Precyse Solutions Announces Appointment of William F. Bria II, M.D., to Its Advisory Council Medical Informatics expert will be instrumental in developing strategic initiatives

Wayne, Pa., November 15, 2010 — Precyse Solutions, a leader in Health Information Management (HIM) services and technologies, has announced the appointment of William F. Bria II, M.D., to the Precyse Advisory Council (PAC). Led by Board Member Alan Weinstein, the 8-member PAC team functions as a source of high-level input and advice on the strategic positioning and expansion of Precyse Solutions’ service offerings. In addition, the PAC is a conduit for new business opportunities, client engagement and best practice sharing as a result of the extensive experience and networks developed by each of the council members.
“The healthcare industry today is evolving at a lightning-fast pace. Amid our collective advancement, it is critical that, regardless of legislation, mandates or unanticipated bumps in the road, we remain focused on using information technology and the management of health data to improve the safety, quality and consistency of patient care,” said Dr. Bria. “I look forward to sharing my insights on the future and successful use of healthcare technology to help bridge the use of technology and the practice of medicine for Precyse and the many clients they serve today and will serve in the future.”
Dr. Bria serves as Chief Medical Information Officer at Shriners Hospital for Children (SHC) in Tampa, Fla., where he directs the medical informatics plan for the 22-hospital SHC system across the United States, Canada and Mexico. This includes the implementation of an integrated EHR system in each hospital as well as formulating and implementing the clinical decision support and business intelligence components for the system. He also is an advisor to the National Center for Research Resources, a component of the National Institutes of Health, and to the Elsevier medical informatics advisory board. He is president and co-founder of the Association of Medical Directors of Information Systems (AMDIS), an organization of clinicians with formal responsibility for healthcare information technology leadership. He also is an Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Michigan and the University of South Florida.
Dr. Bria is the author of The Physician-Computer Conundrum: Get Over It! and Digital Communication in Medical Practice, and he has been widely published in numerous industry publications. In 2010, the HIMSS Board of Directors presented him with the Physician IT Leadership Award.
“We are delighted to welcome Dr. Bria to our Advisory Council,” said Jeffrey Levitt, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Precyse Solutions. “We are confident that, with his experience and leadership, particularly in the area of healthcare informatics, he will bring new knowledge and value to our group and to Precyse, supporting us in delivering our vision for 2011 and beyond.”

M2S launches the Vascular Quality Initiative in partnership with Society for Vascular Surgery

West Lebanon, NH Nov 12, 2010 – The Society for Vascular Surgery® (SVS) announced today that it will partner with M2S, Inc., a leading provider of medical image and clinical data analysis services, to launch the Vascular Quality Initiative. This initiative will employ a new methodology for vascular quality improvement by fostering the organization of regional study groups. The initiative is modeled after the highly successful Vascular Study Group of New England (VSGNE) that began in 2002 and expanded internationally in collaboration with M2S in 2009.
This partnership positions SVS and M2S as leaders in vascular outcomes tracking by providing a web-based data management platform for vascular surgeons to analyze outcomes, reinforce best practices and share quality improvement efforts locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. SVS oversees the Vascular Quality Initiative through the SVS Patient Safety Organization (SVS PSO). Dr. Jack Cronenwett, of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and former SVS president, has been appointed Medical Director of the SVS PSO, and will be supported by an executive council comprised of SVS and regional group representatives. The SVS PSO will establish common data elements, define standardized reporting tools, and oversee comparative data analyses while encouraging regional group autonomy.
The Vascular Quality Initiative utilizes M2S’s secure, web-based Clinical Data Pathways system for data entry and report generation. Clinical Data Pathways allows participants to understand and improve patient outcomes by providing efficient data collection, aggregation and analysis of vascular procedure data and delivering real-time, anonymous, benchmarked reports of major outcomes and processes of care.
“We are excited to partner with SVS to provide the platform for the Vascular Quality Initiative. M2S has been committed to improving vascular patient outcomes for over ten years with our advanced imaging technology. We believe that the Vascular Quality Initiative combined with standardized pre-operative and post-operative imaging will significantly improve patient care,” said Greg Lange, President and Chief Operating Officer of M2S.
The SVS PSO has collected peri-operative data on over 17,500 procedures entered from 33 centers across 11 states and Canada. Regional groups have formed in New England, the Carolinas, Texas, Southern California, the Mid-Atlantic and Toronto, Canada. Additional groups are forming in Florida, Virginia, New Jersey, Georgia and Michigan.