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HealthGate Solutions Online Collaboration & Document Management HealthGate's web-based system helps teams collaborate asynchronously to reduce time spent in meetings and more easily acquire and track contributions from dispersed participants. This collaboration and task management functionality is wrapped around a robust content management system with WYSIWYG editing, review and approval tools, document versioning and audit trails, and a flexible user security platform. Improved Communication and Collaboration HealthGate eliminates the wait associated with the merging of multiple sets of comments made by team members. “Checking in/checking out” of documents and searching for a version of a document on e-mail becomes obsolete. All functions associated with the lifecycle of a document (editing, reviewing, approving, tasking, etc.) are done within the system—making changes, comments and approvals immediately available to other team members. Document sharing, threaded discussions and WYSIWYG editing are leveraged to speed up the document review process and consensus building. There is no need to wait until everyone can attend a face-to-face meeting or participate on a conference call. Instead of receiving dozens of e-mails (a.k.a. “team spam”) while working on a project, users only get an e-mail when they are sent a requested task, or when they have asked to be notified of a response to a discussion thread they posted. The communication, task tracking and editing are done inside the system so everyone has access to the information they need when they need it.
A Different Approach to Content Management HealthGate takes a different approach to content management. Having structured content is important, but it must be done in a way that does not interfere with the primary objectives of the team. For example, clinical committees should focus on the clinical content and decisions, not on how the XML should be constructed. Most content management systems are based on checking documents in and out as users upload and download files, and most organizations with large amounts of documents have content that is reused in multiple documents. Traditionally, this meant text had to be copied to many documents and when an update was necessary, every document would need to be opened and edited in the same way. With HealthGate, documents contain component granular “content blocks” that are individually stored and tracked. This means users can update content in one place and decide to change just that document or every document that includes that shared content—without having to open those other documents. This reuse saves editing time and keeps committees from having to repeatedly discuss material that should be standardized system-wide.
Little or No User Training Necessary HealthGate's application was designed with the “technically challenged” in mind. Although super users have a wealth of tools and controls, less involved participants need a more streamlined path. When teams are highly structured and hierarchical, it is possible to enforce highly rigorous processes and workflows. When trying to get reviewers or contributors (e.g., content experts, community physicians, etc.) involved, the systems must work within their normal workflow and be very easy to learn. To perform a review task in Collaboration Architect, a user needs only to click where it says, “Click Here” in the task e-mail and then enter his or her comments on the page that is displayed. No complicated navigation is required. For these reasons, most users will need little or no training. However, HealthGate offers training programs and support for more advanced users and users that need assistance.
Complete Audit Trail Unlike the all too common combination of e-mail, spreadsheets, project plans and related materials used for updating and reviewing documents, HealthGate provides a complete, centralized audit trail of content changes as well as a history of the communications and task activity. Tracking features include:
You can go back to any previous document version and see who made changes, added comments or submitted approvals. Easy System Administration and Maintenance HealthGate can set up a user account in a matter of minutes for most configurations—practically a flip of the proverbial switch. The software is hosted in an application service provider (ASP) model. All hosting, data storage, backups, system upgrades and server maintenance is performed by HealthGate. The HealthGate production servers are hosted at a tier one data center in North America. HealthGate’s system reliability, availability, performance and data security is based on the design of maintainable, high-reliability sites through the use of fault-tolerant computer systems, redundant network paths, load balancers and system management and monitoring tools. There is no software to download. The system is primarily written in C# with significant usage of AJAX, some ASP.NET, and a SQL Server backend. There are no ActiveX controls or Java Applets to install. HealthGate also includes a set of administrative tools. Customers may designate one or more people to manage the organizations’ account and/or the user accounts (for resetting passwords, etc.). User accounts can be configured as a standard security profile or as a custom combination of user permissions (e.g., viewing draft documents, editing content, approving documents, administering users, etc.). EBM Solutions™ HealthGate’s Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) Clinical Guidelines provide the latest evidence-based clinical information for over 100 topics covering inpatient and outpatient conditions. HealthGate offers providers, payers, employers, and patients a practical approach to translate evidence into care. Evidence-Based Medicine Clinical Guidelines will help you provide a foundation for quality improvement initiatives and physician incentive programs by helping to:
HealthGate clinical guidelines are produced through a rigorous editorial development process that ensures the quality of the information. Each guideline is reviewed by clinical advisors from academic institutions such as Duke University Medical School, Emory University Medical School, Oregon Health and Science University, and Vanderbilt University Medical Center. The content is available in both consumer and clinical versions. Individual sections include: key points, decision tree, description, importance, causes, signs and symptoms, diagnosis, prevention andtreatment, alternative therapy, prognosis, research frontiers, references, and information about the author. Having evidence-based medicine clinical guidelines available for physicians means they can focus their time on the art of medicine – combining the latest research with medical consensus and the specific desires of the educated patient. 
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