A decade before the internet was a household word, Charles Halfpenny was working on developing technology to introduce electronic medical records (EMR) to the healthcare industry. Nearly 25 years later, Halfpenny and the rest of the country are poised to see EMR become as widespread as cell phones thanks to $19 billion in stimulus funds over five years for providers to establish EMR.
And cell phones are exactly where Halfpenny and his latest company, Halfpenny Technologies in Blue Bell, are hoping to make their mark in the soon-to-explode EMR space. The company recently introduced its ITF-Mobile, a handheld system that allows physicians to securely access laboratory reports from their iPhone, BlackBerry or Android-powered smartphones.
“It’s cool to be in healthcare IT again,” says Halfpenny. “The under-35 physician community is clamoring for this.”
For Halfpenny, patience and scalpel-sharp focus have forged his success. Halfpenny shifted gears for much of the 1990s working with large laboratories like the Mayo Clinic and Qwest on streamlining test results reporting with physicians’ offices and purposefully staying out of the EMR space.
The new mobile application is an extension of the company’s ITF-Portal, a web-based connectivity solution that lets doctors securely order procedures and review results through a HIPAA-compliant browser and connects physician EMR with hospitals and labs. ITF-Mobile eliminates the need for a physical connection to a remote server.
With physicians subject to penalties for not jumping onboard the EMR train, Halfpenny figures to be fairly busy. The company works with 85 of the nation’s roughly 300 EMR providers, which by and large do not offer laboratory connectivity. That means Halfpenny is able to work with a variety of labs and hospitals who have different EMR vendors–currently in 35 states.
“There will be considerable consolidation among those EMR systems, and our customers are going to be challenged with an increasing demand to establish connectivity,” says Halfpenny. “Our technology has evolved with the ability of various EMR systems.”
Source: Charles Halfpenny, Halfpenny Technologies
Writer: Joe Petrucci
