Comments on: News 5/23/08

By: Frank Fortin

Frank Fortin — Fri, 23 May 2008 19:02:18 +0000

Thanks for noting the Massachusetts Medical Society’s legal action on the Group Insurance Commission’s physician ranking program.

IMPORTANT correction, however. We’re not against public rankings of physicians. Patients have every right to good information. And this information can be very helpful to doctors, too.

But we’re against ranking programs that provide inaccurate and misleading information. Bad information forces patients to pay more for their health care based on false premises. We assert that the GIC’s effort is seriously compromised by these shortcomings, which we are going to court to try to correct.

By: Clittle

Clittle — Fri, 23 May 2008 15:50:05 +0000

Charles Babbage @ 1: yes, there is indeed a company called Loftware. No vaporware is involved (your experience with the many claims over the years, year after year, about the arrival of the computerized patient record have left you jaded!)

I understand the derivation of the company’s name comes from it starting business operation in the loft of its founder’s Maine house. Some 20+ years and 40,000+ customers globally later, its come a ways (literally: it’s not even in Maine anymore).

And, yes, we were shocked at the reaction to the sound in the Loftware ad. I don’t have sound on my machine (personal choice) so I didn’t get the impact some did of recurring sound while reading the blog. I am actually gald the ad was pulled abruptly. I would have requested it be pulled had Inga et al not already realized that was the right step and done so.

By: Bernardo

Bernardo — Fri, 23 May 2008 15:01:58 +0000

do this rarely and only when I hear about layoffs (so please don’t ask): if you’re an experienced implementer of physician systems and have recently become unemployed, an implementation VP wants to talk to you.

I'm confused - Misys has just laid off how many 10+ year employees in implementations and now Imedica is looking for experienced implementation people?

Aren't they one and the same. How dysfunctional is Misys. One hand fires the same people that the other hand needs to hire. Unless they just want to bring them back at a lower salary?

[From Mr. HIStalk] Misys and iMedica are not the same. Misys licensed iMedica's product, but didn't buy the company. Gutsy call for iMedica to actively recruit the former employees laid off by its biggest customer? Could be. I kind of admire them for that.

By: John

John — Fri, 23 May 2008 14:56:29 +0000

TEPR, I was there and ain;t ever going back. What a waste of time and effort. And if one of my marketing people ever proposed exhibiting there, I’d be tempted to fire them.

Dossia and the folks at CHIP are doing just fine. Spoke with both parties earlier this week and they were actually together on a panel at TEPR. So, that rumor is false, unless of course these relatively high ranking people did a great job of acting.

Gave the fine folks at HHS/ONC the Golden Fleece Award (www.chilmarkresearch.com) for that fine effort they supported in defining those six critical acronyms that were holding up HIT adoption. Boy, for a half million dollars, looks like the tax payer certainly got fleeced on this one.

By: Karl

Karl — Fri, 23 May 2008 14:06:42 +0000

Winston: It seems many such basics continue to fade away, like manners and modesty. I suppose we might define the National Alliance for Health Information Technology as an alliance, on a national scale, for technology which deals with health information. How could anyone argue with that, eh?