by Jeff McKune

In an earlier blog entry, Tony wrote about upcoming offerings by both Google and Microsoft. It looks like the name of Microsoft’s offering is Azyxxi (“ah ZIK see”). Microsoft describes Azyxxi as a tool for integrating disparate healthcare IT systems to provide better management of patient data for clinicians and quality managers, as well as better decision support for financial managers and hospital administrators.

I have not been able to dig up many details about Azyxxi as yet, but it appears to be a collection of interfaces to “best of breed” healthcare IT systems which categorize and feed data into a generalized data warehouse. On the user side, data is presented through “on the fly” views to provide for real-time queries and decision support.

At first blush, it would be easy take the position that “Hey, we already have an integrated HIS.” My experience thus far has been that integration is a good word for HIS vendors to toss around, but when it comes to answering everyday questions about hospital operations, many existing systems are frustratingly inept. Will Azyxxi be able to fill the gap? Time will tell. There is certainly a lot of hype about the product. I would love to see it first hand and have a nuts and bolts discussion with someone who really knew the architecture of the system.

Though an incomplete and informal article, the entry in Wikipedia lists some of the hospitals using Azyxxi. With several of us blogging here, we should be able to provide more details as they become available. If you know more about Azyxxi, please share it. We would also be interested in seeing some good quality screen shots, as well as a list of compatible existing HIS products. Here are a couple of additional links:

Microsoft Pairs with MedStar Health and Washington Hospital Center on Healthcare IT Solution to Improve Patient Outcomes
(Background article on 2006 acquisition)

Azyxxi: New Clinical Informatics System Improves Practice of Medicine
http://www.georgetownuniversityhospital.org/documents/Physician%20Update/PhysnUpdJan06.pdf (actual link provided because blog software isn't accepting it as a link)
(article on page 2 of this document)

Microsoft Azyxxi One Year Later; 21 hospitals and counting
(August 2007 blog article by Microsoft’s Worldwide Health Director Bill Crounse, MD)