Five questions and answers with Microsoft on the new Amalga:1. We know Microsoft Amalga is the new version of the product formerly known as Azyxxi, allowing hospital enterprises to unlock their data sitting in clinical, financial, and administrative silos. Can you explain in more detail how this has been accomplished at one of your early-adopter sites?
ANSWER: The Amalga family of Enterprise Health Systems announcement reflects the long term commitment that Microsoft is making to the health enterprise world.
Microsoft Amalga is now live at MedStar Health, a community-based network of eight hospitals and other healthcare services in the Baltimore-Washington, D.C. region. As part of the early adopter program, the final beta of the new version is in the hands of New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Johns Hopkins Health System, Novant Health, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, St. Joseph Health System and the Wisconsin Health Information Exchange. Below are examples of how Amalga is currently being used at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, the Wisconsin Health Information Exchange and Novant Health.
H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, Tampa, FL
Moffitt's Total Cancer Care (TCC) program goal is to develop clinical trials that provide evidence-based guidelines for individual cancer treatment and to enable personalized cancer care. To do this, they need to share information with a pharmaceutical company and 15 cancer research affiliates. Moffitt's TCC program deployed Amalga for researchers to use to easily access and explore the valuable information that's been aggregated from 12 different hospital systems. "Base views" into this data are then provided to the various researchers that they can then customize. Researchers can more easily perform flexible, "what if" queries combining demographic, lab, radiology, pharmaceutical, and other data in different ways sparks innovative lines of questioning that define results-oriented research.
Wisconsin Health Information Exchange (WHIE), Milwaukee, WI
Wisconsin Health Information Exchange (WHIE) is a non-profit provider of regional health information exchange services, encouraging the use of health information technology. Challenge: WHIE needed a secure solution to aggregate data from hospitals and other sources in the region and present it to clinicians in a rapid and dependable fashion that smoothly integrated with workflow. Solution: After evaluating several potential solutions, WHIE selected Amalga based on its robust data-aggregation capabilities, architectural flexibility, and speed of response to end-user queries. Benefits: Amalga will make it possible for WHIE's providers and emergency departments to aggregate data so that critical information is immediately accessible to support higher-quality medical decision making. An independent evaluation team is assessing how the system fulfills its potential to improve quality of care, decrease costs, reduce the time spent chasing down paper files, and decrease the frequency of medical errors.
Novant Health, Winston-Salem, NC
Novant Health clinicians wasted time pulling together lab, imaging, pharmaceutical, vital signs, and medical records databases to provide an accurate picture of each patient's health status. Novant Health chose Amalga to aggregate data from its clinical systems and to store it in one unified database with rapid access to information. Clinicians can make better informed, timely decisions to improve health outcomes, Better care coordination, Reduced IT and clinical costs and Adaptable UI for individual reporting needs.
2. What's the target market in terms of hospital size for Amalga HIS, which as we understand it is built around an electronic medical record (EMR) with patient and bed management, laboratory, pharmacy, radiology information system and picture archiving and communication system (RIS/PACS), pathology, financial accounting, materials management, and human resource systems?
ANSWER: Amalga HIS is a state-of-the-art, fully integrated, single solution hospital information system. This enterprise solution provides rich integration among its front and back-office modules, giving clinicians and administrators access to information within and across different departments. In addition, it includes a full-featured accounting system with general ledger, accounts receivable, accounts payable, and fixed asset maintenance systems, as well as purchasing and Inventory systems that handle Materials Management, Human Resources, and Payroll. These systems support paperless, integrated workflows to help improve data integrity,
transcription errors and duplication of data entry, and optimize patient and report turnaround.
Early targets for Amalga are hospitals, IDNs, Health Systems or health enterprises with disparate systems that have a desire to unlock data in a patient centric view to empower clinicians, enhance care delivery and boost productivity. In contrast, Amalga HIS early adopter customers are newer international hospitals or hospitals looking for a more modern and pre-integrated HIS system. Here is how it breaks down:
Target markets for Amalga include:
§ Large, complex Hospital System with multiple best-of-breed apps installed (i.e. Academic, IDN, >400 beds)
§ Pioneer, industry leader, technology leader, multi entity
§ Target markets: Mainly in mature markets (US, Western Europe, Australia)
Target markets for Amalga HIS include:
§ Hospital (150 to 1000 beds) looking for a new, fully integrated HIS system
§ Newer hospitals in emerging and developing geos with an increasing demand for healthcare services
§ Target markets: Identify Early Adopter Customers in Asia, Middle East and Europe. We will be evaluating Latin American opportunities in phase two.
3. Does Amalga extend through to consumers, regarding a PHR, or will this happen in some manner with Microsoft's HealthVault?
ANSWER: There is a lot of interest from both our Early Adopter customers and prospects for a Amalga, HealthVault integrated scenario. We are currently live at Medstar with one beta model. We are looking at ways to make the integration even easier and streamlined. Future versions of the Amalga family will offer HealthVault integration out of the box.
4. For those who implement Amalga, what are the components of their RoI, and what kind of upfront costs and ongoing annual costs are typical?
ANSWER: The Microsoft Amalga family of Enterprise Health Systems' pricing and licensing model is tied to the scope of the purchasing health organization and their complement of applications. Pricing will vary by each customer's unique requirements and based on their individual licensing agreement. Unlike anything currently on the market, Amalga is complementary to the technology already in the hospital's system, which negates the need for a provider to rip-and-replace systems that they've already invested in. This extends the value of Amalga within the hospital environment.
5. What will one be able to see at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) 2008 conference, Feb. 24-28, 2008 in Orlando, Fla, and what is the booth number?
ANSWER: Microsoft Health will have a significant presence at HIMSS and will include folks from the Health & Life Sciences, Health Solutions Group and Worldwide Public Sector teams. The Amalga family of products will be demonstrated publicly for the first time at HIMSS. In addition, the Microsoft booth (#2247) will include a number of partner demo stations.
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