FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ORLANDO, FL (HIMSS08 Conference, February 27, 2008) - Medsphere Systems Corporation today announced the introduction of a broad healthcare information technology community initiative focused exclusively on improving healthcare and oriented around the company's OpenVista& electronic health record (EHR). Called the Healthcare Open Source Ecosystem (the Ecosystem), the community is a deliberate effort to bring the creative energies of diverse sub-groups to bear in positively impacting healthcare systems, a subject of concern for most citizens worldwide.

As initially conceived by Medsphere, the Ecosystem provides a valuable and vibrant forum for clinicians, programmers, software vendors, implementers and integrators, health system hospitals, consultants, and entrepreneurs. The company is also excited about the potential the community has beyond the boundaries of this initial, admittedly fluid, definition. As the Ecosystem takes on more structure, Medsphere fully expects creative energies to drive participation by other information technology and healthcare players who find a unique niche in which to do their work.

"The primary reason we're so excited about the Ecosystem concept is that it has so many potential benefits, many of which we can't even see yet," said Medsphere CEO Michael J. Doyle. "Clearly, it can free healthcare facilities from vendor lock, and provide a source for enhancements and upgrades outside of Medsphere.

"We're also really enthusiastic about the opportunity this offers for entrepreneurs to start small businesses oriented around VistA-based solutions. Philosophically, we truly believe that collaboration is the only way to fix healthcare, which makes the Ecosystem the appropriate impetus for wholesale change in the delivery of care. Consultants, integrators, even independent physicians will now have a technology platform on which to develop workflow-based tools for healthcare that have existed in other industries for years."

Within the existing Ecosystem, Medsphere, on behalf of clients, acts as a hub for evaluation and distribution of enhancements and updates that flow to and from the community. Say a hospital in New York, for example, makes enhancements to the OpenVista Pharmacy Application. (Given the Open Source nature of OpenVista, the hospital is free to do so.) Medsphere takes the enhancement, puts it through the quality assurance process, incorporates it back into releases of OpenVista, and sends the upgraded version out to clients and the community. The same process applies now to contributions by developers, systems integrators, and others, but will become more fluid over time.

Medsphere is currently collaborating with other VistA advocates to cultivate the Ecosystem and give it the foundation it will require to survive and thrive well into the future. The steps in this process include the following:

• Identify Ecosystem sub-groups and define collaboration
• Define communication structure
• Establish goals for 2008 and beyond
• Identify sponsorship opportunities
• Create an Ecosystem roadmap for OpenVista

Importantly, Medsphere is not creating the Ecosystem alone from the ground up. Several organizations have well established roots in promoting VistA adoption outside the VA, including the VistA Software Alliance (www.vistasoftware.org), the Hardhats developers group (www.hardhats.org), and WorldVistA (www.worldvista.org). Medsphere is both hopeful and anticipates that these and other groups will continue their history of active collaboration in improving healthcare.

"We want to issue a blanket invitation to all those who believe in and promote VistA to be full participants in the Ecosystem community," said Rick Jung, Medsphere Chief Operating Officer. "This collaborative association is less about Medsphere than it is about freeing hospitals from costly, onerous proprietary contracts, reducing the cost of care, providing more frequent and better enhancements, and generally improving the quality of healthcare outcomes. We firmly believe that collaboration is the only way to bring about substantial change in this arena."

The Healthcare Open Source Ecosystem announcement is only the most recent in a series of events at Medsphere that includes Doyle taking over leadership as CEO, Jung coming onboard as chief operations officer, Dr. Edmund Billings' appointment as chief medical officer, and Scott McMullen joining as vice president of engineering. The company's current activities include OpenVista implementations at Lutheran Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York, Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County in Rock Springs, Wyoming, and facilities in the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (WV DHHR). The system is already in use at Midland Memorial Hospital in Midland, Texas, several WV DHHR facilities, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Indian Health Service, and a variety of other care delivery organizations.

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