A-Life Medical Announces Acquisition of University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's Stake in Partner A-Life Hospital to Offer Computer Assisted Coding Directly to the Inpatient Market

SAN DIEGO, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 05/19/09 -- A-Life Medical, Inc. today announced the acquisition of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's interest in A-Life Hospital Coding, LLC. Tom Bang, President and CEO, 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 is the leading Natural Language Processing (NLP) provider for Computer Assisted Coding and Billing product solutions in 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, further expands A-Life Medical's market leadership, with the addition of outpatient 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 A-Life Medical's CEO, Tom 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) in 2007.

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.

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