Two Veterans Hospitals Select TheraDoc's Clinical Decision Support Software.

SALT LAKE CITY -- Software Integrated with VistA to Enhance Patient Care and Improve Infection Control

VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System in Pennsylvania and VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System recently joined the growing list of hospitals in selecting expert clinical decision support software (CDSS) provided by TheraDoc(R) Inc. (www.theradoc.com). The software's real-time surveillance, alerting and reporting capabilities will enhance infection control and prevention initiatives at both hospitals. It will also support patient care goals established by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, including these:

--Put quality first until first in quality

--Provide easy access to medical knowledge, expertise and care

--Enhance, preserve and restore patient function

TheraDoc will implement its Expert System Platform(R) (ESP), Antibiotic Assistant(R) and Infection Control Assistant(TM) to further enhance the already high quality of patient care provided at both Veterans Hospitals. At VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System, TheraDoc will collaborate with the Pittsburgh Regional Healthcare Initiative (PRHI), a consortium that is working toward improving health care for patients and reducing health care costs. PRHI (http://www.prhi.org) plays a unique role in the transfer of clinical improvement knowledge in Pittsburgh hospitals

"Investigating infections and identifying patterns is a time-consuming and lengthy process and thus, a major barrier to the adoption of efficient infection control procedures at the frontline of care," observed Peter L. Perreiah, PRHI managing director. "TheraDoc software delivers relevant information to the clinician as they make patient care decisions -- including the most current infection control procedures. This helps clinicians shift from spending critical time locating data to collaborating about how to improve care." He further stated, "The software enables informed decision making at the bedside and facilitates the efficient implementation of infection control procedures, both of which support significantly enhanced patient outcomes."

TheraDoc's expert CDSS will be integrated with the Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA) at the Pittsburgh and Los Angeles hospitals. The company's exclusive inference engine will automate and accelerate the surveillance of electronic medical records and the identification of infections while streamlining data collection processes for the clinicians. Concurrently, the CDSS will analyze and translate relevant patient data into meaningful, actionable information, combine it with evidence-based therapeutic recommendations and deliver these to the point-of-care -- in real time.

According to TheraDoc's co-founder and president, Stan Pestotnik, the company's software simplifies the clinician's daily workflow and provides an intuitive interface through which critical patient information can be easily accessed, evaluated and acted upon. These comprehensive capabilities will help clinicians at both Veterans Hospitals to significantly improve the quality and safety of patient care, proactively decrease the proliferation of infectious diseases and reduce health care costs.

Pestotnik noted, "The unique partnership between the Veterans Hospitals in Pennsylvania and Los Angeles, the Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative and TheraDoc promises to yield exciting results." He further stated, "We are proud that our software will aid in significantly improving patient care for veterans on both sides of the country as well as support the elimination of medical errors and reduction of hospital-associated infections."

About TheraDoc Inc.

TheraDoc is a medical informatics company specializing in therapeutic, real-time decision support that improves the quality, safety, and efficiency of patient care in large and small health care organizations. The company provides innovative, best-in-class solutions to premier hospitals across the country. Its strict adherence to medical informatics standards enables connectivity and interoperability with any hospital's disparate health information systems.

Founded in 1999, TheraDoc designs, develops and supports a suite of clinical decision support technologies, all of which utilize a proprietary inference engine that enables its real-time capabilities. TheraDoc's founders and core medical informatics team are internationally recognized for their pioneering work in medical expert systems. Their experience in clinical decision support design and development spans two decades. On the Net: www.theradoc.com.