Audacious Inquiry

American health information technology company

Audacious Inquiry

Industry| Health Information Technology
Founded| 2004; 21 years ago (2004) in the United States
Headquarters| Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.

Key people

| Scott Afzal, President (2007), Chris Brandt, Founder & CEO (2004)
Revenue| US$30 million (2020)

Number of employees

| 150 employees (2020)
Website| www.ainq.com

Audacious Inquiry (Ai) is an American company founded in 2004 and with headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland. The company provides health information technology services and cloud-based software.

## History

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Audacious Inquiry was founded in 2004 by Chris Brandt, who serves as the company's CEO.[1][2]

The company endured the Great Recession,[3] which was afflicting major world markets not long after the company was formed.[4] The company graduated from the Maryland Center for Entrepreneurship in 2010 and is now headquartered in the BWtech Research Park on the campus of University of Maryland, Baltimore County.[5]

Audacious Inquiry became a certified B Corporation in 2013.[6][7] In 2017, it received outside investment from Baltimore-based ABS Capital Partners.[8][9] Scott Afzal was named President of Audacious Inquiry in 2018.[10] In 2020, the company received additional growth investment from Minneapolis-based TripleTree Capital Partners, ABS Capital Partners, and Frist Cressey Ventures, a Nashville firm cofounded by former U.S. Senator Bill Frist.[11]

In 2018, the company received "hall of fame" recognition from Inc. Magazine; as of 2020, the company has been named to the publication's list of fastest growing companies in America for ten consecutive years.[12]

## Health Information Technology

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The company provides cloud-based software that enables the secure exchange of actionable medical and other data across multiple healthcare organizations. Audacious Inquiry also performs IT consulting and advisory services to advance healthcare interoperability and public health.[13][14]

Beginning in 2007, Audacious Inquiry collaborated with Johns Hopkins Medicine, University of Maryland Medical System, MedStar Health, Erickson Living, and the Maryland Department of Health to develop and establish the Chesapeake Regional Information System for our Patients (CRISP), a health information exchange.[15] The firm developed the Encounter Notification Service, an event-driven model for standards-based health information exchange, in partnership with CRISP. The firm now supports or directly operates similar, "connected healthcare" efforts in several other US states and regions.[16][17][18]

The firm developed the Patient Unified Lookup System for Emergencies (PULSE) and now partners with the Sequoia Project to enable it as a nationwide disaster response application.[19] In 2017 and 2018, providers used PULSE during the California wildfires.[20][21] In 2020, PULSE COVID was deployed by public health agencies in several states to support the effort to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.[22]

In collaboration with the US Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology and Health Level Seven International in 2020, Audacious Inquiry launched the Situation Awareness for Novel Epidemic Response (SANER) project. The SANER project will establish a technical specification to enable public health authorities to gain situational awareness through electronic communication of information on healthcare capacity, staffing, and availability of key supplies like ventilators and personal protective equipment.[23][24]

## References

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1. ^ Yerick, Miyako (May 28, 2020). "Digital Revolution in Health Care -Penn". Columbia University Club of Washington, D.C. Retrieved 2020-09-09.
2. ^ Kirby, Donte (2020-08-14). "71 Baltimore-area companies made this year's Inc. 5000". Technical.ly Baltimore. Retrieved 2020-09-09.
3. ^ Daniel Sernovitz (2009), "Audacious Inquiry Recognized in the Recession Survival", Baltimore Business Journal, retrieved 2010-10-10
4. ^ NPR – Talk of the Nation transcript (2011), Audacious Inquiry CEO a guest on NPR for discussion about creating jobs coming out of the recession, retrieved 2018-11-14
5. ^ Dash, Julekha (August 10, 2010), "IT firm Audacious Inquiry moves into UMBC's incubator", bmore, retrieved February 6, 2019
6. ^ Jonathan Munshaw (2016), "Here's why 'B Corps' could help Baltimore spur economic development", Baltimore Business Journal, retrieved 2018-11-14
7. ^ Bort, Julie (October 29, 2013), "9 Tech Companies Making The World A Much Better Place", Business Insider, New York City: Insider, Inc., Audacious Inquiry: Coding for social welfare, retrieved February 6, 2019, "Audacious Inquiry is a technology consultancy that creates websites, writes software and apps. Audacious only takes on projects that help others, such as projects that involve health care..."
8. ^ Dinsmore, Christopher (January 22, 2018), "Baltimore health technology firm receives first outside venture capital investment", The Baltimore Sun, Tribune Publishing Company, retrieved February 6, 2019
9. ^ Babcock, Stephen (January 19, 2018), "Health IT firm Audacious Inquiry lands investment from ABS Capital", Technical.ly, Technically Media, Inc., retrieved February 6, 2019
10. ^ Daily Record Staff (August 28, 2018), "FEATURED MOVER, Scott Afzal, Audacious Inquiry", retrieved August 27, 2019, "Scott Afzal has been promoted to president of Audacious Inquiry, a Baltimore-based health information and policy company."
11. ^ Stephen Babcock (October 20, 2020), "Power Moves: With new funding round, Audacious Inquiry adds to C-suite, board", Technically Media, Inc., retrieved April 7, 2020
12. ^ Inc. Magazine (2020), Audacious Inquiry Inc. Profile, retrieved 2021-02-01
13. ^ Glaser, John (October 10, 2016), "The Evolution of Interoperability in Health Care: Range of forces will determine how patient information is exchanged in the future.", Hospital & Health Networks Magazine, retrieved February 2, 2019, "Health IT and policy company Audacious Inquiry outlined several of the IT applications that will be needed to support the advanced payment models proposed by CMS."
14. ^ Enhanced Patient Matching Is Critical to Achieving Full Promise of Digital Health Records: Accurately linking individuals with their records essential to improving care (Report.), Pew Charitable Trusts, October 2, 2018, retrieved February 2, 2019, "Audacious Inquiry, a contractor that has conducted research for ONC, found match rates as low as 50 percent even between organizations that share the same EHR vendor because of the variability in technology and processes."
15. ^ Raths, David (February 1, 2018), "Up-and-Comers 2017: Audacious Inquiry's Bold Goals for Health Information Exchange", Healthcare Innovation, retrieved February 2, 2019
16. ^ Florida Health Information Exchange Expands Event Notification Service: Provides health plans with real-time clinical information on hospital-based encounters (PDF) (Press release.), Agency for Healthcare Administration, State of Florida, March 23, 2015, retrieved February 2, 2019, "The ENS has been developed and implemented by Harris Corporation and subcontractor Audacious Inquiry, LLC, on behalf of the Florida Health Information Exchange."
17. ^ Landi, Heather (January 15, 2019), Manifest MedEx CEO on the Path Forward for HIEs, and Connecting Healthcare in California, retrieved February 2, 2019, "Over the past year we have transitioned to a new modular technology platform, integrating best of breed components from InterSystems, NextGate, Audacious Inquiry and others."
18. ^ Monica, Kate (July 3, 2019), Georgia Hospital Association Initiative to Improve Interoperability, retrieved August 27, 2019, "Georgia Hospital Association and Audacious Inquiry will partner to improve interoperability and communication for providers across the state."
19. ^ Arndt, Rachel Z. (September 14, 2018), "As Hurricane Florence hits, health information exchanges fill inpatient data gaps", Modern Healthcare, retrieved February 2, 2019, "The platform was originally developed by Audacious Inquiry, a Baltimore-based health information exchange technology firm. In 2017 and 2018, providers used PULSE during the California wildfires, connected to Sequoia Project's national network. Currently, Audacious Inquiry is partnered with the Sequoia Project to scale PULSE as a nationwide disaster response solution."
20. ^ Moltini, Megan (September 1, 2017), "Harvey Evacuees Leave Their Belongings—and Health Records—Behind", Wired, Boone, Iowa: Condé Nast, retrieved February 2, 2019
21. ^ Allen, Arthur (December 7, 2018), "'Praying they would make it out of there'", Politico, retrieved February 2, 2019, "Audacious Inquiry, a tech company that runs many health information exchanges including in Florida, got a list of 400 missing people from Florida home health agencies and dialysis centers the first night of Michael, and located 89 of the evacuees in other facilities, said the company's president, Scott Afzal."
22. ^ Babcock, Stephen (April 29, 2020), Audacious Inquiry brings APIs to the fight against COVID-19, retrieved May 14, 2020, "PULSE was designed by the company to be used in disaster scenarios where volunteers are providing care in settings like field hospitals. That's coming into play now, as states like Maryland are expanding capacity with facilities like a recently opened field hospital at the Baltimore Convention Center. The company created a more streamlined user interface, PULSE COVID, that allows users like public health agencies or healthcare providers to search for medical records and histories from nationally available information exchanges. Ai partners on this effort with The Sequoia Project. The company is seeing new interest in these offerings. When we talked last week, PULSE COVID was live in two states and was set to be launched in two more."
23. ^ "The SANER Project", Health Information Technology, March 24, 2020, retrieved May 14, 2020
24. ^ Jayson Marwaha; John D. Halamka; Gabriel Brat (May 4, 2020), "Lifesaving ventilators will sit unused without a national data-sharing effort", STAT News, retrieved May 14, 2020, "Health tech company Audacious Inquiry has already partnered with HL7 to develop standards for data transfer between inpatient medical devices and electronic health records to improve awareness of equipment use during the pandemic."

## External links

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* B Corporation Impact Report for Audacious Inquiry
* Bloomberg Company Overview of Audacious Inquiry, LLC