Practice Fusion and Vitals Partner to Bring Online Appointment Booking and Doctor Reviews to Millions of Americans

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 25, 2014-- Practice Fusion, the nation's largest cloud-based electronic health record (EHR) platform, is partnering with Vitals, a leader in providing online transparency tools and data that help consumers find top doctors and make informed decisions about their medical care.

The 12 million patients who visit Vitals for online appointment booking and patient reviews each month will now have access to doctors who use Practice Fusion and its consumer-facing site, Patient Fusion. In turn, these Practice Fusion doctors are better able to reach existing and potential patients on the web – without any extra legwork.

"Working with Practice Fusion allows us to deliver the convenience of online scheduling to patients turning to Vitals to look up information about their doctors," said Jeff Cutler, executive vice president, Vitals. "This helps patients balance quality, ratings and availability when selecting a doctor while we're also helping doctors expand their online presence and engage with their patient populations."

According to a 2013 Accenture survey on patient engagement, 77 percent of Americans want the ability to book health appointments online. This partnership stands to benefit both patients who want quality and access to information, as well as doctors who want to strengthen their online presence.

"Our providers use our platform to coordinate more than five million patient visits every month," said Dan O'Neill, associate vice president, Practice Fusion. "By working with Vitals, we have the ability to enable our doctors to more effectively serve millions of patients, who are empowered to use their health records even more effectively to make informed decisions about their care."

To learn more about Patient Fusion and Vitals, please visit www.patientfusion.com and www.vitals.com.

About Practice Fusion

Practice Fusion is the largest and fastest-growing healthcare platform, with a mission of connecting doctors, patients and data to drive better health and save lives. A driving force in modernizing American health care, Practice Fusion is used by a community of more than 112,000 monthly active medical professionals with over 81 million patient records. In April 2013, the company launched its consumer-facing platform, Patient Fusion, where patients can find and book appointments with doctors and access their medical records. The World Economic Forum recognized Practice Fusion as a Technology Pioneer for 2013. www.practicefusion.com

About Vitals

Vitals is reinventing the way people choose doctors and medical facilities. We provide increased transparency to cost, quality and access information to support effective decision making. Vitals brings together actionable data, online tools and an engaging consumer experience that empowers consumers to make more informed, higher-quality and lower-cost health care decisions.  Through health plans, hospitals and our leading consumer websites, Vitals helps more than 150 million people each year access information for better, more affordable care. 

Around the web

Compensation for heart specialists continues to climb. What does this say about cardiology as a whole? Could private equity's rising influence bring about change? We spoke to MedAxiom CEO Jerry Blackwell, MD, MBA, a veteran cardiologist himself, to learn more.

The American College of Cardiology has shared its perspective on new CMS payment policies, highlighting revenue concerns while providing key details for cardiologists and other cardiology professionals. 

As debate simmers over how best to regulate AI, experts continue to offer guidance on where to start, how to proceed and what to emphasize. A new resource models its recommendations on what its authors call the “SETO Loop.”