“ICA offers us proven technology that is being used in hospitals, integrated delivery systems, and health information exchanges in both rural and urban settings, accompanied by high physician adoption and demonstrable results,” says Ron Strachan, senior vice president and chief information officer for WellStar. “The CareAlign Solution™ is based upon technology developed over 17 years by practicing physicians and informatics professionals at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. It will enable us to better meet the health demands and needs of over 600,000 people in Georgia.”

Implementation of the CareAlign Solution™ will enable WellStar to connect internal and external health care data sources, aggregate the data, and convert it into usable information across the continuum of care — while providing actionable information to the physician base through an intuitive portal.  In addition, WellStar will use the solution’s analytics capabilities to provide better care and improve overall health.

Gary Zegiestowsky, CEO of ICA, adds, “This relationship with WellStar represents a challenging and rewarding opportunity for ICA to help a health system optimize its clinical data by transforming it into a simple, streamlined tool that will improve a physician’s ability to make better decisions with individual patients.  We look forward to a robust partnership that will improve the overall health of the communities served by WellStar.”

About Informatics Corporation of America (ICA)

Informatics Corporation of America (ICA) was formed to take innovative technology developed by practicing clinicians and informatics professionals at Vanderbilt Medical Center to the broader health care market. ICA’s solution enables interoperability of existing hospital and clinic systems to deliver a comprehensive electronic health record and tools ranging from a physician portal to secure messaging to disease dashboards. By providing clinicians with a comprehensive longitudinal patient record, ICA empowers caregivers to make informed decisions at the point of care, helps health care enterprises achieve operational efficiencies, and facilitates patient care across multiple providers and settings. Visit www.icainformatics.com.

About WellStar Health System

 The vision of WellStar Health System is to deliver world-class healthcare through our hospitals, physicians and services.  WellStar Health System includes Cobb, Douglas, Kennestone, Paulding and Windy Hill hospitals; WellStar Physicians Group; Urgent Care Centers; Health Place; Homecare; Hospice; Atherton Place; Paulding Nursing Center; and WellStar Foundation. For more information, call 770-956-STAR or visit www.wellstar.org.  

“This was ICA’s first year at Connectathon, and we are proud to have proven that the ICA solution performs at the highest level of industry standards, producing and receiving standards-based documents under stringent conditions,” says Jeff Cunningham, ICA’s chief technology and strategy officer. “We registered CareAlign™ for six different document profiles and tested successfully with 20+ vendors.”

From small electronic medical records (EMRs) to large personal health records (PHRs), whether large or small, and across multiple settings like Epic, Microsoft, and PACS systems such as GE PACS and AllScripts, CareAlign™ demonstrated interoperability by sending or receiving data and adding into aggregate clinical records — which included consumers or producers of clinical information across disparate clinical settings.

CareAlign provides a cutting-edge longitudinal patient record, workflow tools, and secure messaging that goes beyond compliance demands. ICA has installations in more than 40 hospitals and approximately 100 clinics providing support for data elements and sources such as diagnoses/problem lists, allergies, outpatient and inpatient medications, physicians, clinicians treating or have treated the patient, facility medical records, number and lab results, radiology reports, physician/transcriptions, notes, hospital discharge notes and summaries.

“The Connectathon helped to establish ICA as a player in the interoperability community by implementing IHE standards and interoperability rules,” Cunningham adds. “We are grateful to IHE for giving us the opportunity to test our interoperability in such a carefully organized and supervised environment and for promoting the adoption of IHE standards-based interoperability systems in commercially available healthcare IT systems.”

ICA will further demonstrate its advanced interoperability services at the Annual Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Conference & Exhibition, March 1-4, 2010, in Atlanta, Ga.

About Informatics Corporation of America (ICA)
Informatics Corporation of America (ICA) was formed to take innovative technology developed by practicing clinicians and informatics professionals at Vanderbilt Medical Center to the broader healthcare market. ICA’s solution enables interoperability of existing hospital and clinic systems to deliver a comprehensive electronic health record and tools ranging from a physician portal to secure messaging to disease dashboards. By providing clinicians with a comprehensive longitudinal patient record, ICA empowers caregivers to make informed decisions at the point of care, helps healthcare enterprises achieve operational efficiencies, and facilitates patient care across multiple providers and settings. Visit www.icainformatics.com.

“Given the high cost of health care IT investments, it is devastating when the implementation process fails at some point in the process,” says Mercer. “This white paper draws on ICA and Sentara’s combined experience in successfully putting clinical information systems into practice, offering a road map that identifies the strategic components for achieving an optimal roll-out. As a result, health care systems can look forward to maximizing their investments while improving the quality of data and patient care across the board.”

The five elements featured in the white paper provide guidelines for avoiding physician frustration, lack of adoption and — at the extreme — de-installation of these systems. The paper demonstrates how to enhance the implementation process by:

• Developing a comprehensive business plan
• Demanding executive commitment and leadership
• Setting realistic expectations
• Securing operational ownership of the project
• Piloting and nurturing the implementation

“Both the white paper and re-designed Web site mark a new era for ICA as we continue to serve a growing number of health care enterprises throughout the country in both urban and rural communities,” adds Tempesco, pointing to the interactive features, case studies, and a press room now available at www.icainformatics.com. “We are ramping up our commitment to providing real value in the health IT marketplace, with ICA’s CareAlign™ now playing an important role in leveraging obsolete systems for improved data and patient care. “

CareAlign provides a cutting-edge longitudinal patient record, workflow tools, and secure messaging that goes beyond compliance demands. ICA has installations in more than 40 hospitals and approximately 100 clinics providing support for data elements and sources such as diagnoses/problem lists, allergies, outpatient and inpatient medications, physicians, clinicians treating or have treated the patient, facility medical records, number and lab results, radiology reports, physician/transcriptions, notes, hospital discharge notes and summaries.

About Informatics Corporation of America (ICA)
Informatics Corporation of America (ICA) was formed to take innovative technology developed by practicing clinicians and informatics professionals at Vanderbilt Medical Center to the broader healthcare market. ICA’s solution enables interoperability of existing hospital and clinic systems to deliver a comprehensive electronic health record and tools ranging from a physician portal to secure messaging to disease dashboards. By providing clinicians with a comprehensive longitudinal patient record, ICA empowers caregivers to make informed decisions at the point of care, helps healthcare enterprises achieve operational efficiencies, and facilitates patient care across multiple providers and settings. Visit www.icainformatics.com.

About Sentara Information Technology
Sentara is a nationally awarded Integrated Delivery System in Southeastern Virginia with a fully integrated electronic medical record (EMR) across the continuum of care. The EMR includes multiple inpatient and ambulatory clinical and administrative IT applications, from scheduling to order entry. Visit www.Sentara.com.

"This is one more step on a very promising path to demonstrate the real value that ICA delivers in the health IT marketplace, and an opportunity to showcase our outstanding team of employees," says Gary Zegiestowsky, CEO of ICA. "The credit belongs to each and every staff member for helping to make ICA a success every day. Our team looks forward to a strong 2010."

The ICA executive leadership team, including Zegiestowsky, Jeff Cunningham, chief technology and strategy officer, and John Tempesco, vice president of client services and marketing, focused upon the delivery of coordinated patient care across clinical settings. Their "Best in Show" technology provided attendees with innovative solutions to help drive improved outcomes by facilitating clinical interoperability and enabling physicians to access and act upon complete patient information in real time, at the point of care.

The Healthcare IT Show Daily stated that the "Best in Show" "included all-star nominees ICA, InterSystems, and Microsoft. Top honors went to ICA, with attendees impressed by ICA’s flexible system architecture solutions.

"After years of seeing IT as merely transaction processing and distributing information, CXOs and external influencers now expect IT to be a key differentiator," says Nancy Hammervik, senior vice president, Events, Everything Channel. "We congratulate the winners of the Healthcare IT Innovation awards."

The Summit brought technology providers together with 200 of North America’s top health care IT executives. Everything Channel and Gartner, the content provider for the event, provided the opportunity for industry analysts, IT executives from health care insurer and provider organizations, and leading vendors to participate in collaborative discussions that focused on today’s pressing business and IT issues, best practices, and the latest tools and technology that will improve business performance. The Healthcare IT Summit Innovation Awards are a proven springboard to increased brand awareness and product credibility in the health care IT market.

About Informatics Corporation of America (ICA)

Informatics Corporation of America (ICA) was formed to take innovative technology developed by practicing clinicians and informatics professionals at Vanderbilt Medical Center to the broader healthcare market. ICA’s solution enables interoperability of existing hospital and clinic systems to deliver a comprehensive electronic health record and tools ranging from a physician portal to secure messaging to disease dashboards. By providing clinicians with a comprehensive longitudinal patient record, ICA empowers caregivers to make informed decisions at the point of care, helps healthcare enterprises achieve operational efficiencies, and facilitates patient care across multiple providers and settings. Visit http://www.icainformatics.com/.

About Healthcare IT Summit

The Healthcare IT Summit brings together industry analysts, IT Executives from healthcare insurer and provider organizations, and leading vendors for uniquely collaborative discussions on today’s pressing business and IT issues, best practices and the latest tools and technology that will improve business performance. Additional information about Vision Events can be found at: http://t.lt01.net/m/492GdrAcA-AAD5WjlcQZTBpKQNAnQAh_IWukSZW82wTYX9mrCQ.

Everything Channel (http://www.everythingchannel.com/), Everything Channel is the one-stop shop for managing and accelerating technology sales. From branding and recruiting to marketing and sales, Everything Channel offers technology marketers the unmatched breadth and depth of global brands and market intelligence combined with unparalleled audience loyalty and credibility serving all technology sales channels through an extensive database. Everything Channel provides innovative field sales and marketing solutions to arm the sellers of technology with the resources they need to achieve measurable and significant results.

About United Business Media Limited (www.unitedbusinessmedia.com)

United Business Media Limited (UBM) is a global media and marketing services company that informs markets and brings the world’s buyers and sellers together at events, online, in print, and with the information they need to do business successfully. UBM serves professional and commercial communities, from IT professionals to doctors, from journalists to jewelry dealers, from farmers to pharmacists around the world. UBM employs more than 6,500 people in more than 30 countries. UBM’s businesses operating in the US include CMPMedica, Commonwealth Business Media, Everything Channel, PR Newswire, RISI, TechInsights, TechWeb and Think Services. UBM is listed on the London Stock Exchange (UBM.L) and has a market capitalization of $1.6 billion.

Media Contacts

Everything Channel: Mark Britton; 508-416-1156; Mark.britton@ec.ubm.com

CPR for Informatics Corporation of America: Rachael Fisher; 201.641.1911 x49; rfisher@cpronline.com

"Because we were competing against over 30 vendors, this award sets us apart by recognizing the innovative edge our health care solution brings to the broader market," says Gary Zegiestowsky, CEO of ICA. "The HealthIT Insight awards serve to increase brand awareness and product credibility in the health care information technology (IT) market, so we see this as one more step toward improving local and national efforts to transform the country’s health care system, promoting better outcomes and helping clinicians access and respond appropriately to complete patient information in real time at the point of care."

The conference included senior members of health care provider organizations and payers from across the country. John Tempesco, ICA’s vice president of client services and marketing, sat on two executive panels and delivered two board room presentations throughout the event.

The first executive panel, "Advancing Health Care Delivery Through Technology Innovation," covered hospitals making significant investments in new infrastructure to optimize operations, streamline communication, and improve outcomes. The second executive panel, "Meaningful Use & Meaningful Results from Electronic Health Records," addressed how the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA) gives U.S. provider organizations a unique opportunity to recoup costs associated with the acquisition and implementation of much-needed electronic health record (EHR) technology. However, the requirements for eligibility for ARRA payments include tight implementation deadlines alongside requirements for the demonstration of "meaningful use." These two requirements seem contradictory, as in practice, rushed IT implementations have historically meant less-than-optimal results.

Jim Jirjis, M.D. medical director, Internal Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, presented "Collaborative Care: Using Information Across The Continuum."

Sponsors competing for the awards included: Compuware, Microsoft, Intel, Healthation, InterSystems, Symtel, VMWare, Dimensional Insight, HealthEdge, Infosys, McKesson, MedeAnalytics,MEDecision, Symex, TATA Consultancy Services, Agilysys, CNSI, Hitachi Data Systems, InMage, Philips, Nuance, Availility, Blue Slate, Elixir Technologies and Vital.

"In a field of so many exceptional vendors, ICA did well to earn this esteemed award," Tempesco adds. "The most advanced health organizations today are utilizing infrastructure upgrades and enhancements to better meet the needs of patients while also improving the operations, communications, and quality of care at their institutions. ICA’s solutions are designed to help U.S. providers leverage their EHR investments and implementations in order to achieve meaningful use and meaningful results."

About Informatics Corporation of America (ICA)

Informatics Corporation of America (ICA) was formed to take innovative technology developed by practicing clinicians and informatics professionals at Vanderbilt Medical Center to the broader health care market. ICA’s solution enables interoperability of existing hospital and clinic systems to deliver a comprehensive electronic health record and tools ranging from a physician portal to secure messaging to disease dashboards. By providing clinicians with a comprehensive longitudinal patient record, ICA empowers caregivers to make informed decisions at the point of care, helps health care enterprises achieve operational efficiencies, and facilitates patient care across multiple providers and settings. Visit www.icainformatics.com/.

About HealthIT Insight

Health Industry Insights is an advisory services and market research firm that closely follows the payer, provider and life science segments of the health care industry, with special emphasis on developing and employing strategies that leverage IT investments to maximize organizational performance. Visit: healthitinsight.com/

NASHVILLE, TN/ PADUCAH, KY – August 25, 2009 - Informatics Corporation of America (ICA; http://www.icainformatics.com/), announces that Ulrich Medical Concepts (UMC; http://www.ulrichmedicalconcepts.com/), an experienced provider of ambulatory electronic medical record (EMR) systems and implementation services, has become the first to complete its Certified Integration Partner program, which is designed to help companies develop standardized integration from client to client.

ICA’s CareAlign™ technology currently provides health information exchanges (HIEs) and hospital systems nationwide a more advanced single technology solution for their clinicians to readily access, evaluate, and act upon patient information across disparate systems.

"With health care reform underway and the growing demand for cost-efficient health care IT solutions, the synergy of technology excellence created by ICA and the expertise of UMC will serve to greatly reduce costs, increase clinical communication, and improve overall quality of care," says John Tempesco, ICA’s vice president of client services and marketing. "This certification partnership demonstrates the power of interoperability in improving our health care system and leads to meaningful use."

The two-month Certified Integration Partner process involves the development of both a standard integration package and implementation methodology, data testing and validity between systems, deployment at a mutual client and the signing of a teaming agreement. As a Certified Integration Partner, Ulrich customers benefit from integration price reduction, implementation timeframe compression and the ability to predict the total cost of ownership. Ulrich also benefits from joint marketing with ICA, which includes testament of certification for all marketing materials. The certification program will enable ICA’s IDN and HIE customers to expedite value, expand adoption and reduce integrations costs as well. Overall it benefits the health care community through increased interoperability of health care data across a community.

"Ulrich’s integration certification reflects a commitment to its clients and to maximizing ambulatory EMR benefit across the board in order to streamline communication and health care management," says Dan Jarrett, president of Ulrich. "In its 10-year history, Ulrich has a 98 percent client retention track record, the result of focusing upon the needs of patients and consumers and continually searches for the latest innovations to improve performance and to meet customer needs. Ulrich and ICA share this dedication to customer satisfaction."

To become a Certified Integration Partner with ICA please contact John Tempesco at 615-866-1465.

About Informatics Corporation of America (ICA)

Informatics Corporation of America (ICA) was established to take innovative technology developed by practicing physicians and informatics professionals at Vanderbilt Medical Center to the broader health care market. Its flexible architecture integrates legacy systems to provide a comprehensive clinical view of patient records within Integrated Delivery Systems and Health Information Exchanges/Regional Health Information Organizations. Today, ICA is unmatched in its ability to deliver a cost-effective, proven solution that not only leverages complete data across clinical settings to aid decision-making and improve patient outcomes, but also utilizes real-time clinical information when and where it is needed. Visit http://www.icainformatics.com/

About Ulrich Medical Concepts (UMC)

With over 10 years of successful ambulatory EMR implementation, Ulrich Medical Concepts has the experience to elevate your practice "off the charts." Our flagship product, Team Chart Concept (TCC), is a completely integrated practice management and electronic medical records system. Currently, TCC is in use by health care facilities across 10 states in 22 specialties.

TCC is a proven solution for family practices, internal medicine groups, general surgery physicians, as well as specialty practices including OB/GYN, ENT, dermatology, neurology, orthopedics, physical therapy, pain management, chiropractic, mental health centers, sleep centers, and correctional health care. Visit http://www.ulrichmedicalconcepts.com/