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Plotting a Course to the Workflow: Hearst Acquires Map of Medicine
By Daniel Pollock
April 25, 2008
Important Details: Hearst Business Media, the B2B division of the Hearst Corporation and owner of Zynx and First DataBank, recently announced the acquisition of Map of Medicine (MoM). MoM produces a web-based series of treatment and diagnosis guidelines, presented as visual “care pathways”, which show flowcharts of the various stages a patient goes through during the diagnosis and treatment of a particular condition. The flow chart forms a framework to organize knowledge, with individual flowchart boxes linked to evidence-based reference information where applicable. The web site claims that “the distilled, visual flow of the Map of Medicine pathways provide quick access as a reference source or to share with patients at the point of care”. The content covers 28 specialties organised into 392 pathways; this is equivalent to over 6000 printed pages.
MoM is designed to be easy to customize for local needs, by allowing customers to link to their chosen reference content, and it also claims to be integrated with EHR (electronic health record) systems from vendor partners including iSoft, EMIS, The Phoenix Partnership (TPP), INPS and System C.
MoM’s roots can be traced back to 2000, to a collaboration between the Royal Free & University College Medical School in London and Medic-to-Medic Ltd, a subsidiary of UCL Biomedica plc. It was founded and operated under the direction of consultant gastroenterologist Dr. Owen Epstein (see Insights 1 December 2003, Medic-to-Medic: “Healthcare Without Walls”). The service was acquired by T&F Informa in 2005, spurred on by a couple of major deals with suppliers to the UK’s National Health Service (see Insights 13 June 2005, T&F Informa: Moving Into Point of Care Medicine With Medic-To-Medic). It will now be managed in London as a separate operating unit (Map of Medicine, a UK limited company) of Hearst Business Media. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Map of Medicine was included in the UK Government’s 2004 IT investment plan to modernize the UK’s National Health Service (NHS). The Map is now available throughout all of England under long-term agreements. In addition, the Map is working with a range of NHS agencies including the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) and the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement to use the service for the communication of national rules and regulatory requirements.
Implications: The announcement repeatedly mentioned international opportunities. MoM’s success with the UK’s NHS will no doubt provide a good springboard into other publicly-funded healthcare systems, and also into the global English-speaking market. Founder Mike Stein claims this to be the case, and cites growing international demand in countries “such as Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the Nordic countries.”
As well as the international angle, in Outsell’s opinion, the acquisition could also be seen as a move to balance Hearst’s B2B portfolio to be less reliant on the cyclical cycles of ad-based revenue.
The acquisition resonates with Hearst Business Media’s strategy of building out “real time information database repositories and software technologies that allow professionals to integrate the information into workflow processes”, and also speaks to synergies with Hearst’s other two clinical workflow products: First DataBank and, most importantly, Zynx. Hearst has already signaled its intent to integrate MoM with the latter. Together they provide complementary sets of content, with MoM framing the patient journey and Zynx providing the detailed orders necessary to implement patient care. Both have proven track records, having been adopted by significant numbers of clinical institutions in their quest to promote and disseminate best medical practice.
Both products, too, show a different approach to medical publishing. They are not editorially driven in the conventional sense, but grew out of practical, real-world, clinician-led initiatives. Their customisable frameworks act as connectors of knowledge to workflow, as much as (if not more than) providing content in their own end. Indeed, one could even conceive of MoM being used as a linking mechanism to competitors’ content.
In describing the acquisition, Richard P. Malloch, president of Hearst Business Media, stated, “we now have an unparalleled collection of clinical databases and software, as well as a world-class group of physicians, nurses and pharmacists”. The absence of any mention of editorial staff or referential content is telling. As we covered in our Insights from 4 March 2008, Workflow: Order Of The Day At HIMSS Annual Healthcare IT Conference, publishing for the clinical workflow challenges STM’s norms. Hearst’s big STM rivals are starting with reference content and building out assets into the point of care, taking themselves through the twists and turns of business transformation as they go. Meanwhile, Hearst has no legacy to hold it back and has built out a selective portfolio of products born specifically for the workflow. Malloch claims Hearst to be “a leader in clinical decision support.” With Zynx’s 1400 US hospitals, and MoM’s adoption by the UK’s NHS, he’s quite possibly right.