Health IT Winners Are Familiar Names

SALT LAKE CITY—The nonprofit Medical Records Institute announced the winners of its sixth annual awards in several health IT categories at its annual TEPR (Toward an Electronic Patient Record) Conference Monday night.

eClinicalWorks captured honors in three categories in which it had not been represented in 2004: first honors in e-prescribing and EHR (electronic health record) systems for small physician practices, and second honors for EHR systems for medium to large practices.

Other e-prescription honors went to Rcopia, a system by DrFirst Inc., and Allscripts Healthcare Solutions’ TouchWorks Rx, both of which received honors last year as well.

Misys EMR took third honors for small physician practices. The remaining honors for ambulatory systems went to names familiar from the previous year. Physician Micro Systems Inc. won first honors for medium to large practices and second honors for small physician practices. Allscripts Healthcare Solutions received third honors.

Though all these companies are well-recognized names in the health IT space, Richard Peters of the American Academy of Family Physicians and a keynote speaker at the conference, told Ziff Davis Internet that larger, established companies would be well-warned to look out for smaller, nimbler competitors. “Some of the ambulatory applications can be pretty slick,” he said.

For the mobile applications category, two of the three finalists did not place in 2004, but they were still familiar names: First honors went to PatientKeeper, second to Allscripts Healthcare Solutions and third to Midmark Diagnostics Group for its IQ Diagnostic PDA, which had also placed last year.

Cerner Corp. held onto its first honors ranking in EHR for hospitals, with Siemens AG taking second honors.

This year’s awards also included a category for medical transcription products, with first honors going to Axolotl Corp. and second to MedQuist.

Finalists were chosen from more than 100 applications and were selected by panels of independent judges.

A list of all the finalists can be found here.