HMS initiates new interoperability product for customers

 Healthcare Management Systems, Inc. ^® (HMS) announced today the launch of a new interoperability product for customers that will enable the exchange of clinical data between third party systems, health information exchanges, and public registries. The new product will assist clients in qualifying for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act HITECH stimulus funds. HMS Connex^SM is built around Mirth Corporation’s technology platform and customized for the HMS product suite. Mirth provides the leading open source solution for healthcare interoperability.

“We are proud of the success of HMS Connex at the Connectathon and anticipate the reception from customers will be very positive. Our customers have said that integration is one of their top priorities and we have responded by offering an excellent tool to meet their needs”

HMS Connex is designed to help customers achieve Stage 1 Meaningful Use interoperability requirements, specifically reporting hospital quality measures to CMS, exchanging key clinical information among providers of care (Continuity of Care Document standards), submitting lab results to public health agencies, and submitting data to immunization registries. HMS Connex also provides customers with a stable platform that can be leveraged for future data exchange needs whether it is within or outside of the hospital including exchange of information with external partners, public registries, or community regional health information organizations.

The care goals of ARRA have been clearly established and in order to effectively achieve data exchange requirements, an interoperability solution is required. HMS Connex is tailored to existing and new HMS software applications, positioning HMS customers to rapidly meet ever-changing healthcare industry requirements. Customers can rely on HMS as a single source of contact for their computing and meaningful use needs.

“HMS understands the challenge that each community hospital will face not only in purchasing and implementing new software, but the workflow and process changes that will be necessary to maximize the technology, gain user acceptance and ultimately achieve meaningful use. That is why we are doing everything we can to ready our systems, expand our implementation teams and add products like HMS Connex that will aid them in this process,” said Tom Stephenson, president and CEO.

HMS will demonstrate HMS Connex at the Interoperability Showcase at HIMSS in Atlanta March 1-3. Earlier this year, HMS participated in the five-day Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) North American Connectathon, the healthcare IT industry's largest interoperability testing event. Companies participated in a variety of tests to determine how well their systems conform to IHE integration profiles and share patient information with complementary systems. Utilizing HMS Connex, HMS successfully tested and completed 100 percent of its defined goals including securely exchanging key clinical data between entities such as health information exchanges and providers. Results of the Connectathon can be seen at http://connectathon-results.ihe-europe.net. IHE promotes the coordinated use of established standards to address specific clinical needs in support of optimal patient care. Systems developed in accordance with IHE communicate better, are easier to implement, and enable care providers to use information more effectively.

During 2009, HMS committed substantial resources to developing its upcoming 9.0 meaningful use release and building HMS Connex. “We are proud of the success of HMS Connex at the Connectathon and anticipate the reception from customers will be very positive. Our customers have said that integration is one of their top priorities and we have responded by offering an excellent tool to meet their needs,” said Stephenson.