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Microsoft and Microsoft Health Users Group Announce Winners of Microsoft HUG 2009 Innovation Awards

Posted on: Monday, 6 April 2009, 14:00 CDT

Awards recognize customers and partners improving the quality of patient care using Microsoft technology.

CHICAGO, April 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Microsoft Health Users Group (Microsoft HUG) and Microsoft Corp. today announced the winners of the 12th annual Microsoft HUG 2009 Innovation Awards. For more than a decade, the honors have been awarded to healthcare organizations, software vendors and systems integrators that have demonstrated significant advancements, innovation and success using Microsoft technology in the healthcare industry -- ultimately helping to improve health around the world.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20000822/MSFTLOGO)

With more than 5,000 members and more than 25 corporate supporters, Microsoft HUG is the leading health industry forum for exchanging ideas and sharing Microsoft-based technology solutions. Each year, Microsoft HUG and Microsoft collaborate to produce the Microsoft HUG Innovation Awards, which recognize healthcare organizations and individuals who exhibit the best use of Microsoft products, as well as independent software vendors and systems integrators that develop solutions on Microsoft technology for the healthcare industry.

Award contestants are judged by a panel of industry experts and luminaries and evaluated on the extent to which they provide significant business benefits to healthcare organizations and improve patient care. This year's winners and finalists were recognized at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) 2009 Annual Conference & Exhibition in Chicago on April 6 in the Microsoft booth. The following are the 2009 winners for the Microsoft HUG Innovation Awards:

Winner for Best Use of Clinical Records -- Inpatient

• Heritage Valley Health System with Healthcare Software Collaborative LLC developed Mobile Clinical Access Portal (M-CAP). M-CAP is a completely mobile clinical portal providing seamless collaboration with clinical desktop applications and real-time, anywhere access to more than three years' worth of cross-continuum clinical information.

Winner for Best Use of Clinical Records -- Ambulatory

• Elmhurst Memorial Healthcare with NextGen Healthcare Information Systems Inc. implemented NextGen EHR. NextGen EHR allows providers to securely access comprehensive and up-to-date charts from any location, ensuring that current patient data is available to enable informed decision-making and additional time to see more patients each day.

Winner for Best Use of Information Exchange (HIE) and Interoperability

• Northeast Physician Hospital Organization (NEPHO) with MedVentive Inc. developed MedVentive Quality Intervention Module (QIM), a collaborative care platform that resulted in quality above the 90th percentile nationally across diabetic care, adult and pediatric preventive care, women's health, and cardiovascular disease, while being efficient with utilization and cost of care.

Winner for Best Use of Microsoft HealthVault Applications

• American Heart Association Inc. with Get Real Consulting launched Heart360, an online health management tool that sets personal goals for blood pressure, cholesterol and weight, and tracks other heart disease risk factors. All this data is then stored online in the patient's HealthVault account.

"With the recent discussions in Washington, leveraging health IT to improve patient outcomes, control costs and enable informed decision-making has never been more important," said Chris Sullivan, industry solutions director, Microsoft U.S. Health and Life Sciences Group. "The Microsoft HUG 2009 Innovation Awards winners represent true health IT leadership and serve as an example to all healthcare providers seeking guidance on how to best take advantage of their IT investments in a difficult economic time. Microsoft will continue to work with the organizations honored today, as well as with people throughout the world to discover new and innovative ways that technology can address key challenges facing consumers and providers."

Special thanks to the 2009 Microsoft HUG judges: Josh Fisher, founder and managing partner, PresPoint Capital LLC; Ahmad Hashem, M.D., Ph.D., chairman and CEO, Rawasi Investing Group LLC; Matthew Holt, founder and author, The Health Care Blog; Scott Lundstrom, research vice president, Health Industry Insights, an IDC company; Charlene Marietti, director, corporate editorial initiatives, Vendome Group LLC; Robert Mitchell, managing editor, ADVANCE for Health Information Executives magazine; Doris Nessim, B.Sc.Phm., R.Ph., M.A., healthcare informatics consultant and director of pharmacy services, New York General Hospital; Charles Potter, CPHMIS, president, Seapotter Corp.; Benjamin Rooks, director, William Blair & Company LLC; Jay Srini, chief innovation officer, UPMC Health Plan Inc.; Andrew Ury, M.D., chief medical officer, McKesson Provider Technologies; and Ferdinand Velasco, M.D., chief medical information officer, Texas Health Resources Inc.

About Microsoft HUG

Microsoft Health Users Group is a membership community within the HIMSS Users Group Alliance Program, providing technology leadership and knowledge for improving healthcare delivery and efficiency. The alliance provides HIMSS with targeted industry expertise to help broaden its professional and industry contributions, and provides Microsoft HUG members with the opportunity to reach new markets with educational and professional development programs.

Microsoft HUG is the leading healthcare industry forum for exchanging ideas, promoting learning and sharing solutions for information systems using Microsoft technologies. Microsoft HUG works to provide industry leadership, drive appropriate standards and develop associated requirements in support of healthcare solutions. The diverse membership of Microsoft HUG is united by a shared interest in implementing vendor- and user-developed software based on Microsoft technology to improve quality and efficiency in healthcare. More information can be found on Microsoft HUG's Web site at http://www.mshug.org.

About Microsoft in Health

Microsoft is committed to improving health around the world through software innovation. Over the past 12 years, Microsoft has steadily increased its investments in health, with a focus on addressing the challenges of health providers, health and social services organizations, payers, consumers and life sciences companies worldwide. Microsoft closely collaborates with a broad ecosystem of partners and develops its own powerful health solutions, such as Amalga and HealthVault. Together, Microsoft and its industry partners are working to advance a vision of unifying health information and making it more readily available, ensuring the best quality of life and affordable care for everyone.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

SOURCE Microsoft Corp.

Source: PR Newswire

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