AcuMedSoft Selected to Participate in Bull City Stampede

We are very excited to announce our participation in the first annual Bull City Stampede. We are 1 of 11 selected participants out of 78 entrants. We want to thank the program leaders at the Durham Chamber of Commerce for all their hard work and preparation... it is shaping up to be a great 60 days. Check out the other participants below:

• Appuware – providing cloud-based tools and services for mobile publishers.
• Blink Coupons – Customer loyalty cards for small businesses.
• Bound Custom Journals – customizable journals for travel, sketching, writing etc.
• Clinical Ambassador – a cultural attaché connecting science and minority communities to advanced medical discovery.
• Finger Puppet Games Inc. – develops 3D games; built for mobile devices and monetized through microtransactions.
• Fitsistant – a service of on-call physical training coaches and scheduling assistants combined with personal fitness software.
• Haiti Hub – providing Haitian Creole e-language learning services to English speakers invested in Haiti’s future.
• LearnVC – VCHub.com (operated by LearnVC) simplifies raising capital by modeling investment scenarios to educate entrepreneurs and collaborate with potential investors.
• Little Green Software – develops apps for smartphones, tablets, game systems and online.
• Rippple – an online platform helping communities to support entrepreneurs.

Press:


Durham Herald Sun

Triangle Business Journal

Planning To Win: Success With Health IT

Study : The Benefits Of Health Information Technology

A recently released report, co-authored by the National Coordinator for Health IT, found that 92% of recent health IT articles showed improvements in healthcare through the implementation of IT. The specific improvements are noted in the chart below. It is important to note that the study only analyzed the effects of health IT on certain aspects of patient care. Further research is needed to address the possible benefits of health IT on information security and data analysis in determining health trends.

Source: Health Affairs

The overarching theme of successful implementation of any health technology is to have a plan that includes all stakeholders, including the patients. A complete plan includes consideration for IT leadership, budget, implementation, training and a road map that includes milestones for a smooth transition. Most of all, a plan requires full support from all who are involved. As the study states, the "Human Element" is the most important factor.

Online Meaningful Use Resources

Information about the EHR Incentive Program is widely available on the internet. The websites below contain highly valuable health IT resources, news, opinion and regulatory information.

• The Center for Medicare and Medicaid - EHR Incentive Program
• Main site and primary resource available to learn about the programs.  A very useful feature of the website is the Frequently Asked Questions database.

• ONC Health IT - Meaningful Use Resources
• Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT. Links to studies and press releases, all current and relevant, about meaningful use and EHR topics.  Valuable sections include : Talking to Your Patients about EHRs and the Benefits of EHRs.

• HIMSS Meaningful Use
• Links to hundreds of documents, tools and other websites all discussing the EHR incentive program and meaningful use. A complete visit to the site will answer all your questions about meaningful use criteria, how to receive the incentive money and the best practices for implementing processes and achieving meaningful use in your office. We particularly like the Emerging Technologies section, which has articles about future trends in health IT.

• Life as a Healthcare CIO
• A popular blog written by hospital CIO John Halamka, MD. With approximately 240-250 posts per year, this blog is a must read. The topics are mostly pertinent to healthcare and HIT, but often include macro themes about health IT infrastructure and government policy. Additionally, he writes about insights from his personal life and includes a weekly post of his favorite new technology.

• Kevin MD
• Physician Kevin Pho runs this popular blog with the tagline "Social Media's Leading Physician Voice". It is updated multiple times a day and features articles and commentary written by a wide range of healthcare experts. Sometimes the debate raging in the comments of the article is another great source of information. Less Health IT, but still a great read.

• Twitter
•  The vibrant social media network is the place to search for popular topics in healthcare and health IT. Simply search any keyword and instantly find relevant recent tweets from people in the industry. Popular healthcare keywords include "Health IT,  EHR, EMR, HIE,  Meaningful Use, HIT, CCHIT, HIMSS, ONC"
• Don't forget to follow us @AcuMedSoft

Lower IT Costs with Cloud Hosting

Medical providers are currently evaluating their office IT systems to determine if they can benefit from moving their data, web and e-mail servers into the cloud. Whether current systems are outdated or due to the EHR incentive program, providers of all sizes are looking for next generation, low cost technology solutions that will help simplify IT management. 

Previous infrastructure upgrades have populated medical offices with in-house servers requiring a large upfront capital investment, maintenance and replacement contracts. These servers are resource heavy, meaning that they cost money to maintain. Additionally, in-house servers require physical and virtual security safeguards to protect patient's personal health information. Finally, the space required to house these servers often could be used as an extra exam room or a staff break room. The in-house server was an affordable model to many providers at the time of their previous tech upgrade however the costs associated with cloud hosted servers have fallen and it is a logical and secure alternative for those interested in breaking away from in-house IT.

The affordability, security, and accessibility of remote hosting is a reality that all medical providers can benefit from. The major difference between the hosted and in-house model is that with a hosted solution you no longer  have the physical server in your office. The servers are located in a data center and all applicable information is encrypted and transmitted through the internet to your office computers.

All server maintenance and upgrades occur over the internet or physically at the data center and can be handled by your vendor. Most hosted server vendors offer a backup and archiving service for your data at low cost. Instead of using your office storage to archive paper records, digitally convert them and place on the hosted server for quick access and search.

The hosted server model is also scalable with your practice, providing growth opportunities without the need for upfront capital investment. The hosted server offers many benefits compared to the in-house server, but much of the total value is derived from relieving your practice of the IT maintenance and costs.

AcuMedSoft is serious when it comes to ensuring the safety and security of your patients personal health information.. We utilize a SAS-70 type II data center and our hosted servers are designed for HIPAA compliance. For more about the security of our data center and the most complete hosting package available, please check out our HIPAA Hosting Solution.