The CommonWell Health Alliance, a high-profile health IT interoperability organization, has added a major electronic health records vendor and the industry’s largest trade group to its membership. In all, CommonWell announced seven new members on Thursday, bringing aboard EHRs, medical imaging, emergency medical services, patient portals, telemedicine and personal health records.
The most notable addition is eClinicalWorks, a scrappy ambulatory EHR vendor with a huge user base, but not the fanfare of some of its competitors. Westborough, Massachusetts-based eClinical Works claims 10 percent of the cloud-based ambulatory EHR market, according to Frost & Sullivan.
“Connecting medical providers and patients is paramount to elevating healthcare delivery,” eClinicalWorks’ integration chief Tushar Malhotra said in a statement from CommonWell. “The work by CommonWell and its members helps move the industry forward, and we are pleased to officially become a member, joining the effort to make nationwide interoperability ubiquitous,” he added.
Another biggie joining CommonWell is the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, which is gearing up to welcome 45,000 people to its annual conference next month. Others new members include:
- LifeImage, a medical image sharing company
- EHR and telemedicine vendor Modernizing Medicine;
- ImageTrend, maker of Web-based software for EMS, critical care and health information exchange;
- Patient portal developer Mana Health; and
- Early-stage PHR vendor MediPortal.
Boston-based CommonWell now has 40 members — up from 25 last April — which the organization said comprises 72 percent of the inpatient EHR market and 34 percent on the ambulatory side. Notably absent is Epic Systems, which is by far the largest ambulatory EHR vendor and in the top three for acute care.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
“The diversity in our membership is representative of our commitment to reach the full continuum of care and to help ensure pertinent patient information is available to patients and caregivers regardless of where care occurred,” CommonWell Executive Director Jitin Asnaani said.