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Bay Area Health Care Vying To Go Digital

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By CAROL GENTRY The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 28, 2007

The Tampa Bay area has been notified that it's a finalist in a competition for medical software with a retail value of $3 million.

The other finalist, out of about 70 applicants, is San Jose, Calif., home of Silicon Valley. The winner is to be announced next month.

The prize would be enough to connect about 600 local doctors to one another and to a regional health information system, according to the man who nominated the Bay area for the grant, David Schlaifer, chief executive officer of Doctors' Administrative Solutions. His Tampa-based company helps medical practices go digital.

'We want to help save lives and reduce expenses in the health care system by enabling doctors' offices to affordably deploy electronic medical records systems and connect them within the community,' Schlaifer said.

The public and private sectors are trying to find ways to speed up conversion of the health care sector to electronic records. They say shared information reduces errors and saves time in emergencies. Just as electronic records have made other industries more efficient, they would save money in health care, analysts say. But medical offices often lack the capital for the initial investment.

Most medical practices have electronic billing records, but only about 15 percent of practices have electronic systems for their patients' medical information, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

'We want Tampa Bay to be at the forefront of the movement,' Schlaifer said.

The competition is sponsored by the MISYS Center for Community Health Leadership, established last year by MISYS Healthcare Systems of Raleigh, N.C., a leader in health information technology.

If the Tampa Bay area won the grant, medical practices would apply for the software. Although the software itself is worth many thousands of dollars, a medical group would still have some associated costs. Schlaifer said his company will provide the installation at cost, and several hardware vendors are making computer equipment available to the center's grant recipients at a significant discount.

Reporter Carol Gentry can be reached at (813) 259-7624 or cgentry@tampatrib.com.

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