Medsphere Adds New Chief Medical Officer to Growing Executive Team

ALISO VIEJO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Medsphere Systems Corporation, the leading commercial provider of Open Source-based electronic health record (EHR) systems and services, today announced the appointment of Edmund Billings, MD, as Chief Medical Officer. Over a diverse career, Billings has co-founded three healthcare IT companies, including one dedicated to Open Source initiatives; served as Chief Medical Officer for two others; consulted on numerous healthcare IT projects for major corporations; and spent nearly a decade as a practicing physician with Kaiser Permanente.

“Edmund has a unique combination of skills that goes beyond the medical knowledge and clinical experience required of a Chief Medical Officer to also encompass extensive information technology and Open Source work,” said Michael J. Doyle, Medsphere President and CEO. “We expect him to play an important role in continuing to build our platform into the leading Open Source-based EHR ecosystem.”

In 1988 Billings co-founded Oceania, a company that collaborated with Kaiser Permanente to pioneer electronic medical record (EMR) technology. A dozen years later, he co-founded Billings Brand Development, a firm focused on improving physician practices through information technology and practice automation solutions. During this period, Billings developed the Voice of the Physician™ methodology, which drives the definition, validation, and adoption of products by networks of physician practices.

In 2007, Billings co-founded Open Health Data, an Open Source company formed to leverage the transition of healthcare data from creation and sharing to use and reuse. Concurrent with his entrepreneurial efforts, he also served as Chief Medical Officer for both adam.com and Precurrence, two San Francisco-based development partners focused on the syndication of multimedia health content.

“Medsphere has a tremendous opportunity to alter the healthcare IT landscape via Open Source, and that is what attracted me to the company,” Billings said. “I firmly believe that Open Source holds the key to solving the economically sustainable healthcare IT dilemma, to breaking down the barriers to interoperability, and to accelerating the pace of healthcare transformation. Medsphere has already made significant progress toward bringing both Open Source and VistA to the commercial healthcare community.”

Billings graduated from the University of Vermont College of Medicine and completed post-doctoral fellowships at Massachusetts General Hospital, Shriner's Burn Institute, and the University of California at San Diego. He earned a bachelors degree focused on premedical training from Tufts University.

Medsphere’s OpenVista platform is based on the Open Source VistA EHR system developed by the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, used in all VA facilities, and credited with helping turn the VA into a national leader in quality patient care. Medsphere has enhanced VistA to meet the needs of non-VA healthcare providers and added professional services, ongoing product development, and 24x7 technical support, providing the safety of a professional Open Source delivery model without expensive proprietary license fees.

The appointment of Billings to the Medsphere executive team follows a month of major announcements that have included Doyle taking the helm of the company, the selection of OpenVista at Century City Doctors Hospital in Los Angeles, and an important partnership with Keane to deliver integrated best-of-suite clinical and financial software. The company’s current activities also include OpenVista implementations at Lutheran Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY, and Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County in Rock Springs, Wyoming.

About Medsphere Systems Corporation

As the Open Source source for healthcare, Medsphere is revolutionizing the industry by delivering commercially supported software based on the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ proven VistA electronic health record (EHR). Medsphere offers healthcare an economically sustainable and comprehensive solution in OpenVista®, a portfolio of products and professional services for hospitals, clinics, and integrated delivery networks. The company addresses the capital constraints of the healthcare industry through an innovative subscription-based pricing model. Medsphere's experienced team of healthcare technology professionals and unique suite of implementation tools deliver a fluid transition to a comprehensive healthcare information technology solution. Founded in 2002, Medsphere is backed financially by Azure Capital Partners, Thomas Weisel Venture Partners, and the Wasatch Venture Fund. For more information, visit http://www.medsphere.com.