Simplicity Health Systems (SHS) was founded by three tech-savvy entrepreneurs during 2009 in response to the federal government’s Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act), which was a call for the advancement of healthcare technology. Recognizing that the direction taken by many IT solutions within healthcare was failing to deliver the benefits normally associate with technology – efficiency, quality, and cost – has allowed the team to uniquely position their technology platform. Thus, SHS is quickly establishing itself as the leader in next-generation interoperability solutions for the healthcare industry.
The company’s lead offering, the docflock platform, utilizes modern technologies to normalize and index data to enable content exchange and workflow continuity. Through the docflock platform, SHS is focused on solving some of the biggest problems within healthcare today. This goes well beyond IT applications, addressing the core mission of improving patient health outcomes. The suite of products evidence themselves in the simplification of complex workflows, delivering back-end infrastructure to be leveraged in the pursuit of truly open, rules-based information and patient data sharing. While docflock has been used as a replacement for electronic fax and similar technology, the true power of the platform is with the synchronization of content.
Additionally, by embracing the critical role that the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) plays in healthcare, the team has developed novel communication solutions, which facilitate healthcare cooperation.
SHS’ Voyage towards Success
In 2010, Simplicity launched its first solution for its customers. This early effort sought to provide healthcare organizations with a simple tool by which their legacy paper-based medical charts could be made usable within an electronic health records system.
In 2012, Simplicity Health Systems launched its lead product, docflock, to address the issues of connectivity resulting from the heterogeneous and fragmented approach taken by the EMR/EHR manufacturers, Health Information Exchanges (HIE), and Health IT Services Companies.
In 2014, the founders of the company made a crucial decision to go “all in” on building a suite of docflock products. As the products took shape, Simplicity gave it the name docflock. The name docflock was derived from the murmurations of large flocks of birds, particularly the starling flocks outside of Rome. These murmurations contained the attributes of a scale-free dynamic network. Each actor in such a dynamic network has the autonomy of individual movement, it stays attached to the network based off the value that that network provides. This is the same mathematical formula used by Google at its inception within the burgeoning Internet market. The challenge for these docflock products was the lack of a market-defined vernacular for the solutions provided. SHS set out to create a new axis for healthcare IT communication that was, part clinical documentation system (EHR), part information sharing and distribution (HIE), and part financial (performance) management system (PM). The main goal of the team was to create a cloud-based workflow-centric communication network that would simplify the communication and workflow between each step within the distributed care continuum.
An Ardent Business Leader
Chad Zerangue, Founder, and President of Simplicity Health Systems has led the team since SHS’ inception in 2009. Chad’s vision to improve patient care through a seamless flow of information within a digital health information infrastructure is paving the road to positive change in the overall management of healthcare today. Prior to Simplicity Health Systems, Chad specialized in enterprise content management and workflow system integration.
There are no shortcuts to building loyalty. We focus on customer groups for which we can bring true value. We deliver upon our promises. We do what is right for our customers – first – believing that this will benefit the company in the future. – Says Chad.
Leaving No Stones Unturned
Simplicity Health Systems biggest challenge is not technology, it is cutting through the market clutter and noise to communicate the brand’s story effectively. Healthcare is increasingly complex and ever-changing, which creates a whirlwind of activity and a sense of lost control. To address this need/opportunity, SHS has become disciplined at focusing on what matters most to customers. This is done by understanding their true needs, which takes commitment. The team has also narrowed their focus to markets where inter-organization communication is fundamental to success. This has not been a straight line journey. SHS has delivered solutions for a broad range of customers, but as the company has matured, the value in specialization has been realized. SHS is confident that, long-term, this approach will ensure deep customer partnerships and sustainable excellence. – Asserts Chad.
Future Perspectives
Simplicity Health Systems is readying the launch of docflock, Generation II. docflock Gen II is the evolution of Health Information as Content, specifically addressing the reality that the challenges of healthcare technology go beyond the issues of interoperability between EHRs. The goal with Gen. II is to add meaning and intelligence and to contextualize data.
Simplicity Health Systems’ future plans focus on continuing to break down the systemic barriers to content sharing and cooperation in the care of patients. Growth will compound over the next several years. SHS is on track to triple revenue for the second straight year, with forecasts that continue this trajectory. SHS’ team is also looking to capture 30%+ share of the market within the markets and customer segments targeted by the end of 2018.
