Health Data Management articles from November 2004

Health Data Management archives from November 2004

Reasons for Optimism.
November 1, 2004... One of the best parts of my job is the opportunity to consult with companies that are new to the health care arena and are seeking advice on market opportunities. I've been having a lot of these discussions lately as, one by one, massive...

Hospital Realizes Benefits, ROI with Automated Patient Tracking.(Hannibal Regional Hospital)(Return On Investment)
November 1, 2004... Last May, Hannibal (Mo.) Regional Hospital implemented radio frequency identification technology to track patients throughout its ambulatory care unit. The unit-which includes a surgical suite-offers such services as injections, blood...

For Marshfield Clinic, Tablet PCs are the Mobile Answer.
November 1, 2004... When Edna DeVries, M.D., enters an examination room at Marshfield (Wis.) Clinic, she's never without her Tablet PC. The hardware, wirelessly connected to the organization's electronic medical records and other information systems, enables the...

Health Care I.T. Stocks Weather Third Quarter Storm.
November 1, 2004... Health care information technology stocks were a port in the storm in third quarter 2004 as investors tried to dodge bloodletting in other technology sectors. The price of a marketbasket of 23 health care I.T. stocks tracked by New...

At Denver Health, Smart Cards = Controlled Access.
November 1, 2004... Under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act's data security rule, provider and payer organizations must maintain an audit trail of who is gaining access to electronic protected health information. As part of its preparation...

HDM Again Honored for Excellence.(Health Data Management)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... For the second time in 2004, Health Data Management has been honored by publication peers for editorial excellence. Cleveland-based Trade, Association and Business Publications International, in its Tabbies Awards, has named the magazine's...

Albertsons Faces Privacy Lawsuit.(violations of patient health privacy)
November 1, 2004... Two affiliated consumer advocacy organizations in San Diego have filed a lawsuit against supermarket chain Albertsons Inc., alleging violations of patient health privacy under California laws. Boise, Idaho-based Albertsons operates more than...

GAO Recommends Privacy Rule Changes.(Government Accountability Office)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... The Department of Health and Human Services should exempt from the HIPAA privacy rule the accounting of disclosures of information for public health purposes mandated by law, the Government Accountability Office recommends. Provider and payer...

House Cuts I.T. Demonstration Grants.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... The 2005 Department of Health and Human Services budget recently passed in the House of Representatives contains less funding for health care I.T. interoperability demonstration grants than President Bush requested. H.R. 5006 earmarks $50...

PeopleSoft Fires CEO.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Citing a loss of confidence in his ability to lead the company, the board of PeopleSoft Corp. on Oct. 1 fired Craig Conway as president and CEO. PeopleSoft's human resources, payroll and other business management software have a substantial...

Florida Hospitals Sue MedQuist.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Five-hospital South Broward Hospital District, doing business as Memorial Healthcare System, has filed a lawsuit against MedQuist Inc., a vendor of medical transcription technologies and services. In the suit, filed Sept. 9 in the U.S. District...

Governor Terminates Privacy Bill.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) has vetoed legislation that would have expanded the reach of state privacy laws outside of the state. Senate Bill 1451, sponsored by state Sen. Liz Figueroa (D-Fremont), would have prohibited a person...

Effort Unifying Claims Transactions.(HIPAA Transactions Convergence Project)(health care)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Claredi Corp. and several standards development organizations have formed the HIPAA Transactions Convergence Project to assist the health care industry in creating a common set of HIPAA transactions requirements. The HIPAA transactions and code...

Commission to Study NHII Issues.(National Health Information Infrastructure)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... President Bush and congressional leaders have named members of the National Commission on Systemic Interoperability. Authorized under the Medicare Modernization Act that was enacted last year, the commission is charged with developing a...

Paper: Patient ID Big Records Hurdle.(identity)(Author Abstract)
November 1, 2004... The challenge of identifying the patient may be the most significant one that faces a national electronic medical records initiative, according to a new white paper from Capgemini, a New York-based consulting firm. That's because a national...

Doc: Electronic Records Not a Choice.(Author Abstract)
November 1, 2004... When Colorado Otolaryngology Associates implemented an electronic medical records system two years ago, it wasn't because clinicians at the seven-physician practice felt a burning desire to install costly, complex, process-altering software,...

Medicare, JCAHO Align Data Measures.(Joint commission on accreditation of healthcare organizations )(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations will align common hospital quality measures in their condition-specific performance measure sets. For now, these sets include...

Detmer to Lead AMIA.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... The American Medical Informatics Association has named Don E. Detmer, M.D., as president and CEO. The positions are new. Charles Safran, M.D., remains chair of the Bethesda, Md.-based association. Detmer will retain his positions of professor...

Athenahealth Targets Clinical I.T.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Waltham, Mass.-based athenahealth Inc., a vendor of remotely hosted physician practice management software and outsourced billing and collections services, will develop a clinical information systems product line. The company has hired Nancy...

MDanywhere, MobiHealth to Merge.(Author Abstract)
November 1, 2004... MDanywhere Technologies Inc., a Baltimore, Md.-based company that offers mobile electronic medical records applications and practice management software for physician offices as well as electronic records for hospitals, will merge with...

Report: Health Care a Mobile Leader.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Health care organizations with more than 1,000 employees are unexpectedly leading the way in mobile technology adoption when compared with other industries, according to a report from Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research Inc., Cambridge,...

Study: Doc Interest, Use of PDAs High.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... New York-based Manhattan Research LLC, a health care marketing firm that specializes in information technology, estimates that 235,400 physicians in the United States use a PDA for professional and personal matters. In addition, about half of...

Allscripts Touches Up Records Software.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Libertyville, Ill.-based Allscripts Healthcare Solutions released version 10 of its TouchWorks electronic records system at the Medical Group Management Association's 2004 Annual Conference, Oct. 3-6 in San Francisco. New features include...

PDA Apps Broadened Via Collaboration.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Two software companies have entered a collaborative marketing agreement paving the way to jointly offer a longer list of health care applications for PDAs. The strategic partnership will provide one-stop shopping for the prescription ordering,...

MercuryMD Connects With AT&T.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Durham, N.C.-based MercuryMD Inc., which offers software to link hand-held devices with existing hospital information systems, has struck a deal with AT&T Wireless, Redmond, Wash., that will enable physicians to access patient data over AT&T's...

HealthRamp Enhances e-prescription App.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... New York-based Health-Ramp Inc. has released version 4.3 of its CarePoint mobile health care system, designed to enable physicians to prescribe medications, order laboratory tests and view patient data at the point of care. Enhancements to the...

VantageMed Goes Mobile With DrFirst.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... VantageMed Corp. will incorporate mobile electronic prescribing and charge capture applications from Rockville, Md.-based DrFirst Inc. into its RidgeMark practice management system. DrFirst's Rcopia software will enable RidgeMark users to write...

New Medical Pak Put in Motion.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Motion Computing has released a new version of its Motion Medical Pak, a productivity suite designed to enhance workflow and improve the ability of Tablet PCs to recognize text entered via a writing stylus. The Austin, Texas-based vendor of...

PatientKeeper Gives Duke PDA Access.(Personal digital assistants)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Duke University Health System in Durham, N.C., has implemented technology from Boston-based PatientKeeper Inc., enabling more than 300 clinicians to use PDAs to access clinical results wirelessly via the PatientKeeper mobile platform. For the...

D.C. Pilots Public Safety Network.(Washington, D.C.)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... The District of Columbia has launched a wireless broadband network designed to enable emergency personnel to use video and other high-bandwidth tools to communicate with hospitals and one another. The network is a pilot test meant to...

Riverside Health Docs Get Smart.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Richmond, Va.-based Riverside Health System has launched a service to offer more than 500 physicians anywhere, anytime access to patient data via "smart" phones. Physicians at the three-hospital, not-for-profit delivery system can use Smart...

Practice Banks Wireless EMR Results.(Family Medicine Center, Companion Technologies contracts, Emergency Medical Response )(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Family Medicine Center, a four-physician practice in Canyon, Texas, has implemented an electronic medical records and practice management system from Columbia, S.C.-based Companion Technologies and is using a wireless network and hand-held...

A Tablet a Day Keeps Old Docs in Play.(Medicine Clinic of the Cascades, Retired physicians using Tablet PCs)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Retired physicians in Bend, Ore., are using Tablet PCs over a wireless local area network to access and record patient data as they volunteer at the Volunteers in Medicine Clinic of the Cascades, a free clinic for people who cannot afford...

Mobile Tech Meets Telemedicine.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Partners Home Care, the home health agency of Boston-based Partners Healthcare Inc., has teamed with Motorola Inc. to pilot the use of cellular phones for remotely monitoring patients with heart failure. Close to 100 patients will be enrolled...

'Talking' Bottles Test in Afghanistan.(MedivoxRx Technologies)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... U.S. Army physicians in Afghanistan will test "talking" prescription bottles to ensure children receive their proper medications after physicians and other humanitarian workers leave a village. The workers typically leave behind a supply of...

Stock Chart.
November 1, 2004... (part 1 of 3) Health care software companies Allscripts Healthcare Solutions Cerner Corp. CPSI Eclipsys Corp. Health Management Systems IDX Systems Corp. IMS HEALTH McKesson Mediware Information...

Diagnostic Images Flowing Among Clinicians.(picture archiving and communication system)
November 1, 2004... How does one manage access to 3.5 million radiology studies a year for 180 radiologists at 17 hospitals and thousands of physicians in their offices and homes? Virtually, says Dan Navarro, M.D., chief of nuclear medicine at Kaiser Permanente...

Standards a Work in Progress.(Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine)
November 1, 2004... Standards that assist communication among digital imaging applications and hardware and other information systems are evolving along with the technology. But various factors continue to stymie progress, experts say. The granddaddy of...

Imaging Networks Easier from the Ground up.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... As integrated delivery systems seek enterprise diagnostic image access, they face the daunting challenges of upgrading and integrating existing equipment and information systems. Few have the luxury of designing a system for sharing diagnostic...

Data Mining: Solving Care, Cost Capers: Data mining, along with predictive modeling apps, helps payers unravel patient mysteries.
November 1, 2004... Think of data as chapters of a mystery novel. Each individual piece of information adds unexpected twists and turns to the plot, and oftentimes one single, discrete sentence completely changes the "whodunit" ending. If you think in those...

Mining for Malfeasance.
November 1, 2004... Managed care organizations typically use data mining applications to analyze claims and related data to identify ways they can modify their products and services to cut treatment costs and increase revenue. Pittsburgh, Pa.-based Highmark...

For better or worse, HIPAA makes a difference.
November 1, 2004... The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act has left its fingerprints on virtually every aspect of the business of providing patient care. In the realm of data mining, it has been a real blessing, yet in some ways a minor curse, as...

Making the Internet Safe for Health Data: CIOs and data security experts say that common sense steps can reasonably provide security on the Web-but technology is only half the battle.(Howard County General Hospital)
November 1, 2004... A year ago, Howard County General Hospital in Columbia, Md., installed a wireless network to enable physicians to access patient data while they were at the facility. Physicians were thankful for the functionality, but they wanted the hospital...

For patients, the Web brings risk and rewards.
November 1, 2004... After being diagnosed about four years ago with a common endocrine disorder that can affect a woman's heart health and diabetes risk, Lisa Maggart of suburban Atlanta hit the Internet for information and support. Through an Internet discussion...

Doctors to PDAs: 'Check, Please': Physicians at a Washington hospital use mobile applications to check drugs and access data.(Personal digital assistants)
November 1, 2004... When elderly patients arrive at the dermatology clinic at Washington (D.C.) Hospital Center, it's likely they are taking medication for a health problem unrelated to the skin. And common medications taken by older patients, such as blood...

Contracts Update.
November 1, 2004... 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.
November 1, 2004... (part 1 of 2) Advertiser Adminisource Brit ChartOne Cisco Systems Claredi Cybernet Manufacturing Dell Dell Dictaphone Ergotron Extreme Networks Extreme Networks Facts and...

Do You Agree or Disagree?
November 1, 2004... "Biometrics technology, which some provider organizations view as an attractive way to meet HIPAA security rule user authentication requirements, is ready for widescale adoption in the health care industry. Do you agree or disagree?" AGREE...