Thursday, June 25, 2009

Health Informatics News

Health Informatics News

Self-monitoring to boost European diabetes diagnostics market

Posted: 25 Jun 2009 03:20 AM PDT

The European diabetes diagnostics market is poised for expansion with segments such as self-monitoring and point-of-care (POC) tests offering tremendous growth potential. (Source: Healthcare IT News)

iSoft signs fifth Lorenzo site in Germany

Posted: 25 Jun 2009 01:22 AM PDT

Health information technology company iSoft has announced that Klinikum Saarbrücken will become the fifth early adopter site in Germany for its Lorenzo next-generation solution, as part of a €1.08million deal for a hospital information system. (Source: Healthcare IT News)

Baptist Regional Selects Pharmacy Tools

Posted: 25 Jun 2009 09:16 AM PDT

Baptist Regional Medical Center in Corbin, Kentucky has implemented Quantifi from Bellevue, Wash.-based Pharmacy OneSource to establish benchmarks and trending of clinical and quality pharmacy activities, and the company’s Amplifi product to manage their formulary and communicate medication information throughout the hospital. According to the company, Amplifi is a flexible, robust formulary management and pharmacy communications application with integrated drug information that it says will provide BRMC tools to manage, update, and communicate formularies in print, on the web, and on handhelds. Baptist Regional is a 240-bed facility and member of the Baptist Healthcare System.

Multi-vendor Mammography Machine Now Available

Posted: 25 Jun 2009 09:13 AM PDT

Headquartered in the UK, Philips has just released its MammoDiagnost VU standalone mammography workstation to the United States market. Its product, the company says, enables multi-vendor and multimodality image management and integration, and was designed to help simplify mammography screening workflow. Philips says MammoDiagnost VU, which was previously available in Europe and part of Philips’ Women’s Healthcare innovative solutions, touts that the product has special features for screening and diagnostic review that go beyond a typical PACS workstation to streamline workflow and allow clinicians to focus on interpretation.   According to the company, the product provides automatic breast tissue alignment for images derived from computed radiography (CR) and digital radiography (DR) from any vendor, and switching between examinations with the product takes less than a second.   Other features, it says, include an overview of relevant patient history through a graphical patient history timeline and the display of CR and DR on the same screen.     MammoDiagnost VU can be used as standalone workstation and is compatible with Philips imaging and PACS systems. The multimodality workstation can also function as a front-end workstation by integrating images             from any vendor’s modality or PACS system, the company claims.                          

CCHIT Approves Pre-Market EHR

Posted: 24 Jun 2009 12:44 PM PDT

San Jose, Calif.-based Axolotl Corp. ’s Elysium 9, has been approved as a pre-market conditional Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT) Certified 08 Ambulatory electronic health record, the company says.   Pre-market conditionally certified EHRs, Axolotl says, are new products that become fully certified once their operational use at a physician office site has been verified. The company says it intends to maintain Elysium 9’s certification to meet the Chicago-based organization’s required standards and certification criteria that will ensure physicians are well positioned to achieve and demonstrate meaningful use as referenced in the HITECH act.  According to the company, the new software version is freely available, at no additional license cost, to its 25,000 licensed physicians, many of whom contributed to its development. According to the company, a CCHIT Certified 08 Ambulatory EHR ensures additional electronic prescribing features, enhanced ability to view X-rays and other diagnostic images, and the better management of patient consents and authorizations.

Sentillion to Collaborate with Microsoft

Posted: 24 Jun 2009 11:40 AM PDT

Anodver, Mass.-based Sentillion signed a licensing agreement with Redmond, Wa.-headquartered Microsoft wherein Sentillion would supply its single sign-on (SSO) and context management technology as part of Microsoft Amalga Unified Intelligence System 2009. According to Sentillion, the joint offering would provide users with a variety of benefits, such as: ·         Clinicians using Amalga’s healthcare data aggregation platform would have SSO capabilities and need to login only once. ·         Amalga users would  guarantee that the person’s record is in fact that person. ·         SSO and context management would be part of the clinical workflow that users already use, which would enable the transition not to be disruptive.   ·         The integration would streamline workflow by combining the power of Microsoft’s data intelligence technology with Sentillion’s technology enabling faster, easier and more efficient decisions.       

Orlando Health using new brain implant

Posted:

6/25/2009 © Orlando Sentinel
Michel Medina Gonzalez, 40, is among the first Parkinson's disease patients to get the newest generation of deep-brain-stimulation implants. Neurosurgeons at Orlando Health did the procedure earlier this month.

USF-Moffitt center receives $6 million grant

Posted:

6/24/2009 © St. Petersburg Times
University of South Florida and Moffitt Cancer Center will use a $6 million, five-year federal grant to study why black patients do so much worse than whites with similar kinds of disease. Meanwhile, Polk health educators are taking the HIV/AIDS message to minority groups at beauty salons, churches, wherever they are likely to listen, The Ledger reports.

Bartering for health care on the rise

Posted:

6/17/2009 © Kaiser Health News
Bartering for health services has provided a temporary safety net for the uninsured and underinsured. David Mroz, an independent broker based in Broward County and listed on a directory at Itex Corp., said he has many Florida doctors, dentists and chiropractors on the list. Those who barter for services worth at least $600 a year have to pay tax.

Doctors debate health overhaul

Posted:

6/16/2009 © Fort Myers News-Press
Lee County physicians applaud President Obama's push for an overhaul of health care, but want protection from malpractice suits to help them rein in excessive tests and treatments.  On the other coast, as Florida Today reports, doctors debate the idea of a public plan.

3 women doctors suing VA hospital

Posted:

6/15/2009 St. Petersburg Times
Four Bay Pines VA Medical Center employees, including three doctors, accuse executives of retaliating against them for filing gender-discrimination claims. The federal-court trial is scheduled to open today.

Hospital tracks down 'frequent fliers'

Posted:

By Bill Hirschman
6/12/2009 © Health News Florida
A hospital system in Broward got tired of seeing the same expensive patients cycling through its emergency room instead of getting preventive care in a lower-cost clinic. So the staff set out to find those patients -- even if meant going door to door.

Crist signs controversial PPO bill

Posted:

06/11/2009 © Tallahassee Democrat
Gov. Charlie Crist sided with doctors and signed a hotly debated health insurance bill (SB 1122) that had been opposed by Blue Cross and Blue Shield and some consumer advocates. He said it will improve access to care as well as payment for doctors. He also signed into law a kidney transplant bill.

Model: Green Bay, the anti-Miami

Posted:

6/11/2009 © Washington Post 
Today, President Obama visits Green Bay, Wis., one of the highest-value health communities in the nation. There, Medicare patients' health is at least as good as in Miami but costs dramatically less.

UM tests online link for diabetics

Posted:

6/11/2009 © Miami Herald
If low-income diabetics frequently communicate with nurses online, will they stay healthier? Microsoft and the University of Miami are testing the theory on 25 patients from Overtown.

State capital's trauma center official

Posted:

6/11/2009 © Tallahassee Democrat
Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare will be designated as a Level II trauma center on July 1. Before the facility gained provisional trauma status last year, Tallahassee was the only urban area in Florida not served by a trauma center.

Shands forms unusual partnership

Posted:

6/8/2009 © Gainesville Sun
Shands HealthCare and Solantic are partnering to open a Gainesville medical clinic. That puts the University of Florida's teaching hospital system in business with Rick Scott, who has become the most visible opponent of national health reform (see Health News Florida's article on Scott).

''Natural'' cures on rise, can kill

Posted:

6/8/2009 © AP/Bradenton Herald
Unproven alternative treatments are making a comeback, offering patients with deadly diseases hope with outlandish claims of cures. Instead, they rob the patient of money and precious time.

Hospitals cut back to stay afloat

Posted:

6/6/2009 © Miami Herald
Hospitals, once considered recession-proof, are now suffering economically, say speakers at the annual South Florida Healthcare Summit. But some for-profit hospitals are doing surprisingly well.

Decoding cancer gene to help patients today

Posted:

6/7/2009 © St. Petersburg Times
The H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute in Tampa is using its bank of cancer samples to decode the unique genetic makeup of cancer genes. Researchers hope to use their findings to target the right treatments for patients.

Board cracks down on pain doctors

Posted:

6/5/2009 © South Florida Sun-Sentinel
The Florida Board of Medicine leveled stricter-than-usual penalties today against doctors found to have doled out narcotic painkillers excessively or improperly. A bill that would give the board more authority over rogue pain clinics awaits action from the governor.

Man shot in head comes out of coma

Posted:

6/4/2009 © Northwest Florida Daily News
Rion Tilton, 22, who has been unconscious for more than a week after being shot in the head, surprised his doctors by coming out of his coma.
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