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News 7/30/08

July 29, 2008 News 3 Comments

From: Esther. “Re: Picis. FYI – Just got notification from Picis that they have re-evaluated their offerings and are stopping enhancement on the nutrition services applications. From the letter – ‘Our decision regarding the direction for Dietary Manager is that it will continue to be fully supported, but we will no longer be actively enhancing the product.’ I’m sure that we’ll see more of this with the current state of the economy.” I checked in with Ann Joyal, Director of Corporate Communications at Picis and here is her response: “At Picis our focus is on delivering results in the high-acuity areas of the hospital (emergency department, surgery and ICU). In a recent evaluation of our product portfolio, we made the decision to de-emphasize our non-high-acuity products, including our dietary management product line. Even though we do not plan further enhancements, we believe these products continue to provide high value to the current customer base, and we will continue to support those current customers.”

From: Art Vandelay. “Wal-mart in Telemedicine – Hat tip = Health Populi. I saw the following on Health Populi. Wal-mart has now made a step towards telemedicine with University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. This touches upon two guesses in a post from nearly a year ago. I guess health care may start moving at Wal-mart speed. In the Health Populi link, be sure to check-out the ‘retail world is flat.’ If we can have data centers in containers, why not doctor’s offices?”

From: Trace Gal. “Re: HERSS. HERSS could stand for: Highly effective & remarkable sister systems OR Highly effective & remarkable superior systems.”

From: Music Guru. “Re: Inga Radio. I love your eclectic musical taste, Inga! Mr. H trips me up with all his “listening to” Eveel Kaneeveel– 70’s throwback with heavy influences from Echo and the Bunnymen, and BurkaBurka – Mongolian Rolling Stones tribute band (former screamer lead man from Your Yurt or Mine.) Does he actually listen to all that or does he just have a bad Indie music generator!???” I guess Mr. H really listens to his recommendations. Then again maybe he is making up all those funny bad names to see if anyone is paying attention. (In fairness, I think HIStalk Radio has many fans. Inga Radio is just more mainstream, I suppose.)

From: Hotstix. “Re: Inga Radio. I have listened to Pandora for about a year, and never could find that right eclectic mix of music . . . until YOU! I find myself listening to this constantly. Great music for the summer! I particularly like your selection of Alison Kraus.”

Virtual Radiologic announces their first international contract, a multi-year agreement with Lion City Radiology in Singapore to provide preliminary interpretations of CT and MRI studies for imaging centers affiliated with Lion City Radiology in Singapore and United Arab Emirates.

On Monday Virtual Radiologic also released it Q2 results, highlighted by a 22% increase in revenue from the same period last year. Adjusted EBITDA and adjusted income were both up 27% and 70% respectively. Net income was $.12/share. The market’s response was an 18% decline in the stock price.

The 38-physician, 12-location Crescent City Physicians (LA) has selected Sage’s Intergy EHR and PM solution.

British-based E-Health Insider obtains records that detail Milton Keynes Hospital’s Cerner Millennium deployment. The article outlines the numerous product and implementation difficulties throughout the two year project.  Though it sounds like a mess, I wonder if the situation is that much worse than situations we’ve seen here (with a variety of vendors.)

Premise names John Hannon as its new CFO/COO. Hannon served in a similar role at Mangrove Systems and was a GM/VP with Ascend’s Broadband Access group. The appointment coincides with Premise receiving $2 million in Series B funding.

The Healthcare Growth Partners folks have published a Q2 2008 Healthcare IT transaction report. The document provides an excellent overview of the capital markets and M&A activity. Despite a gloomy economy, the HCIT world seems to be faring better than most.

Eclipsys reports they now have more than 1000 trained pharmacists and technicians using Sunrise Pharmacy.

Several Nuance products received high rankings in KLAS’s new Speech Recognition report. PowerScribe for Radiology and RadWhere for Radiology took the top spots for front-end speech recognition category; eScription and Dictaphone Enterprise Express Speech System claimed two of the three top spots for back-end speech recognition vendors.

Business intelligence and patient outreach solution provider MedVentive names  Nancy  J.  Ham  as  president  and  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Directors.  Ham formerly served as president of both Sentillion and Proxymed. The appointment coincides with the closing  an  additional  $3.55M  Series  B  investment  from  existing  investors.     

3M and Sonitor are teaming up to provide Sonitor’s Track and Trace RTLS technology to 3M’s customer base.

For about 400,000 yen ($3,700) you can buy a Japanese “Intelligence Toilet” that allows you to stand at your bathroom sink to measure and record your blood pressure, blood-sugar, weight, and body-fat. Clearly the coolest thing about the product has to be its name.

Healthcare analytics company MedeFinance has secured $50 million in funding, led by Bain Capital Ventures. Mede plans to fund new growth initiatives and acquisition opportunities.

The Military Health System awards General Dynamics a contract worth a potential $5 billion. The 10-year “indefinite delivery, indefinite quality” agreement is for planning and management services. I don’t understand what indefinite delivery, indefinite quality means but it sounds like I need to include that term in my next employment agreement.

I’m happy to report that Mr. H should be back any day now!  My stint has been made perfect after receiving this long-awaited love sonnet (of sorts) from Wompa1.  It’s a masterpiece.

Ode to Inga

Prosperous and informative laid the Blogdom,

Mr. H, sometimes jaded, leader of thought,

Glanced at his site tracker,

And smiled at what he wrought.

Then they came in numbers too great,

Asking for more, too much more of him,

Mrs. H never saw him,

He said “enough! I’m almost dead Jim!”

He sounded the electronic call

Throughout the Blogdom went the story, (okay not really)

“I can’t report it all,” he said,

Is there one who will cover ambulatory?

He clings to hope,

Who will answer his cry,

Golden locks flying,

She stands and calls: “I.”

She stood tall and bold,

The German princess, the mystery,

All we see

Is Angelina Jolie.

The golden maiden brought

A true golden age,

Like Mr. H.,

She too was a sage.

Brave the maiden Inga,

Ready to don the crown,

When Mr. H.,

And Mrs H. find themselves out of town.

Endless toiling,

Searching the news,

Pausing but seldom,

To shop for new shoes.

O but heavy is the head,

Power feeds the need for more,

First the HIMSS doubles,

Dare we wonder what’s in store?

As the pendulum swings too far

The temptation too great as such,

HIS becomes HERs

The chance to seize it; too much.

But she is steadfast and trusty,

The king’s lands will not burn,

The watchful warden holds

The keys ‘till his return.



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Currently there are "3 comments" on this Article:

  1. Re Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity – back in my DoD days, IDIQ contracts were used for things like computer purchases. The DoD (or a service, or a major command) would negotiate prices with a vendor for a fixed period of time, perhaps specifying a minimum quantity. Then, when a component of the organization needed something covered by the contract, they could just call up the vendor and order it rather than having to navigate the full acquisition process. It made our lives a lot easier down at the unit level for IT-type stuff, and encouraged standardization.

    To my complete unsurprise, wikipedia has an entry on it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IDIQ

    J

  2. The Intelligence Toilet is the newest Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tool integrated with S-ecured H-ealth I-nformation T-echnology.

  3. Cyber,

    I really hope that is not a bi-directional interface with S-ecured H-ealth I-nformation T-echnology.







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