Practice Fusion Launches EHR Initiatives
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
The initiative will offer providers insight and clinical decision information for patient populations with respiratory conditions.
Practice Fusion has announced the launch of two new EHR initiatives. The first is a Population Health Management program which will offer healthcare providers insight and clinical decision information for patient populations with respiratory conditions via the Practice Fusion electronic health record (EHR) platform. The program is designed to help improve care for asthma and COPD patients by offering clinical decision supports at the point of care.
John McCarthy, VP of Global Commercial Excellence for AstraZeneca – Practice Fusions partner in this initiative – explained, “AstraZeneca has a strong and established commitment to respiratory disease and is squarely focused on understanding and helping to meet the needs of people facing serious health challenges like asthma and COPD. By supporting this important initiative, we believe that we can continue to make true progress in helping healthcare providers in their efforts to improve patient care.”
The importance of the program is underscored by the fact the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America estimates nearly 25 million Americans suffer from asthma, accounting for more than 3,300 deaths each year. Furthermore, a March 2013 report from the American Lung Association found COPD is the third leading cause of death in the U.S. and that more than 12 million adult Americans have been diagnosed with it.
“PHM programs like this empower our providers with data by giving them a quantified view into their patients’ health, which ultimately has the potential to help them identify at-risk patients and promote treatment compliance,” said Ryan Howard, founder and CEO, Practice Fusion. “With our EHR platform managing more than five million patient visits a month, we’re in a prime position to partner with our providers and play an important role in aiding their efforts to improve patient care.”
The second initiative is an integration with ePatientFinder designed to improve clinical trial recruitment through the Practice Fusion platform, which has over 50 million patient visits a year. “With over 56 million patient encounters in 2014 alone, Practice Fusion is the only EHR platform positioned to benefit millions of patients so quickly by making available clinical trial opportunities,” Ryan Howard, founder and CEO of Practice Fusion, said in the press release. “Partnering with ePatientFinder directly serves our mission of empowering providers and patients.”
“Together we will be able create an unprecedented awareness of clinical trial opportunities for both physicians and patients,” said Tom Dorsett, CEO of ePatientFinder. “Until now, patients could only hope that they might hear or see an advertisement to make them aware of clinical trial options. Now they will learn through their trusted physician.”