WATERTOWN, Mass., PITTSBURGH and WASHINGTON, Jan. 14, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- athenahealth, Inc.(Nasdaq:ATHN), a leading provider of cloud-based services for electronic health record (EHR), practice management, and care coordination, and CECity, a leading provider of cloud-based registry services for performance improvement and value-based reporting, today announced a partnership through which the companies will launch a first-of-its-kind health data exchange integration and reporting service, automating the flow of information directly from practices using athenaClinicals®, athenahealth's award-winning EHR, to clinical registries from national medical specialty societies and other registries. The American College of Physicians (ACP) will be the first national medical organization to receive clinical data from athenaClinicals to its registry through CECity's clinical quality data gateway (ImpaQt Gateway™).
"In partnership with CECity, and through a combination of our open cloud-based platform and commitment to free data flow in health care, we continue to expand our providers' ability to effortlessly transmit key clinical data from their EHR to the places it needs to and should go," said Doran Robinson, vice president, Healthcare Transactions, athenahealth. "We believe data exchange should be a core service embedded in health information technology (HIT) to satisfy things like Meaningful Use, but more importantly to advance the delivery of high-quality, well-coordinated care. This partnership is an important differentiator for athenahealth; with CECity, we are establishing a key platform integration point that enables any provider using our athenaClinicals service to meet Meaningful Use specialized registry requirements with no additional effort and at no additional cost, so they can focus on their primary role of efficient, high-quality patient care delivery."
The ImpaQt Gateway will enable the seamless transfer of information from the national athenaNet® platform to appropriate "Specialized Registries" in order to satisfy the Meaningful Use Stage 2 - Menu Measure 6 requirement that went into effect January 1, 2014. The ImpaQt Gateway includes support for standardized data exchange formats from EHRs, as prescribed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Through secure, continuous data exchange, the ImpaQt Gateway accepts standardized EHR files, which are then automatically processed and logically stored in CECity's registry-based cloud platform. Practices are then able to control how they would like their EHR data to be channeled for use in a variety of applications hosted by CECity, including the specialized registries available for Meaningful Use, as well as PQRS, Bridges to Excellence®, Maintenance of Certification®, and other clinical practice improvement programs.
The first specialized registry to receive data through the ImpaQt Gateway will be ACP Genesis Registry™. Through a partnership with CECity, ACP Genesis Registry will accept data from athenaClinicals and provide participating health care practices with continuous feedback reports presented through online performance monitors. Each monitor offers providers a user-friendly view of their personal performance results compared to national benchmarks, benchmarks established by ACP, as well as peer comparators, and a custom analysis of their measure gaps. Linked opportunities to drive improvement and close performance gaps are available, which include population health and patient care management tools, targeted education, resources, and other evidence-based interventions from CECity's society, academic, and quality improvement research partners.
"We are proud to have the opportunity to partner with athenahealth and ACP to enable this milestone in healthcare," said Simone Karp, RPh, chief business development officer and CECity co-founder. "This collaboration represents a giant leap forward towards realizing the true vision of Meaningful Use, which is leveraging information to improve patient care. Together, through the use of cloud-based platforms, we have made the secure exchange and reporting of clinical data simple. We have enabled performance measurement and national benchmarking as a seamless outcome of the practice workflow. And, most importantly, we are now able to engage health care professionals in patient safety and quality initiatives by transitioning the focus from measurement to improvement."
"ACP Genesis Registry will help physicians to satisfy Meaningful Use specialized registry requirements and improve patient care," said Michael S. Barr, MD, MBA, FACP, who leads ACP's Division of Medical Practice. "Participating practices will be able to easily transmit data from athenaClinicals, reducing the burden on physicians by eliminating the need for duplicate data entry and custom reporting."
Access to the ACP Genesis Registry, performance monitors, improvement resources, and social learning networks will be offered to participating athenahealth practices through CECity's MedConcert® Portal, the leading multi-tenant platform for performance improvement. CECity and athenahealth plan on making additional quality reporting and improvement solutions available through the athenahealth Marketplace in the near future, including solutions that may leverage the same data exchanged for Meaningful Use.
About athenahealth
athenahealth is a leading provider of cloud-based services for electronic health record (EHR), practice management, and care coordination. athenahealth's mission is to be caregivers' most trusted service, helping them do well doing the right thing. For more information, please visit www.athenahealth.com.
About CECity®
CECity (www.cecity.com) is the health care industry's leading cloud-based provider of social enterprise platforms and services that address the "3 Ps" driven by healthcare reform: Pay for Value Reporting, Performance Improvement, and Professional Certification. CECity combines its unique registry and analytics platform with education and improvement interventions from world-class partners, to help all stakeholders answer the most important question, "How Do We Improve?" Leading organizations across healthcare, including physician practices, ACOs, health systems, health plans, pharmacies, certifying boards, professional societies and academic medical centers, count on CECity to power their high stake solutions for practice-based learning and performance improvement, registries, professional development, Maintenance of Certification®, medication adherence, care coordination, population health management and value-based reporting.
About MedConcert®
MedConcert® (www.medconcert.com) is the first multi-tenant social network for continuous performance improvement and lifelong learning. Through MedConcert, healthcare professionals and organizations engage in building secure learning networks to monitor their individual and aggregate performance, manage the health of their patient populations, access tools and resources for improvement based upon their care gaps, and connect in meaningful ways to address a variety of critical needs driven by healthcare reform. The MedConcert "App Store" provides users with solutions to help improve performance and simplify their lives. Apps available include disease specific registries and related care coordination tools, value-based reporting wizards (PQRSwizard®, Bridges to Excellence®), Specialized Registries and eCQM Meaningful Use reporting, patient surveys (NCQA Certified PCMH CG-CAHPS) and patient engagement apps, Maintenance of Certification part II and IV solutions, an MOC certified patient safety certificate program, and much more.
About the American College of Physicians
The American College of Physicians (www.acponline.org) is the largest medical specialty organization and the second-largest physician group in the United States. ACP members include 137,000 internal medicine physicians (internists), related subspecialists, and medical students. Internal medicine physicians are specialists who apply scientific knowledge and clinical expertise to the diagnosis, treatment, and compassionate care of adults across the spectrum from health to complex illness. Follow ACP on Twitter (www.twitter.com/acpinternists) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/acpinternists).
This press release contains forward-looking statements, which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding the anticipated integration of athenahealth's services with the ImpaQt Gateway, the benefits conferred thereby, and the availability of additional solutions. These statements are neither promises nor guarantees, and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in these forward-looking statements. Existing and prospective investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. athenahealth undertakes no obligation to update or revise the information contained in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or circumstances, or otherwise. For additional disclosure regarding these and other risks faced by athenahealth, please see the disclosure contained in our public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, available on the Investors section of our website at http://www.athenahealth.com and on the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov.