June 3, 2008 | Microsoft has increased the HealthVault Be Well Fund award funding from $3 million to $4.5 million after receiving nearly 200 proposals from leading academic and research health organizations across the United States. The Microsoft HealthVault Be Well Fund was designed to help seed innovative avenues of research and explore the potential for disruptive improvements to health management enabled by reuse and sharing of data between people, families, caregivers, doctors and facilities. Proposals represent a wide range of innovative online solutions designed to address significant health issues including childhood obesity, medication reconciliation, mobile health information gathering and dissemination, and diabetes management, as well as to help people manage their health more effectively. Strong interest and participation in the request for proposals (RFP) has made it one of the most successful Microsoft Research RFPs in the company’s history. Recipients will be announced at the second annual Microsoft HealthVault Solutions Conference, taking place June 9–10 in Bellevue, Wash.
MultiCare Health System has selected the Sunquest Laboratory Information System (LIS) for its new Good Samaritan Hospital located in Puyallup, Washington. Additional Sunquest products purchased for the new hospital include Sunquest Laboratory CoPathPlus anatomic pathology system, Sunquest Microbiology, and Sunquest Blood Bank. Sunquest will also provide project management and professional services during the implementation at the new site, scheduled to go live in Q4 2008. MultiCare has been a Sunquest customer since 1993 and has already standardized on the Sunquest LIS for its Allenmore Hospital, Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital, and Tacoma General Hospital, all located in Tacoma, Washington, along with the hospital’s South King County Clinics, Gig Harbor and satellite labs.
MyMedicalRecords.com is now available to Google Health users as an integrated service. The announcement is in conjunction with today’s public launch of Google Health. As an integrated service on the Google Health platform, MyMedicalRecords.com enables Google Health users to transfer information from their Google Health account into MyMedicalRecords.com and back and forth again. MyMedicalRecords.com also provides users with their own personal fax number where doctors can fax charts, test results, lab reports, and other medical records directly into their account and enables users to make their medical records available to doctors in case of an emergency.
Seattle Children’s Hospital has deployed a 64-slice GE Discovery VCT PET/CT, one of the most advanced medical imaging systems available today, to diagnose cancerous cells in early stages of development. Children’s is the first pediatric facility to use this advanced 64-slice system and is developing pediatric-specific protocols to provide optimal diagnostic information. The combination of this new technology and tailored pediatric imaging protocols, allows Children’s radiologists to best meet the needs of its pediatric patients by more accurately diagnosing conditions and pinpointing treatment areas, while protecting children from excessive diagnostic radiation exposure. Combining Positron Emission Tomography (PET) with Computed Tomography (CT), the Discovery VCT PET/CT scanner takes 64 pictures of the tumor site that are combined into a comprehensive 3-D image allowing radiologists to determine the presence of disease, pinpoint specific biopsy sites and accurately monitor the effects of treatment.
Acuo Technologies, a company specializing in the development of high-performance software for intelligent medical image management, data migration tools and services, announced the integration and certification of IBM's Grid Medical Archive Solution (GMAS) as well as the addition of IBM to Acuo's Elite Partner Program. By adding the Acuo Technologies middleware software to the IBM GMAS solution, the medical imaging industry has the ability to procure a strategy that enables the customer to gain control of their data as well as manage it in a manner that provides flexibility and lower the total cost of ownership. The integration also adds IBM to Acuo's Elite Partner Program, a select group of business partners certified to deliver Acuo Technologies' intelligent medical image management product suite.
Through a recent partnership between BioSignia and Bridges to Excellence, physicians can now use BioSignia’s Know Your Number (KYN) to increase patient quality care and obtain certification for pay-for-performance programs. KYN is the first disease-specific risk assessment tool to predict an individual’s risk of developing chronic preventable diseases such as diabetes and heart disease. By using KYN, physicians can demonstrate they have implemented comprehensive solutions in their practice and delivered patient-centered care. Unlike the traditional option for BTE certification, the KYN program allows physicians to become certified in all three levels for pay-for-performance programs at no cost. KYN meets BTE’s mission to promote and deliver advanced quality care through practice transformation and care reengineering.
GE Healthcare IT and Kryptiq have announced a joint agreement for GE to exclusively distribute Kryptiq’s eScriptMessenger (eSM) in conjunction with GE's Centricity Electronic Medical Record (EMR) and Centricity Practice Solution. The offering aims to provide a proven ePrescribing solution benefiting physicians with speed and ease in managing prescription activities—addressing a critical need to improve patient safety and care quality. Under the joint agreement, GE will also work with Kryptiq to expand current connection capabilities and continue to address upcoming EMR certification and ePrescribing regulatory requirements . Kryptiq’s eScriptMessenger for GE's Centricity Electronic Medical Record (EMR) and Centricity Practice Solution will be sold exclusively through GE.
PostPath, creator of the only email and collaboration server that is a drop-in alternative to Microsoft Exchange, announced continued adoption of its PostPath Server and WebMail with live deployments at major regional hospitals and healthcare organizations. Moses Taylor Hospital, Appalachian Regional Healthcare System and Southeast Alabama Medical Center have each deployed PostPath Server and WebMail to users in production environments in order to combine native Outlook and mobile device support, offer full-featured webmail to all staff and reduce overall infrastructure costs.
Mosaica Partners, a health information exchange consulting firm, has been engaged by the State of Arizona, Government Information Technology Agency (GITA), to guide the statewide development of rural Regional Health Information Organizations (RHIOs) under its RHIO Planning Grant program. Under the agreement, grant recipients will utilize a methodology developed by Mosaica Partners to plan and establish RHIOs within rural communities. They will also have access to ongoing consulting services from the firm, which works with a wide range of public and private organizations to develop RHIO and health information exchange (HIE) strategies and plans. The RHIO Planning Grants are funded through the Rural Health Information Technology Adoption (RHITA) Grant Program, which Arizona established to support the implementation of health IT and information exchange among rural healthcare providers. Each grant award will fund nine months of planning and capability building, and to initiate, progress through and/or complete the early activities essential to forming or participating in a RHIO.
The TriZetto Group announced a five-year, non-exclusive, revenue-sharing agreement under which Unisys Nederland NV will market, distribute and maintain TriZetto software to health insurers in The Netherlands. Although TriZetto serves international clients today, this is the company’s first overseas channel partner agreement, providing the company a vehicle for broader access to this market. Initially, Unisys Nederland will bundle and market the following TriZetto software: TriZetto’s enterprise administrative system for claims processing, claims re-pricing, premium billing, membership administration, customer service and other core operational functions; TriZetto’s workflow add-on component application to automate manual processes and improve operational efficiency to maximize productivity; and TriZetto’s set of extensions, drivers, adaptors and other technology that enables customers to integrate TriZetto’s enterprise administrative system with third-party and custom-developed applications. Under terms of the agreement, TriZetto will provide product updates through Unisys Nederland. Unisys Nederland will provide implementation and customer service, as well as maintenance for TriZetto’s software.
MEDSEEK and CPM Marketing Group are offering hospitals the first Cross Media customer relationship management (CRM) solution. MEDSEEK will utilize CPM Marketing Group’s newly enhanced Instant-CRM (ICRM) Web service to allow hospitals to communicate one-to-one with customers and patients on the Web. ICRM is an interactive Web service that delivers real–time, personalized CRM communications to every user based on individual health needs. The system is designed to interactively and incrementally control the content displayed on the hospital Web site to enhance and personalize the consumer conversation.
The non-profit eHealth Initiative (eHI) announced its support of and collaboration with the Food and Drug Administration on the Sentinel Initiative, a far-reaching public and private sector program aimed at improving the nation’s ability to more quickly and effectively monitor post-market drug performance. eHI’s Connecting Communities for Drug Safety Collaboration, which will help inform the Sentinel Initiative, is a public-private sector effort conducted in partnership with the FDA. The purpose of the project is to test and evaluate the feasibility and value of using electronic health information—through a distributed model—to support post-market surveillance and drug safety. The Collaboration just completed in April 2008 its first iteration of testing and evaluation of using a combination of clinical data from electronic health records and other clinical systems and administrative claims data to detect and evaluate drug safety signals for a set of three “use cases.”
Tizor Systems, a provider of enterprise database monitoring and protection solutions and Intellitactics, a provider of appliances and software for enterprise security information and event management (SIEM), have announced a technology alliance to deliver integrated solutions that provide a comprehensive, enterprise-class approach to data security. The partnership was formed to address the market need for integrated enterprise-class solutions that can address major data security challenges such as core-database breach detection, insider threats, data outsourcing risk, and data compliance auditing and reporting. The partnership includes solution integration as well as joint selling, marketing, and customer service efforts.
The Oregon Institute of Technology (OIT) recently introduced a Bachelor of Science degree option in Health Informatics. Health informatics is one of the fastest growing—and highest paying—jobs available for college graduates, and OIT is the first Oregon university to offer a baccalaureate program that prepares students for this promising field. A graduate of OIT’s Health Informatics program will be able to design, analyze, implement and support emerging technologies—such as electronic medical records (EMRs) and administrative systems—needed in multiple areas of health care, from hospitals and health systems to insurance companies and research institutions. These professionals put technologies in place that help providers and patients access and utilize key information that will lead to safer, better health care.
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