Microsystems has announced the release of DocXtools v6.0, the document quality control, clean-up, and restyling software. DocXtools v6.0 allows medical writers and regulatory affairs professionals to proactively create ‘submission ready’ Word documents that render as healthy PDF documents, resulting in a more effective, efficient and predictable submission process. DocXtools v6.0 allows submission support to maintain submission document quality and integrity throughout the submission lifecycle and, ultimately, meet submission deadlines. DocXtools identifies problems and navigates within the document to each specific issue, where its clean-up and styling functionality can address the problem. This reduces the total time spent formatting and quality controlling a Word document by up to 70 percent.

Samarion and Sonitor Technologies have announced a strategic alliance for the integration of Sonitor’s Indoor Positioning System (IPS) into Samarion’s SamarionSolution product for nursing homes and long term care facilities. Samarion will deliver a complete solution for fall prevention, incorporating Sonitor’s accurate IPS technology and Samarion’s turn-key software platform, including the Image Analysis and intelligent alerting features. The SamarionSolution also encompasses several other key features aided and enabled by Sonitor’s IPS, including wandering prevention, abuse and neglect prevention, and facility and staff management. Both companies will coordinate sales and marketing efforts to a variety of assisted living and LTC facilities, including nursing homes, hospitals, outpatient clinics, and skilled nursing facilities. The SamarionSolution is currently being prepared for installation at The Guardian Nursing Home and Christwood Retirement Community, both Outcome Based Study partners of Samarion.

BioSignia has been selected as a data-submission pathway for Bridges to Excellence (BTE), one of the nation's leading programs to promote care quality within physician practices. This decision rests on BioSignia’s Know Your Number, the first disease-specific risk assessment (DRA) tool that predicts an individual’s likelihood of developing chronic preventable diseases such as heart disease and diabetes. The program employs electronic evidence-based intake associated with the collection of key information related to various chronic diseases. Such intake can either occur directly from electronic medical records using appropriate software to capture these evidence-based parameters or from a secure, web-accessible system available on the Know Your Number Web site. This information, which is anonymous, can then be sent directly to various performance assessment organizations supporting BTE. This serves to streamline and facilitate participation.

MediNotes Corporation has announced the latest release of its award-winning .Net-based integrated electronic medical record (EHR)/practice management (PM) solution MediNotes Clinician Spring R2. New upgrades to MediNotes Clinician, which offers e-prescribing, patient portals, patient kiosks, image management and more include: a payments link; electronic secondary; an inventory module, and the ability to interface with claims clearinghouse RealMed.

St. Joseph’s Hospital in Philadelphia has selected Wellsoft Corporation’s Emergency Department Information System (EDIS) to help realize their strategic goals of providing quality health care to the over 25,000 Emergency Department patients they treat annually. The EDIS will be of particular benefit as their new state of the art Emergency Department services the community as a Level II Trauma Center. The implementation of Wellsoft will lead to more complete documentation, and more efficient processes giving clinicians more time at patient bedsides. ED management will use data gathered in Wellsoft’s system to comprehensively create reports to gain a better understanding of ED operations, thus decreasing turnaround times and increasing patient satisfaction.

The Medical Records Institute, in association with recognized experts in EMR functional assessments, has developed a new initiative to highlight key attributes of EMRs to support fundamental medical-legal requirements of medical records as business records. By highlighting the existence of EMRs that are well-designed in their support of these attributes, it is hoped to improve market transparency for medical-legal requirements as a core requirement for EMRs, thereby facilitating both improved selection and implementation of EMRs and speeding the uptake of systems by reducing their potential medical-legal risk. This new TEPR Award is the first major effort to challenge EMR vendors to demonstrate that their products meet a range of EMR medicolegal requirements, including identity and authentication, document version management, signature events, data integrity and document event auditing functions. Candidates for the award (who must be TEPR exhibitors) will complete a questionnaire designed by a team of independent attorneys, legal experts, and EMR and health information management professionals. For more information about TEPR and the TEPR Awards, see www.TEPR.com.

Mad*Pow Media Solutions has collaborated with Aetna on the design of Aetna SmartSource, a ground-breaking health information tool aimed at delivering relevant content to Aetna members. The web-based search engine mines Aetna’s vast data resources to provide meaningful information and guide consumers toward a variety of Aetna benefits and programs. By leveraging innovative interface options, including a visually-oriented information map, Aetna SmartSource provides the context through which users can easily explore relevant content specific to their needs. Aetna tapped Mad*Pow’s design expertise and proven methodology to better understand how people search for health information online and how these trends could be synchronized with the company’s business objectives. The challenge was how to help users efficiently browse and find information related to local health care providers, estimated costs, medications, and Aetna discount and benefit programs.

Clickatell has been chosen by leading health care organizations including Cell-Life, ComplyRx, and the U.K. National Health Service (NHS) to provide mobile solutions that deliver critical medical information to cell phones across the globe. Taking advantage of ubiquitous text messaging, health care organizations worldwide can initiate a broad range of mobile communication initiatives at minimum cost and with a great deal of flexibility, security and convenience. Using SMS, the health care industry can reach more people in more places with critical health care information they need and seek. There are also significant financial advantages available to health care companies who take advantage of SMS over traditional methods of communications. For example, having launched its service using Clickatell in 2006, the NHS has seen a 60% cost savings and has reached over 90% of its intended audience, providing information they need to live healthier lives.