As 2019 comes to a close, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the past year. What a fantastic year it has been! From a geographical standpoint, the Azara team has visited DRVS users, prospects, and partners across nearly every state in the Union. Once again, this has included multiple visits to two states furthest away from Boston, Alaska, and Hawaii. Our team is not just traversing the US; we continue to engage and work closely with clients in 31 of those states plus the District of Columbia.
2019 was extremely exciting for us. Our team grew significantly, and our client base blossomed to more than 400 health centers spread across 7,500+ sites. DRVS has played a role in a variety of national, state, and local programs as well as in the dozens of grants that our customers regularly win. Of all these accomplishments, I most enjoy watching our clients deliver the meaningful (and quantifiable) results that improve care and lower costs across a wide range of domains.
2019 HIGHLIGHTS
User Conference
In late May, nearly 300 DRVS users traveled from as far across the nation to join us at the third Annual Azara DRVS User Conference here in Boston. It was fun and exciting to put faces to names and voices and watch our staff interact with our clients and partners. The agenda was packed full, and we were fortunate to have a large number of outstanding guest and customer presenters. Our three pre-conference workshops were well attended, and our clients had the opportunity to gain more hands-on training across a variety of topics. I most enjoyed watching our clients meet and learn from each other. I continue to be overwhelmed and humbled by the enthusiasm and passion of our customers. We are planning for 350+ people to join us March 31-April 1 here in Boston for the 2020 event. Registration is open at https://azarahealthcare.com/annual-conference-2020/, don’t wait until it’s too late.
Expanded Office Space
In early November, Azara decamped the home we have held since 2013 and relocated to a new, more expansive space on the 1st floor of our existing building. Our team has moved from a cramped office setting patched together piece by piece, new hire by new hire, to a new build-out designed explicitly with lots of natural light and comfortable workspaces. The new office accommodates our continuing growth and allows everyone to maximize their productivity. Our team is now settled in their new digs and we invite you to visit us if you are in the Boston area.
Product Offerings
This year, we significantly increased the capabilities of DRVS. With more clients preparing to enter into value-based contracts, the integration of payer data remains a priority. We continue to roll out new and additional reports for tracking enrollment and attribution and risk stratification, as well as enabling better reconciliation of care gaps between clinical and claims data. It is clear that our clients are moving down this path quickly, and we saw a meaningful increase in the number of clients with access to payer data (enrollment, care gaps, and claims) from their managed care plans.
In 2019, Azara again expanded its role as the “data hub” in a variety of areas. We successfully connected to additional Health Information Exchanges (HIE), bringing to ten the number of HIE’s from whom we are now receiving hospital admit/discharge/transfer information for patients of our FQHC clients. We also took on a much more prominent role in the provision of clinical data to 3rd parties on behalf of our clients, enabling DRVS users to leverage the curated clinical data within DRVS. These 3rd parties included managed care companies, Accountable Care Organizations (ACO’s), and academic medical centers. Look for more exciting news on 3rd party connections in 2020.
In May of 2018, we previewed concepts and wireframes for a new Azara Care Management (ACM) tool, and at this years’ DRVS User Conference, we launched it into the market. ACM leverages all of the data already within DRVS to help clients tackle focused, task-oriented efforts to manage specific high-need/high-risk populations or groups of patients. DRVS customers have received it well, and initial reception and feedback have been very positive. We recognize that many of our clients are just venturing into formalized care management programs and we will continue to invest in the enhancement of this exciting new product so that it will grow and change as your needs mature and evolve.
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