A Medical Device Daily

Misys Healthcare Systems (Raleigh, North Carolina) said it would enhance Misys MyWay, its electronic medical record (EMR), for targeted use within specialty medical practices through a contract with Wolters Kluwer Health (Conshohocken, Pennsylvania), a provider of information for professionals and students in medicine, nursing, allied health, pharmacy and the pharmaceutical industry.

According to Misys, the agreement will enable a wide range of specialty physicians to use the software "out of the box" with virtually no specialty-specific customization required, thus decreasing implementation time. Initially it will provide MyWay with Wolters Kluwer enhanced content for primary care and cardiology, Misys said.

With the additional clinical content developed by the multi-specialty physician team at Wolters Kluwer, MyWay will facilitate the documentation of clinical encounters with specialty-specific terms, Misys said.

"Physicians and caregivers across all medical specialties stand to benefit from the workflow efficiencies and patient safety benefits experienced with electronic medical records. Yet, there are very few EMRs available with content customized to meet specialty physicians' needs," said R.L. "Vern" Davenport, executive VP and general manager of Misys. "By working with Wolters Kluwer Health ... Misys is able to tailor Misys MyWay to be as valuable as possible to physicians in a wide range of specialties."

Wolters will provide Misys with content from its clinical solutions unit, which delivers critical information, tools and workflow solutions at the point of care, including referential and embedded drug information, evidence-based medicine guidelines, clinical decision support, and documentation and coding tools.

"Combining comprehensive, up-to-date medical content with an intuitive delivery system is the key to streamlining clinical workflow and enhancing end-user satisfaction," said Arvind Subramanian, president/CEO, Wolters Kluwer Health Clinical Solutions. "The partnership between Wolters Kluwer Health and Misys will allow Misys MyWay users to access the clinical content they need, when they need it."

Misys anticipates that the first MyWay offering with Wolters Kluwer enhanced clinical content will be available in July.

In other contract news: Aetna (Hartford, Connecticut) reported a three-year contract with Lower Keys Medical Center (LKMC; Key West, Florida) that brings the 167-bed Key West facility and its physician group into Aetna's network for the first time. Members of Aetna network-based plans will be able to receive covered in-patient and out-patient services, at in-network rates, from LKMC, which previously operated under a rental agreement with Aetna.