A-Life Medical Announces Acquisition of University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's Stake in A-Life Hospital Coding, LLC

A-Life Medical Will Offer Computer Assisted Coding Directly to Inpatient Market

San Diego, California (PRWEB) June 1, 2009 -- A-Life Medical, Inc. announced recently the acquisition of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's interest in A-Life Hospital Coding, LLC. Tom Bang, President and CEO of A-Life Medical, will head the A-Life Hospital entity. Jaye Connolly has been promoted to Chief Operating Officer, A-Life Medical, in combination with her existing role as Chief Financial Officer and will manage A-Life Medical's day-to-day operations. A-Life Medical provides Natural Language Processing (NLP) for computer assisted coding and billing product solutions to the healthcare industry.

With this strategic acquisition, A-Life Medical extends the reach of their patented NLP engine, LifeCode®, into the inpatient hospital coding domain. The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) will continue as the national showcase and customer reference site for A-Life Hospital's computer assisted coding product. The acquisition, made possible through shareholder support and assistance from the San Diego-based banking team at Bank of America, will further expand A-Life Medical's market share with the addition of inpatient facility coding.

"Our unique partnership with UPMC combined the expertise required for developing a hospital-based computer assisted coding product, with the industry's most advanced NLP engine, and the extensive clinical and health information management experience needed to identify and address users' needs," said Mr. Bang. "The product, which incorporates the latest generation of our patented NLP LifeCode® engine, has exceeded our expectations in enhancing coder productivity and accuracy, while improving compliance and audit outcomes, resulting in a very compelling ROI. Working together with our partners, A-Life employees have demonstrated their commitment to delivering highly robust and efficient solutions that meet the demands of hospitals in these unprecedented economic times."

A-Life's hospital coding product streamlines and simplifies the work done by human coders. Using A-Life's sophisticated NLP technology, which reads and understands English and medical terminology; the system analyzes text-based medical records throughout a dozen data sources. The system provides coders with recommended ICD-9-CM codes, principal diagnosis, possible complications and co-morbidities. It improves audit outcomes by producing automatic audit trails and links to documented evidence for each code selected. Integrated with the hospital's existing electronic medical record system of choice, A-Life's hospital coding product helps coders navigate the regulatory complexity created by the introduction of Medicare Severity Diagnosis-Related Groups (MS-DRGs).

About A-Life Medical, Inc.
A-Life Medical Inc., a privately held technology company based in San Diego, CA, is the leading provider of Natural Language Processing (NLP) based solutions for the healthcare industry. A-Life Medical's products extract meaning from unstructured free text and automate tedious, complicated and labor intensive tasks. A-Life Medical's mission is to provide world-class solutions to streamline and computerize the code to collection process while fundamentally advancing the way the healthcare industry gathers, applies and reports on patient information. A-Life Medical is the leading NLP provider for computer assisted coding and billing product solutions for the healthcare industry. For more information about A-Life Medical and its products, call 888.224.6300 or visit www.alifemedical.com.

###