CINCINNATI, OH — (Marketwire) — 03/02/12 — CincyTech and Cincinnati Children-s Hospital Medical Center today announced the formation of a new health care IT company named QI Healthcare, which will commercialize Children-s proprietary quality-improvement software.
CincyTech and Cincinnati Children-s Tomorrow Fund have each invested $200,000 in the company and hired Cincinnati entrepreneur and health-tech executive John Atkinson as chief executive officer. The company will offer a suite of products that enable hospitals to improve outcomes and efficiency.
The first product the company will bring to market is the Surgical Outcomes Collection System (SOCS). The specialized application aggregates data from hospitals- various systems, including their Electronic Medical Records (EMR) system, to conduct institution-wide analyses of cases to identify opportunities to improve care.
SOCS was designed and developed by Dr. Frederick Ryckman, professor of surgery and senior vice president for Medical Operations at Cincinnati Children-s; Paul Yelton, senior application developer; and Candice Overly, project administrator, Perioperative Services. The software has been in use at Cincinnati Children-s for more than a year.
“The real power of this software is in the ability to analyze every significant patient case,” said Dr. Ryckman. “Before SOCS we spent countless hours manually gathering data. SOCS improves the process through automation and enhanced analytics — and it frees up clinical resources to focus on quality improvement.”
Atkinson has extensive experience in the health care software and Internet industries, previously holding senior leadership roles at WebMD, Mede America and SourceMedical. He is also co-founder of a successful mobile startup, BuzzVoice, a streaming audio news service for smartphones.
“Health care spending in the U.S. exceeded $2.6 trillion in 2010, but the country still consistently ranks lower than many other nations in terms of quality care,” CincyTech senior analyst Justin Thompson said.
“Consequently, the U.S. government is passing legislation that includes significant incentives to hospitals for improving their quality of care and penalties for those who don-t — presenting a great business opportunity for SOCS and other QI products for hospitals.”
The $400,000 investment will be used for sales, marketing and product development purposes, including securing beta testing sites for the SOCS system.
QI Healthcare is a health care IT company based on technology developed at Cincinnati Children-s Hospital Medical Center. The company-s first product, the Surgical Outcomes Collection System (SOCS), aggregates surgical case data from various systems within the hospital and enables facilities to conduct institution-wide analyses to identify quality improvement opportunities.
CincyTech is a public-private venture development organization that invests in startup businesses in high-tech industries in Southwest Ohio. With substantial support from Ohio Third Frontier and corporations, foundations, civic organizations and individuals here, it is stimulating the growth of venture-worthy companies in information technology, bioscience and advanced manufacturing.
communications director
CincyTech
513-313-5910
CEO
QI Healthcare
513-754-0652
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