Global Hospital & Healthcare Management

The National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) and Proventys, a leader in advanced decision support technologies, have entered into an exclusive collaboration to introduce the Proventys CDS Oncology™ system, a first-of-its-kind Web platform that arms oncologists with expert recommendations and evidence facilitating the delivery of high-quality, individualized patient care. Through this collaboration, Proventys and NCCN are bringing together the recognized standard in oncology clinical guidelines and novel informatics technologies to help clinicians optimize treatment decisions for patients while improving practice efficiencies.

In today's complex healthcare environment, clinicians are facing increasing pressure to provide high-quality, cost-effective care consistent with evidence-based standards of medical practice. To address this demand, Proventys CDS Oncology was designed to automate the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines™) in a dynamic and structured fashion according to individual patient characteristics, and enable clinicians to access evidence-based recommendations efficiently within the clinical workflow. The Proventys system offers clinicians guidance on appropriate lab and imaging tests, provides information on cancer staging and highlights the most relevant treatment regimens available for the patient based on NCCN Guidelines™ and other decision rules. As a key component of the collaboration, Proventys CDS Oncology will also feature real-time alerts of critical updates to the NCCN Guidelines reflecting the latest recommendations for cancer therapy.

"For clinicians to deliver the highest standard of care to cancer patients, it's imperative that they have easy, quick access to critical information that helps guide them in their treatment decisions," said William T. McGivney, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of NCCN. "This collaboration with Proventys gives us the opportunity to equip clinicians with point-of-care access to the NCCN Guidelines and an ability to incorporate patient-specific factors through novel technology that assists clinical decision-making."

"The collaboration between Proventys and NCCN represents the perfect blend of evidence-based medicine and information technology," said Surya Singh, M.D., Chief Medical Officer and Vice President of Clinical Development for Proventys. "Through our innovative informatics approach and NCCN's gold standard in oncology guidelines, we are, in essence, enhancing clinicians' ability to process complex data and treat their patients in a more personalized manner."

Proventys CDS Oncology will be available for clinicians starting in Q4 2010 and will also be offered through payer-sponsored quality programs. The system will initially include NCCN Guidelines for Breast, Colon, and Non-Small Cell Lung cancers as well as Hodgkin lymphoma.

Cardiva Medical, Inc. announced that it has signed an agreement with Advanced Vascular Dynamics to distribute several products used for postcatheterization femoral and radial artery hemostasis in the U.S. These products include i) RadAR™, an innovative radial artery compression device, ii) ComfortPress™, an ergonomic hand-held manual compression assist device, iii) ExpressAR™, an external mobile compression device and iv) Celox Vascular™, a chitosan based hemostatic patch.

"We are delighted to offer these unique products to our customers in the US," said John McCurdy, Vice President of Sales. McCurdy continued, "The products complement our Catalyst femoral artery closure system and will enable our customers to take advantage of economical alternatives for femoral and radial artery closure." RadAR, ComfortPress, ExpressAR and Celox Vascular are used in cardiac catheterization labs, interventional radiology departments and intensive care units. "This helps us extend our product lines to more customers and enhance our level of onsite customer service. We are very pleased to work with Cardiva," said Matthew Semler, President of Advanced Vascular Dynamics.

Intuit Inc. has transformed its healthcare business by combining newly acquired Medfusion with its Quicken Health Group to create a new business unit called Intuit Health. Based in Cary, N.C., the group is committed to improving healthcare through innovative online connected services that make the clinical, administrative, and financial side of healthcare easier for everyone.

Intuit Health's patient-to-provider communication solutions extend the value of an electronic health record to give patients timely electronic access to their health information. It will also help providers qualify for the $44,000 per physician payment funded in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

"Providing patients with easy and secure online access to their information is no longer a 'nice to have,' under new federal regulations, it's practically a requirement for physician practices today," said Stephen Malik, president and general manager of Intuit Health. "An online patient portal improves the efficiency, privacy and security of patient-provider communications, supporting a number of the government requirements that providers must have to make meaningful use of their information technology. And as one combined entity, Intuit Health has the unique expertise and assets to improve the healthcare landscape and help providers and their patients in a way that no other company can."

The online patient portal currently handles more than 93,000 daily transactions, connecting 32,000 providers and 2.5 million patients. The portal improves office efficiency by making it easy for patients to go online to request appointments, pay bills, request prescription refills, complete medical forms, receive lab results and clinical summaries, conduct virtual office visits, and exchange messages for related care and administrative issues through a secure platform, at any time, from anywhere.

Americans increasingly want online assistance for their healthcare needs. A 2010 Intuit Health survey showed that 72 percent of respondents between the ages 18-65 would use an online tool that would help them pay their medical bills, communicate with their doctor more easily, make appointments and get lab results. Eighty-four percent said they would complete their medical forms online before their doctor's appointment if they had that option.

Intuit Health is part of the Medical Group Management Association AdminiServe®Partner Network and a Member Advantage partner for the American Academy of Family Physicians. The patient portal was selected as a "Software Category Leader" each of the past two years by KLAS Research, an independent firm that monitors vendor performance.