EXTENSION, Inc. Announces EXTENSION 2.0

EXTENSION’s new 2.0 software solution offers more enhanced context-aware communications for healthcare.

Fort Wayne, IN, May 14, 2010—EXTENSION, INC. announced that EXTENSION version 2.0 is now available for integration. Version 2.0 – replacing EXTENSION version 1.4 – offers features and functionality that further enhance clinical and operational workflows and overall communications among clinicians, healthcare staff, and patients. Each bundled solution of the EXTENSION enterprise-class suite now runs on version 2.0 and offers a variety of workflow improvements tailored to various types of healthcare organizations, both large and small.

The EXTENSION appliance-based software solution suite allows clinicians to automatically receive and respond to intelligent notifications derived from pre-defined rules and workflows. EXTENSION aggregates data, such as HL7 standards, from disparate systems and delivers the context-aware notifications to the appropriate caregiver at the point-of-care via a Cisco IP Phone or web-enabled mobile device.

According to Steve Tyler, Chief Technology Officer of EXTENSION, “This release opens up many more possibilities in terms of integration due to opening up the dynamic data model – that is the core of EXTENSION – to third-party systems. As with each release of EXTENSION, the impact the system can have upon productivity increases.”

EXTENSION’s patient smart card functionality is also enhanced with the release of 2.0. In 2009, AHA Solutions announced the official endorsement of the EXTENSION® HealthID™ smart card solution for healthcare. Until now, the patient card has primarily serve as a secure identification mechanism for patients. With 2.0, the smart cards integrate with Cisco’s UC platform and smart phones to automate workflow events.

New features of version 2.0 include:
• The ability to integrate EXTENSION with any system using SOAP and the WSDL 1.1 standard through a web services engine,
• outgoing voice notification enhancements that allow administrators to configure actions which will occur as a result of a voice notification,
• simplification of the dataset and rules configuration within the EXTENSION console which allows for ease of use by administrators,
• workflow events triggered by smart cards during patient registration delivered to Cisco IP and patient mobile phones.

“Our goal has always been to interface with many third-party systems, including smart phones, and to make implementation and support easy on our partners. EXTENSION 2.0 accomplishes these goals”, says Todd Plesko, Chief Executive Officer of EXTENSION.

Mr. Plesko added, “As a product development company we’re always looking to the future. Subsequent version 2.x releases will have an emphasis on smart phone agents to empower clinicians with HIPAA-compliant EXTENSION® HealthAlert™ functionality on a mobile phone. Today we use SMS text messages to deliver this functionality; tomorrow, we will deliver to an agent on the iPhone and Blackberry. We expect to offer HealthAlert for smart phones in 2010 and offer it at a price point well below other smart phone products that have entered the market. And we’ll do it on one reliable appliance, relying only on EXTENSION middleware. We’re excited about the next versions of EXTENSION for smart phones and expect to be an early market share leader.”

The EXTENSION Solution Suite (ESS), including version 2.0 which is available now, is sold through the Cisco reseller channel. Healthcare organizations running EXTENSION 1.4 who have EXTENSION support and maintenance will be automatically upgraded to version 2.0.

About EXTENSION, Inc.
EXTENSION, Inc. is based in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and is the developer of the EXTENSION® Solution Suite (ESS). The EXTENSION Solution Suite of software includes HealthID™ and expands Cisco Unified Communications into a clinical workflow tool automating notifications using text messages, phone calls, and emails, as well as turning Cisco’s award-winning IP Phones into user interfaces for clinical, administrative, and revenue cycle data. The result of employing Cisco Unified Communications and EXTENSION includes increased physician, management, and patient satisfaction, reduced cost and errors, immediate ROI, and increased revenues. EXTENSION tightly integrates any HL7-based or web services-based medical application with Cisco Advanced Unified Communications, using standards-based protocols. EXTENSION recently earned the ‘Cisco Collaboration Partner of the Year for the US/Canada’ award at the 2010 Cisco Partner Summit.

The AHA-endorsed, EXTENSION HealthID smart card solution for healthcare provides encryption and identity management, integration to personal health records, and workflow improvements for patients, hospitals, and clinics.

For more on EXTENSION visit www.opentheredbox.com.