A Medical Device Daily

Orion Health (Santa Monica, California), a provider of clinical workflow and integration technology, reported that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Animal Plant Health Inspection Services, Veterinary Services has selected Orion Health's Rhapsody Integration Engine to assist its National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN) in integrating test results and track animal diseases.

The Rhapsody Integration Engine from Orion will be used to extract approved information from state animal health laboratories information systems, reformat the data into identified NAHLN standardized data and report information back to Veterinary Services.

To monitor livestock for the prevention of deadly and economically damaging diseases, the USDA began establishing the NAHLN in 2002. Approved laboratories contribute test results to the national system, enabling the tracking of animal disease and providing laboratory data which alerts the national system to animal disease outbreaks and other adverse animal health situations, including bio-terrorism events.

Laboratories regularly test for prion or “mad cow” diseases, exotic Newcastle disease and avian influenza among other diseases.

“Rhapsody will help us overcome the challenges inherent in managing huge volumes of data in multiple formats and could mean a faster response if an outbreak occurs,” said Paul Viskovich, president of North American Operations for Orion. “Rhapsody will help integrate data from independent labs, increasing the USDA's monitoring ability and enhancing U.S. bio-security.”

In other agreements news:

• Patient Care Technology Systems (PCTS; Mission Viejo, California), a provider of tracking and charting software, reported an alliance with Radianse (Lawrence, Massachusetts), which focuses on healthcare indoor positioning solutions (IPS), to jointly market their hospital workflow technologies.

PCTS' Amelior automatic patient and asset tracking software will be integrated with Radianse's real-time RFID-based indoor positioning solutions. The companies also will coordinate sales and marketing efforts to provide an integrated workflow solution to hospitals.

“Managing workflow in a busy emergency department or perioperative suite starts with the ability to identify, locate and track the movement of patients and equipment,” said Tony Marsico, CEO of PCTS. “It is then necessary to communicate this information in real-time to all caregivers and to be able to present the location information in the context of patient care milestones without requiring manual interventions by the staff. Our partnership with Radianse gives hospitals the power to combine accurate, real-time, granular location information and automatic patient flow intelligence in order to more effectively orchestrate scarce resources to improve patient flow.”

Radianse IPS systems are designed to enable identification of where and when equipment, staff and patients flow through care processes. This time-stamped location data enables identification of bottlenecks and adapt workflow for more efficient use of resources, greater satisfaction for staff and patients and improved care and safety.

A Radianse IPS consists of ID-tags, receivers and software, providing a pervasive yet non-disruptive infrastructure for identifying the time and place where people and assets are located.

PCTS' Amelior automatic tracking software is designed to provide real-time patient flow intelligence. Identification and location messages are sent to the software by tracking tags placed with people and assets. The software uses rules-based intelligence to measure interactions between staff, patients and mobile medical equipment to identify patient care milestones. This information helps caregivers to anticipate resource needs and to streamline patient flow. Movement and interactions are time-stamped to provide detailed data for further analysis of department utilization.

• Health Market Science (HMS; King of Prussia, Pennsylvania), a manufacturer of healthcare provider data in the U.S., reported that it has integrated the SureScripts provider identifier into its master provider database.

Once a physician is activated on the SureScripts Electronic Prescribing Network, HMS will receive the prescriber's identifier for electronic prescribing and integrate it into its physician database. This allows for easier and faster updates to physician files at a pharmacy.

SureScripts reports having more than 90% of U.S. pharmacies certified for e-prescribing.