An HIT

MEDecision (Wayne, Pennsylvania), a provider of collaborative health care management solutions, reported that it has entered into a letter of intent to acquire HxTechnologies (HxTI; Philadelphia) for an undisclosed amount. HxTI is a health information exchange (HIE) company that specializes in enabling the seamless and secure flow of clinical data among healthcare stakeholders.

Closing of the transaction is expected in 2Q09, subject to negotiation of a definitive purchase agreement.

MEDecision said the purchase allows it to imbed HxTI's extensive set of HIE technologies into its Alino collaborative healthcare management platform and Nexalign advanced health information exchange service.

Doing so, it said, will augment Alineo's analytics capabilities, "enabling more precise patient identification, gaps in care recognition, and clinical summary and treatment plan development."

The company said the technology will further extend Nexalign's ability to assemble and deliver "actionable, real-time clinical information" – including diagnostic-quality medical images – and simplify its interoperability with other systems.

MEDecision said adding HxTI's capabilities to Alineo and Nexalign: "further extends [our] ability to generate and deliver real-time actionable information needed to provide meaningful and interoperable electronic health records [EHRs], which President Obama has challenged the industry to create for all Americans within five years."

It noted that the president included $19 billion for this purpose in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

"The president's endorsement of health IT has the market moving quickly, and the acquisition of HxTI keeps us in pace with that change," said MEDecision President/CEO Scott Storrer. "HxTI gives us additional resources and abilities to achieve our goal of becoming the industry standard in collaborative health care management by offering smarter content, expanded access and simplified collaboration. With HxTI, and some possible future transactions, we will continuously enhance our solutions to take advantage of the market's growing opportunities."

"MEDecision and HxTI are an exceptional fit in our combined ability to immediately offer providers, payers and patients the interoperable, meaningful and sustainable health information exchanges and solutions they are increasingly demanding," said Dr. Elliot Menschik, founder/president of HxTechnologies.

HxTI is one of the health IT industry's HIE pioneers. Its iHistory HIE platform offers an end-to-end solution for gathering scattered clinical data from and delivering a unified, patient-centric view to physicians and ancillary providers integrated with clinical workflow.

iHistory provides all of the components required for robust, scalable, multi-vendor HIEs, MEDecision said, adding that the platform supports federated, centralized and hybrid HIE network structures to be built in connection with state and federal initiatives.

With this transaction, MEDecision acquires HxTI's patent on the electronic management of patient authorizations to share health information and multiple other patents pending in the field of health information exchange, including its invention of the record locator service.

Adding HxTI's technology to its existing platform will produce a number of immediate benefits, MEDecision said. It will enable the company to bring to market a first-of-its-kind medical management module for radiology that includes electronic exchange of a patient's imaging among care providers, enhancing quality of care, while targeting the $6 billion spent annually on unnecessary repeat exams.

It also will bolster Nexalign's real-time information exchange capability to support the patient-centered medical home care delivery model and will bring real-time data from physicians and ancillary care providers to MEDecision's analytics process for the formulation of advanced electronic health records.

In other dealmaking news, McKesson (Alpharetta, Georgia) reported that it is building on the strength of its enterprise Horizon Clinicals solution with the acquisition of LMS Medical Systems' (Montreal, Quebec) intellectual property for obstetrics (OB) surveillance and archival capabilities.

Currently marketed by McKesson as Horizon Perinatal Care, the solution integrates the fetal strip with the mother's electronic health record to enhance patient safety, reduce duplicate charting and leverage information across the enterprise. Horizon Perinatal Care is the first and only OB/perinatal information solution designed to support continuity of care between labor and delivery and other areas in the hospital.

LMS Medical Systems is committed to ensuring a smooth transition of all knowledge regarding the solution to McKesson for development, support and implementations. Customers that have purchased, are implementing or are live on Horizon Perinatal Care will experience full continuity of service and support. They also can confidently use the solution as part of an integrated environment that enables more collaborative and safer care for obstetric patients.