Briefly
FDA Proposes Drug Effects Monitoring System
Federal health officials have announced plans for a new monitoring system known as the Sentinel Initiative, which is intended to allow Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials to monitor the effects of drugs currently on the market. The computer tracking system would work by enabling the FDA to search claims data from private insurers, hospitals, and the database for Medicare’s health insurance plan for the elderly and disabled.
(Read the full article)

Health IT
IBM SOA Collaborations
In an effort to promote as well as to facilitate the spread of service oriented architecture (SOA) in healthcare, IBM recently announced a collaboration with nine business partners working to develop their latest healthcare applications using the IBM SOA Foundation and supporting a set of open technology and industry standards. In an SOA, software components can be exposed as services on the network, and can be continually re-used for different applications and purposes.
(Read the full article)

Transparency
U.S. Ads Promote Hospital Comparison/Shopping
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently launched a national advertising campaign in 58 major daily newspapers to promote the Hospital Compare Web site. The Web site allows users to compare the quality of care provided in nearly 4,000 hospitals across the nation while the newspaper ad is aimed at reaching areas covered by roughly 1,000 of these hospitals. The ads contain two of the 26 quality and patient satisfaction measures taken from the Hospital Compare scores in order to provide a sample of hospitals in each newspaper’s market. The 26 quality measures are designed to provide patients with a better understanding of 10 key aspects of the patient experience and get a better picture of the quality of care delivered at their local hospitals.
(Read the full article)

                        

The Circle of Non-Reality

By Michael McBride,
Editor-in-Chief

Axioms can be illuminating. Take, for example, the project manager’s credo: "Fast, good or cheap — choose any two. You cannot have all three." This is sometimes referred to as the Circle of Reality, though in some circles, reality is optional.

(Read the full editorial)

The Evolving Role of the Hospital CIO

 By George Fleming

Not long ago, the head of technology at a hospital was mainly concerned with how data networks were functioning and whether workers could access the electronic files they needed. Other hospital department heads handled equally important ...

(Read the full article)

Telemedicine/Telehealth
Robotic Assistance Remedy: Case History
The Michigan Stroke Network utilizes remote presence robots to bring needed specialists to stroke patients at remote hospitals.
By E. Victor Brown, Senior Editor

Asset Tracking and Locating
How Do I Find Thee? Let Me Count the Ways
There’s more than one way to locate things in hospitals. The best choice depends on the need.
By Adrian Jennings

EDIS
Clean Beds, Less-Crowded: Case History
State-of-the-art bed tracking leads to shorter waits and faster turn-arounds.
New York Methodist Hospital, Brooklyn, N.Y.

Patient Safety
The Bermuda Triangle of Healthcare: Case History
An Illinois healthcare system closes the gaps in patient handoff communication.
By Robert S. White, M.D., and David M. Hall, M.D.

POC/Mobile Computing
COWs and WOWs, Oh My! Case History
Focusing on the needs of nurses can help hospital IT departments make the best technology decisions and improve care giving at the bedside.
By Deborah Whittemore and Jodi Moll

(more)

Fully-equipped Smartphone
The MOTO Q 9c smartphone leverages the potential of high-bandwidth wireless networks with a robust set of applications such as Documents to Go, which enables viewing of e-mail attachments, including PDFs, and allows viewing and editing of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel files.
(click for more on this product)

Healthcare Mobility Solutions
Sprint Nextel is leveraging new partnerships with healthcare application developers such as Global Care Quest, PatientKeeper, Thomson MercuryMD, and DrFirst to extend a range of robust enterprise healthcare applications capabilities to wireless devices.
(click here for more on this product)

New Chemotherapy Web Site
ChemoOrders.com helps clinicians administer current chemotherapy protocols with greater accuracy and efficiency.
(click for more on this product)

Electronic Fax Record
SecureCare Technologies is adding digital signature and annotation features to its Sfax electronic fax record that it calls a “progressive solution that could cut costs and time for providers considering implementing an EMR.” (click here for more on this product)

IV Infusion Pump System
The Outlook Safety Infusion System from B. Braun is designed to help ensure the right patient receives the right medication in the right dose from an authorized clinician. (click here for more on this product)

Supply Management Solution
The InnerSpace System 100 clinical supply management solution uses integrated radio frequency identification (RFID) technology and biometric security access to track and account for clinical supplies in real time. (click here for more on this product)

9-Pin Serial Impact Printer
For the most demanding print tasks such as reports, 10-part forms, shipping documents and mailing labels, the Epson DFX-9000 is a wide format (136 column), 9-pin serial impact dot matrix printer capable of printing up to 1,550 characters per second. (click here for more on this product)

Compact Industrial-Strength Printer
The new M-4210 Mark II direct thermal printer from Datamax incorporates a modular design that makes maintenance and part replacement easy, while a small footprint enables deployment in a variety of limited-space environments. (click here for more on this product)

Electronic Medical Records Solution
The LighthouseMD CareTracker EMR is a Web-based electronic medical records (EMR) system that provides access to more than 270,000 elements of clinical data such as medical histories, patient symptoms, clinical tests, therapies and diagnoses. (click here for more on this product)