Health informatics is information engineering applied to the field of health care, essentially the management and use of patient health care information. It is a multidisciplinary field that uses health information technology (HIT) to improve health care via any combination of higher quality, higher efficiency, and new opportunities. The disciplines involved include information science, computer science, social science, behavioral science, management science, and others. The United States National Library of Medicine (NLM) defines health informatics as "the interdisciplinary study of the design, development, adoption and application of IT-based innovations in health care services delivery, management and planning". It deals with the resources, devices, and methods required to optimize the acquisition, storage, retrieval, and use of information in health and bio-medicine. Health informatics tools include computers, clinical guidelines, formal medical terminologies, and information and communication systems, among others. It is applied to the areas of nursing, clinical medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, public health, occupational therapy, physical therapy, biomedical research, and alternative medicine, all of which are designed to improve the overall of effectiveness of patient care delivery by ensuring that the data generated is of a high quality.
An electronic health record (EHR) is the systematized collection of patient and population electronically-stored health information in a digital format. These records can be shared across different health care settings. Records are shared through network-connected, enterprise-wide information systems or other information networks and exchanges. EHRs may include a range of data, including demographics, medical history, medication and allergies, immunization status, laboratory test results, radiology images, vital signs, personal statistics like age and weight, and billing information.
Medical practice management software (PMS) is a category of healthcare software that deals with the day-to-day operations of a medical practice including veterinarians. Such software frequently allows users to capture patient demographics, schedule appointments, maintain lists of insurance payors, perform billing tasks, and generate reports.
OSCAR McMaster is a web-based electronic medical record (EMR) system initially developed for academic primary care clinics. It has grown into a comprehensive EMR and billing system used by many doctor's offices and private medical clinics in Canada and other parts of the world. The name is derived from where it was created and an acronym; OSCAR stands for Open Source Clinical Application and Resource and McMaster refers to McMaster University, where it was developed. It enables the delivery of evidence resources at the point of care.
The Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT) was an independent, 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with the public mission of accelerating the adoption of robust, interoperable health information technology. The Commission certified electronic health record technology from 2006 until 2014. It was approved by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as an Authorized Testing and Certification Body (ONC-ATCB). The CCHIT Certified program is an independently developed certification that includes a rigorous inspection of an EHR’s integrated functionality, interoperability and security using criteria developed by CCHIT’s broadly representative, expert work groups. These products may also be certified in the ONC-ATCB certification program.
MEDCIN, a system of standardized medical terminology, is a proprietary medical vocabulary and was developed by Medicomp Systems, Inc. MEDCIN is a point-of-care terminology, intended for use in Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems, and it includes over 280,000 clinical data elements encompassing symptoms, history, physical examination, tests, diagnoses and therapy. This clinical vocabulary contains over 38 years of research and development as well as the capability to cross map to leading codification systems such as SNOMED CT, CPT, ICD-9-CM/ICD-10-CM, DSM, LOINC, CDT, CVX, and the Clinical Care Classification (CCC) System for nursing and allied health.
athenahealth, Inc. is a private American company that provides network-enabled services for healthcare and point-of-care mobile apps in the United States. athenahealth has a network of more than 160,000 providers and 110 million patients and offers a suite of services to manage medical records, revenue cycle, patient engagement, care coordination, and population health.
WorldVistA is an not-for profit that provides the WorldVistA EHR, an open source implementation of the Veteran Administration's Electronic Health Record system intended for use in health care facilities outside the VA.
NextGen Connect is a cross-platform interface engine used in the healthcare industry that enables the management of information using bi-directional sending of many types of messages. The primary use of this interface engine is in healthcare.
Practice Fusion is a web-based electronic health record (EHR) company based in San Francisco, CA. The company was founded in 2005 by Ryan Howard and acquired by Allscripts in 2018.
LSS Data Systems (LSS), was a Minnesota-based medical software and service company that develops products for the physician practice community. LSS was founded in 1982, and since then was a partner of Medical Information Technology (MEDITECH), developing physician practice management and ambulatory electronic health record software. In 2000 and 2001 MEDITECH invested in LSS and in February 2011, acquired complete ownership. LSS became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Massachusetts based company, and announced completion of the merger on January 1, 2014.
NextGen Healthcare, Inc. is an American software and services company headquartered in Irvine, California, US. The company develops and sells electronic health record (EHR) software and practice management systems to the healthcare industry. NextGen Healthcare also provides population health, financial management, and clinical solutions for medical and dental practices. On September 7, 2018, Quality Systems Inc. changed its name to Nextgen Healthcare, Inc. and on September 10, their stock ticker symbol changed to NASDAQ: NXGN.
Allscripts Healthcare Solutions, Inc. is a publicly traded American company that provides physician practices, hospitals, and other healthcare providers with practice management and electronic health record technology. Allscripts also provides solutions for patient engagement and care coordination, as well as financial and analytics technology. The company has more than 180,000 physician users and has solutions in 2,700 hospitals and 13,000 extended care organizations.
Nightingale Informatix Corporation, commonly abbreviated as Nightingale, is a public company headquartered in Markham, Ontario, Canada with offices in Rancho Cordova, California, Cambridge, Ontario, Kansas City, Missouri, Pembroke, Massachusetts, and Wexford, Pennsylvania. Nightingale provides products and services that support physicians, allied healthcare practitioners, hospitals and other healthcare organizations with their clinical and operational requirements. Nightingale provides EHR and Practice Management services, as well as a Patient Portal, Revenue Cycle Management and Medical transcription services to solo physicians, group practices and large clinics across the United States and Canada. The EMR/ EHR by Nightingale is a web-based program and is hosted in a secure ASP environment.
Nuesoft Technologies, Inc. is a health care software as a service (SaaS) company headquartered in Marietta, Georgia, USA. The company develops and sells practice management software for physician practices, university health centers, and medical billing companies. The company operates a wholly owned medical billing clearinghouse and also provides HL7 product integration for EMR/EHR systems, laboratory information systems, medical imaging systems and document management systems.
Lawrence Gordonis a practicing Otolaryngologist and the founder of ENT Specialty Care which is located in Goshen, NY. In addition to practicing Otolaryngology, DGordon is a medical software entrepreneur and the founder of WRS Health, a web-based Electronic Health Record and Practice Management System platform. He is the founder of Waiting Room Solutions, a CCHIT and ONC-ATCB certified EHR and Practice Management System. Waiting Room Solutions was one of the first web-based systems available to help physicians run their medical offices.
Kareo is an Irvine, California company that provides software as a service for independent medical practices. The company offers cloud computing products and services for electronic health record (EHR) management, medical practice management software, managed billing services and software to help practices engage with their patients. In 2019, the company reported over 55,000 providers using its technology.
Greenway Health, LLC is a privately-owned vendor of health information technology (HIT) including integrated electronic health record (EHR), practice management, and revenue cycle management solutions. Intergy, Greenway Health’s cloud-based EHR and practice management solution, serves ambulatory healthcare practices. The company has offices in Tampa, Florida; Alachua, Florida; and Carrollton, Georgia. Greenway Health was formed in 2013 following Vista Equity Partners' acquisition and combination of three HIT vendors: Vitera Healthcare Solutions, SuccessEHS, and Greenway Medical Technologies.
Home health care software sometimes referred to as home care software or home health software falls under the broad category of health care information technology (HIT). HIT is “the application of information processing involving both computer hardware and software that deals with the storage, retrieval, sharing, and use of health care information, data, and knowledge for communication and decision making” Home health software is designed specifically for companies employing home health providers, as well as government entities who track payments to home health care providers.
