Health Data Management articles from March 2004

Health Data Management archives from March 2004

Electronic Records and Presidential Politics.
March 1, 2004... In this presidential election year, health care is sure to be a hot issue. A number of recent public opinion polls show that rising health care costs is among the top three issues voters are citing as they scrutinize the candidates. As the...

Long Wait is Over for National Provider IDs.
March 1, 2004... The Department of Health and Human Services in January published the final rule for a national provider identifier-more than five years after it first was proposed. The rule-authorized under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability...

KLAS Ratings Elicit Varying Opinions from Providers, Vendors.(KLAS Enterprises)
March 1, 2004... Twice a year, the vendor research firm KLAS Enterprises releases its ratings of overall customer satisfaction with health care information technology products in more than two dozen categories. Software vendors scoring well in the year-end,...

Video Streaming: Live, Canned and In Demand.(Charleston Area Medical Center)
March 1, 2004... Charleston Area Medical Center in West Virginia since 1987 has offered continuing medical education via video conferencing. By 2002 the medical center was using satellite links to deliver real-time educational courses to about 200 sites in five...

Docs: WebMD Not HIPAA Compliant.(WebMD Corp.)(Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... The American Medical Association and seven other medical societies have sent a letter to WebMD Corp. asking the vendor to redouble its efforts to process HIPAA-compliant claims in a timely manner. Elmwood Park, N.J.-based WebMD is a vendor of...

New CPT Code Covers Online Consults.(current procedural terminology)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... The American Medical Association has released a temporary Current Procedural Terminology, or CPT, code for online consultations. The code, 0074T, will be used for reimbursement of appropriate online patient-physician consultations. The code...

Advisory Body Gets Fresh Faces.(National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... The National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics, an advisory body to the Department of Health and Human Services, has several new members. They succeed Brady Augustine, who resigned earlier to accept a position in HHS, and other members...

Forrester Predicts I.T. Trends.(Forrester Research Inc.; health care industry)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... Sales to physician practices of electronic medical records software will surpass practice management software in 2004, according to Forrester Research Inc., a Cambridge, Mass.-based technology research firm. This year, adoption of electronic...

Report: I.T. Tied to Better Nursing.(information technologies)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... Information technologies enable nurses to deliver better care while increasing career satisfaction, according to a new report from the technology workgroup of the Maryland Statewide Commission on the Crisis in Nursing. "Patient safety is...

IDX Gets New President.(Thomas Butts)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... IDX Systems Corp. has named Thomas Butts president and COO. James Crook gives up the title of president but remains CEO of the Burlington, Vt.-based software vendor; the COO position has been vacant for a year. Butts served in multiple...

GE Medical to Sell Spacelabs.(selling Spacelabs Medical subsidiary)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... GE Medical Systems, Milwaukee, will sell its Spacelabs Medical subsidiary for $57 million to OSI Systems Inc., Hawthorne, Calif. GE Medical acquired SpaceLabs-a vendor of patient monitoring devices and clinical information systems-last year...

Oracle Buys Trials Software.(aquires assets of SiteWorks Solutions )(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... Oracle Corp., a vendor of enterprise software serving multiple industries, has acquired the assets of SiteWorks Solutions, which sells clinical trials management software. Terms of the acquisition between Redwood Shores, Calif.-based Oracle and...

Supplier Closes Medication Loop.(AmerisourceBergen to acquire MedSelect)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... AmerisourceBergen Corp. has signed a definitive agreement to acquire MedSelect Inc., a vendor of automated medication and supply dispensing cabinets, for $13.4 million. The acquisition will close the medication management loop for Valley Forge,...

Missouri Analyzes Bioterrorism Data.(Missouri. Department of Health)(Health Language Inc.)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services is building an information infrastructure to collect and analyze diagnostic data from provider facilities across the state. Its goal is to find early signs of disease or bioterrorism...

Claims Vendor Boosts Portfolio.(Captiva Software Corp.)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... San Diego-based Captiva Software Corp. will acquire ADP Context Inc. of Westmont, Ill., for $5.2 million. Captiva, a vendor of document imaging and data capture software for claims processing functions, expects the acquisition to add at least...

Payer to Hand Docs PDAs.(WellPoint to issue personal digital assistants)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based WellPoint will give PDAs and electronic prescription software to each of its 19,000 contracted physicians. The payer organization will spend $40 million to offer the technology to physicians in California, Georgia,...

Symbol CEO Steps Down Amid Probe.(Richard Bravman steps down and is replaced by William Nuti)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... Richard Bravman, CEO and acting chairman of the board of Holtsville, N.Y.-based Symbol Technologies Inc., has stepped down from his positions and announced a replacement. William Nuti, the mobile hardware and bar code scanner vendor's current...

East Coast Blues Dish Out Mobile Rx.(hand-held prescription software)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina, Columbia, and Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, Newark, are giving their member physicians access to hand-held prescription software. Both initiatives were created to help improve patient...

Duke Goes Mobile with PatientKeeper.( )(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... Duke University Health System will implement software from Boston-based Patient-Keeper Inc. to offer caregivers mobile access to clinical applications across its facilities. The Durham, N.C.-based delivery system plans to use the software to...

N.Y. Docs Ramp Up PDA Software.(Ramp Corp.'s prescription software to run on personal digital assistants)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... Long-term care physicians in New York will be able to use hand-held electronic prescription software from Ramp Corp. thanks to an alliance with the Greater New York Health Facilities Association. The association will help the vendor implement...

Aether Sells Mobility Division.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... Annapolis, Md.-based TeleCommunication Systems Inc. has purchased the Enterprise Mobility Solutions division of Owings Mills, Md.-based Aether Systems Inc. for $19 million. TeleCommunication Systems has acquired the portion of Aether's business...

Two Payers Give 500 Docs PDAs, Rx App.(Personal Digital Assistants; prescription software)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... Two Massachusetts payer organizations have teamed to offer 500 physicians at Boston-based CareGroup Healthcare System PDAs and hand-held prescription software. The eRx Collaborative was founded by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts,...

Students Score Meds Apps on PDAs.(Personal Digital Assistants)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... The University of Louisville (Ky.) has begun providing its medical and dental students access to a PDA-based drug reference application from ePocrates Inc., San Mateo, Calif. The university formed an agreement with the vendor to offer its 900...

Group Practice Companies Align.(iLIANT Corporation forms an alliance with Mobile Data Toola Inc.)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... iLIANT Corp., a Tampa, Fla.-based group practice consulting firm, has formed an alliance with Winston Salem, N.C.-based Mobile Data Tools Inc., a new vendor of Web-based wireless technology for health care organizations. The companies plan to...

Vendors Offer Bundled Wireless Tech.(InfoLogix)(Vasona Technology)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... Bensalem, Pa.-based InfoLogix and Los Altos, Calif.-based Vasona Technology have combined their products to offer a wireless health care software package for provider organizations. Vasona's nPASS health care software is being offered with...

Daou Offers Mobile Health Consulting.(DAOU Systems Inc.)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... Exton, Pa.-based Daou Systems Inc. is offering mobile health care consulting services as part of a new initiative designed to help health care organizations adopt new technologies. The new consulting services also are designed to help...

Canadian Group Talks Mobile Health.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... The wireless committee of the Ontario branch of the Information Technology Association of Canada is welcoming the participation of American health care organizations. The committee was created about one year ago and now meets monthly with the...

Stock Chart.(health care industry)(Illustration)
March 1, 2004... (part 1 of 3) Price Price as on a % of 52 Health care software companies 2/4/2004 Wk High Allscripts...

Outsourcing: Before and After the Contract is Signed.(health industry information technology)
March 1, 2004... Organizations that have outsourced I.T. operations discuss the lessons they have learned. Lesson No. 1-after the ink dries on a contract, there's still plenty of work to be done. Outsourcing part or all of an organization's information...

When It All Goes Bad...
March 1, 2004... In August 1999, Detroit Medical Center took health care information technology outsourcing to a new level, handing over its operations to Compuware Corp. under a 10-year, $1 billion contract. Two years later, the seven-hospital delivery system...

Using Outsourcing as a Quick Fix.
March 1, 2004... In the late 1990s, Saint Mary's Health Network had difficulty recruiting information technology professionals, particularly network engineers. The Reno, Nev.-based delivery system, anchored by a 380-bed hospital, also was experiencing...

The Lessons of Outsourcing.(health care industry)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... Provider and payer organizations that have outsourced information technology operations have several tips for others considering the same move. Among their pieces of advice: * Ask organizations that already outsource to a prospective vendor...

Take the Quick Poll...
March 1, 2004... Visit the Health Data Management Web site and express your opinion on one of health care I.T.'s hot topics. Your comments may appear in a future Readers' Perspectives department. www.healthdatamanagement.com Copyright 2004 Thomson Media...

Taming the Infrastructure Beast: Changing technology and market forces make maintaining and upgrading I.T. infrastructure a continuing process for health care organizations.
March 1, 2004... Charles Christian thinks Good Samaritan Hospital is doing a good job managing its information technology infrastructure. But just to make sure, the CIO contracted with an independent I.T. consulting firm to conduct an enterprisewide evaluation....

Security Blankets Infrastructure.
March 1, 2004... Health care organizations are taking greater care than ever to protect their I.T. infrastructures, often hiring "white hat" hackers to try exploiting their networks. Provider and payer organizations have HIPAA-induced sensitivity to protecting...

The I.T. of Tomorrow: Is it Here Today?: Various emerging technologies are trying to gain a foothold in the health care I.T. market.(information technology)
March 1, 2004... A few years ago rumors started to emanate from Manchester, N.H., that a revolutionary technology was in the works. Little was known about the technology, initially dubbed "IT" by the media. But some technology gurus who got a first look at "IT"...

Telemedicine: The prodigal technology returns.
March 1, 2004... Since the mid-1970s, stories written about emerging technologies have predicted that telemedicine was poised to become part of everyday clinical care. Decades later, however, telemedicine still is in the process of emerging. "Telemedicine...

A Tablet a Day...: Cancer patients at a Memphis clinic use Tablet PCs to facilitate better communication with their oncologists.
March 1, 2004... At West Clinic in Memphis, Tenn., medications aren't the only kind of tablets being dispensed to patients. Three years ago, West Clinic began incorporating tablet computers into clinical care. The tablets, though, were not intended for...

Using the Telephone to Dial Up Savings: An automated telephone system enables an Ob/Gyn practice to smooth patient interaction and cut costs.(obstetrics/gynecology)
March 1, 2004... Two years ago, managers at The Women's Association for Obstetrics/Gynecology believed it would take an additional full-time nurse to keep up with the glut of telephone calls for appointments, prescription refill requests and other care-related...

Practice Urges Patients Not to Call: A Web portal enables secure, timely information exchange between caregivers and patients.(Women's Healthcare Affiliates)
March 1, 2004... Women's Healthcare Affiliates is racking up benefits from a Web-based patient communication system. The benefits, though, are being counted in hours and minutes, not dollars and cents. And the return on investment is being measured in patient...

Contracts Update.
March 1, 2004... The Contracts Update Department features announcements of recent contracts that health care information technology companies have signed with provider and payer organizations. Please send contract announcement news releases via e-mail to Senior...

Do you agree or disagree?(online medical consultations)
March 1, 2004... "With ever-increasing use of the Internet and the release in January by the American Medical Association of a new CPT code for online consultations, health care in 2004 will experience a significant jump in the number of online consultations....

Advertiser Index.(Advertisement)
March 1, 2004... Advertiser Site Addresses Page # 3M Health Information Sys www.3Mhis.com/perspective 9 AMT Systems www.amtsystems.com/health 40 Adaptis www.adaptisinc.com 29 Artromick www.artromick.com...