Health Data Management articles from January 2005

Health Data Management archives from January 2005

We've Got a New Owner, But It's Business as Usual.(Health Data Management)(Editorial)
January 1, 2005... In this era of mergers and acquisitions, Health Data Management is a rare breed among magazines. Since our launch in March 1993, we've had only one owner: The Thomson Corp. Many other magazines, including a few in the health care I.T. field,...

Patient Portal Gathers Steam in Evanston.
January 1, 2005... For several years, Evanston (Ill.) Northwestern Healthcare enabled patients to register for appointments, classes and other events via a patient Web portal. But the delivery system recently completed an enterprisewide implementation of...

Hospital Dispenses Tips for Merging Identifiers.(Sparrow Health System)(patient identification)
January 1, 2005... In the past year, Sparrow Health System in Lansing, Mich., has merged duplicate patient records into single records and implemented master patient index software in three of its four hospitals. The initiative was hard work, but there were...

HIMSS: The Place to Go for NHII Info.(Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society)(National Health Information Infrastructure )(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society Annual Conference and Exhibition, being held Feb. 13-17 in Dallas, promises to offer a wealth of information on the effort to build a national health information infrastructure, says H....

HHS Official to Explain Regional Network Concept.(Department of Health and Human Services)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Lori Evans, senior advisor in the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, will be on a mission when she speaks at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society's...

Get Ready for ICD-10.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Amid speculation the Department of Health and Human Services in February will propose adoption of the ICD-10 classification system, the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society is ready to quickly answer questions about the system...

Lessons from a CPOE Rollout.(computerized physician order entry)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Bruce Berg, M.D., knows all about the challenges of implementing computerized physician order entry systems. That's because Sarasota (Fla.) Memorial Health Care System implemented its first CPOE system in June 1997, mandating its use in the...

Session to Probe What's 'Real' in I.T.(Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Last year, the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society acquired the Dorenfest IHDS+ Database and related assets from Sheldon I. Dorenfest & Associates Ltd., Chicago. The database, marketed to information technology vendors,...

Exploring Barriers to Nurse Mobile Computing.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Nurses are the primary caregivers in provider organizations but often unappreciated in many ways, contends Gregg Malkary, managing director of Spyglass Consulting, Menlo Park, Calif. "Nurses are looked upon as the largest line item on the...

Report: Bush I.T. Funding Unrealistic.(electronic medical records)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... President Bush's goal to provide every citizen with an electronic medical record lacks the funding commitment to make it happen, according to a new report from the PricewaterhouseCoopers Health Research Institute, Washington. Bush has proposed...

Is WebMD Cornering the EDI Market?(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... WebMD Corp. will provide "outsourced, managed electronic data interchange gateway services" to 10 health insurers serving more than 35 million covered lives, the vendor has announced. Under contracts with the unidentified payers, "WebMD serves...

Feds Give Guidance on Security Rule.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has published the first of seven educational papers giving guidance on the HIPAA security rule. The rule has a compliance date of April 20 for most covered entities. Very small payers have an...

Gingrich: I.T. Office Will Get Funds.(Information Technology)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Congress' surprising failure to provide fiscal 2005 funding for the new Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology happened because short-sighted members of the appropriations committees took the money away for pork...

New Mobile Form Factor Debuts.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... San Francisco-based OQO Inc. and San Diego-based Sony Electronics Inc. have introduced mini PCs, a new form factor in the diverse realm of mobile hardware. What makes the mini PC unique among mobile hardware is that it functions as both a PDA...

Groups to Study Mobile Health Care.(Porter Healthcare)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Porter Healthcare, a division of Norcross, Ga.-based Porter Research, has launched a new research program that will study mobile technology adoption trends in health care. The firm has partnered with the Keene, N.H.-based Association of Medical...

Phones Ring Up Reference Apps.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Select applications from Skyscape Inc.'s suite of medical reference software now will run on smart phones from Samsung Telecommunications America, Dallas. The new Skyscape Constellation for Samsung Phones is available to customers who purchase...

Revenue Cycle Apps Rise from Merger.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Hauppauge, N.Y.-based MDeverywhere Inc., which merged last year with Med e-Manager, has released a suite of integrated hand-held applications. The company now will market integrated scheduling, charge capture and billing software for PDAs...

Sammy Enhances Practice App.(ICS Software Ltd)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Oceanside, N.Y.-based ICS Software Ltd. is enhancing its mobile practice management system. The fourth version of PocketSammy will enable physicians using Windows Mobile-based PDAs to access select patient information from the vendor's SammyUSA...

Epocrates Offers Windows Mobile Apps.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... San Mateo, Calif.-based Epocrates Inc. has released Windows Mobile-based versions of all its clinical reference applications. The vendor previously offered its software only for PDAs that run the Palm OS operating system.The Essentials suite of...

Stock Chart.(health care software companies)(Directory)
January 1, 2005... (part 1 of 3) Health care software companies Allscripts Healthcare Solutions Cerner Corp. CPSI Eclipsys Corp. Health Management Systems IDX Systems Corporation IMS HEALTH McKesson Mediware...

E-Health II: Return of the Internet.
January 1, 2005... Just like a child, the Internet has experienced growth spurt after growth spurt as it speeds toward maturity. In the 1990s, during the e-health boom, what many in health care thought was a mature adult was in fact a mere high school student....

E-Health: Here today, where tomorrow?
January 1, 2005... Simeon Schwartz, M.D., has a vision of what e-health should look like. And it looks an awful lot like Expedia.com, his favorite travel Web site. Schwartz's practice, White Plains, N.Y.-based Westchester Medical Group, already has an...

It Takes Two to Tango: Group practices embrace practice management and electronic health records applications.(electronic medical records)
January 1, 2005... For Primary Care Associates, the sum of its practice management and electronic medical records systems is greater than its parts. But the parts aren't bad either. The 25-physician group implemented a practice management system in June 2002...

Why They Buy.(physicians-electronic medical records)
January 1, 2005... Physician group practices are looking for ways to cut overhead and improve cash flow when they pursue practice management and electronic medical records systems. They also see the writing on the wall regarding incentives for electronically...

Still Waiting for Consolidation Wave: For the fourth straight year, vendors tread lightly in the acquisition arena.
January 1, 2005... Vendor consolidation in the health care information technology industry moved at a tepid pace in 2004. "It was a cautious year, it was a year of a lot of tire-kicking," says John Osberg, president of Informed Partners LLC, a Marietta, Ga.-based...

2004 Vendor Consolidation Scorecard.(Illustration)
January 1, 2005... (part 1 of 4) Acquiring Company Jan-04 1 Oracle Corp., Redwood Shores, Calif. 2 Amerisource Bergen Corp., Valley Forge, Pa. 3 WebMD Corp., Elmwood Park, N.J. 4 Captiva...

Africa Has Mobile Lessons for America: Not-for-profit group promotes using PDAs to treat tuberculosis patients in Uganda and other countries.(personal digital assistants)
January 1, 2005... While International Development Projects' largest mission is in Uganda, the fruit of its labors has the potential to help other countries, including the United States. The Bakersfield, Calif.-based, not-for-profit humanitarian organization's...

Provider Makes a Clean Sweep: Iowa delivery system uses data cleansing software to consolidate vast amounts of information.
January 1, 2005... Iowa Health-Des Moines never had a problem getting information into its SQL server database, from Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft Corp. The delivery system hired a third-party vendor to create interfaces that enabled clinical, call center,...

Contracts Update.
January 1, 2005... The Contracts Update section includes announcements of contracts that health care information technology companies have signed with customers in recent weeks. Contract news can be sent to Health Data Management by electronic mail to:...