AnyWare Group Inc. announced today that MaineGeneral Health, one of the largest health care systems in Maine, has implemented AnyWare Group’s clientless remote access platform. The ROAM (Role Oriented Access Management) platform allows secure remote access to any designated application or file share within the health care system through a role-based portal.

Physicians associated with MaineGeneral’s Augusta and Waterville campuses may now use any PC or Mac, equipped with nothing more than a web browser and a basic version of JAVA, to access more than thirty applications within the health care system. Application examples include Eclipsys Sunrise, Allscripts TouchWorks, Philips iSite, Kronos and Lawson which reside in various environments including Citrix and Terminal Services.

“Initially we were looking for a very secure and cost effective remote access technology to connect our independent physicians to our EHR,” said Danny Burgess, CIO of MaineGeneral Health. “To be honest I had a very difficult time believing the claims of what ROAM could do for our organization. ROAM simply sounded too good to be true. Healthcare vendors routinely make extraordinary claims, but most have a track record of over-promising and under-delivering. It was not until we agreed to a ROAM pilot that AnyWare Group demonstrated they could do everything they said and much more.”

ROAM’s remote access capabilities have proven effective for the IT staff of MaineGeneral as well as a broad cross section of healthcare professionals. “The positive feedback from physicians has been overwhelming,” said Jimmy Mansir, System Support Technician. “Users are receiving the access they need, when needed”. “I have found ROAM to be an extremely powerful tool, simple to use and, best of all, it delivers only the applications that I require,” said Dr. Edward Ringel, Director of Clinical Informatics.

System engineering staff can deploy applications quickly, securely and reliably. “Prior to using ROAM for remote access, we had used IPSec VPN as well as one of the leading SSL VPN appliances – Citrix Access Gateway – for remote access connectivity. Both are great technologies, but we all agreed that ROAM delivered a level of security, simplicity and flexibility that was hard to ignore,” said Jerry Lindsay, Senior Systems Engineer. “Valuable IT resources have been freed to work in critical areas because, as a service, we just tell AnyWare Group what applications or roles we want to add to our ROAM Portal and they take care of it.”

AnyWare Group provides proactive monitoring and responsive 7/24 support as part of the service. “One of the most significant benefits of ROAM has been the support and engineering services that come bundled as part of the ROAM offering. There hasn’t been a single issue they couldn’t help us with”, said Mansir. “In addition our help calls regarding remote access have 
virtually disappeared as end users find the ROAM remote access solution extremely simple to use. There is virtually no learning curve for the end users.”

“Since AnyWare Group focuses on healthcare solutions, they have expertise that has helped us optimize a number of our applications including our PACS systems for remote access,” said Burgess.

“Having MaineGeneral Health as a customer is certainly a thrill for us. They have given us an opportunity to demonstrate the value we bring to both the IT department and end users – particularly physicians,” said Robert Lalonde, CEO of AnyWare Group. “The results at MaineGeneral legitimize the benefit claims of ROAM as a clientless remote access platform and are yet another customer proof point for us.”

About MaineGeneral Health
MaineGeneral Health is the parent corporation of a network of acute care hospitals, physician practices, long term nursing care, and assisted living and retirement communities.

About AnyWare Group
AnyWare Group is the leading remote access solution provider for hospitals and healthcare organizations. AnyWare Group’s award-winning ROAM Platform enables clientless remote access to all applications from any device (PCs and Macs) without requiring the management of users’ computers. Through the ROAM portal, organizations present all relevant applications to authorized users, when and where required.

Via EPR Network
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