As a part of our annual Healthcare Informatics 100 issue, where we feature our unique compilation of the top IT vendor companies in healthcare by revenue, we also profile three of the year’s Most Interesting Vendors from that list. With meaningful use and other healthcare reform drivers fueling the ever-changing IT landscape, what is clear to all of us on the HCI team is that there are many fascinating vendors right now doing innovative work. It is always a challenge to whittle the large list down to a few, and this year was no exception.

For last year’s Most Interesting Vendors we featured: Optum Insight as it embarked on a brand restructuring, and had recently acquired several high profile companies, namely Axolotl, and made controversial inroads into the provider IT market;  Zynx Health, one of two companies dominating the evidence-based order sets area whose product, evidence-based and consensus-based physician order sets, were in demand as never before; and Allscripts, the EHR juggernaut that had a game-changing merger with Eclipsys Corp. to bring together complementary strengths in ambulatory and hospital settings to produce a company with a combined revenue of approximately $1.2 billion.

As we have began the process this spring to prepare for our June/July issue, we’re particularly aware of the fascinating accomplishments of many vendors  that succeeding in the marketplace. Below are some vendors (in alphabetical order) that we have taken note of this past year and are ones to watch in the future.

1. Accent on Integration (AOI): This company offers software and services to integrate disparate technology for data exchange to eliminate data silos. AOI has done interesting work with Stillwater Medical Center, in Stillwater, Okla., to integrate vital signs monitors in its same day surgery unit with its hospital information system, and with Delaware Valley Hospital, in Walton, N.Y., to integrate and share data with Southern Tier Health Link (STHL), a RHIO in Central New York with technology that helps improve healthcare quality, access and safety while reducing costs. Delaware Valley Hospital’s ADT, lab, radiology and transcriptions are now integrated and actively shared with STHL. Another institution, Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center (Ephraim), in Danville, Ky., has leveraged AOI’s platform to enable and automate the flow of maternal and fetal records captured in its perinatal information system to its hospital information system, giving clinicians real-time access to the EHRs of mothers and infants.
    
2. ConsultADoctor: ConsultADoctor is a cloud-based telemedicine services provider, which facilitates consultations via phone, email, and video and has a network of U.S. board certified physicians in all 50 states who provide on-demand services like e-prescriptions, e-medical records, and e-lab testing to hospitals, clinics and integrated health systems. Telemedicine is definitely an emergent market set grow to $17.6 billion in 2016. With its MyHealthPlan 24/7 product recently released, the company is now making inroads into the payer space, which should prove interesting.
    
3. DiagnosisOne: DiagnosisOne provides clinical decision support tools and order sets, as well as offers clinical analytics that can help meet ACO requirements and manage patient populations. Its CDS tool pulls in all known patient data, synthesizes that information, and delivers only those alerts and order sets that are the most relevant and most appropriate to the point of care in real-time. The Rhode Island Primary Care Physicians Corporation (RIPCPC), a 160-doctor independent practice association (IPA) based in Cranston, R.I has been using the the DiagnosisOne evidence-based order sets within the EMR to cover some gaps, while reducing the ordering time involved and reducing costs.
    
4. Greenway Medical: From reports we’ve heard, physician and medical group customers love Greenway, as it continues to post consistently stellar KLAS rankings. Greenway has conquered the small-to-medium medical group market, and in February went public at $10.00 per share. Forbes reported that its share price closed at $13, which was up 30 percent and valued it at three times revenue, in line with competitors such as NextGen. Greenway was the first IPO of a pure EHR vendor since the government passed the HITECH Act in 2009, reported Forbes.
    
5. iBlueButton (Humetrix Inc.): The Blue Button PHR allows patients to see, download, and keep their personal health data by clicking a "Blue Button" on a secure Internet site. The concept was created by several government agencies in 2010 and has been in practice in the Department of Veterans Affairs health system as well as several CMS beneficiaries. in January, Humetrix, with its iBlueButton solutions, has been recognized at the highest level by the Federal Government, receiving an ONC award last December, being one of the three VA Blue Button health partners. Earlier this year, the government asked all health insurance carriers in the Federal Employees Health Benefit Program to add Blue Button functions to PHRs on their websites. Gary Austin, principal and co-founder, TranzformHealth, urges commercial plans take a look at Blue Button since its market share of governmental members might make this PHR “become the defacto standard in the industry.”
    
6. iNexx (Medicity): With accountable care organizations coming together to deliver improved clinical outcomes at lower cost risks, one major piece of all this will be facilitating better care transitions. The iNexx solution employs closed loop referral management to close gaps in care that frequently occur at care transition points, to better link communication between primary and specialty care. The value and ease of use of this product spurred rapid adoption and made this project well-qualified for the 2nd place award in the Healthcare Informatics Innovator Award program.
    
7. MedeAnalytics: At a time when analytics and business intelligence is becoming one of the most important elements for success under healthcare reform and meaningful use, the fact that MedeAnalytics is growing rapidly while providing analytics that cross the clinical, financial, and supply chain boundaries, is really significant. Last year we featured this company as an up-and-comer and reported that the company's “focus on analytics, driven around financial, operational, and clinical solutions…positions the company as a resource for providers and payers moving toward the accountable care model.”
    
8. Oracle: This company has some interesting solutions for aggregating clinical data across disparate systems and creating detailed, holistic views of an institution. Much has been written in HCI about Lee Moffitt Cancer Center’s personalized medicine research program, Total Cancer Care, which follows cancer patients throughout their care treatment lifetime to understand specifically what types of treatment are best for specific individuals. The program collects a wealth of information from its patients including discreet clinical data, genetics, treatment outcomes, samples of blood, urine and tumor tissue from surgeries and biopsies. All this valuable information goes into an electronic database, supported by Oracle, for analysis that could help develop future cancer treatments.
    
9. Orion Health: The most impressive feat about this healthcare integration and HIE software provider is that now it has cornered the publicly sponsored HIE market, not only in the U.S., but also internationally, it is now breaking into the private HIE market. Its roster of clients is impressive. Orion supports the departments of health for 49 states, including Alaska, Massachusetts, New York, and California. Internationally, Orion supports seven out of 10 provinces in Canada, and entire countries like Singapore and Australia. With all this success, Orion was able to tackle private U.S. HIEs like Geisinger Health System, UCLA Medical Center, and St. Vincent’s HealthCare.

Check back in July to see our top three Most Interesting Vendors. It was a tough choice, but someone had to do it.