Orion Health: Facilitating Care through Future Proof Technology
Ian McCrae, CEO & David Bennett, EVP, Product and Strategy Advancements in medical technologies have transformed the healthcare landscape by empowering better diagnosis and treatment—saving countless human lives, and improving overall quality of living. Be it facilitating data migration and integration from EHR systems, or analyzing the data to improve the health of a population — technology acts as an enabler across the entire continuum of care. At the center of this health IT ecosystem is Orion Health, a company that is revolutionizing the way healthcare is delivered.“Our software is designed to enable a new model for healthcare that is centered on the patient and aimed at delivering positive outcomes, irrespective of where the treatment occurs,” says Ian McCrae, CEO, Orion Health.With over two decades of experience in providing modern, innovative technology solutions globally, Orion Health delivers the full spectrum of healthcare IT solutions, from integration, to in-hospital, and out across the healthcare community. Now Orion Health is trail-blazing the road to Precision Medicine, an emerging model of healthcare that ensures an individual receives the “Current models of care delivery focus on applying treatments developed for the masses to all individuals. This “one size fits all” approach means that people don’t receive treatments that take into account their personal variables,” says David Bennett, EVP, Product and Strategy.
“We need to combine all the information about an individual – clinical, social, environmental and genomic – apply some smart technology, and understand the exact treatment or prevention strategy that would work for that person” says Bennett.
Big Data to Deliver Precision Medicine and Understand Healthcare Needs of Community
With the growing prevalence of healthcare technology and big data, today population health is more than just analyzing those who are most at risk. At its core, it is about ensuring that all members are empowered to achieve and maintain healthy lifestyle changes. Orion Health's solution suite for population health management, which combines its data and analytics platform with tools for care coordination and patient engagement, helps payer and provider organizations improve the health of their members and patients, control healthcare costs, and manage risk in the new fee-for-value era. Orion Health is in discussions with pharma manufacturers and medical device manufacturers that also want to aggregate meaningful and more accurate data to provide information they can use in product development. But now Orion Health is taking its offering a step further not only by supporting data integration and aggregation and Population Health Management, its traditional strengths, but also a solution for evolving Precision Medicine.
Precision Medicine is when an individual receives the perfect treatment for them. It is an emerging model of healthcare, that combines all information unique to an individual to identify prevention and treatment strategies which will be effective for them based on genetic, environmental and lifestyle factors. Precision Medicine is enabled when all forms of relevant information about an individual are combined, analysed, enriched and turned into valuable insights, then actioned through workflow tools to deliver personalised care plans for every individual.Where population health management is the “who”- defining which cohort of patients is high risk and needs particular attention and coordination to adhere to care plans, Precision Medicine is the “how”, enabling the determination of exact prevention and treatment plans.
Amadeus is built on modern, scalable technology that opens the way for clinicians to receive the contextual data they need to make the best healthcare decisions possible. Amadeus handles massive volumes of high velocity data, combining a comprehensive range of data models including clinical, consumer, and genomic, with powerful custom data modeling capability.
Amadeus provides streaming access to all this data via standard APIs to self-developed, third party or Orion Health provided applications.
Given its scalability, Amadeus serves the healthcare continuum. As an Enterprise Data Platform, it provides the platform to deliver population health management, but also enables and protects organizations for emerging models of care, and the ability to deliver Precision Medicine. Orion Health has a large customer base in North America, including Health Information Exchanges, ACOs, CINs and IDNs. While most of these customers are at an earlier stage in the population health management maturity model, focusing on aggregating patient and member data, the Orion Health platform is the key building block to take them into the future of Precision Medicine.
Customer Centric Solution Implementation for Enhanced User-experiences
One of the defining factors of Orion Health being able to deploy helpful solutions is their implementation model. “Our implementation approach depends on the complexity of the project,” says McCrae. “All of our implementations have detailed project plans and stage gates, each of which has a detailed set of deliverables.”
Orion Health advocates broader client engagements, not only at the technical project level, but at the governance and business level. “We want alignment on the business and clinical side, not just on technology side,” continues McCrae.
The company supports its customers and works with them to realize their clinical, financial, and operational expectations of Orion Health’s systems. Customers provide feedback on implementation milestones in the project plan, and Orion Health works with these responses to generate a constant loop of feedback on customer experiences.
A key differentiator of the Orion Health implementation model is that it is focused on business outcomes, driven by adoption and utilization, rather than delivering on the technology and hoping the customer makes the best of it. Orion Health goes as far as to engage with the business and its clinical stakeholders to ensure that the technology is being used correctly, and remain engaged with the customer until they see success. This is fundamental in creating Orion Health’s longstanding customer base.
Closing the Data Integration Barriers
The delivery of quality healthcare is dependent on the availabil¬ity and sharing of reliable healthcare information. The difficulty is that data is held in many different places and in a variety of healthcare IT systems.
Historically, much of this exchange has been performed using standards developed by HL7, which has been in use since 1987. More recently, Clinical Document Architecture (CDA) and derivatives such as Consolidated CDA (CCDA) have become widely used – especially in the U.S. How¬ever, these standards can be complex to implement effectively, and are outmoded. Addressing this issue is a new standard called HL7 FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) Standard. HL7 FHIR is flexible, has no vendor lock-in, supports mobile, and is capable of being incrementally adopted as it makes easier to exchange healthcare data between systems in a straight forward yet secure manner. Orion Health’s Rhapsody Integration Engine, the company’s foundation integration solution, helps healthcare organizations implement FHIR-based interfaces. “Our JSON and HTTP Rest support within Rhapsody routes enable FHIR-based interfaces,” says McCrae. “We were the first company to build a data integration engine based on new FHIR standard.”
Our software is designed to enable a new model for healthcare that is centered on the patient and aimed at delivering positive outcomes, irrespective of where the treatment occurs
Given its scalability, Amadeus serves the healthcare continuum. As an Enterprise Data Platform, it provides the platform to deliver population health management, but also enables and protects organizations for emerging models of care, and the ability to deliver Precision Medicine. Orion Health has a large customer base in North America, including Health Information Exchanges, ACOs, CINs and IDNs. While most of these customers are at an earlier stage in the population health management maturity model, focusing on aggregating patient and member data, the Orion Health platform is the key building block to take them into the future of Precision Medicine.
Customer Centric Solution Implementation for Enhanced User-experiences
One of the defining factors of Orion Health being able to deploy helpful solutions is their implementation model. “Our implementation approach depends on the complexity of the project,” says McCrae. “All of our implementations have detailed project plans and stage gates, each of which has a detailed set of deliverables.”
Orion Health advocates broader client engagements, not only at the technical project level, but at the governance and business level. “We want alignment on the business and clinical side, not just on technology side,” continues McCrae.
The company supports its customers and works with them to realize their clinical, financial, and operational expectations of Orion Health’s systems. Customers provide feedback on implementation milestones in the project plan, and Orion Health works with these responses to generate a constant loop of feedback on customer experiences.
A key differentiator of the Orion Health implementation model is that it is focused on business outcomes, driven by adoption and utilization, rather than delivering on the technology and hoping the customer makes the best of it. Orion Health goes as far as to engage with the business and its clinical stakeholders to ensure that the technology is being used correctly, and remain engaged with the customer until they see success. This is fundamental in creating Orion Health’s longstanding customer base.
Closing the Data Integration Barriers
The delivery of quality healthcare is dependent on the availabil¬ity and sharing of reliable healthcare information. The difficulty is that data is held in many different places and in a variety of healthcare IT systems.
Historically, much of this exchange has been performed using standards developed by HL7, which has been in use since 1987. More recently, Clinical Document Architecture (CDA) and derivatives such as Consolidated CDA (CCDA) have become widely used – especially in the U.S. How¬ever, these standards can be complex to implement effectively, and are outmoded. Addressing this issue is a new standard called HL7 FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) Standard. HL7 FHIR is flexible, has no vendor lock-in, supports mobile, and is capable of being incrementally adopted as it makes easier to exchange healthcare data between systems in a straight forward yet secure manner. Orion Health’s Rhapsody Integration Engine, the company’s foundation integration solution, helps healthcare organizations implement FHIR-based interfaces. “Our JSON and HTTP Rest support within Rhapsody routes enable FHIR-based interfaces,” says McCrae. “We were the first company to build a data integration engine based on new FHIR standard.”
Rhapsody Integration Engine is designed for rapid interoperability between healthcare IT systems, regardless of technology or standards. Its proven technology works between different systems and across organizations, providing seamless connectivity between legacy and next-generation health systems. Rhapsody provides fast, reliable connectivity and data sharing within and among hospitals, Health Information Exchanges and public health organizations. “In spite of the hype around the current offerings, we haven’t renounced the support for HL7 and CCDs. However, we acknowledge that FHIR creates an opportunity for faster and easier accessibility,” says McCrae.
“We believe that our software solutions, built on new generation technology, have the ability to give everyone healthier, happier and longer lives”
Helping Customers Realize Unforeseen Benefits
Salem Health’s migration to Rhapsody while transitioning to a new EMR system is a fantastic example of how a strong, client-centered business culture can drive results. Salem Health’s previous EMR, from one of the prominent tech players, proved challenging for the development of interfaces. They experienced limited customer support and needed a more advanced engine. With Rhapsody’s flexibility, Salem Health eased their workload and streamlined processes across all of their departments. With the engine’s short learning curve, they trained 11 staff members to manage 315 communication points and 2 million messages a day.
Another example of Orion Health’s ability to drive success for customers is with a large IDN in California. Before adopting an integrated data exchange, they had challenges with interoperability, isolated local providers, outdated information, no secure exchange, incomplete records, data and process silos, and multiple systems in and out of network. The IDN was then able to share patients’ lab, transcription, radiology, medications, allergy, and problem list data. They successfully managed 13.5 million unique patient encounters, 2.9 million Epic IDs, 1.9 million radiology results, and 32.2 million transcribed documents.
People First
Paramount to Orion Health’s operations, and ongoing success, is its people. The company prioritizes its employee brand and works to attract and retain the very best talent. The company recently conducted its annual employment engagement assessment and saw opportunities to expand initiatives to increase employee engagement and morale. For example, the N. America region recently kicked off a Mentor Program and HR has been conducting face to face training sessions in leadership. There are more plans on the horizon with a global impact. With this level of growth and a widespread impact, Orion Health is bound to advance not only the technology, but the infrastructure of healthcare and ensure that patients experience a level of service they’ve never seen before.“We believe that our software solutions, built on new generation technology, have the ability to give everyone healthier, happier and longer lives,” concludes McCrae.
“We believe that our software solutions, built on new generation technology, have the ability to give everyone healthier, happier and longer lives”
Helping Customers Realize Unforeseen Benefits
Salem Health’s migration to Rhapsody while transitioning to a new EMR system is a fantastic example of how a strong, client-centered business culture can drive results. Salem Health’s previous EMR, from one of the prominent tech players, proved challenging for the development of interfaces. They experienced limited customer support and needed a more advanced engine. With Rhapsody’s flexibility, Salem Health eased their workload and streamlined processes across all of their departments. With the engine’s short learning curve, they trained 11 staff members to manage 315 communication points and 2 million messages a day.
Another example of Orion Health’s ability to drive success for customers is with a large IDN in California. Before adopting an integrated data exchange, they had challenges with interoperability, isolated local providers, outdated information, no secure exchange, incomplete records, data and process silos, and multiple systems in and out of network. The IDN was then able to share patients’ lab, transcription, radiology, medications, allergy, and problem list data. They successfully managed 13.5 million unique patient encounters, 2.9 million Epic IDs, 1.9 million radiology results, and 32.2 million transcribed documents.
People First
Paramount to Orion Health’s operations, and ongoing success, is its people. The company prioritizes its employee brand and works to attract and retain the very best talent. The company recently conducted its annual employment engagement assessment and saw opportunities to expand initiatives to increase employee engagement and morale. For example, the N. America region recently kicked off a Mentor Program and HR has been conducting face to face training sessions in leadership. There are more plans on the horizon with a global impact. With this level of growth and a widespread impact, Orion Health is bound to advance not only the technology, but the infrastructure of healthcare and ensure that patients experience a level of service they’ve never seen before.“We believe that our software solutions, built on new generation technology, have the ability to give everyone healthier, happier and longer lives,” concludes McCrae.
Company
Orion Health
Headquarters
Auckland, New Zealand
Management
Ian McCrae, CEO & David Bennett, EVP, Product and Strategy
Description
Orion Health is a health specific software company that develops innovative population health management solutions for healthcare organizations across the globe.
