Allscripts to show new Microsoft Azure-powered EHR at HIMSS18

Allscripts partnered with Microsoft last year to design a new cloud-based EHR and it will be showing the results at HIMSS18.

"Built from the ground up natively within the Microsoft Azure cloud, it functions like an app, not a traditional EHR, and gets technology out of the way of patient care,” Allscripts CEO Paul Black said. “This is a bold imaginative new EHR, not simply a series of incremental advances on existing software."

By focusing on a user-centered design the new cloud-based EHR addresses usability and efficiency issues, Black said, and in turn, improves consumer experience because by making it more realistic for patients and care teams to interact.

"Healthcare is a constantly evolving industry and our recent acquisitions position us to deliver solutions our clients need to succeed," Black added. "Through our McKesson acquisition, we expanded Allscripts client base in U.S. hospitals and health systems and along with our solution portfolio, by providing more clients with hosting capabilities, enhancing revenue cycle management and optimizing care delivery.”

Black explained that the Practice Fusion technology rounds out its ambulatory clinical portfolio and “last mile” reach to small and rural practices treating underserved patient populations.

“The focus in EHR development was on meeting regulatory requirements, which meant users had to adapt to less-than-optimal solutions," for so many years, said Black.

That’s changing at Allscripts and rival EHR vendors, many of which are turning to their focus to innovating on top of the EHR as a platform.

"Allscripts consistently employs user-centered design principles to create solutions that make systems more intuitive, overcome workflow challenges and make EHRs smarter to give users the right information at the right time – that will continue in 2018, because we want to make life easier for clinicians," Black said.

At HIMSS18, "we look forward to sharing key findings and introducing client-facing tools," he said. Among the recent client success stories, Allscripts plans to highlight at the show is the progress made by Tennessee-based Holston Medical Group.

"HMG helped form a physician-led ACO, Qualuable Medical Professionals, and a healthcare transformation company, OnePartner, which includes a private health information exchange," said Black. "Its innovations include the Extensivist Clinic, offering acute intervention in an ambulatory setting, and piloting data-driven projects, such as increasing pneumococcal vaccination rates."

Meanwhile, Allscripts' longtime client, New York-based Northwell Health has continued to innovate its care processes by developing "an elegant Clinical Snapshot dashboard that enables clinicians to use an abundance of quality data," he said. "Using open APIs, Northwell Health designed a solution that enables clinicians to see patient event notifications within their EHR workflow, which enables better care coordination."

Black noted that the comparison between HMG (an outpatient provider based in smallish Kingsport, Tennessee) and Northwell Health (with 21 hospitals and 450 ambulatory sites, it's New York State's largest employer and cares for 8 million patients) is illustrative of Allscripts' reach.

Allscripts is in Booth 2054.