[Med-privacy] EMR vendor

[peter marshall]

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http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=3D8341&page=3D1
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Healthcare IT News

Practice Fusion expands, shows signs of rapid growth

By=A0 Diana Manos, Senior Editor

=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0 12/31/07
Practice Fusion, a company that provides free online electronic health=20=

records to physicians, announced last week it will partner with=20
Physician Services, Inc. (PSI) of California and Azalea Health=20
Innovations, Inc. of Georgia to expand the types of services available=20=

to its clients.

According to Ryan Howard, CEO of the San Francisco-based Practice=20
Fusion, the company is on target to be one of the fastest growing=20
electronic medical record (EMR) vendors in the country, with close to=20
100 physicians signed up since the launch of the service two months=20
ago.
Ryan attributes the growth to a special "Live in Five" process, which=20
allows new clients to be provisioned, logged on and charting within=20
five minutes.

"We have changed the experience of EMR selection and made the decision=20=

process and start-up much easier, and as a result we are becoming the=20
de facto standard for small to medium sized physician practices,"=20
Howard said. Physicians benefit through low total cost of adoption, a=20
simplified start up process and on-demand architecture that makes the=20
whole process low-risk, he added.

PSI, one of the largest billing services in California, will provide=20
preferred billing services for the Practice Fusion community, while=20
Azalea Health Innovations, serving the independent practitioner=20
community in Georgia and Florida will add the option of technical and=20
billing consulting services to Practice Fusion's offerings, Ryan said.=A0=20=

Earlier this month, Practice Fusion added Zydoc Medical Transcription=20
Services to its partnership, expanding services to include medical=20
dictation.

Though services are technically free, Practice Fusion does charge a=20
nominal $50 a month ongoing support fee. Howard points out it=EDs still=20=

the lowest total cost of ownership of any available solution on the=20
marketplace, including open source.

Practice fusion subsidizes its free EMRs by selling de-identified data=20=

to insurance groups, clinical researchers and pharmaceutical companies=20=

and by placing medically relevant ads within the EMRs, Howard said.

The secondary use of de-identified data has drawn increasing ire from=20
privacy activists who claim patients are unaware of the use of their=20
data. In its November meeting, leaders of the American Health=20
Information Community, the Department of Health and Human Services'=20
premier healthcare IT advisory panel, called for an in-depth look at=20
how to ensure patient protection in the secondary use of healthcare=20
data.

Howard said he does not expect data-sharing will be a concern to=20
physicians who use Practice Fusion's EMRs. =A0 "Every healthcare vendor=20=

is selling data. Everyone has this data, but we=EDll have more of it and=20=

it will be real-time and aggregated," Howard said. "We will be able to=20=

help drive the patient community toward better care by providing data=20
on the causes and trends of certain conditions over time."

As far as the security of Practice Fusion's medical records, data=20
stored on Practice Fusion has the level of security equal to online=20
banking, he added.

"The reality is that the data is much safer with us - the level of=20
service we offer is much higher than any practice could put in place=20
themselves without spending hundreds of thousands of dollars and having=20=

full-time staff on-site," Howard said.
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