Healthcare Matters

Demand for new generation “middleware” is surging among cloud service providers and their customers, as the pain associated with traditional approaches to application integration (i.e. custom development, run time licensing, perpetual licensing, etc.) have given way to new, quickly deployed solutions that take full advantage of existing conventions and interoperability standards.

Bottom line: Solutions that can leverage GS1 and HL7 can cover a lot of ground.

Meddius is a market leading “integration as a service” (IaaS) provider.  Through what it calls its “Integration Router,” the company markets solutions that modernize legacy system data processing and facilitate their adaptation to Service Oriented Architectures (SOA environments).  Not hard to understand why its business is booming. The technology creates an enterprise class messaging communication backbone for real time data delivery and distribution. And it incorporates some pattern recognition capability for real time event notification and processing. Unlike neural nets, the technology can identify anomalies that are only “visible” when simultaneously processing multiple and disparate data streams. Triggers can be associated with specific events or emerging patterns (i.e. a sequence of events). Slick stuff.

Clearly, this is a critical and highly strategic piece of enabling technology for GHX and its customers. With the company hell bent on automating the implantables supply chain and releasing its solution to the market on time (early next year), this announcement answers a lot of questions. The deal not only helps mitigate risk, but it helps to ensure full featured implementations for all current and future GHX customers.

LOUISVILLE, Colo., June 13, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — GHX is one step closer to delivering its Implantable Device Supply Chain solution to the GHX Global Network of healthcare providers and suppliers. In an agreement announced today with Meddius (Charlottesville, Va.), GHX will utilize the Meddius Integration Platform to integrate and connect with hospital systems managing HL7 data, an industry framework for moving patient data.

The Meddius Integration Platform will simplify integration with clinical and financial systems in hospital environments to accelerate the sharing of mission-critical information among applications. The GHX Implantable Device Supply Chain solution will also use the Meddius Integration Router® to deliver common data, communication and routing functions, as well as SecureTransport®, a communication technology for secure connectivity and data transfer between GHX and its hospital partners, which has been designed to meet the requirements of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 Privacy and Security Rules.

“Our strategy to deliver an industry solution for implantable devices is build, buy and partner,” said Derek Smith, executive vice president, Marketing and Product Management at GHX. “It’s crucial that GHX deliver this market critical solution to help stem the tide on the $5 billion in losses our industry is currently experiencing. The Meddius relationship gets us to the goal line faster with a proven integration and HL7 solution in the same way our acquisition of Beep N Track added key components to our implantable device supply chain solution.”

GHX has core expertise in integrating with materials management information systems (MMIS) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) database systems with the company’s widely-used healthcare supply chain solution for the medical-surgical market. With its new implantable device supply chain solution, GHX will need to integrate patient demographic and operative data with its supply chain, including access to case scheduling which resides in the clinical and operating room systems. The Meddius solution provides integration into those systems with GHX tapping into Meddius’ core expertise in HL7 data communication.

“The GHX mission of reducing healthcare costs through better supply chain management aligns perfectly with the Meddius mission of reducing healthcare costs through innovative integration solutions,” said Jeff Gunther, chief executive officer at Meddius. “GHX has a bold vision for the implantable device supply chain. Our role is to empower that vision by providing a highly scalable, secure and seamless integration platform for the healthcare industry today.”

The GHX Implantable Device Supply Chain solution was announced in February 2012 with the company’s acquisition of Beep N Track’s traceability services for recording near real-time medical device and implant data from creation to point of use. GHX is in the first phase of pilots with supplier and provider members of the company’s Advisory Boards. The solution that includes Meddius integration will be deployed to those pilots during the third quarter of 2012. General availability is planned for early 2013.

—Tom Finn