What Our Acquisition of Xtract Solutions’ Software Means for You
See how ModMed and Xtract Solutions can help practices
What happens when two leaders in the allergy space come together? In the case of Xtract Solutions and ModMed®, you get the best of both worlds — a leading immunotherapy software solution along with an allergy-specific EHR system and all of the other technology you need to run your practice.
To find out more about our acquisition of Xtract Solutions’ software and what it will mean for our clients, we caught up with Luke Barratt, former CEO of Xtract, and Gayathri Narayan, general manager of allergy and ENT at ModMed.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
ModMed: What do you want people to know about this relationship between ModMed and Xtract Solutions? How does this relationship help our allergy clients?
Gayathri Narayan: I’m incredibly excited about this new acquisition and I think it’s really going to elevate what we’re doing in the allergy space.
Since the beginning, my team has been visiting allergy practices to understand their workflows — and I can’t tell you how eye-opening that has been. Allergists have been dealing with inefficient EHR systems that simply aren’t tailored to their specialty. Burnout is so prevalent in this market that some physicians are retiring early because they don’t want to deal with all of the paperwork anymore. We really felt like we could make a difference in this space, and now that we’re here, we can’t wait for people to experience our solution.
ModMed’s solution begins with a solid foundation — an allergy specific EHR that comes pre-built with strong medical content — 800 allergy-specific plans, 4,000-plus procedures and 140,000 allergy-specific diagnoses. Of course, we aren’t just building a standalone EHR. Our company designs full software suites: Practice Management, Analytics, Patient Engagement, payment processing and RCM — with ModMed you get the complete solution. And now that we have Xtract, our solution is even more robust and dynamic. Xtract is a leading immunotherapy software, and it really enables us to deliver something that’s a rarity in today’s market.
Luke Barratt: These are two companies that share the same vision and the same values coming together to solve real problems in the allergy space. Both companies were founded by physicians who saw a better way forward in healthcare — and now, we’re going to continue to build upon that vision, with an all-in-one allergy-specific solution that understands the nuances of immunotherapy.
I want our customer base to know that everything they’ve seen us do in allergy so far has just been turbocharged — this is just the beginning, and I’m excited for what the future brings.
ModMed: Can you tell us how Xtract Solutions came to be? What problems was it designed to solve?
Barratt: Xtract’s story began at a local hardware store where our founder, Dr. James Baker, was getting some paint mixed. During this particular visit, he noticed that the technology used to tint his paint was superior to what his nurses were using to mix injectables for allergy care. So, he decided to build something better. He got his start with refrigeration equipment and later expanded into other types of allergy technology, including software.
Our founding was all about bringing modern technology into the allergy space that would help promote patient safety and clinical efficiency — and that vision only magnified when our focus shifted more fully to the software. We’ve always wanted to have a big impact in this space, and Dr. Baker felt our software was the best way to do that.
ModMed: How does Xtract Solutions help improve care delivery and patient safety?
Barratt: At Xtract, we’re focused on patient safety, staff efficiency, and supporting the nuances of allergy. Dr. Baker believed that for a platform to be specific to immunotherapy, you should be able to program it to the physician and allow for any deviations on a patient-specific basis. There's a lot of repetition in allergy, but there's also a lot of nuance and complexity. There will always be patients who require something unique.
On the care delivery side, once the physicians know how they want their allergy patients to be treated (i.e. how medication will be prescribed, how they're tested, and what's documented), the decision-making support around the next steps in care is well-structured in our solution. The physicians can actually establish treatment plans and know that what they’ve created is going to be mandated and carried out by other members of that patient’s care team. Xtract is bringing consistency to the clinical flow and promoting safety through the consistent application of allergy protocols.
The other piece we're bringing to the market is hospital-grade labeling, barcode scanning and patient ID verification at the time of injection. These are critical for patient safety. In allergy, physicians aren’t determining what a patient’s condition is and choosing a medication that supports it. They’re actually figuring out what's toxic to patients and then treating them with that element. So the risks are elevated for poorly formulated treatment sets. So, on the patient care side, knowing that I've got the right patient getting the right treatment at the right concentration is where we can have the greatest impact.
In terms of sequential shots, our solution also has structure in place that can help with dosing warnings and identifying patients who are dropping off after the first few shots.
All of these elements come together to support the physicians and help them provide quality care.
ModMed: How does Xtract Solutions work within our EMA® EHR solution?
Narayan: Not everyone knows this, but we began offering an interface with Xtract solutions in 2021. It’s a seamless connection between our EHR, Practice Management system and Xtract. Xtract pulls patient demographics from our systems, and when tests are ordered, the results and charges post to our systems. And this is only the beginning — our two solutions will only become more unified over time.
ModMed: How is this relationship advancing the future of healthcare?
Barratt: At a recent conference, ModMed founder Dr. Michael Sherling spoke about ModMed's goal of leveraging the power of technology to help mitigate chronic diseases and the expenses associated with them. Xtract has always had a similar vision. We cannot wait to bring data-driven metrics back to the allergy care market and to support clinical decision-making through in-depth reporting and analytics. With ModMed, we will have the depth and power to do that.
Narayan: The ModMed mission is to place doctors and patients at the center of care through an intelligent, specialty-specific cloud platform. That’s exactly what we’re doing in the allergy vertical. We are increasing practice efficiency to help reduce burnout and helping physicians get back to what they are best at, which is taking care of patients.
ModMed: Are there any future plans you can speak to or anything else you’d like to share?
Barratt: Right now it’s all about how we can bring our solutions together based on physician and provider feedback. The more we can establish that dialogue, the more we’ll be able to tailor our solution to what practices want.
Narayan: I also want to mention that the work we’re doing in the allergy space doesn’t just affect pure allergy practices. Every third patient who goes to a physician’s office suffers from allergies* — and ENT, family medicine, dermatology, internal medicine and pediatric practices are all hiring board-certified allergists to help care for these patients. The good news here is that ModMed Allergy isn’t just a standalone product. We designed it to be accessible to other medical specialties, too. Now that Xtract is part of the ModMed family, our product is going to be that much stronger as we continue to forge ahead. I’m excited to see what the future holds, and I know our clients are, too.
Learn more about ModMed Allergy, Asthma & Immunology — software that's built for allergists.
Our Panel
Gayathri Narayan, general manager, allergy and ENT, ModMed
Gayathri joined ModMed in 2019. Under her leadership, the business has grown significantly and continues to expand into new adjacencies. Prior to ModMed, she worked at Thomson Reuters, where she successfully developed and commercialized six products. Gayathri has worked across three continents and has extensive experience in business, operations, strategy, product management, finance and compliance. Gayathri is a certified accountant from India and has an MBA from Columbia Business School. She loves salsa dancing, traveling to Latin America and brushing up her Spanish.
Luke Barratt, former CEO, Xtract Solutions
Luke has been with Xtract Solutions since its inception in 2004, working first as an engineer and more recently taking the helm as Xtract’s CEO, before joining ModMed. He oversaw all development, both business and technical at Xtract. Luke’s passion for the allergy field was born while he was designing and building automation platforms for the complex manipulation of allergen immunotherapy compounding. This grew into multiple FDA 510k authorizations for syringe-dosing accessories, mass vaccination kits, miniature refrigeration design and commercialization. When he is not thinking about Xtract or tinkering in his garage, Luke is involved with his very active family: his wife, son and two daughters. They love exploring the amazing Pacific Northwest backcountry on foot, on skis and in tents — all year long.
* United States Allergy EMR Software Market Size, Status and Forecast to 2028, Verified Market Research, 2020.
This blog is intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal or medical advice. Please consult with your legal counsel and other qualified advisors to ensure compliance with applicable laws, regulations and standards.
