Celebrating 12 Years of Successful Electronic Health Record Deployments

Matthew Crawford

Hundreds of healthcare providers have standardized on Citrix technology to roll out Epic Hyperspace. Speak to IT professionals who have been a part of a major EHR roll-out and they’ll tell you: the stakes are high. There are so many variables and things to consider that it’s enough to keep them up at night. Let’s say you are in the midst of a rollout. Is there anything that won’t cause you to lose sleep? Yes!  

You won’t have to worry about whether your Citrix infrastructure will scale (it will). XenApp and XenDesktop support some of the larger Epic Hyperspace implementations. XenApp was placed on Epic’s Target Platform list for Hyperspace almost 5 years ago and has been proven to work time after time after time. That is why XenApp and XenDesktop are a part of over 80% of Epic Hyperspace implementations—large and small.

In fact, predictability and stability for these large-scale implementations is one of the reasons we announced the Long Term Service Release (LTSR) program for XenApp and XenDesktop earlier this year.

Simply put, XenApp/XenDesktop 7.6 LTSR is ideal for situations where you want to have the same base infrastructure for longer periods. For an LTSR, there is guaranteed 5 years of mainstream support from launch and the possibility of five years of optional extended support if desired (separate contract required). Plus you can count on predictable maintenance with regularly-scheduled cumulative updates.

But it’s not just about stability. If you are moving from 6.5 (or older) platforms, upgrading to XenDesktop/XenApp 7.6 LTSR brings several new capabilities that are especially powerful in an Epic Hyperspace environment.

Instant app access – Tight integration with Epic’s Warp Drive utility for clinical PCs, as well as with other core Citrix technologies such as the new and improved Pre-launch and Session Linger, enable  delivery of virtual apps to users with a fast, local-like launch experience. This decreases the required log on time for critical clinical apps.

USB plug-n-play – Generic USB redirection, used for specialty USB devices such as dictation equipment, is USB 3.0 ready in XenDesktop/XenApp7.6, enabling plug-n-play operation with new Citrix Receiver versions for Windows and Linux.

Content control – New clipboard content filtering and directional control policies enable admins to granularly control what can be copied into and out of a virtual workspace. This is critical for protecting patient data.

Enhanced authentication – New versions of Citrix Receiver support local and remote use of smart cards for accessing apps and desktops from Android, iOS and Linux devices.

Unified architecture – 3rd generation FlexCast Management Architecture (FMA) enables healthcare IT to scale with ease and deliver apps and desktops on premises.

For more information on key features for XenApp and XenDesktop 7.6 in healthcare, check out this blog post.

For the latest information on Citrix Solutions for Healthcare, visit citrix.com/healthcare.