Apr 29

Written by: Audacious Inquiry Team
4/29/2007 7:00 AM

Columbia, Md. (April 29, 2007) – Out of 61 responses received, a proposal to replicate Audacious Inquiry’s successful integration of patient records systems at Erickson Communities’ Charlestown campus and St. Agnes Hospital placed fifth in Virginia Governor Timothy Kaine’s search for bold new ideas in healthcare information exchange. The results were announced in a report released by Gov. Kaine’s Healthcare IT Advisory Council on April 17th.

“We are thrilled at the recognition our efforts to link patient data at Charlestown and St. Agnes have received, and we hope to eventually replicate the successful exchange of healthcare information in Virginia and elsewhere in Maryland,” said Christopher Brandt, Managing Partner of Audacious Inquiry. “We believe that healthcare organizations across the country will increasingly turn to this model in order to deliver critical information to the point of care; RHINs are on the cutting edge of healthcare informatics.”

Audacious Inquiry and its partner HealthUnity propose to leverage the success at Charlestown and St. Agnes to build a health information network linking hospitals and long-term care facilities in the state of Virginia.

In the summer of 2006, Gov. Kaine created the Healthcare IT Advisory Council tasked with recommending investments to encourage the transition to electronic medical records. The top three proposals split $500,000 in funding from the state, with other project expected to be selected for funding later in the year. The council will likely ask applicants from the first round to update their proposals and not accept any new ones.

“Health information technology has the potential to significantly improve quality of care in Virginia, holding-down patient costs, protecting confidentiality, and reducing medical errors,” Kaine said in a statement announcing the council’s first round of grants. “Yet we know up-front costs to transition to electronic health records can sometimes appear daunting, so we are excited that a relatively modest investment from the Commonwealth can help advance this important technology.”

About Audacious Inquiry, LLC:
Audacious Inquiry is an innovative management and technology consulting firm dedicated to helping client organizations leverage visionary processes, alliances, and information systems to improve efficiency and create sustainable competitive advantages. AI offers a wide range of consulting services, including:

• Measuring and optimizing operational performance;
  
• Managing strategic change initiatives through quantifiable goals and objectives;
  
• Developing of “out of the box” spin-out projects to explore alternate revenue streams or diversify the business; and
• Evaluating the return on investment for project portfolios, and ensuring the alignment of capital investments with strategic goals.
  

About HealthUnity:
HealthUnity offers end-to-end products and services for clinical collaboration and communication among healthcare entities. HealthUnity provides the products, professional and support services, and the governance framework for building various types of Health Information Exchanges and Networks including Regional Health Information Networks (RegHIN™), Provider Health Information Networks (ProHIN™), Enterprise Health Information Networks (EntHIN™), Radiology Health Information Networks (RadHIN™) and Laboratory Health Information Networks (LabHIN™). Its technology is based on the latest innovations in distributed and web services architectures. HealthUnity is headquartered in Bellevue, Wash. and also has an office in Bangalore, India.

For more information, contact:
David Finney, Director of Communications
(301) 560-6999
davidf@audaciousinquiry.com

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