Treating H1N1 patients successfully often depends on identifying the disease early and starting the treatment before it’s too late. Physicians in U.S. will have assistance with this, thanks to Practice Fusion, a free, Web-based electronic health record (EHR) company.

 

According to officials with Practice Fusion, the company helps doctors respond immediately and accurately to a public-health crisis, without need for product upgrades.

 

The company has introduced an application that allows physicians to immediately and accurately identify all Tier 1 candidates for H1N1 vaccination from their patient populations.

 

Already, the tool has identified about 300,000 eligible patients system-wide and physicians were notified immediately. With the data, physicians can then decide to either order vaccines from state agencies or direct patients to locations where they can receive them.

 

“H1N1 flu is a high-profile public health concern this winter in the U.S., and around the world. The World Health Organization has declared it a pandemic, and in the United States, the CDC has marshaled significant resources to respond to this public health crisis. Now the challenge is accurately distributing and administering the vaccine," Robert Rowley, chief medical officer at Practice Fusion said.

 

Practice Fusion also recently announced an investment from Salesforce.com (News - Alert) with an expected launch in late 2009 of the company's patient health record application on Force.com.