Cardinal Health today announced that they are acquiring Care Fusion. While terms of the deal were not announced, it highlights a number of interesting things going on in the industry. According to some folks I talked to at Cardinal, the purchase is intended to round out barcode validation at point of care, to support EMAR […]
Advance for Nurse Practitioners has a story on cell phone interference. The bottom line: cell phones are pretty okay, just keep them 3 feet away from a medical device.
Actually, it's not really that simple. The story goes on to recount the following horrors:
You don't need to imagine. Read “Don't Answer That Cell Phone!” in […]
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 […]
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. […]
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, […]
No, this is not a Microsoft bashing blog post. True there are problems with medical devices running Windows operating systems. But the problems discussed below start and end with the vendors that develop medical devices using Microsoft operating systems.
Bill Mohr from Nacogdoches Medical Center asked the following today on the Biomed Listserv:
Since more and […]
Here's an update on 3G wireless data provided by each of the major carriers, Cingular, Verizon, and Sprint. General info on coverage, rates and upgrade plans are included. Also discussed are phones that can serve as broadband modems for connecting up medical devices or laptops.
Motorola announced today that it will acquire Symbol Technologies for $3.9 billion (press release). Recent accounting irregularities, and the resulting SEC fines have sent Symbol reeling for the past couple years. There have been recent rumors that Symbol was up for sale.
Jack Gold, an analyst at J. Gold Associates in Northboro, Mass., said
he was concerned […]
Data security is not rocket science, but it's one of those things that takes detailed focus to get the right technology, policy and procedures in place. And it seems that the stories about lost laptops with tens or hundreds of thousands of patient records are not just some fluke or exceptional occurrence.
Sadly, this report notes […]
Handheld devices for caregivers have yet to find the sweet spot that will drive adoption. Part of the problem has been a lack of well designed applications that meet market requirements. The other part has been the devices themselves - either too big, too heavy, too expensive, and not enough battery life. Did I mention […]
