Informatica, the Enterprise Cloud Data Management leader, accelerates data-driven digital transformation by enabling companies to become more agile, realize new growth opportunities and create new innovations. With 100 percent focus on everything data, the Informatica Intelligent Data Platform is the industry’s most complete and modular solution, built on a microservices architecture. With over 7,000 customers worldwide, Informatica allows organizations to unleash the power of data. For more information, call +1 650.385.5000 (1.800.653.3871 in the US), or visit informatica.com. Connect with Informatica on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

    Note: Informatica, Informatica World, Intelligent Data Platform, Secure@Source and CLAIRE Engine are registered trademarks or trademarks of Informatica in the United States and in jurisdictions throughout the world. All other company and product names may be trade names or trademarks of their respective owners.

    The information provided herein is subject to change without notice. In addition, the development, release and timing of any product or functionality described today remain at the sole discretion of Informatica and should not be relied upon in making a purchasing decision, nor as a representation, warranty or commitment to deliver specific products or functionality in the future.

    Contacts
    Maureen O’Connell
    Informatica
    +1 650.385.4022 – office
    +1 408.679.0648 – mobile
    [email protected]

    Shira Frantzich
    Informatica
    +1 650.385.5674 – office
    [email protected]

    Posted 5.16.2017

  • Informatica Intelligent Data Platform Delivers Industry’s First Metadata-Driven Artificial Intelligence to Power Data-Driven Digital Transformation

    CLAIRE – a Breakthrough Metadata-Driven Artificial Intelligence Technology – Dramatically Accelerates Data Delivery & Business Data Self Service

    • Applies machine learning to enterprise-wide technical, business, operational and usage metadata to deliver even greater intelligence in the form of recommendations and automation
    • Empowers customers to efficiently manage hybrid environments and flexibly scale as they move to the cloud, secure sensitive data, manage enterprise data governance, and drive self-service through Artificial Intelligence

    SAN FRANCISCO, CA – May 16, 2017 — Informatica, the Enterprise Cloud Data Management leader, today announced a new wave of innovations across the Informatica Intelligent Data Platform, the industry’s only end-to-end platform for data management and data-driven digital transformation. Central to today’s announcement is the introduction of the CLAIRE Engine, the metadata-driven Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the Informatica Intelligent Data Platform.

    Transforming Data Management with Intelligence
    Informatica Intelligent Data Platform is an integrated platform combining award-winning Informatica products and data solutions for cloud data management, big data management, data integration, master data management, data quality and governance, and data security. It is the most complete, modular, and scalable data management platform available.

    CLAIRE—with clairvoyance in mind and AI in the center—is the industry’s first and most advanced metadata-driven Artificial Intelligence technology that is embedded in the Informatica Intelligent Data Platform. CLAIRE delivers intelligence to the entire portfolio of Informatica data management products and solutions, by applying machine learning to technical, business, operational and usage metadata across the entire enterprise and the cloud. This transformational scale and scope of metadata allows CLAIRE to help data developers by partially or fully automating many tasks, while business users find it easier to locate and prepare the data they are looking for from anywhere in the enterprise. Meanwhile, data scientists gain a faster understanding of data and data stewards find it easier to visualize data relationships.

    Examples include:

    • Accelerating Data Delivery – CLAIRE can automatically deduce data domains, such as people, products, codes, hire dates, locations and contact information, across databases and unstructured files. It can also identify an entity such as a purchase order or health record that is made up of a collection of data domains. Similarly, CLAIRE can take data tags from users, identify and cluster all similar data objects, and automatically tag and classify other data, just as photo tagging identifies the same person across thousands of pictures.
    • Accelerating Business Data Self-Service – CLAIRE provides citizen data analysts and data scientists with intelligent data recommendations on which data sets to use for their projects. It will observe the data sets they are currently using and suggest other data sets that have been used in similar situations. CLAIRE can also automatically associate business with technical terms. For example, a term in the business glossary, such as “Claims Paid Date,” can be associated with a column in a table that is labelled something arcane, like “WX-CPD-ADG221.” This association is critical in providing business context to technical data so business users can discover and use it.

    “Digital transformation is driving disruption across all industries worldwide. Data is the differentiator and we live in a world where you are either a data-driven disruptor or one of the disrupted. Disruptors know that speed with intelligence is paramount when creating sustainable competitive advantage for the future,” said Amit Walia, executive vice president and chief product officer, Informatica. “CLAIRE uses metadata-driven Artificial Intelligence to take data management to a new unsurpassed level of productivity, so that all enterprise data, whether in the cloud or on-premise, can be intelligently managed and served to the business at a speed and quality that meets the needs of new transformative business initiatives.”

    Informatica Intelligent Data Platform Momentum
    Informatica Intelligent Data Platform has posted many industry firsts, including being the first hybrid data integration platform, enabling Informatica customers to deploy data management across all deployment models, data types, and latency. Additionally, the new Informatica Intelligent Data Platform advances provide customers with game-changing capabilities for hybrid data management and enterprise data governance, areas essential to competing in an increasingly hybrid, multi-cloud, data-centric world.

    New capabilities with today’s announcement include:

    • Bridge to Hybrid Data Management – Customers need to manage complex, hybrid data environments while moving data and data processes to the cloud at their own pace. Informatica Intelligent Data Platform enables customers to bridge existing on-premise environments with new cloud environments using familiar data integration interfaces, tools, skills and re-usable code. New hybrid data management innovations and capabilities integral to Informatica Intelligent Data Platform include:
      • Informatica Enterprise Information Catalog: A search engine-like offering for discovering, understanding and managing all enterprise data residing in the cloud, on-premise and in big data environments is now available as part of Intelligent Data Platform. New features include automatic entity discovery, metadata scanners for unstructured data sources (e.g., Word, PowerPoint, PDF, etc.), and a new tool that enables customers and partners to create their own custom metadata scanners.
      • Informatica PowerExchange for Cloud: All Informatica Cloud® connectors are now available to Informatica PowerCenter developers, enabling them to easily connect cloud data sources and update the connection automatically as needed.
      • Support for AWS and Microsoft Azure: Intelligent Data Platform components and services, including Informatica PowerCenter, Informatica Data Quality, Enterprise Information Catalog, Operational Intelligence and PowerExchange for Cloud, are available to be used on AWS and Azure.
    • First-in-industry Big Data Support – The effectiveness of big data management developers depends on their ability to use the best and newest technologies available, without having to be an expert in any of them. New big data management capabilities available through Informatica Intelligent Data Platform include:
      • Support for Spark 2.0 and Kafka streaming: Informatica is the first data management vendor to support Apache Spark 2.0 as well as real-time integration to Apache Kafka distributed streaming since December 2016.
      • Additional big data technology support: Informatica has also added support for important new big data technologies, such as Spark DI completion, MapR BD, SQOOP and Teradata TDCH.
      • Informatica PowerCenter interoperability and reuse: PowerCenter mappings can be optimized to run on Spark big data environments.
      • Informatica Big Data Management on AWS and Microsoft Azure: One-click install of Big Data Management on AWS and Azure is available.
    • Single Package for Trusted Data: Comprehensive Enterprise Data Governance – Until now, end-to-end data governance across the enterprise has been an elusive goal. Informatica Axon, the industry’s first fully integrated, enterprise data governance solution, is now generally available as a unified offering on top of Informatica Intelligent Data Platform. Informatica Axon is the only governance offering to engage all constituencies, technical and business, to effectively govern an organization’s data. Informatica Axon integrates with Informatica data management solutions for data quality, master data management, big data and cloud.

    About Informatica
    Informatica, the Enterprise Cloud Data Management leader, accelerates data-driven digital transformation by enabling companies to become more agile, realize new growth opportunities and create new innovations. With 100 percent focus on everything data, the Informatica Intelligent Data Platform is the industry’s most complete and modular solution, built on a microservices architecture. With over 7,000 customers worldwide, Informatica allows organizations to unleash the power of data. For more information, call +1 650-385-5000 (1-800-653-3871 in the US), or visit informatica.com. Connect with Informatica on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

    Note: Informatica, Intelligent Data Platform, Informatica World, CLAIRE Engine, PowerCenter, PowerExchange, Informatica Cloud and Big Data Management are registered trademarks or trademarks of Informatica in the United States and in jurisdictions throughout the world. All other company and product names may be trade names or trademarks of their respective owners.

    The information provided herein is subject to change without notice. In addition, the development, release and timing of any product or functionality described today remain at the sole discretion of Informatica and should not be relied upon in making a purchasing decision, nor as a representation, warranty or commitment to deliver specific products or functionality in the future.

    Contacts
    Maureen O’Connell
    Informatica
    +1 650.385.4022 – office
    +1 408.679.0648 – mobile
    [email protected]

    Shira Frantzich
    Informatica
    +1 650.385.5674 – office
    [email protected]

    Posted 5.16.2017

  • Spok Appoints New Senior Vice President of Professional Services

    Industry Veteran Adds Deep Experience to Management Team in Driving Growth and Profitability

    SPRINGFIELD, VA – May 15, 2017 — Spok, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Spok Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPOK) and the global leader in healthcare communications, today announced that Mark A. Costanza has joined the company in a new role as its Senior Vice President of Professional Services. The addition of this role reflects Spok’s plans to broaden its portfolio of professional services and expand its enterprise delivery services.

    Costanza comes to Spok from Nordic Consulting, a leading Epic consulting firm and advisor to healthcare systems, where he was Chief Client Officer. He brings more than 25 years of healthcare information technology experience, and has been a leader in the development of strategies and tactics that propel business growth and profitability.

    “We are looking forward to having Mark join our leadership team,” said Vincent D. Kelly, president and chief executive officer of Spok Holdings, Inc. “With his background in building vision and cultivating relationships, as well as his track record of improving the operations of hospitals and other healthcare IT businesses, Mark is the right person to join our executive team as we build for future growth.”

    Costanza will report directly to Hemant Goel, the President of Spok. His focus will be to work with the leadership team to enhance and expand the portfolio of Spok professional services while building long term relationships with Spok healthcare customers.

    Prior to joining Nordic, Costanza served as Vice President and Senior Account Delivery Executive at Lumeris, a value-based care and population health managed services organization. Before Lumeris, he served as Senior Managing Director at Siemens Health Services Consulting (acquired by Cerner in 2015), where he successfully launched the company’s Health Insight & Reform practice. He also held senior executive roles at CSC, McKesson, and Cerner Corporation building high-performing sales and delivery organizations. Costanza holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama.

    “I am very excited to be joining Spok, and impressed with the investment strategy that the company has put in motion. I firmly believe it is the right strategy to capture the large market opportunity in healthcare communications and collaboration,” said Costanza.

    About Spok
    Spok, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Spok Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPOK), headquartered in Springfield, Va., is proud to be the global leader in healthcare communications. We deliver clinical information to care teams when and where it matters most to improve patient outcomes. Top hospitals rely on the Spok Care Connect® platform to enhance workflows for clinicians, support administrative compliance, and provide a better experience for patients. Our customers send over 100 million messages each month through their Spok® solutions. When seconds count, count on Spok. For more information, visit spok.com or follow @spoktweets on Twitter.

    Spok is a trademark of Spok Holdings, Inc. Spok Care Connect is a trademark of Spok, Inc.

    Contacts
    Spok, Inc.
    Jill Asby
    +1.952.230.5363
    [email protected]

    Posted 5.15.2017

  • Finalists for Prototype Testing Announced in CHIME Healthcare Innovation Trust National Patient ID Challenge

    ANN ARBOR, MI, May 15, 2017 – Hundreds of innovators from around the world have participated in the CHIME Healthcare Innovation Trust National Patient ID Challenge. Following a thorough review by a panel of five independent judges, four finalists were named to proceed to the Prototype Testing Round. Each of the four finalists submitted concepts that are well-positioned to meet the Challenge criteria for a national patient ID solution.

    Over the next several months, prototypes from each of these finalists will undergo intense testing in the areas of enrollment, identification, privacy, and security. The CHIME Healthcare Innovation Trust’s testing partner for the Prototype Testing Phase of the CHIME Healthcare Innovation National Patient ID Challenge is Modulus Inc., a San Jose based medical device manufacturing company. The submissions advancing are:

    • Michael Braithwaite’s proposal achieves patient identification through the use of multiple
      biometric technologies.
    • Bon Sy’s proposed solution identifies patients by analyzing a combination of behavioral and
      biometric information.
    • Team HarmonIQ Health System’s proposed solution uses blockchain, public ledger,
      FHIR and encryption/hashing technologies to identify patients.
    • Team RightPatient’s innovation uses photos, biometric third-party and other data, to
      enable patient identification.

    “The creativity and complexity of the solutions submitted in the Final Innovation Round speak to the importance of this Challenge as a means of leveraging innovative ideas from across the private sector. Innovators from across the globe stepped forward to propose their solutions to solve a critical patient safety issue, ensuring that patients are correctly identified 100% of the time,” said CHIME President and CEO Russell Branzell.

    “The time is now to solve this problem,” said CHIME Board of Trustees Chairperson Liz Johnson, Chief Information Officer, Acute Care Hospitals & Applied Clinical Informatics of Tenet Healthcare. “Our patients deserve better and the CHIME Healthcare Innovation Trust National Patient ID Challenge has presented the industry with a great opportunity to address this serious patient safety issue in our healthcare system. We know that a workable solution exists, and we are thrilled to announce that four worthy solutions will proceed to the Prototype Testing Round.”

    Launched in January 2016, the CHIME Healthcare Innovation Trust’s National Patient ID Challenge encouraged innovators to develop a way for healthcare providers in the United States to accurately, privately and safely identify patients 100% of the time. Finding a viable solution will help to reduce healthcare costs, accelerate information exchange and, importantly, improve patient safety.

    CHIME enthusiastically supports the language recently unveiled along with the FY17 federal funding bill that clarifies the ability for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Office for the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) to provide technical assistance to private sector efforts to accurately identify and match patients to their healthcare data.

    “Just last week Congress acknowledged in the government funding bill, that one of the most significant barriers impeding information exchange is the lack of a national approach to identifying patients,” said Branzell. “Our Challenge has brought to light the innovation and creativity available in the private sector. With the clarifying language offered by Congress earlier this month, we hope to leverage expertise within our federal agencies and ensure that the winning solution meets the needs of patients, providers and the federal government alike, improving patient care and reducing healthcare costs.”

    About CHIME Healthcare Innovation Trust
    The CHIME Healthcare Innovation Trust is an organization formed by the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) to sponsor and administer the CHIME National Patient ID Challenge. CHIME is an executive organization dedicated to serving chief information officers and other senior healthcare IT leaders. With more than 2,300 CIO members and over 150 healthcare IT vendors and professional services firms, CHIME provides a highly interactive, trusted environment enabling senior professional and industry leaders to collaborate; exchange best practices; address professional development needs; and advocate the effective use of information management to improve the health and healthcare in the communities they serve. For more information, please visit chimecentral.org.

    Contact
    Barbara Sivek
    Vice President, Business Services, CHIME
    Interim Vice President, CHIME Foundation
    734.665.0000
    [email protected]

    Posted 5.15.2017

  • Vermont Information Technology Leaders, Inc. and Medicity Launch External Connection with the Department of Veterans Affairs

    VITL connection with the Veterans Health Information Exchange to improve care for Vermont Veterans

    BURLINGTON, VT & SALT LAKE CITY, UT – May 11, 2017 — Vermont Information Technology Leaders, Inc. (VITL), operators of the Vermont Health Information Exchange (Vermont HIE), and Medicity, the leading provider of population health management solutions, today announced that VITL has launched its external connection to the Veterans Health Information Exchange (VHIE), also known as the Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record (VLER) program. This makes it easier for providers inside and outside the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to share health information for the more than 48,600 veterans who live in Vermont.

    The first external connection to the Vermont HIE, implemented by its technology vendor, Medicity, will allow clinicians at the VA to view patient records from contributing health care organizations across Vermont and the surrounding region. “As a psychologist working with veterans, I can’t overemphasize just how important it is to securely share information with colleagues outside of the VA,” said Kenneth Major, PsyD, a practicing psychologist at White River Junction VA Medical Center. “It’s important to have a complete picture of your patient’s care, no matter where they receive it.”

    Likewise, health care providers in Vermont can view health data from the VA medical system using VITLAccess, the secure provider portal to the Vermont HIE. This bi-directional exchange of data can improve transitions of care between veterans and community health care facilities. Timely, accurate information may help reduce duplicative testing, lower costs and improve the quality of care for veterans.

    This is the first network to network connection for VITL and the first Medicity connection with the Veterans HIE. “We’re excited about this bi-directional exchange with the VA medical system,” said John K. Evans, president and CEO of VITL. “Our organizations have been working for more than a year to put this community exchange in place, and we are proud to provide services that will help provide better care for our veterans within the Vermont health system.”

    VITL selected Medicity as its technology partner in 2011 in an effort to meet its growing technology needs. Since then, Medicity and VITL have dramatically increased the number of Vermont health care organizations that are connected to the Vermont HIE. The Vermont HIE collects and indexes data directly from the electronic health record (EHR) systems of all of Vermont’s hospitals, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, and 221 health care locations. The Vermont HIE delivers laboratory results and transcribed reports to the electronic health record systems of 134 health care locations, provides a secure provider portal to access longitudinal health records of more than two million patients, and sends data to Vermont’s accountable care organizations, the Vermont Department of Health and the Vermont Blueprint for Health.

    “Medicity is proud to support our veterans and expand our population health technology solutions across the nation,” said Patrice Wolfe, Medicity CEO. “Our veterans can enjoy the benefits provided by the nationwide interoperability delivered through the Vermont HIE and VLER exchange program.”

    About VITL
    Vermont Information Technology Leaders, Inc. (VITL) is a nonprofit organization that advances health care reform in Vermont. VITL assists Vermont health care providers with adopting and using health information technology, to improve the quality of care delivery, to enhance patient safety and to reduce the cost of care. VITL is legislatively designated to operate the health information exchange (HIE) for Vermont, and is governed by a collaborative group of stakeholders including health plans, hospitals, physicians, other health care providers, state government, employers, and consumers. For more information, please visit vitl.net.

    About Medicity
    Medicity is a recognized expert in building large clinically connected communities. With nearly 20 years of experience in aggregating, readying and distributing data for population health, we’ve created a collaborative network that processes more than 6 billion clinical transactions each year. Our innovative solutions provide a powerful data foundation that enables your unique population health goals. Medicity’s intelligent integration of clinical information across the care community leads to enhanced clinical and business workflows, improved decision-making, more engaged providers and patients and better managed populations. Medicity, is an independent subsidiary of Aetna (NYSE: AET). For more information, visit medicity.com.

    About the Veterans Health Information Exchange (VA)
    VLER Health Exchange – allows VA providers and participating community providers to query and retrieve Veterans’ health information from each other’s organizations for the purpose of treatment. Partnered with the national eHealth Exchange managed by the Sequoia Project, we promote a common mission and purpose to improve patient care, streamline disability benefit claims, and improve public health reporting through secure, trusted and interoperable health information exchange.

    Contacts
    Medicity
    Lauren Tilelli
    858.414.4117
    [email protected]

    Vermont Information Technology Leaders, Inc.
    Robert Gibson
    802.861.1943
    [email protected]

    Posted 5.11.2017
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