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Health 2.0 Accelerator Demonstrates Integration of Consumer Web Apps and EHRs

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – October 7, 2009 – Health 2.0 Accelerator member companies today joined together at the Fall 2009 Health 2.0 Conference to demonstrate a streamlined, consumer-centric integration among nine separate technologies creating a more streamlined user experience.

During the conference “Tools Panel”, eight Health 2.0 Accelerator members MediKeeper, change:healthcare, Sage, Kryptiq, MedSimple, Polka, ReliefInsite, PharmaSURVEYOR and Kinnexxus worked together to demonstrate a seamless, end-to-end user experience across disparate Health 2.0 applications.  The demonstration enabled a consumer persona to sign into their personal health record and utilize their personal and clinical health information across several applications while using Microsoft’s HealthVault data sharing platform without having to re-enter information.  The demonstration also utilized the Drug Code Lookup Service being piloted by member companies First DataBank and PharmaSURVEYOR that provides easy online access to First DataBank’s standardized drug codes to promote interoperability among Internet-based healthcare services.

Participating companies demonstrated the advantages of allowing patients to better track and manage their health care information, to save money by identifying lower cost pharmaceuticals and physicians, improve information sharing and communication about conditions and medications with a physician, and address important safety considerations about an individual’s drug regimen and its impact on their health.  In addition to showing ways to simplify the consumer healthcare experience, the demonstration also facilitated information flow in and out of a physician’s electronic health record, to enable both the patient and physician to co-manage a patient’s health more continuously between physician visits.

“Today’s demonstration clearly exemplifies how Health 2.0 Accelerator companies can continue to innovate in their own product development while integrating with others in the absence of a single, standard platform or system by leveraging industry standards,” said Julie Murchinson, Health 2.0 Accelerator Executive Director.  “Our member companies will continue to be leaders in the effort to make the vision of a consumer-friendly and focused health care experience a reality for patients and health care providers.”

Given the silos of data that exist in the severely fragmented health care system, significant challenges remain in coalescing approaches that focus on single-platform, fully-integrated solutions that engage patients, providers and other stakeholders despite federal and state efforts to address these issues today.  While many industry stakeholders are focused on information systems as the ultimate hubs of patient information, the Health 2.0 Accelerator Tools Panel demonstrated that patients can be a quite logical hub of their own data to facilitate improved health.

“The Tools Panel demonstration showed the power of health 2.0 companies working together to advance data portability to encourage consumers to adopt these critical and useful technologies to manage their health,” said Matthew Holt, Founder, Health 2.0 Conference and The Healthcare Blog.

“The multi-company, end-to-end workflow around interoperable health records and online services demonstrated today closely parallels the evolution of eCommerce,” said Erick Von Schweber, executive co-chair of PharmaSURVEYOR. By leveraging lessons learned in that recent history of the web, it appears that eHealth is progressing even faster.”

The Health 2.0 Accelerator (H2A) carves out an important role in a rapidly evolving space where consumer technology tools and health information technology are of increasing importance to both patients and care providers. H2A works with its member companies to encourage collaboration around specific business or technical objectives to benefit consumers in ways that are challenging or inefficient for companies to tackle alone.

About Health 2.0 Accelerator

H2A is a nonprofit organization whose goal is to advance consumer-centric health care by driving integration of technology and the consumer experience across a network of new and established technology companies and health care organizations by developing common understanding of consumer value and promoting trusted use of Health 2.0 technology solutions; removing integration barriers, facilitating integration in “traditional” health care environments, encouraging an appropriate balance of consumer protection and commercial opportunity, as well as financial incentives that encourage data liquidity; and enabling the development of revenue sharing arrangements and mutually beneficial business models. For more information, go to:  http://www.h2anetwork.org

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