Independent Expert Physician Advisory Board Formed to Advance Ingenix Efforts to Modernize the Health Care Delivery System

Joe Heyman, M.D., practicing physician, former chair of the AMA Board of Trustees and former president of Mass. Medical Society to lead committee

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. (October 26, 2010) –

Today Ingenix CEO Andy Slavitt announced the formation of an independent physician advisory board to guide the company’s efforts to support clinicians in modernizing health care delivery through advanced information and technology.

The Ingenix Physician Advisory Board, a multidisciplinary group of experts, will work with the company’s innovation teams to address the quality and cost challenges confronting today’s health care delivery system. In addition, the Board will provide input that enhances the capabilities of current Ingenix products and processes to help clinicians improve quality and outcomes. Further, the Board will facilitate ongoing dialogue between physicians and the company to ensure that Ingenix products operate effectively in clinicians’ workflow.

Joseph M. Heyman, M.D., a practicing physician with extensive expertise in applying health information technology to clinical practice will chair the Board. Dr. Heyman has unique perspective and sensitivity to the needs of clinicians from his years as a practicing physician and from his service as former chair of the American Medical Association (AMA) Board of Trustees and former President of the Massachusetts Medical Society, publishers of The New England Journal of Medicine.

Founding Board members include Willarda V. Edwards, M.D., Salvatore Volpe, M.D., C. Martin Harris, M.D., Gregory Reicks, D.O., Alice Loveys, M.D., Andrew Nordine, M.D. and Stuart Cohen, M.D. Their diverse experiences with technology, health information and analytics will guide Ingenix’s rapidly advancing and increasingly sophisticated capabilities. Ingenix expects to name additional practicing physicians from across medical specialties to the Board over the next year.

“Our intention at Ingenix is to partner with physicians and design solutions that meet their real-world needs,” said Slavitt. “We are inspired by the willingness of these strongly independent physician leaders to offer their time and expertise to help Ingenix tackle some of the most complex challenges facing the health care delivery system. Gaining counsel from these highly accomplished, respected and innovative physicians is key to our ability to support physicians’ professional goals and improve the patient-physician experience.”

“As a practicing physician for more than 30 years and a leader of both the national organization of physicians and a state medical society, I have developed a keen understanding of the health information, technology and workflow needs of today’s clinicians,” said Dr. Heyman. “I am encouraged that Ingenix feels so strongly about involving the voice of the profession more intimately in its work. I am excited by this opportunity to help Ingenix better focus its extraordinary resources in support of modernizing the delivery system, and to assist my physician colleagues. Input from the Board will help Ingenix develop solutions to challenges that physicians face, in a manner that takes into account their dedication to patients, their clinical and financial concerns and their workflow.”

Formation of the Physician Advisory Board occurs at a key point in the evolution of the development and deployment of health information technologies, data and analytics that can help meaningfully improve care delivery; expand use of electronic health records (EHRs); enable transparent performance assessment and improvement; and protect the privacy of patient information. The Physician Advisory Board will advise Ingenix on a number of areas including analytic and consultative processes, administrative services and privacy and security. In addition, the Board will serve as a resource to physicians and communities seeking to advance their use of health IT and analytics solutions.

Ingenix currently offers a number of leading solutions designed to improve connectivity, simplicity and patient care, including its Axolotl Elysium health information exchange platform, CareTracker cloud computing EHR, Picis Pulse Check Emergency Room platform and Meaningful Use consulting services through Ingenix Consulting.

Ingenix was created in 1996 to help physicians, hospitals, employers, health plans and other stakeholders solve challenges confronting their organizations; increase access to affordable, high-quality care; improve efficiency in the delivery of health care services; and facilitate fast, easy access to information that supports decision-making across the health care system. Today, Ingenix has more than 12,000 employees, including more than 1,000 clinical professionals, and the company provides a wide range of proven health IT solutions and services to more than 240,000 physicians and nearly 6,000 hospitals in the United States.

Joseph M. Heyman, M.D.
Dr. Heyman is a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist and a fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. He serves on the board of commissioners of the Joint Commission, the board of directors of the Joint Commission Resources and the steering committee of the Markle Foundation’s Connecting for Health collaborative. Dr. Heyman is also a member of the certification/adoption and the implementation workgroups of the national Health IT Policy Committee, which makes recommendations to the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. He served as chair of the AMA Board of Trustees (2008-2009) and secretary (2005-2006) and was chair of the finance committee. He also served as president, vice president and trustee of the Massachusetts Medical Society, and speaker of its House of Delegates. He has also served on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Practicing Physicians Advisory Council.

Willarda V. Edwards, M.D., M.B.A.
Dr. Edwards is the managing partner and internist in partnership in Baltimore and has been in private practice since 1984. She has held national offices in both the AMA and the National Medical Association (NMA). She is immediate past-president of the NMA, is a delegate to the AMA from Maryland and is past chair of the AMA Women Physicians Congress. Dr. Edwards has served more than 18 years on the NMA Board of Trustees in numerous capacities including chairman and treasurer. As NMA president, she served as spokesperson for NMA’s health policy during the health care reform debate. She has served on several governor-appointed commissions and task forces, including the Maryland High Blood Pressure Commission, the Maryland Hospital Rate-Setting Commission and the Health Services Cost Review Commission, where she was a commissioner for eight years.

Salvatore Volpe, M.D., F.A.A.P., F.A.C.P., C.H.C.Q.M.
With over 19 years of primary-care practice experience, Dr. Salvatore Volpe is one of the few physicians in the country to have successfully become board certified in Pediatrics, Internal Medicine, Geriatrics and Quality Assurance. As president of the Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) New York State Chapter, Dr. Volpe is working to bring the various member constituencies together to for the optimal use of health IT and management systems for the betterment of healthcare. Dr. Volpe lectures throughout New York for the Medical Society of the State of New York as Chair of the Health IT Task Force. He also is a member of the AMA Health IT Advisory Group.

C. Martin Harris, M.D., M.B.A.
Dr. Harris is a staff member in the Department of General Internal Medicine at The Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, where he also is the chief information officer and chairman of the Information Technology Division. Board-certified in internal medicine, Dr. Harris’ clinical interests include evaluating and managing the critically ill patient during the pre-operative period. Dr. Harris frequently presents at national meetings on health care and technology. He is on the advisory board of the Association of American Medical Colleges’ Better Health 2010 committee and is a judge for the case studies in medicine for The Computerworld Smithsonian Honors Program. He also is a member of the American Medical Informatics Association and the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society.

Gregory C. Reicks, D.O., F.A.A.F.P.
An osteopathic physician, Gregory Reicks is president of the Board of Directors for the Quality Health Network regional health information exchange based in Grand Junction, Colorado, and president of the Mesa County Physicians Independent Practice Association, a 218-physician multi-specialty independent practice association. The Dartmouth Atlas Project has cited Mesa County for having some of the lowest-cost, highest-quality care per Medicare member in the nation. Dr. Reicks’ leadership in these associations, combined with more than 20 years as a practicing physician have provided him with extensive insight to the information needs of physicians across their practice.

Alice Loveys, M.D., F.A.A.P., F.H.I.M.S.S.
Dr. Loveys is Board Certified by the American Board of Pediatrics (AAP) and has been practicing pediatrics since 1994. Her area of special interest includes medical informatics. She serves as chief medical information officer for the Monroe County Medical Society in New York, an extension agent for the NYeC Regional Extension Center. She is also on the board of directors of the Rochester Community Individual Practice Association and the advisory committee of the AAP’s Child Health Informatics Center. She has served as membership chair of the HIMSS Davies Ambulatory Committee and as vice chair of the Rochester Regional Health Information Organization’s board of directors. Her practice won the 2004 HIMSS Davies Ambulatory Award for excellence in implementation.

Andrew Nordine, M.D., M.S., F.A.A.P.
Dr. Nordine is a licensed physician with American Board of Pediatrics certifications in both pediatrics and neonatal-perinatal medicine. He is a practicing neonatologist at Cedar Rapids Saint Luke’s (CRSL) Methodist Hospital in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and the director of Quality Improvement in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Dr. Nordine chairs the CRSL Department of Pediatrics as well as the NICU Evidence-based Practice Committee. He is a member of several information technology committees working at the hospital and Iowa Health System levels. Dr. Nordine is member of HIMSS, the American Academy for the Advancement of Science, and the American Medical Informatics Association.

Stuart Cohen, M.D., M.P.H., F.A.A.P.
Dr. Cohen is senior shareholder and board member of Children’s Primary Care Medical Group, Inc., in San Diego. He currently serves as vice chair of the AAP, District 9 (California) and has been an AAP delegate to the AMA since 1996. Dr. Cohen is an appointed member of the AMA Group Practice Advisory Bard and was a member of the long-serving AMA Ad-Hoc Task Force on E/M CPT Coding. He chairs the AAP California District delegation to the California Medical Association and is a member of its Task Force on Primary Care. Dr. Cohen is past president of the San Diego county Medical Society and is current president of the San Diego County Medical Society Foundation.

Source: Ingenix