There were some interesting stories about HIT in the mainstream media
last week. Let's start off with the Wisconsin Technology Network. In a
follow up to their recent Digital Healthcare Conference, they report that despite the benefits, EMR adoption is not easy.
Significant process change can be required. Implementation can be
fairly expensive. And there are other significant barriers […]
Siemens and Tadiran
Spectralink Ltd report the development of a medical device that monitors patient's health. The device,
which is worn on the wrist like a watch, uses biosensors to
continuously check vital functions, which are then transmitted by an
embedded Siemens GSM/GPRS radio module to a hospital for further
analysis. This innovative device will become available early next year
under […]
AHRQ provides users instant access to health statistics and
information on hospital stays from AHRQ's Healthcare Cost and Utilization
Project (HCUP). This project comprises a family of health care databases and
related software tools developed through a federal-state-industry partnership
and sponsored by AHRQ. HCUP includes the largest set of publicly available,
all-payer health care databases in the United States. […]
JCAHO revealed yesterday that there
is a flaw in the software hospitals use to help them qualify for JCAHO
accreditation. The software, used by more than 1,000 hospitals, costs
hospitals several thousand dollars annually. The New York Times reports:
Robert Curran, director of clinical excellence at the O'Connor
Hospital in San Jose, Calif., said many hospitals were concerned […]
The following was posted on the Biomed Listserv this morning. Written by Rick Hampton, at Partners Healthcare,
he reports incidents of digital TV and WMTS interference, discussions
on this topic at the AAMI conference last May, and finally requests you
contact him if your facility is experiencing any interference. After
reading this, you might also want to check out […]
GPO Novation has signed a deal with VeriChip, a subsidiary of Applied Digital,
to offer VeriChip RFID solutions to members at a discount. VeriChip
provides asset and patient tracking using Assetrac, HALO, and
RoamAlert.
In other news, VeriChip acquired Instantel, a privately held Canadian RFID company. Through their subsidiary Xmark,
Instantel sells asset and patient tracking. Instantel's focus is
vibration […]
Cerner has signed a deal with Positive Networks to resell their PositivePRO
hosted VPN service as the preferred remote access solution for Cerner's
Millennium products. By hosting the VPN, Positive Networks relieves the
hospital of much of the hassle of maintaining, provisioning and
supporting VPN appliances. The service also includes a personal
firewall and virus protection for remote PCS, all […]
Admittedly a bit off topic, this post
on physician's use of Google has good tips that will benefit anyone
searching for medical and health care information on the Internet.
Yesterday, the Californial Department of Managed Healthcare (CDMH)
fined Kaiser Permanente $200,000 for an unlawful disclosure of patient
information on the Internet (CDMH press release here). Kaiser was fined for not reporting this disclosure to the CDMH.
DMHC officials were concerned that Kaiser allowed the site to
languish on the Web in an accessible format and did not […]
In a mysterious press release, Criticare announces that it will become the direct point of contact
for the entire customer base of Alaris
Vital Check(R) monitors starting September 1, 2005. In the seven years
that Alaris has OEMed this device from Criticare, the installed base
for the Alaris Vital Check monitor has grown to over 1,000 sites and
20,000 units […]
