Symmetry Health Data Systems, Inc.

The Episode Treatment Group™ and Episode Risk Groups™ systems, utilized in Pathfinder, were developed and patented by Symmetry Health Data Systems.

ETGs are the basis of illness classification within Pathfinder. Symmetry's extensive experience includes the initial development of many of the techniques and software platforms that are today's industry standards. ETGs are currently used by over 300 managed health plans across the United States, representing over 80 million individuals. With a combined market share of over 75%, Symmetry is the clear leader in episode building techniques.

Using ETGs as a building block, ERGs measure illness burden, and serve as the basis for Pathfinder’s Risk Profiling component. Together, these two methodologies allow you to perform both retrospective analysis to review results of clinical practice patterns within the context of a population’s illness burden, and prospective analysis to enable you to identify high-risk patients for disease management, and to help determine more accurate payment rates.

Johns Hopkins University

Adjusted Clinical Groups™, employed in Risk Tracker, are a series of mutually exclusive health status categories that are defined by morbidity, age and gender. They are based on the premise that the level of resources necessary for delivering appropriate health care to a population is correlated with the "illness burden" of that population.

The Johns Hopkins ACG Case-Mix System is a statistically valid, diagnosis-based, risk adjustment methodology that allows health care providers, insurers and HMOs to describe or predict a population's past or future health care utilization and costs.

Currently, ACGs are used by over 200 organizations worldwide to determine the morbidity profile of patient populations, to assess provider performance and to pay health care providers based on the health needs of their patients.

Medformatics

Medformatics, Inc., is a Minneapolis-based consulting firm specializing in the design, implementation, and selection of health care information systems. Dr. Jeffrey Hertzberg, President of Medformatics, is a Board-certified physician who practiced general internal medicine for four years before completing a National Library of Medicine fellowship and graduate degree in Medical Informatics at the University of Minnesota. During this study, Dr. Hertzberg researched factors leading to successful implementation of information technology among physicians. His consulting practice has included development projects for provider profiling and disease management software, vendor selection processes, and clinical information system development. Dr. Hertzberg is also adjunct professor at the University of Minnesota and the University of St. Thomas, teaching medical informatics to graduate students and MBA candidates. He is a frequent speaker and author on topics related to the medical computer sciences.