News 10/3/07

From Seth Maxwell: “Re: El Camino Hospital. This discussion triggered by a routine board seat newspaper story is full of venom.” Wow – anonymous accusations of board corruption, conflict of interest, and substandard care, some of which involve IT. A compelling read, although as fiction and for entertainment purposes only since nothing is substantiated.

From The PACS Designer: “Re: Total Recall. Another new feature of Oracle Database 11g is Total Recall(TR). This feature allows users to view queries for specified time periods, which will speed data analysis and reduce the need to write custom programs to retrieve the data to be analyzed by database users. TR also aids information lifecycle management by highlighting data that can be compressed due to its age and lack of inquiry activity. Still another added feature is Flashback data archive that permits change tracking to improve retrieval times.”

In response to my “who’s developing an EMR” question, Dr. Quiz says Henry Ford Medical System is. p_anon says ditto for MD Anderson. More information, please.

My newsletter editorial this week: “I’ll Have What He’s Having – Why Hospital Software Selection Is More Lemming than Deming.” Shell out a few measly bucks and you’ll get a big old weekly load of me at my best plus a great newsletter besides.

Microsoft and Allscripts are making some kind of announcement Wednesday morning.

This week’s Brev+IT. Get it hot off the press in your e-mail inbox next time by signing up here.

InfoLogix, the mobility and RFID company that just started trading on Nasdaq, acquires consulting firm Healthcare Informatics Associates (WA) for $16.5 million.

Microsoft is offering Office Live Workspace, its Office-extending answer to Google Docs. TechCrunch isn’t impressed: “Microsoft has failed to understand the real power of Google Docs – easy, no hassle document creation, collaboration and access from the browser. And it will take them another two years of fidgeting before they really get scared and react properly. Microsoft is falling into the classic trap of failing to realize the disruptive nature of a new competitive technology, instead focusing on the massive revenues it generates from their aging Office suite.”

Hot conference. November 5-6. Beverly Hills. Harris, Sands, Holmquest, Kennedy, Marchibroda, Wade, Miller, Bush, Tullman, Eckert, and other industry leaders. Former CEO attendee comment: “The most useful conference I have attended in a long time. The rich mix of perspectives and experience in Healthcare IT made for the best of conferences.” Discount code HISTALK2020 will get you a $750 registration rate because I’m a “media partner”, which got HIStalk mentioned in a press release. I’ll have a report from there, I think.

Sounds like a good read: How Doctors Think.

GE Healthcare, taking heat in India for pushing sales of ultrasound machines for illegally (in that country) determining fetal gender, says it will listen to suggestions. Indian culture prefers breadwinning sons to dowry-requiring daughters, which has led to the selective abortion of millions of female fetuses.

Siemens Medical Solutions signs a joint venture deal with a 40-employee Japanese hospital EMR vendor, hoping to get a piece of the clinical systems action over there. Says the company has 30 hospital customers, which seems like a heavy support load for 40 employees.

Henry Schein continues its tear of software acquisitions, this time picking up Software of Excellence International, a New Zealand dental software vendor.

A senator urges the VA and DoD to speed up integration of their respective EMR systems, not scheduled to be finished until 2015.

Merge Healthcare announces its April user group meeting. It will be held in a Las Vegas casino, reminding attendees of a reasonable alternative to buying Merge shares that at least offers free drinks while watching your bankroll disappear.

E-mail me.

Inga’s Update

Félicitations to dbMotion for being selected to provide an interoperability platform to extend the Franche-Comté regional health information exchange.

Iron Mountain, the information storage and protection giant, acquires RMS Services, a $27 million records management company that provides outsourced file room solutions for hospitals. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Eclipsys Corporation announces the appointment of Victoria Bradley as the company’s Chief Nursing Informatics Officer. Bradley is an RN, DNP, and a HIMSS fellow, and the current vice chair for HIMSS. She most recently has been director of patient information for the University of Kentucky.

Thanks to Polly, obviously a baseball purist, who pointed out that the thing with the baseball jerseys/team names in not universally true. So, I restate my comment to say “traditionally” this is what they do. And I remain amazed that it took me until the ripe old age of 29 to figure that out.