The Chicago Fire Department is testing a system developed at the University of California, Berkeley. Given the cute acronym F.I.R.E. for Fire Information and Rescue Equipment, the system tracks fire fighters throughout a burning building. The FIRE project has a web site here.
The FIRE system, which the Chicago Fire Department began testing in the
spring, consists […]
Hospitals like single vendor solutions - they want well integrated complete solutions that are well supported and easy to service (with one phone call). A number of vendors have done their best to deliver on this need. Sadly, in most cases the reality of this approach falls far short of the promise. Many broad based […]
At the World of Health IT 2006 in Geneva from October 10 - 13, a Philips' division (called Philips FIMI) will be “showcasing” their sort-of tablet PC called ProScribe. (The tablet was launched last February, so this may be their first time to show it to the health care market.)
ProScribe is a […]
Intel and Motion Computing are working together to bring to market a tablet PC that's with specific features for the health care market. Intel has done the market research (much of it at El Camino Hospital in Mountain View), feasibility and design, while Motion Computing will be the first to manufacture the new Intel specification. […]
In the world of logistics, the promised pay-off for passive RFID adoption has always been item level tagging. Conveniently, the ability to do item level tagging (which is mostly driven by cost) has always been just a few years out. Well, the technology is maturing, prices are falling, and the barriers to item level tagging […]
Medicare pays hospitals $300 million a year to treat adverse events. Unfortunately for hospitals those payments cover less than a third of the additional treatment costs for patients after an adverse events.
Despite a growing emphasis on preventing medical errors
and paying providers for high-quality care, Medicare pays hospitals a
substantial amount of money for adverse events […]
I was talking with a clinical engineer the other day about the scourge of connectivity, the dongle. Also known as a wart or pustule, this is a wireless radio wrapped in a little box and stuck onto the back of a medical device. Now if you're wirelessly enabling legacy devices (either devices you already own, […]
Biotronik has released a snazzy new ICD (implantable cardioverter defibrillator) that is the first implant to send ECG data automatically when it detects a heart rhythm disorder. Other vendor's products typically transfer data at a predetermined period, like at night as the patient sleeps near a receiver/gateway device. Along with this advancement in implantable sensor […]
Medical Device Link has an interesting story on wireless microsensors written by Campus Micro Technologies, a German sensor system integrator. The application for microsensors discussed includes the creation of partly and fully autonomous therapeutic feedback (closed-loop) control
systems. The idea is that this “new” type of implantable pressure monitoring system can provide long-term monitoring inside the […]
Tony Chen at the Hospital Impact blog has been keep track of retail clinics. It seems changes are afoot, with Target and MinuteClinic parting ways after two years. Also noted, Take Care Health Systems is removing their clinics from 10 Rite Aid pharmacies here in Portland, OR. From Tony's post:
So, to recap:
- money is […]
