April 6th, 2009
Medsphere feels the wind at its back at HIMSS
Medsphere is in the midst of updating the VA’s OpenVista software for modern times, calling the project OpenVista 2.0.
At HIMSS today the company is announcing a new pharmacy module, a dashboard and pricing engine that can deliver doctors (and patients) the best price for a required drug at the point of care, on any Windows-based device. Like a tablet PC.
Yes, Windows. Medsphere is offering more than an open source commitment, but a commitment to “interoperate with everybody.”
Next will come an update to the nursing side of the OpenVista software, reflecting the increased role nurses have in providing care. The full update process is available as a development roadmap at Medsphere.com.
More important than that, CEO Mike Doyle (above) said during a ZDNet interview last week, at this HIMSS Medsphere wants you to feel the wind at its back.
Example. The company has signed two new deals at the end of this quarter. Good deals with good hospitals that should bring in good revenue.
Why? “We charge nothing upfront. You pay for our software over time through a subscription fee. You can get to stage six or seven EMR adoption faster and you’ll pay less.”
Consider West Virginia.
The state’s hospitals are one of Medsphere’s big clients. Over five years, for $9 million, the company is fully implementing its solution in five hospitals. Meanwhile, there’s another “leading edge” hospital in the state that has spent $90 million over five years on another vendor’s solution and still doesn’t have full service.
All of which brings me to the new stimulus bill.
Under the health IT part of the bill, dubbed HITECH, “you’ve got to prove interoperability” Doyle explained. “Our EMR does that.”
Did I mention that Medsphere’s biggest client is in West Virginia? Last week I described how Sen. Jay Rockefeller inserted a provision into HITECH asking for a study of open health IT software, due in October 2010.
Sen. Rockefeller represents West Virginia.
UPDATE: Medsphere’s HIMSS press release is now online.
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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