Health Data Management articles from June 2005

Health Data Management archives from June 2005

My Brain Hurts.
June 1, 2005... Specialist: Hello! T.F. Gumby: Are you the brain specialist? Specialist: Hello! T.F. Gumby: Are you the brain specialist? Specialist: No, no, I am not the brain specialist. No, no, I am not...yes. Yes I am. T.F....

Good Start for CalRHIO, but Issues Abound.
June 1, 2005... Many see emerging regional health information networks as a crucial building block toward a national health information network, but few have the initial firepower of a new effort in California. Sutter Health, a 26-hospital delivery system;...

Conference Empowers Nurses to Become I.T. Leaders.
June 1, 2005... Nurses spread the word on information technologies and strategies that work during the American Nursing Informatics Association's recent conference in Las Vegas. For instance, the 2003 implementation of more than 1,000 "smart" infusion...

Virtual World Helps Asperger's Sufferers Cope with the Real One.
June 1, 2005... Adults suffering from Asperger's Syndrome, a neurological disorder related to autism, have difficulty understanding the complexities of human interaction. But a virtual online island is helping those with Asperger's become more comfortable...

Nashville Hospital Sings Praises of Smart Patient ID Card.
June 1, 2005... Typically, health care institutions and insurance providers issue plain plastic cards with a patient's bare-bones information printed on the face. This leads to patients having to fill out lengthy forms when checking into the hospital or seeing...

HDM Again Gets Nods from ASHPE.(American Society of Healthcare Publication Editors)(Health Data Management)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... For the fourth consecutive year, the American Society of Healthcare Publication Editors has presented its annual Gold Award for Best Online News Section to Health Data Management. The 2005 award distinguishes HDM's daily coverage as the best in...

HIPAA Security Rule Deadline Arrives.(Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act )(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... April 20 was the deadline for most covered entities to comply with the HIPAA security rule; very small payers have an additional year to comply. Recent surveys indicate few providers, payers and other covered entities would be completely...

HHS Issues Proposed Enforcement Rule.
June 1, 2005... The Department of Health and Human Services has published a proposed HIPAA enforcement rule. The proposed rule is available in the April 18 issue of the Federal Register at gpoaccess.gov/fr/index.html. The proposed rule replaces an interim...

IBM to Acquire Healthlink.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... IBM Corp., Armonk, N.Y., will acquire Healthlink Inc., a Houston-based health care information technology consulting firm. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. The addition of Healthlink will significantly increase IBM's consulting...

Accenture to Buy Capgemini Health.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Accenture will acquire the North American health care practice of Capgemini LLC for $175 million. Both consulting firms are based in New York. Capgemini's health care practice primarily focuses on serving provider organizations. Following the...

Agfa to Buy an Imaging Partner.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Agfa Corp., a vendor of medical imaging technology, will acquire Heartlab Inc., which sells the Encompass picture archiving and communication system for cardiology. The vendors have been strategic partners since 2003; Agfa has resold the...

Passport Buys Compliance Vendor.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Passport Health Communications Inc., a claims clearinghouse, will acquire Healthworks Alliance Inc., which sells medical necessity checking software. Acquisition terms between Franklin, Tenn.-based Passport Health and King of Prussia, Pa.-based...

Eclipsys Names Interim CEO.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Eclipsys Corp., Boca Raton, Fla., has announced Paul Ruflin, president and CEO, is leaving the company. The board of directors has named Chairman Eugene Fife interim president and CEO and has launched a search for a permanent CEO. Eclipsys lost...

Dictaphone Sells Noncore Unit.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Dictaphone Corp. will sell its Communication Recording Systems unit to Israel-based NICE Systems Ltd. for $38.5 million. The unit sells recording applications for emergency first responders, financial trading floors and call centers. The...

AHA: Expand Rural Provider Subsidies.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... The American Hospital Association is urging the Federal Communications Commission to expand subsidized Internet access for rural health care providers. Under the Rural Health Care Universal Service Program, providers receive a 25% discount for...

Cerner Goes Shopping in Paris.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Cerner Corp. is expanding its presence in Europe with the acquisition of Axya Systemes, a Paris-based vendor of clinical, financial and administrative hospital information systems. Acquisition terms were not disclosed, but Kansas City,...

Report: Document Mgmt. On the Rise.(clinical information systems in boom)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Increasing hospital adoption of clinical information systems will drive demand for electronic document management systems, according to a new report from research firm Frost & Sullivan. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company says the U.S. market...

PDAs Improve Asthma Treatment.(Personal digital assistants)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Physicians participating in a yearlong study found that using hand-held software helped them better diagnose and treat asthma patients. Nine physicians in the Charlottesville, Va., area participated in the study, which was sponsored by the...

Study: Market to Soar for RFID Tech.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... A study released by Chicago-based Fast Track Technologies Ltd. predicts the health care market for radio frequency identification technology will soar to $8.8 billion by 2010. Bradley H. Sokol, principal at the consulting group and vice...

Wellscape Offers Mobile Rx Software.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Eugene, Ore.-based Wellscape has released mobile software to help physicians obtain information about new prescription drugs. The vendor's Smart-PI and Physi-Calc systems can be used on Tablet PCs, smart phones and PDAs running the Palm OS or...

Marsico New CEO of RFID App Vendor.(appointed Tony Marsico as Chief executive officers.)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based Patient Care Technology Systems has named Tony Marsico CEO. He was a founder and president of Healthcare Information Technology Inc., which Patient Care Technology Systems acquired last fall. Marsico previously served...

InnerWireless Funds New Business Unit.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... InnerWireless Inc., a wireless network technology vendor serving the health care industry, has secured $15 million from current and new investors. Centennial Ventures Inc., Denver, made an initial investment in the Richardson, Texas-based...

... Where the Text Alerts Roam.(HealthTracer)(medical records management services enhanced)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... HealthTracer, a Mandan, N.D.-based vendor of personal medical records management and distribution services, will integrate its services with mobile messaging technology from Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Roaming Messenger. The Roaming Messenger...

Applied Digital Adds RFID Maker.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Delray Beach, Fla.-based Applied Digital has acquired a Vancouver, Canada-based vendor of radio frequency identification-based applications for provider organizations. Applied Digital, maker of the VeriChip implantable RFID device, will...

Prescription for Records App: e-Rx.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... PaperFree Medical Solutions Inc. will integrate electronic prescription technology into its electronic medical records system. The Kokomo, Ind.-based vendor will work with Houston-based NewCrop LLC to add the NewCrop Electronic Prescribing...

PDAs Ring Up Clinical Software.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Charlotte, N.C.-based IQMax Inc. has enabled its hand-held clinical software to run over most mobile phone networks. The vendor offers a suite of PDA-based clinical systems, including applications for dictation, charge capture, electronic...

CareDecision Changes to instaCare.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Westlake Village, Calif.-based CareDecision Corp. has changed its name to instaCare Corp. The company will trade under the ticker symbol INCA on the Over the Counter Bulletin Board exchange. InstaCare markets PDA-based practice management and...

Smart Pillbox Now a Research Subject.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... InforMedix Inc., developer of "smart pillboxes" designed to monitor medication compliance and collect patient diary information, is teaming with several organizations to conduct research on its Med-eMonitor technology. The pillboxes will be...

Stock Chart.(Illustration)
June 1, 2005... (part 1 of 2) Health care software companies Allscripts Healthcare Solutions MDRX Amicas AMCS Cerner Corp. CERN CPSI CPSI ...

CPOE Progress: No Guts, No Glory: Computerized physician order entry systems can work magic on the ordering process - but the technology can be a bear to work with.(computerized physician order entry system )
June 1, 2005... In 1994, medical leaders at Jersey Shore University Medical Center decided the hospital should implement a computerized physician order entry system to help improve patient safety. Eight physicians at the Neptune, N.J.-based hospital worked...

Integration Required for CPOE Benefits.
June 1, 2005... Systems integration is a huge challenge for health care organizations, but it's one they must accept if they want to get all the benefits from computerized physician order entry systems, industry observers say. "Integration is critical to...

Docs Want Benefits from e-Rx.(electronic prescribing )
June 1, 2005... While some physicians have begun to see the benefits of computerized physician order entry in hospitals, many still need persuasion to use electronic ordering applications in their own practices. Hospital-based CPOE systems typically...

Putting Everything in One Place: Case management systems, long an I.T. afterthought, are being combined with other apps to create a single view of high-risk patients.
June 1, 2005... When the going gets tough, many payer organizations get going with case management services. Payers typically reserve case management for the small portion of members dealing with imminent, life-threatening conditions, such as cancer,...

Employers Pushing the Case.
June 1, 2005... Employers often are the biggest proponents and at the same time the biggest obstacles to case management programs, experts say. On one hand, employers are pushing payer organization to increase their case management services to better serve...

New Technology Automates Old Way$: A new generation of financial software is helping organizations reduce manual processes and get more out of legacy systems.
June 1, 2005... A year ago, less than 30% of patients having orthopedic surgery at Texas Orthopedics, Sports and Rehabilitation Associates paid their estimated co-pays and deductibles before surgery. Now, nearly 90% pay those costs at the Austin-based practice...

Lessons from a Big Bang Implementation.
June 1, 2005... In April 2003, University Hospitals Health System went live on a suite of enterprise resource planning software from Oracle Corp., Redwood Shores, Calif. To be specific, 21 different entities-including eight hospitals, home health and...

Software Training: A Never-ending Story: Training administrative and clinician users to get more out of applications is an ongoing proposition.
June 1, 2005... Continuing medical education, or CME, is the formal certification process designed to keep clinicians' medical knowledge current in an ever-changing field. CIOs might want to take note of CME PDQ. Health care organizations' rising dependence on...

Payer Schools Software Users Online.
June 1, 2005... Last year, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts wanted to teach its health plan members how to use a new online health benefits enrollment system without sending trainers to their businesses. Enter "shark" mail. "Instead of meeting with...

Provider Takes Tablet PCs Nationwide: HealthSouth deploys wireless networks and thousands of Tablet PCs to enhance outpatient care.
June 1, 2005... In 1998, HealthSouth Corp. embarked on a three-tiered mobile health care campaign of epic proportions. First, it purchased and began deploying 5,000 first-generation tablet computers from a mobile hardware vendor. Second, it developed in-house...

New Subspecialty: Electronic Records: A pediatric group is accessing patient data at 20 locations in four states via an electronic medical records system.
June 1, 2005... Five years ago, Nemours was playing a numbers game it couldn't win. The Jacksonville, Fla.-based pediatric subspecialty group practice had grown to 20 locations in four states, with hundreds of physicians practicing up to 12 subspecialties in...

Patients Step Up to Kiosks-Warily: New York group practice is automating patient check-in and co-pay processes to cut costs and streamline operations.
June 1, 2005... When it comes to information technology, Westchester Medical Group is a progressive practice. The 75-physician multispecialty group has implemented electronic medical records, practice management, and picture archiving and communication systems...

Contracts Update.
June 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:...

Advertiser Index.(Directory)
June 1, 2005... Advertiser Site Addresses Page # AccessPt www.accessptinc.com 16 AGFA www.agfa.com/healthcare 9 Ahima ...

"Relations between health care I.T. vendors and their clients have improved markedly in the past five years. Do you agree or disagree?".(Information technology)
June 1, 2005... AGREE Sharon Spoon Project Manager Alverno Information Services, Albany, N.Y. "In the past, many vendors have focused on the sale of the software and not the customer relationship. More and more, vendors are coming to see the...