Axolotl

Most widely HIE-connected ambulatory EHR significantly enhanced

San Jose, CA June 23, 2009 - Axolotl Corp., the leader in health information exchange (HIE) solutions and related services, announced that the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT®) has approved Axolotl's Elysium® 9, as a pre-market conditionally CCHIT Certified® 08 Ambulatory electronic health record (EHR). Pre-market conditionally certified EHRs are new products that become fully certified once their operational use at a physician office site has been verified. Axolotl intends to maintain Elysium 9's certification to meet the required standards and certification criteria that will ensure physicians are well positioned to achieve and demonstrate meaningful use as referenced in the HITECH act. The new software version is freely available, at no additional license cost, to Axolotl's 25,000 licensed physicians, many of whom contributed to its development.

Ambulatory EHRs are designed for physician offices and clinics where most Americans get their healthcare. The Commission, a private, nonprofit organization is a Recognized Certification Body in the United States for certifying health information technology products.

"Two key new areas of interoperability are required to achieve 08 certification," said Mark Leavitt, M.D., Ph.D., chair, CCHIT. "First, ambulatory EHRs must be capable of advanced electronic prescribing functions so physicians can qualify for bonuses under Medicare's new incentive program. Second, EHRs must be able to send and receive an electronic patient summary. These and other new criteria will ensure that certified health IT products help improve quality, safety and efficiency while protecting the privacy of health information."

"The industry has come to realize that both HIEs and EMRs are necessary to achieve full interoperability and make a positive impact on the quality of care," said Ray Scott, CEO of Axolotl Corp. "We believe achieving CCHIT 08 certification demonstrates our commitment to lead the industry with our open and SOA solutions, connecting not only our own EMR to our interoperable HIE platform but also those of other leading EMR vendors via existing and emerging standards."

"We are thrilled with our partner Axolotl's latest achievement, and particularly with their decision to provide the Elysium enhancements to current customers at no additional cost," said Keith Hepp, CFO at HealthBridge, one of the most successful, self-sustaining RHIOs in the nation. "We have thousands of Elysium users connected by Clinical Messaging® that will greatly benefit from the new features in the upgrade."

In the third year of the CCHIT's operation, the criteria and testing have been significantly updated again to provide physicians with more assurance that certified products will meet their needs for functionality, interoperability and security. CCHIT added 19 criteria to the 200 required in 2007, mostly focused on the ability to exchange patient information with other systems. A CCHIT Certified 08 Ambulatory EHR ensures:

• Additional electronic prescribing features: access to the patient's medication history, formulary, and eligibility.
• Better and safer medication dosing, adjusted for patient weight and other factors.
• Better ability to prevent adverse reactions due to drug interactions or allergies.
• Use of standard formats to exchange basic patient information for continuity of care.
• Enhanced ability to view X-rays and other diagnostic images.
• Better management of patient consents and authorizations.
• Increased use of standard formats when receiving and storing laboratory results.

As a CCHIT Certified product, Axolotl's Elysium 9 has been tested and passed inspection of 100% of these new criteria.

The CCHIT Certified "seal of approval" for EHR products provides a consensus-based, government-recognized benchmark for ambulatory EHR products. By looking to products with the CCHIT Certified seal, physicians and other providers can reduce their risk in selecting an EHR product, allowing them to focus their evaluation on the special needs of their practices.

About CCHIT
The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT®) is a private, 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that has been recognized by the federal government as an official certification body for electronic health records. Its mission is to accelerate the adoption of robust, interoperable health information technology by creating a credible, efficient certification process. The certification requirements are based on widely accepted industry standards and involve the work of hundreds of expert volunteers and input from a variety of stakeholders throughout the health care industry. More information on CCHIT and CCHIT Certified® products is available at www.cchit.org, http://ehrdecisions.com and http://phrdecisions.com.

About Axolotl Corp
Founded in 1995, Axolotl Corp. is North America's leading provider of browser-based products and services for secure health information exchange and management. Its award-winning Elysium® Exchange suite of solutions enables health care providers to instantly share information, reduce costs, and improve quality and efficiency.

Elysium helps thousands of health care entities-including hospitals, health systems, regional health information organizations (RHIOs/HIEs), clinics, laboratories, radiology centers and physician practices-to securely exchange clinical information for more than 25 million patients. Elysium's community-wide Master Patient Index, EdgeServer(s), Interoperability Hub (I-Hub), Community Virtual Health Record (VHR), and ambulatory EMR with integrated e-Prescribing are all provided as a software service (SaaS). Axolotl-employed U.S.-based transcriptionists provide high-quality medical transcription services, rapid turnaround and total billing transparency using Elysium technology for report delivery.

Axolotl is based in San Jose and best known for introducing Clinical Messaging®, now at the heart of all health information exchange. For more information about Axolotl, see www.axolotl.com.

"CCHIT®" and "CCHIT Certified®" are registered trademarks of the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology.

"Elysium®"and "Clinical Messaging®" are registered trademarks of Axolotl Corp.

Contact:
Elvia Watts, Press Relations Manager, Axolotl Corp, 408-920-0800 x.176, pr@axolotl.com