HealthMedX COO stresses importance of health care technology

HealthMedX Chief Operating Officer Craig Frazier knows firsthand the value of technology in the health care industry.

Frazier was the featured guest Sept. 17 at Hilton Garden Inn for Springfield Business Journal's 12 People You Need to Know series. Frazier filled in for Pam Pure, CEO of the Ozark-based home care software company, because of a scheduling conflict.

Frazier joined HealthMedX in May to succeed co-founder Charlie Daniels, who retired this summer. Frazier previously worked with Pure at McKesson Corp. and helped launch Springfield startup Intuitive Medical Solutions before leading it to a strategic sale more than a year ago. Frazier said Pure lives in Boulder, Colo., where HealthMedX employs some 25 and operates an additional office.

At HealthMedX, Frazier is part of a culture being fostered by Pure, where the 200-employee company focuses on health care technology, specifically electronic health records, and the industry beyond medical care given immediately within hospitals.

"This continuum of care beyond the acute care world is really where some of the most important health care takes place. It's where you manage people for wellness," Frazier said.

The company's patient-centric system provides patients, physicians and others with health information to ease transitions from one facility to another.

"At a skilled nursing facility, just to pick one example, our software is used to create a record for every patient that allows them to submit claims to all the various payers, including Medicare and Medicaid, and also, our software is used to store their clinical information - medications they take, what they're allergic to, the different conditions they've been treated for - and it's also where the treatment plans are stored," Frazier said.

"As we get older, we're less able to do a good job of transporting our own health care records."

Frazier said, technologically, the health care industry is lagging behind, a notion that is harmful to patients. But, he said, as more facilities move from written records to electronic medical records, the problem subsides.

"The industry is in the process of waking up to these trends," he said.