New Weblogs to Watch
One last post for the week. I've come across a number of new weblogs
that I'm adding to my “Blogroll” in the right nav bar. The first from
PACS consultant Mike Gray. I've known Mike for more than 10 years — I
can't believe it's been that long. He's started a new blog on PACS.
Next we have a corporate blog from IBM, called HealthNex.
The health care folks at IBM are posting about their activities in the
health care market, especially the new national IT infrastructure and
business process initiatives.
Finally there is Wireless Sensing Connector,
a blog about wireless sensors. There's lots of info in this blog about
personal area networks (PANs) like Zigbee, wireless USB, new chips,
market research, and commercial products.
Triage Wireless Profiled in CNet Story
Triage
Wireless has snagged some great PR with this story on CNet News.com.
There are two key areas where new ambulatory monitoring products offer
advantages over existing products: communications and sensors. Triage
has a strong position in both. The story provides a brief intro to the
ambulatory monitoring market and describes the market segment that
Triage Wireless has targeted.
The real news in this story is additional information on the sensor
technology used in the product, AdvanceBPM. Traditional ambulatory BP
monitors use cuffs and inflate to take readings every 15 to 30 minutes.
AdvanceBPM provides continuous blood pressure readings. While not quite
as precise as traditional cuff based readings, the new sensor is much
more comfortable, provides more (continuous) data, with measurements
coming within a few percent of cuff readings.
The AdvancedBPM system, in part, owes its heritage to the semiconductor
equipment industry. The patch takes three vital signs: heart rate,
pulse oximetry (the amount of oxygen in the blood) and blood pressure.
The first two are measured through an electrical sensor. “Every
time the heart beats, it sends out an electrical signal,” [Triage Wireless CEO Matthew] Banet said. A
future version will also take temperatures.
In AdvancedBPM, the patch contains an optical sensor tuned to detect
changes in the density or volume of arteries. Changes in the volume
affect blood pressure. The basic technology came from a company with
which Banet was once associated that made optical sensors for “seeing”
whether semiconductors contained defects.
The patch has to be calibrated to each individual patient. Some people
have stiff arteries, while others have large, flexible ones. While not
as accurate as traditional systems for measuring blood pressure, the
results so far are promising.
You can read my previous post about the communications features of AdvanceBPM here.
[Hat tip: FierceHealthcare]
Role of CIO to Change
CIO Magazine has an interesting article on market pressures that may be
causing the role of the CIO to evolve. It seems that the focus on
selecting the right technology and getting it to work is shifting to
emphasize workflow and process optimization. I normally wouldn't post
on this, but it tied nicely to a recent post on hospital workflow automation.
The new jargon seems to be “BPM”, or business process management. The
article refers to workflow as the automation of human-to-machine and
process management as the mapping and facilitation of human-to-human
interactions. An underlying theme that I hear frequently is that it's
not some much which tool you have but how well you use it.
lot of people who are CIOs today came up through the technical route:
they might be Java people at heart. Well, if you want to stay being a
Java architect, do what David Chappell suggests: move to Bangalore,
because that's where your job is. On the other hand, if you want to do
what companies need you to do and work where the budgets are going to
grow, you had better get directly involved with process. We've got
plenty of applications. You know, we've been doing that for the last 50
years.
Business re-engineering was about using enterprise networks to break
down the stovepipes between departments in order to streamline the
company. Now companies must use a worldwide network, the Internet, to
tear down the stovepipes between companies using different ERP, CRM and
CAD/CAM systems. CIOs – or better still the CPOs who should soon
replace them – must now learn to build a level of process, an
architecture if you will, that allows systems to be re-purposed and
extended to build end-to-end business processes across corporations and
countries.
Technical skills and programming ability will barely enter into it,
Fingar says, and developing the detailed components can still safely be
outsourced to the “lowest cost Java shop”. What will give the new CPO
[Chief Process Officer] his or her edge will be the ability to build
those custom processes
that involve multiple companies – the ones that will distinguish his or
her company and give it its competitive edge. When an Exxon Mobil
decides to go into the gourmet coffee business, to capitalize on the
customer demand created by Starbucks and in order to satisfy the
customers who visit its retail outlets, the CPO will be there to build
a whole new value chain.
This calls to my mind issues like patient flow optimization, some
patient safety initiatives and of course the interactions between
hospitals, payers and physicians.
[Hat tip: HIStalk]
Non Invasive Angiograpny Not Ready for Prime Time
A study (full text $15) in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology reports
lingering challenges in the use of multislice computed tomography
(MSCT), also known as CTA (CT Angiography).
Healthcare Venture Capital Report Focuses on Midwest
Incubator BioEnterprise has released a survey of 47 national venture capitalists about medical investment in the Midwest. The survey provides an interesting look into what VC firms think about deal flow and funding opportunities (pdf file).
Current VC investment interests favor medical device, followed by
health care services, then health care IT, and finally
biopharmaceuticals. The survey also reported little interest in funding
buyouts or recaps.
