The COVID-19 surge has healthcare data companies looking to enhance their interoperability capabilities.
rcadia, a healthcare data and software company specializing in population health management and interoperability, has expanded its digital footprint by acquiring key technology and customer accounts from Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative (MAeHC).
This acquisition comes at the time of the COVID-19 outbreak, when EHR interoperability is being tested and patient data exchange is crucial.
“Despite the challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic presents to our healthcare system each day, Arcadia is fortunate to remain in the position that we can continue building our capabilities, and we’re incredibly excited to welcome MAeHC to our corporate family,” said Sean Carroll, CEO at Arcadia.
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“The acquisition of deep talent from MAeHC will expand our reach and influence commensurate with our position of market leadership.”
Along with the acquisition, Arcadia also adds former President and CEO of MAeHC, Micky Tripathi, who is a major influence in the interoperability space.
Tripathi is a member of the Board of Directors of HL7, the Sequoia Project, the CommonWell Health Alliance, the CARIN Alliance, and the HL7 FHIR Foundation and the Project Manager of the Argonaut Project, an industry collaboration to accelerate the adoption of FHIR.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the important role that population health management plays in ensuring healthcare organizations have accurate, up-to-date patient information to guide decision-making,” said Tripathi.
“Over the last few weeks, we’ve seen how absolutely critical it is for all of us in value-based care, interoperability and population health management to pivot at a moment’s notice,” Tripathi concluded. “We are excited about joining our strong teams of experienced industry professionals who are building the future of interoperability and healthcare data exchange.”
Arcadia, which won Best in KLAS in 2020 for Value-Based Care Managed Services, saw record growth in 2019 and the addition of MAeHC will only grow its space in the population health management and interoperability field.
With interoperability being at the forefront of health IT organizations, MAeHC plays a role in advising its clients to make sure providers understand the data and are able to properly utilize it, including HL7 and Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR).
While MAeHC works mostly with provider organizations to help them with health IT needs, the non-profit has evolved to also deal with interoperability needs. Instead of focusing on EHR implementation, the company focuses on how to optimize the EHR.
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced health IT professionals to come together and enhance interoperability during this crisis.
In early April, The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information (ONC) asked all health IT professionals who are working on COVID-19 interoperability projects to share it with colleagues on the Interoperability Proving Ground (IPG) platform.
IPG is an open, community platform where health IT professionals can share and learn about interoperability projects that are happening around the country.
“Through mission, patriotism, and sheer will, many of you – from the front lines to the coding scrums – have stepped up to gather data, release new best practices, create new connections, and point out gaps,” Steven Posnack, MS, deputy national coordinator for Health Information Technology, wrote in a blog post at the time of the announcement.
“There’s so much going on it’s easy to be overwhelmed and hard to keep track,” he continued. “Should you join an initiative or start one of your own? Is someone confronting the same challenge you are? If we all share our efforts, the health IT community can come together in the most nimble way possible to provide tools that can help fight this pandemic”
The IPG platform is a way for health IT professionals to come together and share ideas to tackle the ongoing issue that is interoperability.
“We need to be organized, and to be organized we need a dynamic, lightweight way to share what we’re working on, who’s doing it, how we can support one another, and how to find out more,” wrote Posnack. “That’s exactly the open forum that the IPG can provide. ONC will monitor IPG submissions to help pair stakeholders and identify complementary initiatives to project leads.”
Source: EHR Intelligence