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Q&A with Jeff Brandes of Azara

Azara’s new interface for its DRVS reporting and data analysis platform has people talking—and asking questions! Jeff Brandes, Azara’s president, provided us the answers.

Q. Don’t most EHR systems already include a reporting capability?

J.B. EHR vendors should be able to report on individual health centers the way we do. After all, we are sourcing data from the EHR.  But the truth is that reporting is last for them. They are under constant pressure to  make improvements across all areas of their products and are forced to keep up with changing client, regulatory and legislative requirements.  Every industry has specialized Business Intelligence tools, and healthcare is no different. Our whole business is reporting and analytics; it’s what we do well.  Plus, we're able to aggregate data across multiple EHRs and health centers for the sake of comparison as well as benchmarking--which is not possible from a single EHR system.

Q. What types of healthcare organizations are using DRVS?

J.B. We’ve tailored the product to Community Health Centers (CHCs), and do outreach and education through Primary Care Associations. While our tools can service the needs of private physicians and IPA's, we find that because our product grew up serving FQHC's that it meets their unique needs head on.  There are not a lot of great affordable tools for medium and smaller-size health centers.

Q. If a health center already has an EHR, how could it take advantage of your system?

J.B. A key part of Azara's value proposition is the process of connecting a health center to DRVS.  We use a four-step Data Connector implementation process that focuses on data validation and data quality as a upon connection to DRVS.

Q. How does your SaaS model work?

J.B. Our annual subscription includes all ongoing upgrades and full phone and email support.  There is no need to buy hardware or hire a DBA or IT administrator.  All you need to run Azara DRVS is a web browser and internet connection.

Q. So the new user interface will be delivered automatically to your clients?

J.B. It’s up and running, and the majority of our clients have already chosen to cut over to it.

Q. What other updates do you have planned for 2012?

We just added the majority of the HEDIS clinical measures, and in addition to UDS 2012 enhancements, we will be adding UDS Tables 3, 4 and 6a to the existing Tables 6b and 7.  These UDS upgrades will allow our clients to prepare much of their UDS submission right from DRVS, eliminating many of the manual steps they now undertake.  Now that our new user interface is up and running we will also be introducing more ease-of-use features like scheduled report generation and email alerts.

 What else would you like to know? Leave your question below, and we’ll ask Jeff!