Comments on: News 2/15/08

By: John

John — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 17:52:20 +0000

Agree p_anon, took MS forever to get something useful into the ERP market, though Navision (particularly the Axapta solution) was and is a good solution.

I banged on the HealthVault platform pretty hard when it was first released (pretty extensive review at http://www.chilmarkresearch.com – just search on HealthVault). Bottom-line, not ready for prime-time, and certainly not ready for your average consumer. Reports from the field are that progress is being made and a whole host of various PHR/PHA companies have been working with MS to get HealthVault to a point where it might actually be useful. Be interesting to see if they’ll have any demos at their HIMSS booth (how much visibility will they give HealthValut vs Amalga.

By: The PACS Designer

The PACS Designer — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 17:07:55 +0000

TPD was a little surprised that MS would venture into the PACS/RIS space as it can be quite challenging with the large number of DICOM/HL7 issues one must face to get a truly integrated product for hospitals. No one has yet to come up with the fully integrated DICOM?HL7 PACS so Microsoft is just another wannabe that will be reviewed by the FDA before it will be approved for sale.

By: p_anon

p_anon — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 17:00:14 +0000

I doubt Microsoft will have anything useful to show anytime soon, so don’t hold your breath. At best, we’ll see a rollout along the timeline of the Dynamics (Great Plains) product line. 5+ years before the first useful version? That’s a guess.

In other MS HIT news, has anyone started using HealthVault? At all?

By: John

John — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 15:08:42 +0000

Unlikely that other HIT vendors will run from Microsoft and into the arms of Red Hat as a result of their acquisition of Global 2000 and the roll-out of Amalga. Many moons ago I made a similar prediction in the ERP space when MS acquired Great Plains and then Navision. Sure, the ERP companies all stood back from MS for a period of time and reassessed the relationship, but within a relatively short period of time, they were back talking with MS and putting the MS certified sticker on their website. Why? Quite simple, customers – they aren’t going to change their MS-based infrastructure just because MS gets into the market.

As for MS making a new category of software, ala Unified Intelligence System – well maybe it is new to the HIT space, but this is very old in other sectors, eg manufacturing where there have been such systems for years.

And where did they ever find that name Amalga – sounds like something out of a Bugs Bunny cartoon – short for amalgamation, but maybe that gives us some idea o their overall HIT strategy

By: The Alchemist

The Alchemist — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 05:09:45 +0000

Go Microsoft! At least someone has gotten off their dead IT-ass and trying to rapidly make a difference. God knows, healthcare needs a savior.

Another boring IT day!!!