Medical Information Technology, more often referred to as Meditech, is a health IT vendor. Here are 10 things to know about the Westwood, Mass.-based company.
1. While A. Neil Pappalardo was working at Boston-based Massachusetts General Hospital in 1964, he created MGH Utility Multi-Programming System, or MUMPS, a medical software language. His interest in healthcare technology led him to found Meditech in 1968. The company officially opened for business in August of the next year.
2. Howard Messing serves as president and CEO of Meditech. He's held the president position since 2002 and CEO position since 2010. Lawrence Polimeno, Meditech's first employee, is also the company's vice chairman, a role he's held since 2002. Mr. Pappalardo currently serves as Meditech chairman.
3. Meditech provides its EHR solution to more than 2,300 institutions around the globe. Approximately 650 of its customers are internationally based across 22 countries, including Australia, the Bahamas, Canada, Ireland, Kuwait and Mozambique.
4. Meditech's latest product offerings include the 6.1 EHR platform and the web ambulatory solution. To date, more than 360 Meditech customers have signed up for the 6.1 platform, and 190 of them have gone live. More than 110 Meditech customers have signed up for its web ambulatory product, and six have gone live.
5. More than 2,000 providers using Meditech have attested to meaningful use. According to July 2016 ONC data, 953 hospitals that attest to MU use Meditech's EHR technology, making it the second most common health IT vendor.
6. In terms of interoperability, Meditech is a member of the CommonWell Health Alliance, a collaboration that seeks to enhance interoperability in health IT. It was founded by several other top IT vendors, including Allscripts, athenahealth, Cerner, Evident, Greenway Health, McKesson and Sunquest.
7. Meditech clients appear less satisfied with and more "trapped" in their vendor relationships, according to the 2016 Black Book Inpatient EHR Surveys. The surveys gathered responses from EHR vendors between the second quarter of 2015 through the first quarter of 2016. Meditech was one of the vendors in the "trapped" quadrant, which Black Book classified as customers with the intent to continue business with the vendor but dissatisfaction with some important aspect of the relationship.
8. Meditech invests in learning and higher education. In 2010, the vendor launched a relationship with Boston-based Northeastern University to integrate its EHR software into the classroom setting for health science students. Three years later, Meditech was named "Employer of the Year" at Bridgewater (Mass.) State University, and currently employs more than 200 BSU graduates.
9. Hospitals using Meditech's EHR have gained recognition in the health IT world. In 2015, two Meditech customers received the HIMSS Nicholas E. Davis Award of Excellence, which recognizes Stage 6 or 7 hospitals. The same year, numerous Meditech organizations — including Sioux Falls, S.D.-based Avera Health and Prince Frederick, Md.-based Calvert Memorial Hospital — were named to Hospitals & Health Networks' Health Care's Most Wired list.
10. Meditech recently reported its financial results for all of 2016. For 2016, the company's total revenue for existing and new customers was $462.3 million, a 2.8 percent decreased from the $475.5 million reported in 2015. Meditech's 2016 net income was $72.9 million. This is nearly a 4 percent increase from the $70.1 million the company reported in 2015.