"The technology wasn't there 10 years ago  -  even for us," Lareau says. "We had an engine, but it took things like XML and browser-based technologies to make this stuff distributable and deployable, and customizable in a way that was economically feasible for the vendors and providers."

The technology has arrived at a time when the Institute of Medicine (IOM) is calling for better data at the point of care. In releasing the IOM report last September, Mark Smith, MD, president and CEO of California HealthCare Foundation and chair of IOM's Committee on the Learning Healthcare System in America, said two fundamental issues are facing the U.S. healthcare system: cost and complexity. Thus the mission of the report was "to find the foundational characteristics of a system that is efficient." 

One report recommendation: embracing new technologies to collect and tap clinical data at the point of care. "Health professionals and patients frequently lack relevant and useful information at the point of care where decisions are made," the report notes.

As it goes global, Medicomp is incorporating genetic data into MEDCIN's diagnostic index, and it is also going beyond patient engagement to patient involvement, making it possible for patients to participate in the management of their own conditions, Lareau says, by building patient involvement protocols into the MEDCIN engine.

"We're just doing our first few pilot projects with it," Lareau says. "We like to do these pilot projects with small, agile vendors." n