MEDITECH Monthly Customer Newsletter

Interview with Vice President Bob Gale: Spearheading Products for New Markets

Bob Gale
Vice President, Special Projects Division

Many of our long-standing customers know Bob Gale from his work in the early development stages of our HCIS. Over the years, Bob worked on the early versions of our Admissions, Medical Records, Radiology, Order Entry, and Pharmacy applications as well as early versions of our software for Canada and the United Kingdom. In 1995, he was named a vice president, leading our work with large corporate accounts. Today, Bob and his staff of over 300 develop, install and support products for these corporate accounts as well as for home health, long-term care, and mental health customers. We spoke with Bob about his group's mission and most recent pioneering efforts.

What are your group's general responsibilities and overall mission?
Specifically, we work closely with a few of our large corporate customers to modify our products for their unique needs. The software we develop allows large, complex corporations to manage their information systems from one or many central data centers. We also provide software that helps corporate organizations centralize some of their HCIS services. Helping corporations manage resources and services across a multitude of facilities (acute home health, long-term care, physician's offices) is the force behind what we do.

It is important to note that we are not a custom programming group. The solutions we deliver to our corporate customers benefit all our customers with centralized care needs. Many of the products we initially work on find their way into our MAGIC and Client/Server groups, where they are then rolled out to all our customers.

Can you provide examples of pioneering projects the group has worked on?
NetLab is an example of a product we initially developed to help a few of our large corporate customers manage multiple laboratories. Now, this feature is available to all our customers operating a multilab environment. Multiple facilities can send tests to a central network lab for processing, therefore consolidating lab services.

We've also gained valuable experience centralizing back office functions such as billing and general ledger for our corporate customers. Currently we are modifying our pharmacy application to manage medication stock and distribution from a central location. These consolidations are attractive to any customer looking to centrally manage its services.

What has the group been working on recently?
We've devoted a lot of resources to enhancing the clinical functionality of our long term care software. Plus, we're always modifying our products to comply with changing government and industry regulations, such as the recent Prospective Payment System requirements in home health.

One fledgling project involves working closely with the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health. We are developing a new product that covers all aspects of mental heath care, ranging from case management of outpatients to clinical needs of inpatients. We foresee our work in this area as being used by both our existing and new customers operating psychiatric facilities across the country and internationally.

We hear that Canadian organizations are expressing an interest in long-term care and home health solutions. Are we currently working on anything in this area?
Yes, Canada is showing interest in a product to manage their continuing care services. Canada is unique in that they consolidate many types of care, including home health, long term care, and psychiatric care under one umbrella. Developments are underway on a care manager product that will link and manage these diverse services. We've already responded to a couple RFPs and have upcoming demonstrations of the product planned, hoping to generate some beta sites.

What future markets, products, and challenges do you anticipate for your group?
The future looks busy -- with lots of opportunities. One trend we anticipate is the emergence of adult day care as another service that health care delivery systems offer. And as patients' programs and services become more complex, we'll look for ways we can help case managers perform their jobs more efficiently. On the technology front, we have a group dedicated to writing applications in thin server technology, offering a stable and efficient platform which will allow us to go forward in future years.

Ultimately, we want to achieve a consolidated health care record for patients of multi-corporation or regional healthcare providers. My group will continue to work with all of the company's divisions to achieve this goal.