Marking the Milestones

Dave Himes, Technology Services Group Manager
July 20, 2010

Billian's HealthDATA's online Portal healthcare database celebrates an important anniversary this month. Let's take a look back at the flagship product's minimal growing pains, and look to the exciting development of new value-added features in the coming months.

Billian's HealthDATA released the fourth version of its flagship Portal product on July 13, 2009. Version 4.0 marked the first time the product was produced and maintained entirely by in-house staff. The new Portal provided improved uptime and functionality to customers, but perhaps most importantly, it enabled more flexibility from a product management and development perspective. Over the past 12 months, Billian's HealthDATA has pushed two major releases, two significant data expansions, and dozens of minor releases. Essentially, the Portal has transitioned from a relatively static product to a constantly evolving platform.

Two major releases have driven Portal development over the last 12 months. In January, Billian's HealthDATA launched integration tools to support users of the SalesForce.com CRM solution. Clients are able to send specific contacts isolated in the Portal directly to SalesForce.com as leads, and update SalesForce.com accounts and contacts with details from the Portal with the click of a button. March 2010 saw the introduction of Mobile Portal access, including access to facility-level details and radius search functionality that allows users to pinpoint nearby facilities while on the road.

The first six months of 2010 also significantly expanded data coverage in the Portal. Billian's HealthDATA combed the CMS Cost Reports for information of value to its customers, automating the update of key financial fields while expanding coverage. Clients can now access hospital financial indicators and departmental spend information all the way back to 1996. In July 2010, Billian's HealthDATA integrated Hospital Quality Compare information at the facility level, also sourced from CMS, offering insight into current and historical hospital performance ratings. Combined, these two releases provide clients with the most robust integration of financial and clinical performance data on the hospital market.

In the second half of 2010, Billian's HealthDATA will push its most significant interface-related release to date by reengineering the facility search interface. Although Web 2.0 design influenced the current search interface, it is largely a remnant of the previous version of the Portal and limits the user to a predefined list of approximately 20 search criteria. The new search interface will allow users to search by any and all of the more than 300 data points tracked by Billian's HealthDATA dynamically, all in a truly Web 2.0-inspired shell.

From a data perspective, users will see new information surface at the end of 2010 into 2011, as Billian's HealthDATA begins to integrate additional data from CMS' MEDPAR and Provider of Service File. Additionally, Billian's HealthDATA has begun a massive process improvement project scheduled for completion in 2011. Although not directly customer facing, clients will see the benefit of improved accuracy and quality of data.

The release of Portal 4.0 enabled Billian's HealthDATA to become more responsive to customer demands. The company prides itself on engaging customers to understand how products should evolve into successful tools for supporting sales and marketing efforts. A strategic goal throughout these months and into 2011 is working to drive utilization of new features to ensure customers are getting the maximum return on their Portal investment. Billian's HealthDATA will continue to offer one-on-one, on-demand video, and group-training sessions geared towards taking advantage of the new features and information available. Continued customer engagement will only strengthen the evolution of the dynamic Portal platform.

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