Cerner deal with UK’s Wirral targets population health

This week’s roundup of new HIT contracts and deployments include an overseas deal for Cerner and a suite of software for a health information exchange in Tennessee:

• Wirral Partners, a primary and acute care delivery system in the United Kingdom and existing client of Cerner, now will deploy the vendor’s HealththeIntent population health management software. The technology will support establishing new models of care for disease management and prevention. Wirral also will implement a patient engagement initiative to raise awareness among the 330,000 residents in its service area. “With an unacceptable difference in life expectancy of up to 10 years for females and 12.4 years for males, depending on where a person lives in Wirral, this challenge has never been more real and it is recognized that the current model of care delivery is clinically and financially unsustainable,” Jon Develing, executive lead for the program, said in a statement.

Morris Heights Health Center, with eight locations serving the Bronx in New York City, has gone live on the electronic health records and population health management software of eClinicalWorks, which nearly 200 providers will use. Patients will be able to access their personal health records via a portal or smartphone app. The organization expects the suite of software will help improve care coordination.

East Tennessee Health Information Network, which serves Knoxville and 20 counties in the area, will implement a next-generation data management platform from IMAT Solutions. The deal includes an enterprise master patient index, consolidated patient chart, clinical reports and analytics to support quality improvements and reporting to providers. The new platform, says Leigh Sterling, executive director, is more scalable, gives access to more configuration options and customization tools, and has stronger analytics/reporting capabilities including support of unstructured data in physician notes and transcriptions. Implementation is expected by June.

Meditech client Thomas Health System in Charleston, WV, will move to the vendor’s 6.1 EHR at the two-hospital delivery system, which has a total of 403 beds. Both hospitals will use a single vendor-hosted EHR platform. Parallon Technology Solutions is a partner in the deal and will provide implementation and hosting services.