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Executive Editor

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Associate Managing Editor
 

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 IN THIS ISSUE
Florida HIE Takes New Approach to Sustainability
Q&A: TV's Digital Conversion in 2009 May Pose Risks to Hospitals
Deals, Deployments, and Short News
Top Stories from Around the Web
 
 
 

Florida HIE Takes New Approach to Sustainability
By Maureen McKinney

The Greater Ocala Health Information Trust has partnered with two vendors—PatientKeeper and WorldDoc—in preparation for the Florida-based health information exchange’s rollout this fall. The HIE, which is also known as Healthy Ocala and Greater Marion County, includes several local hospitals, the Marion County Medical Society, the local chamber of commerce, and community organizations. It has also chosen an EHR provider, but won’t yet say who.

Part of what’s significant about the vendor selection, independent of their particular technology capabilities, is their willingness to work with Ocala on an innovative funding mechanism to help Ocala escape the problems that have plagued most other HIEs in the past. More...

 
 
 
 

Executive Q&A
Bandwidth Freed by the Digital Conversion in 2009 May Pose Risks to Hospitals

By Cindy Atoji

Next year, when broadcasters make the switch from analog to digital broadcasting, some wireless frequencies will be up for grabs. Tech giants like Google and Microsoft are lobbying to have to have these so-called “white spaces” used for next-generation consumer devices. But hospitals using remote patient monitoring could be negatively impacted, says Tim Kottak, engineering manager for System and Wireless in GE Healthcare.

“If a new white space application that’s operating thousands of times more powerfully than those in a hospital or outside the hospital, came online, it could interfere with the telemetry system and prevent patient monitoring,” says Kottak.

Last week, filings urged federal regulators to put a buffer zone around the spectrum used for medical telemetry (also called WMTS or Wireless Medical Telemetry Service, which operates on Channel 37), an encouraging development for hospitals. Kottak says these filings ask that certain channels be off-limits and would require device operators to alert medical institutions before deployment.

As the time for digital conversion nears—February 2009—the debate over the unused airwaves continues, as well as its potential impact on health care, especially if, for example, heart or blood oxygen monitors operating on radio frequency are disrupted. Kottak discussed the white space controversy to Digital HealthCare & Productivity, as well as other wireless challenges for hospitals. 

DHP: The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) is expected to make a decision this summer on how the white spaces can be used. What do hospitals need to know, especially those with older systems that might not using the protected band?
KOTTAK:
Number one, that there is a limited timetable for legacy telemetry devices that are not designed for WMTS. The FCC has set aside Channel 37 of the broadcast TV band as a protected area for exclusive use of medical telemetry devices, but some older systems are still operating outside that band. These systems can cost millions of dollars to upgrade, and health care facilities will need to identify and address the source of interference or replace equipment with newer, protected Channel 37 installations. These legacy systems often use Channels 33-35, and we’re advocating to the FCC to give the healthcare industry another year, until February 2010 to make the conversion and get out of these spectrums before they’re used. More...

 
 
 

Deals, Deployments, and Short News
By Allison Proffitt, Digital HealthCare & Productivity staff

PCPCC names Wal-Mart and McKesson heads as co-chairs; National Council for Prescription Drug Programs unveils next gen pharmacy data solution; Siemens and IBM offer hospital bundle. More…

 
TOP STORIES FROM AROUND THE WEB
 
Hewlett-Packard Acquires E.D.S.
The New York Times
 
EMR Deadline Does Not Compute: Falling Short of 2014 Goals
amednews.com
 
Panelists' Consensus on e-Prescribing: Go for It!
Government Health IT
 
States Will Need to Subsidize Health Information Exchanges
Government Health IT
 
Merge Could Face Bankruptcy
Health Data Management
 
Docs to Get Remote Labor Data
Health Data Management
 
Beth Israel Deaconess Begins EHR/PM Roll-Out
Healthcare IT News
 
Healthcare Wireless Market to Approach $10 Billion by 2012
Healthcare IT News
 
New Study Shows $2 Billion of Denials on 10 Million Actual Claims Based on NPI-Only Acceptance
HIMSS.com
 
How to be a Great Boss
Halamka Blog
 
 

LIFE SCIENCE JOBS

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center - Bioinformatics Engineer
MSKCC Bioinformatics Core in Manhattan seeks Bioinformatics Engineer. Design and develop bioinformatics processing and analysis pipelines for traditional and next-gen sequence data. Consult with, train, and analyze data for researchers. Master's degree and 5 years experience in Bioinformatics software development, sequence assembly, SQL, Perl, Python. Email
bic-jobs@cbio.mskcc.org or www.mskcc.org #015415. EOE/AA

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center - Linux Systems Administrator MSKCC Bioinformatics Core in Manhattan seeks Linux Systems Administrator. Install, configure and update OS, databases, software. Monitor and troubleshoot HPC cluster, email and web servers. Master's degree and 5 years experience with HPC, network security, Postfix, Apache, Tomcat, Grid Engine. Email bic-jobs@cbio.mskcc.org or www.mskcc.org #015429 EOE/AA

Paradigm-Sales/Business Development – IT Solutions and Services Paradigm (www.Paradigminfotech.com) is a global IT services and solutions provider. Paradigm has over 1000 employees and is the recipient INC. 500 and D&T Fast 50 consistently.  Paradigm is looking for SALES / BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT PEOPLE.  Experience: 2-3 years Direct sales experience in Software Solutions or Services including Application development or support and preferably selling to Pharmaceutical, CROs or Health care industries. Location:Columbia, MD,Contact:  Erin Lowman, erin@paradigminfotech.com, 410-872-1008 x 100

Lilly Singapore Center for Drug Discovery (LSCDD) - Associate Director of Informatics,
Lead and mentor a strong team for the Bioinformatics group at the Integrative Computational Sciences (ICS) department at LSCDD towards the development of novel algorithms, data analysis methods and software tools for drug discovery. Work closely with the Software Engineering group at ICS, and collaborate with the Discovery IT organization in Europe and USA. For additional information, or to apply visit:
LSCDD

Lilly Singapore Center for Drug Discovery (LSCDD)- Senior Bioinformatics Scientist,
Contribute to the development of novel algorithms, data analysis methods and software tools for drug discovery as part of the Integrative Computational Sciences (ICS) department at LSCDD.  Work closely with informatics and software engineering peers at ICS, and collaborate with the Discovery IT organization in Europe and USA. The successful candidate will offer hands-on insight and expertise in tailored therapeutic informatics and statistical analyses at the post-genomic era. For additional information, or to apply visit:
LSCDD   

Lilly Singapore Center for Drug Discovery(LSCDD) -Senior Software Engineer,
Join a strong team of software engineers in our Integrative Computational Sciences (ICS) at LSCDD. Collaborate with, and help develop integrated applications to process and visualize data from cutting-edge technologies used by scientists at Lilly Research Labs (LRL) and the Drug Discovery Research (DDR) teams. The Software Engineering team provides computational tools and tailored software solutions that enable the global effort of Tailored Therapeutics; ‘The Right Drug, at The Right Dose for The Right Patient at The Right Time'. For additional information, or to apply visit:
LSCDD  

More Life Science Jobs ~ Add a Job Listing

 

FEATURED EVENTS

MIT PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTE - 2008 Short Courses - Cambridge,MA

TEPR 2008 -- May 17-21, 2008 Ft. Lauderdale,FL 

EMC World 2008, May 19-22, 2008, Las Vegas,NV 

BIO International Convention - June 17 – 20, 2008, San Diego Convention Center, San Diego, CA

5th Annual Meeting on the NCI’s cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid—CaBIG—initiative (Annual Meeting)S -June 23-25, 2008, Washington,DC

2nd Label-Free Protein Array- Latest Advances in Analysis of Macromolecular Interactions,July 3-4th 2008 -Paris- France

GOT Summit: Getting Optimized Tools for Diagnostics - May 19-21, 2008, Boston,MA

To have your event featured here, contact Lynn Cloonan for more information.

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Your Forum

Digital HealthCare & Productivity welcomes your feedback and ideas for contributed commentary. Please contact John Russell for editorial Inquiries.

MARKET TREND REPORTS

Battle Between Best-of-Breed and Sole Source Continues
Given all the consolidation among health-IT suppliers in the last few years, more than a few big guns have assembled true, end-to-end integrated clinical and management systems. You want single source? You got it. Yet the ongoing national push for data and interoperability standards means it easier than ever to knit together best-of-breed solutions in Lego-like fashion. More

IT Outsourcing: A Game of Specialization and Global Reach
The low hanging fruit was harvested in the first wave of healthcare-IT outsourcing. Now, national and global companies report the biggest opportunities lurk in niches. Moreover, traditionally entrenched players like EDS and Oracle are ceding ground to new global companies, say observers. More

EHRs Forge Links to Practice Management S/W
Electronic health records are gaining ground, but slowly. Conversely the practice management software market, though unexciting, is steady. Efforts are now on to fuse the two. More

Trends in Medical PCs, PDAs, and Portable Workstations
Do healthcare professionals in your organization want laptop computers? Tablet PCs? Plain old desktop machines? Personal digital assistants? Sure. All can work just fine in clinical environments. More

Wireless Technology Use Jumps in Hospitals
While adoption of many health-IT technologies has stalled, the use of mobile and wireless technology has soared and the choices are proliferating. More

Does Asset Tracking Live Up to the Hype?
Asset tracking has become a hot technology. Indeed, makers of RFID systems – just one of the technology choices – claim to provide near instantaneous ROI. What’s the real state of the market? More

EXCLUSIVE WEBCAST

NEW! Life Science Webcasts from Bio-IT World and Cambridge Healthtech Media Group

Bio-IT World proudly introduces Life Science Webcasts -- a series of informal conversations with leading researchers and executives in the bio-IT and biopharma arena.

This week, Dr. David Wheeler, co-director of Bioinformatics of the Human Genome Sequencing Center, Baylor College of Medicine, discusses "Project Jim: James Watson's Personal Genome" with Bio-IT World's Kevin Davies.

View the Webcast Now

Published by Cambridge Healthtech Media Group, division of CHI, Copyright 2008; All rights reserved. Digital Healthcare & Productivity may not be reproduced, electronically or in print, by any means, mechanical or electronic, in whole or in part, without written permission of Cambridge Healthtech Media Group, 250 First Ave., Suite 300, Needham, MA, 02494.
For reprints and/or copyright permission, please contact The YGS Group, 1808 Colonial Village Lane, Lancaster, PA 17601. Phone: 717-399-1900, ext. 110. Email: becky.mullaney@theYGSgroup.com