HealthFortis Integrates ACR Select™ To Deliver Safer, More Effective, And Accessible Medical Imaging

Evidence-based, national standard, imaging guidelines now available through the HealthFortis clinical decision support platform and leading electronic health record systems

Burlington, MA (PRWEB)

HealthFortis, a provider of physician friendly Clinical Decision Support (CDS) systems, has entered into an agreement with National Decision Support Company (NDSC) to license ACR Select, the digitally consumable version of American College of Radiology (ACR) Appropriateness Criteria® (AC). ACR AC is a comprehensive, transparent, CDS database that provides evidence and consensus-based guidance for the appropriate utilization of all medical imaging procedures.

HealthFortis is the first authorized reseller of ACR Select national standard imaging protocols which can be delivered direct to physicians or via leading electronic health record (EHR) systems and computerized physician order entry (CPOE) applications that leverage the HealthFortis CDS management platform. Current EHR integrations include Allscripts, Epic and NextGen.

“By integrating ACR Select with the HealthFortis platform, we’re able to electronically deliver ACR AC in its complete form to our customers and promote appropriate medical imaging, which reduces the number of invasive surgeries, unnecessary hospital admissions, shortens length of stay, and greatly contributes to improved patient care,” said Dr. Kang Wang, CEO, HealthFortis. “HealthFortis CDS delivers ACR Select in the patient context through its unique, patent pending search-based clinical decision support platform. It not only can rank the appropriateness of the physician selected procedures, but, more importantly, can proactively provide recommendations before a physician makes a procedure selection—a true decision support approach.”

With HealthFortis CDS, powered by ACR Select, healthcare organizations can improve quality, reduce unnecessary scans, lessen radiation dose exposure, lower imaging costs, and add value in outpatient, inpatient, and ED settings, by:
•     Providing order recommendations to physicians in complex patient care situations,
•     Providing real-time order appropriateness feedback to clinicians,
•     Lowering utilization of capitated volumes (DRGs)
•     Offering department heads with staff utilization profiles
•     Improving efficiencies in obtaining pre-authorizations
•     Delivering effective utilization management for risk bearing healthcare models, such as accountable care organizations (ACOs)

“Healthcare Partners has collaborated with, and supported, HealthFortis since 2010 to build the HealthFortis CDS platform. The platform will clearly help improve clinical quality and reduce wasteful utilization for our entire patient population as part of the IHI Triple Aim goals and we are on our way to archive both.” commented William Chin, co-founder and CMO of Healthcare Partners, a development partner and early adopter of HealthFortis CDS.

“We are excited to be working with HealthFortis,” said Michael Mardini, CEO, NDSC. “This new relationship expands on our goal to deliver the latest evidence and consensus-based CDS guidelines to healthcare professionals without disrupting the doctor-patient relationship or delaying needed care.”

To learn more about HealthFortis CDS and ACR Select, please visit National Decision Support Company at the annual RSNA conference at booth #2538, November 25-29, 2012 in Chicago, IL.

About HealthFortis
HealthFortis develops and supports Clinical Decision Support (CDS) systems that help physicians to make right decisions at the point of care. HealthFortis’ unique, patent pending Clinical Knowledge Base Search Engine brings the most relevant clinical guidelines to the patient context so the guidelines can be followed by the ordering physicians. HealthFortis CDS has proven to increase physician’s order quality and at the same time reduce unnecessary resource utilization. For more information, visit http://www.healthfortis.com.

About National Decision Support Company
National Decision Support Company (NDSC) is the exclusive distributor of national standards clinical decision support (CDS) imaging guidelines. NDSC provides the technical platform, support, and licensing of digitally consumable CDS that continuously educates providers regarding the latest evidence-based approach to medicine without disrupting the doctor-patient relationship or delaying needed care. For more information, visit http://www.NationalDecisionSupport.com.

About ACR Select
ACR Select, provided by National Decision Support Company, is the complete web service version of American College of Radiology (ACR) Appropriateness Criteria® (AC). ACR AC is a comprehensive national standards clinical decision support database with more than 130 topics and 614 variant conditions that provide evidence-based guidance for the appropriate utilization of all medical imaging procedures. More than 300 volunteer physicians, representing more than 20 radiology and non-radiology specialty organizations, participate on the ACR AC expert panels, continuously updating these nationally transparent guidelines, and providing real-time access to the latest medical imaging procedure guidance. For more information, visit http://www.ACRselect.org.