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Xerox unit ACS has acquired clinical surveillance software specialist CredenceHealth to boost its ability to monitor health care data trends in real time.
Terms of the March 21 deal were not disclosed. The acquisition will integrate all CredenceHealth products, services and employees as part of ACS. The deal is expected to be completed by April 1.
Based in Nashville, Tenn., CredenceHealth offers SAAS (software as a service) applications that provide doctors with actionable information on cloud-based data, such as lab or radiology results, medications and vital signs.
ACS will merge its existing Midas software and CredenceHealth’s SAAS offerings to create Midas+Live, a cloud application that connects to a hospital’s EHR (electronic health records) database and alerts caregivers to changes in a patient’s condition, including temperature or blood pressure variations.
With Midas+Live, ACS draws on CredenceHealth’s clinical surveillance capabilities to lengthen doctors’ time with patients and lessen the time it takes to receive clinical information and make diagnoses, according to Tom Simas, managing director for ACS’ Midas+ solutions.
Doctors and clinicians can access the database via the Internet using a secure password-protected system.
Midas+Live features an intelligence engine that draws on evidence-based medical research from organizations such as the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and American College of Surgeons to allow doctors to track patient outcome trends.
A mapping engine allows users to compare data using a standard nomenclature, while an interface engine allows data feeds from HIE (health information exchange) and EHR vendors, such as pharmacies and labs, to be incorporated into Midas+ Live.
“From a client perspective, this is important because Midas+Live does the heavy lifting by simply taking copies of existing interface feeds to other vendors or by taking out-of-the-box interface feeds and requiring no customization to the interfaces by the hospital IT staff,” Simas wrote in an email to eWEEK. “This saves tons of effort by the hospital IT team and places the bulk of the effort on the Midas+Live expertise and team to create the standard mapping.”
The service allows doctors to identify complications such as stroke, urinary track infections and ulcers. (MidasPlus, maker of the Midas software, is a unit of ACS.)
Among the applications Midas+Live will integrate is Midas+ SmartConnect, which allows providers, payers, state agencies and physicians to communicate regarding a patient’s discharge from a hospital and eliminate duplicate data entry.
Midas+Care Management helps providers and payers keep track of steps such as authorization, certification, concurrent review, clinical documentation improvement and discharge planning. Meanwhile, Midas+DataVision features data analysis tools with more than 3,000 performance measures, allowing hospital administrators to benchmark performance against national thresholds.
With Midas+Live, ACS hopes to attract accountable care organizations as customers and also help health plans and hospitals monitor their progress toward satisfying government meaningful-use mandates on use of EHRs, Simas said.
Xerox announced its purchase of ACS in September 2009.
In October, ACS bought teleservices provider TMS Health to enhance its customer service for the pharmaceutical, biotech and health care industries by incorporating TMS’ video detailing services.