Health Language Introduces Affordable, Robust Web-based Terminologies and Management Tools
Facilitates EHR adoption, ARRA “meaningful use” data exchange, and ICD-10 conversion for healthcare providers and vendors.
Atlanta, GA, March 1, 2010 — Health Language, Inc. (HLI), the global leader in medical terminology management, has launched the Language Engine Access Portal (LEAP), which enables Web access to terminologies, code sets and management tools. The portal will allow hospitals, physician practices and their vendors to easily locate, download, update and extend terminologies without installing a separate application. Health Language demonstrated LEAP during the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) conference March 1-4 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta.
LEAP supports interoperability, meaningful use requirements, ICD-10 conversion, evidence-based care, quality reporting, optimized billing and other key healthcare information technology (HIT) initiatives by leveraging Health Language’s industry-leading medical terminology tools.
Hospitals and physician practices can access LEAP directly through a subscription. Vendors can provide the portal services under Health Language’s name or their own private label, giving customers a convenient, cost-effective option to create their own content. Health Language will automatically update terminologies and code sets to reflect changes made by their governing entities, removing an onerous task that many smaller providers and vendors are not equipped to manage on their own.
Long a trusted global supplier of middleware for leading health institutions, vendors, health ministries such as the UK’s National Health Service, and standards organizations including the International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation (IHTSDO), which owns SNOMED, Health Language is now offering organizations ranging from large, multi-location hospital systems to clinics and physician practices, an affordable, Web-based medical terminology management option. With a single click they can download specific clinical and administrative content and seamlessly update their existing systems. All changes implemented by standards bodies are immediately available and multi-site systems can create and share customized problem lists.
“For a decade, Health Language technology has worked in the background to power the language engine of leading vendors, hospitals and organizations worldwide,” stated HLI President and CEO George Schwend. “We are now entering the broader end-user market to help healthcare organizations make the “leap” into the future in response to growing market demand for an easy, cost-effective option to address their burgeoning medical terminology needs. LEAP accomplishes this while increasing the functionality and value of their existing HIT investments.”
LEAP will offer access to:
- Terminology standards that support local modifications, including SNOMED CT and medical specialty subsets, LOINC, RxNorm, HCPCS, ICD-9-CM and ICD-10-CM, among others;
- Terminology mappings such as SNOMED CT to ICD-9-CM, ICD-9-CM to ICD-10-CM and PCS, drug databases to RxNorm, local laboratories to LOINC, and many more;
- Terminology reporting sets including PQRI, HEDIS, Joint Commission, NCQA and disease registries;
- Consumer- and provider-friendly terms and the ability for clinicians to use and search for clinical words they are accustomed to using;
- Vendor- and user-created terminology sets and subsets; and
- Blogs, news and discussion forums to collaborate within and across organizations.
LEAP includes several features that directly ease proposed meaningful use reporting requirements. These include data exchange; downloadable quality measures; and tools to maintain active problem, medication and allergy lists.
“Providers that combine terminology management with their electronic health records systems will have an arsenal of tools to facilitate the collection, organization and reporting of meaningful use measures,” said Brian Levy, M.D., chief medical officer of Health Language and co-chair of the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology’s Advanced Interoperability Work Group. “The terminology portal brings affordable tools in user-friendly formats into provider facilities.”
Additional information about the Language Engine Access Portal (LEAP) is available at www.healthlanguage.com.
About Health Language
Denver-based Health Language, Inc. (HLI) develops and delivers state-of-the-art software solutions that automatically incorporate medical vocabulary and coding standards into healthcare information technology (HCIT) applications. HLI’s Language Engine (LE) allows centralized access to medical terminology standards and generates mappings to create a common pool of standardized codes and concepts that enhance patient safety, facilitate clinical outcomes analysis and accelerate reimbursement. It also provides standards for modeling, storing, updating and distributing information consistently for interoperability between hospitals, regions and countries. For more information, visit www.healthlanguage.com or call 720-940-2900.