February 4th, 2009
Private SNOMED competitor is not any more
After writing my post about Snorocket and SNOMED one of our far-flung correspondents e-mailed me and suggested I check out a private competitor to the SNOMED system, called Safe-Med.
Safe-Med’s system drives Google Health, I was told. It’s cool. (About the graphic. Don’t click there. Click here instead.)
But it’s no longer a true competitor, and it’s no longer even called Safe-Med. The new name is Anvita Health, and its business model has been transformed through the introduction of the Anvita eReference.
It’s a software program for Macs or PCs aimed at helping doctors automate their diagnoses. You query it just as you would Google Health, and follow the decision tree down to your diagnosis. It also has pharmacology and drug interaction modules.
The new name is based on a Sanskrit word for bridging gaps in understanding, but the business model in this case is clear. Anvita, formerly Safe-Med, is selling software. They are not trying to become a standard translation service for everyone’s medical records. That’s SNOMED, that’s IHTSDO.
If Snorocket gets stuck on the launchpad I don’t think we have a back-up plan.
UPDATE: Anvita apparently changed its name without checking to see that another, similarly-named company had a product near the same space. My apologies. Why the name change? “It’s confidential,” said the spokeswoman who called to tell me.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist since 1978, and has covered technology since 1982. He launched the Interactive Age Daily, the first daily coverage of the Internet to launch with a magazine, in September 1994. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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