"Welcome to our company blog. Within these blog posts, we hope to share our insights on clinical quality management, the patient-centered medical home, chronic disease management in primary care, evidence-based medicine, and the use of technology in ambulatory care settings."

- David Morin, CEO and Donald Nease Jr., MD, Chief Medical Officer

Those of you who have followed Cielo know our emphasis on not just providing excellent software to support primary care but also our deep belief that quality care is a team sport. That's why I'm so excited about our new partnership with TransforMED. TransforMED (www.transformed.com) is a company that is linked closely to the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) and efforts on the part of the specialty of Family Medicine to reform primary care practice along a team-based model of care. TransforMED began its work with a 2 year National Demonstration Project (NDP) during which it worked closely with practices across the country in an effort to both assist them in practice transformation, but to also learn from them what works. This work reaffirmed much of what is in the literature about primary care practices being complex systems, and needing a team approach. TransforMED is taking the lessons learned from the NDP to practices that are seeking to implement the Patient Centered Medical Home model endorsed by AAFP and other primary care specialty organizations. Cielo's new business partnership with TransforMED affirms the common goals of our organizations to transform primary care practice around a new model of care with technology that is designed to support that new model. Donald E. Nease, Jr, MD Chief Medical Officer Cielo MedSolutions, LLC

For me, a very solid theme emerged from the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) Scientific Assembly. (Background: our team attended the Assembly, had a booth at the show and the management team had meetings with various industry leaders and Academy executives). For primary care medicine, it's all about the Patient-Centered Medical Home. We engaged in more discussions on that topic with providers and practice staff than any other topic, by far. I stopped by the TransforMED booth (TransforMED is a subsidiary of the AAFP and helps practices transform into Medical Homes) and heard from the TransforMED team that on the first day of the show alone they had more people stop by than during entire previous trade shows! From the providers and practice staff that stopped by the Cielo booth - trepidation, excitement, confusion and a TON of questions. There is a lot of hope and a lot of valid concerns. There is no doubt in my mind that this will be the topic of the upcoming year. That being said, I certainly see the need for leadership and education on the topic. There are large looming concerns (reimbursement is at the top) and they need to be addressed and managed now. From a technology perspective, Cielo will deliver that leadership. We have very strong ideas that come from years of research completed by our Medical and Health Care Industry Advisory Boards and our own backgrounds in technology. Some of them are quite different (maybe a tad controversial) than what you are probably hearing, but they have been proven and they need to be talked about. Choosing the right underlying technology for a Medical Home is a critical decision. There are non-obvious issues that need to be understood. Sadly, I can't even begin to count the number of providers that stopped by, told us their EMR can't support many of the elements of the Home and asked how we can help (we work alongside EMR and enhance it). I/we would really welcome the opportunity to talk to you, either face-to-face, over a webinar or as a speaker at your next gathering, about our thoughts on technology for the Medical Home. Dave Morin CEO Cielo MedSolutions

We are now officially qualified to submit quality data to CMS on behalf of eligible professionals for 2008 PQRI reporting. Our product, Cielo Clinic, went through two rounds of review by CMS and successfully submitted data during this review. So, what does that mean for you? Any Cielo Clinic customer may be able to submit data to the PQRI program for the year 2008. Cielo Clinic customers need not use extra billing codes to capture the information required by PQRI, in fact, there is no additional data to collect outside of the normal information captured by our registry. Cielo will work with customers to select the correct measures for submission. There is much more to talk about regarding measures and reporting periods. Give us a call, we are happy to tell you much more about the program and how you can get started. This is a wonderful opportunity to take advantage of this pay-for-reporting program. Chris King Cielo MedSolutions

For those looking to adopt a clinical quality management system or registry, a new must read is available in Medical Care, September 2008 - "Impact of a Generalizable Reminder System on Colorectal Cancer Screening in Diverse Primary Care Practices: A Report From the Prompting and Reminding at Encounters for Prevention Project" (Medical Care. 46(9) Supplement 1:S68-S73, September 2008. Subscription required for fulltext). This study, funded by the National Cancer Institute and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, implemented Clinfotracker (the technology on which Cielo Clinic is based) in 12 diverse practices in Michigan to drive improvement in colorectal cancer screening rates. An average 9% increase was achieved in just 9 months. This paper studies the ability of a reminder system to improve care delivery and also reviews the ability of practices to adopt clinical technology. I think the second part of this study is just as important as the first part! Dave Morin CEO Cielo MedSolutions