LAC+USC Hospital – New Facility to Open Soon - Los Angeles

This is just such a massive improvement to open soon, and going from night to day it deserved some pictures and recognition.  Half a million out patients per year are seen here.  The opening has been delayed a couple times but it appears it is now on around the first of next month.  The new facility is going to be more modern and up to date than many of the  facilities in the Los Angeles area. 

This is going to have to be a real culture shock for many to go from an earthquake damaged and big depression era built facility, to one that has all the new modern technologies and structure.  I moved to California in the early 80s and worked not too far from the facility on Mission Road and only had the opportunity of seeing the facility once way back when taking a fellow employee to the emergency room who was having a heart attack, and it was busy then too. Watch the entire video here. 

“A partner of the Keck School of Medicine of USC since 1885, LAC+USC Medical Center is among the largest teaching hospitals in the country. Staffed by more than 450 full-time faculty of the Keck School and approximately 850 medical residents in training, LAC+USC services 50,000 inpatients and 750,000 outpatients annually. Among its specialized facilities and services is a state-of-the-art burn center, Level III neonatal intensive care unit, Level I trauma service, an NIH-funded clinical research center and a HIV/AIDS outpatient center.”

Original Hospital

Depression Era Construction Addition

 

As it stands today..remember the picture on General Hospital..and will remain a historical landmark.

The new facility…

3 buildings with one walk way throughout all to connect.

The new lobby.

New exam rooms equipped with computers.

Operating Rooms with the latest up to date equipment.

The Robots are here to carry supplies and other items.  This looks pretty cool.

They can handle up to 1000# 

Robots have their own elevators it appears. 

This is somewhat old in theory, but done with today’s technology, I remember the tubes in stores years ago. 

Nice and with the tube system, this should really speed things up.

The Old Facility Patient rooms looked like this with up to 5 beds and there were common shower areas.

The New Facility rooms with private rooms.

Multiples of each Diagnostic tool.

This was the biggest building project conducted by the County of Los Angeles and they appear now to have a director.

LAC+USC Medical Center Wikipedia

1200 North State Street
Los Angeles, California 90033
(323) 226-2622

Technorati Tags: LAC+USC Medical Center,Los Angeles,Hosptials,LA General Hospital,Healthcare,Historical Buildings,Keck School of Medicine of USC,USC Medical School

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Giant Human Head Statue – Ugly!

This is just weird, couldn’t they find a better model!  This is on display in London.

It looks like one big sinus infection to me and I’ll bet it snores too! BD 

http://www.knbc.com/slideshow/news/17617582/detail.html?rss=la&psp=news

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3D Slicer – Open Source Software for CT and MRI Radiology

The 3D Slicer project has been funded primarily by the National Institutes of Health.  Slicer is available for Windows, Linux, and Mac operating systems, so it looks like almost everyone is covered here.  From the software side of things it has plug-in capabilities that can interoperate with research PAC systems, and can handle a variety of formats, including DICOM.

The software is not FDA approved yet, thus can be used only for research and not clinical use.   Open source code available to build platforms available as well.  BD 

Sept. 30, 2008 | The virtual operating room may be a step closer to reality, thanks to the latest version of 3D Slicer, a new generation of freeware that has already been used for brain mapping, image guided surgery, virtual colonoscopy, and other biomedical research. The aptly named “Slicer” provides different views of the same subject on demand, such as vivid 3-D images of the brain, created from the raw data of two-dimension magnetic resonance (MR) images.

Although there have been no commercial uses of 3D Slicer yet, Kikinis says, he expects such releases soon. “Everything we distribute—Slicer, and the underlying libraries and tool kits—are all free of patented code so there are no strings attached. This was done specifically to encourage adoption and use of commercial entities into medical products.” The software is not FDA approved, and is for research, not clinical use, says Kikinis.

Slicer began as an open source collaboration between the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, as a way of integrating various aspects of image-guided medicine into a single environment. 3D Slicer is now routinely used at Brigham for pre-surgical cases, including MRI data to build 3-D models of the brain and to highlight tumors. The 3D Slicer package includes tools of analysis for Computed Tomography (CT) and MR, which include generating 3-D models, image analysis, aligning data obtained in different imaging modalities, and anatomical labeling of tissue types.

http://www.digitalhcp.com/2008/09/30/open-source-3D-slicer.html

 

And while on the Technology side of things not related to the above story, The Collider is almost here, video below…a global effort and recently featured on 60 minutes as well

The world’s largest computing grid is ready to tackle mankind’s biggest data challenge from the earth’s most powerful accelerator.  Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid combines the power of more than 140 computer centers from 33 countries to analyze and manage more than 15 million gigabytes of LHC data every year.

http://www.physorg.com/news142258066.html

Technorati Tags: 3D slicer,CT scan,MRI,Dicom,Software,PACS,Open Source Software,Medical Imaging,Slice technology,Healthcare,Harvard Medical School,MIT,Collider

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Who should I vote for in the Presidential Election – Pat Paulsen

We have seen a lot of first time events this year, why not elect a dead President (grin).  I am old enough to remember his first run at this too.  BD

From the past..funny and some things don’t change.

http://www.paulsen.com/pat/

Technorati Tags: Pat Paulsen,Humor,Politics

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As economy sags, faces do too, cosmetic docs say

As the economy continues to get uglier, so do we.  BD 

Of about 700 doctors who responded to the April-May questionnaire, 53 percent said business is down, some by as much as 30 percent.

"With this latest fiasco, many are probably down closer to 40 percent," said McMenamin, a Sacramento, Calif., cosmetic surgeon who specializes in faces, breasts and liposuction.

However, many Botox and filler patients are waiting longer than the usual three to four months between treatments, said Dr. Robert Singer of La Jolla, Calif.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jrKipM1gw1kGGyv2knbSH6oQcMMQD93J07VO0

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Next on the bailout list – California Needs a 7 Billion Dollar Loan from the Feds?

 California needs a 7 billion dollar loan to make things happen, even though California is the first state to join the annual CeBit technology trade show. 

The funds for some areas could run out as early as the end of October, including some potential healthcare and education facilities and programs.  We finally just have a budget here, but it doesn’t sound like we have enough.  BD

“In a letter sent on Thursday to Henry Paulson, the US Treasury Secretary, Mr Schwarzenegger, California's governor, made clear that his state was running out of money because its usual borrowing channels had suddenly closed.”

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – The folks behind CeBit, the biggest technology trade show in the world, typically dedicate sections of the event for specific countries. Today, in the heart of Silicon Valley at Intel headquarters, California became the first state to join the event that takes place every March.

It's a coup for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who hopes to raise the state's profile overseas at a time of economic uncertainty. "It's a terrific opportunity," he said, noting California is virtually a nation/state with the eighth largest economy in the world.

"We don't want just the traditional tech companies, but the newer ones like Facebook," Scheer told InternetNews.com. "For me, as an entrepreneur, it's very important to get the innovative startups so we can learn from each other. The startups can benefit from collaboration with larger companies for sales channels, funding and other resources."

http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3775691

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Eclipsys acquisition of Medinotes stands to open doors for Hospital subsidized medical records and integration

As the article states the use of the common standard of HL7 is going to be the solution, so some standards really work well and HL7 has been around for quite a while now and is coming in to focus.  Some existing hospitals with Eclipsys might be in a better position to help subsidize physicians and clinics once  the tools are set in place.  Down the road the plans are to further integrate beyond the HL7 standards.  This announcement and sale was originally posted here.  BD

Our health-system clients have been asking us for an integrated solution with practice management and clinical to ‘gift’ or to recommend to small practices,” says Jay Deady, Eclipsys executive vice president for client solutions. Although Eclipsys claims 2,000 physician users of its Sunrise Ambulatory Care electronic medical record (EMR) software, Deady says the main sales channel is through integrated health systems with high-acuity service lines.

Before the end of the year, Deady hopes to have Health Level Seven messaging links between Eclipsys and Medinotes EMRs. By early spring, interoperability will expand to include additional, unspecified data elements, in preparation for a “deep interoperable stage” the company hopes to reach by early 2010. Deady says he expects the products to exceed the 2009 interoperability standards set by the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT).

http://www.digitalhcp.com/2008/09/30/medinotes-eclipsys.html

Technorati Tags: CCHIT,interoperability,HL7,Eclipsys,Hospital,Medical Records,ambulatory medical records,EHR,Medinotes

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CCHIT Certification and HIE Transactions – The Process and What It Means

As we have all heard in the certification processes for medical records, the goals to achieve are getting a little tougher, just like designing the software is.  Also note the cost of the transaction, 10k, so it is not inexpensive and the EHR software companies have to not only prepare, but bankroll for the cost as well.

There are grants that will reduce the costs for those non profits to attain, which will help with those who are not commercially supported.  One transaction gets the certification, if it is successful that is.  This is probably why in the last few weeks there have been quite a few press announcements of different areas testing, like the VA to the DOD, Kaiser to the VA, etc.  I t may take a while to get the testing done in this area as there are a number of variables and this is the first go round.  The reasons for the additional category here is due to physician practices and hospitals needing to communicate and in many areas hospitals are subsidizing the physicians to bring them on board.  There still needs to be relief and funds though for those hospitals who cannot afford the process, beyond what a tax break is currently providing. 

The software is getting more complicated and further sophisticated all the time, as is any software and hopefully at some point in time there will be an effort to create a unified user interface, ask any doctor if they would like having the same or similar interface where ever they go and I would venture to say one would hear one big “Yes”.  Having to learn different system at different hospitals is a big part of the problem as many physicians are on staff at more than one, thus one more reason that electronic medical records are slow to catch on, and hey this even gets to the administrative folks too, who are just there for support, way too much software and few common standards to get the job done and then somewhere along the line take care of patients too.  

Here’s one we can look at that already had a lot of work already done, called the Common User Interface Project and it looks nice too and easy enough in format.  If systems all looked like this or had a big resemblance, that sure would be one battle out of the way for acceptance and it also eliminates the need to start from scratch and write an entire new government electronic medical records system, as we have seen in the last few weeks with Wall Street, they have been out coded one too many times and we now have the bill.  This project is better left for commercial vendors to put their heads together and work on a common solution. 

Somewhere on the list the PHRs will come in to the picture, but I am guessing that will take place after the initial process here and guidelines are still in the works.  BD 

Tomorrow, CCHIT will open the first-ever application period for certification of health information exchanges (HIE). That program is a two-phased process, with network security testing to begin shortly after applications come in, CCHIT chairman Mark Leavitt told Digital HealthCare & Productivity. To earn certification, HIEs also will have to prove themselves capable of transmitting and receiving at least one of three specific transactions: laboratory documents, laboratory reports, or patient summaries.

Each transaction test will cost $10,000, Leavitt says. Grants will reduce the cost of the first test by $1,000, the second by $3,000, and the third by $5,000. HIEs will only need to demonstrate capabilities with one transaction to earn certification.

The ambulatory certifications announced today are the first under the 2008 CCHIT criteria. The new standards include, for the first time, “advanced” electronic prescribing requirements—namely medication lists, medication history, patient eligibility, and formularies—as well as the ability to send and receive electronic patient summaries.

Digital HealthCare

Technorati Tags: Medical Records,Integration,CCHIT,EHR,HIE,ambulatory medical records,PHR,healthcare,technology,software

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Intradigm lands $18.5M to advance Oncology treatment

Not only do we see venture capital money here, also some big Pharma names. 

In a related story, Roche sees diagnostic machines and test kits as crucial to assessing and treating disease in the future and their risk profile has recognition of being one large investor in a growing area of drug research: ribonucleic-acid-mediated interference, or RNAi and Roche Venture is clearly listed below. 

“The days of this trial-and-error approach may soon be over. All of Big Pharma is feeling pressure--from Wall Street, regulators and customers--to take a smarter path to discovery for that next blockbuster drug. And who wins vs. who is left behind is still very much up in the air.  Getting drugs to the market has never been more expensive. The price tag for developing a single medication can now top $1 billion, compared with less than $300 million 15 years ago.  Roche sees diagnostic machines and test kits as crucial to assessing and treating disease in the future. That belief, in turn, has led to a laser-sharp focus on "personalized medicine."

The expensive research for the drugs we need to cure and treat ailments is in indeed a very expensive project globally.  BD

Intradigm, a biotech company that develops RNA interference treatments for cancer, announced today that it took $18.5 million in a second round of financing that included new investors Lilly Ventures, Roche Venture Fund, MP Healthcare Venture Management, and existing investors Alta Partners, Frazier Healthcare Ventures, MediBic Alliance Technology Fund and Novartis Venture Fund.

The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company has developed an RNA interference therapy for cancer, as well as a mode for delivering it to the right parts of the body. That delivery system is what distinguishes Intradigm from its competitors, including Sirna Therapeutics Inc., which continues to administer RNA interference therapies locally. It will use this new round of funds to forge partnerships that could move technology and testing forward. It hopes to have a treatment enter the clinical phase of testing by 2010.

Intradigm lands $18.5M to advance oncology treatment » VentureBeat

Technorati Tags: Biotech,Venture Capitalists,Pharma,Personalized Medicine,R and D,genomics

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Legendary Banjo Player's Brain Helped with Deep Brain Stimulation - The Brain Defibrillators are here

I have posted about this technology here on the blog before and also this post. 

For someone with devastating Parkinson's, this could be finally something to offer relief.   They are trying it for weight loss, but I don't know on that one, having a device in the brain to help that process work, only my feelings here.  Neuromodulation is the term used relative to medical device implants for the brain.  Intractable epilepsy and intractable depression are 2 problems the device can be used to treat, although this is massive intrusive surgery and a step to really think about.  The device lives in your neck. 

 

Nice story here on how the technology is helping bring his banjo playing ability back.  Watch the video at the site for more information and a demonstration of how it works with and without the device to see the difference.  The device is controlled with a remote wireless device to turn it off and on.  BD

Eddie Adcock's fast picking and unconventional style made him world famous as a bluegrass banjo innovator. But when tremors took over his once dexterous hands, he lost the ability to play the music he loved. An operation rid Eddie Adcock of his tremors and reignited banjo passion. Now, thanks to an incredible brain surgery, during which Adcock was awake and playing the banjo until the doctors got it just right, he can turn his talent back on, literally at the push of a button.

ABC News: Surgery Fine-Tunes Legendary Banjo Player's Brain

Technorati Tags: Deep Brain Stimulation,Brain Defibrillator,Music,Healthcare,Brain Surgery,Surgery,electric shocks,Technology

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Vassar College Using Tablet PCs for Research and Development

Anyone involved and R and D today can certainly take advantage of a Tablet PC. 

(I think those new fields reps for the FDA might even like this idea and concept too).

Why walk around with an “open pizza box” notebook, watch the video and see the difference and how tablets work while working, and something else you could do is fold some proteins on a touch screen tablet too.

Just in what I do in writing down ideas, sitting in meetings, and also doing interviews, I use the tablet so there’s no paper to lose.  I use a combination of both speech recognition and inking to take care of all my needs. One you get past the part of others giving you a few strange looks for walking around with one and secondly using it, it’s all a piece of cake from there.

There are those looks, let me tell you as those who have not used a tablet have a few reservations and it’s easy to see, some are very curious and want to know more while other observers run for the hills as with any new technology that folks maybe have not seen before.  

As I have mentioned here before I used it at a convention, where there were in fact many tablets being shown, but found myself to be somewhat of a lone ranger to actually be “using it” with my One Note Intelligence files I made up beforehand.  Gee what a novel idea, promote tablets and use one to work a convention with all the notes and conversations I had and promote mobility oh healthcare all at the same time.  BD 

Source:  http://mobilitysite.com/2008/10/tablet-pc-use-at-vassar-college/

Technorati Tags: Tablet PC,FDA,College,Vassar,R and D,Pharma,Technology

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FDA: Tiny Bit of Melamine OK in Most Foods But we Still need better labeling and shipping documentation

We still need more labeling and the ability for consumers to identify products when recalls are sent out.  Look a the Heparin recall that failed, and that was a drug.

In a recent post I had some suggestions that can be read here, including disallowing “blind” shipments so it’s not a rat race t find the real origin of products made all over the world, as well as having a label identifying the exact place the product was manufactured and not the corporate headquarters of companies.

Blind Shipment

A B/L wherein the paying customer has contracted with the carrier that shipper or consignee information is not given.

  You can read more here.  BD

Tiny traces of melamine, the chemical that has set off a global food safety scare, are not harmful in most foods, except baby formula, government experts said Friday.

The Food and Drug Administration said Friday its safety experts have concluded that eating a minuscule amount of melamine — 2.5 parts per million — would not raise health concerns, even if a person ate food every day that was tainted with the chemical.  For example, melamine levels in imported Chinese candies recalled last week in California were as high as 520 parts per million, about 200 times greater than the level set on Friday by the FDA for "tolerable" risk.

ABC News: FDA: Tiny Bit of Melamine OK in Most Foods

Technorati Tags: FDA,Drugs,Food products,tainted milk,melamine,Commerce,Transportation Shipping and Receiving

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Same Image Polisher Has Worked for FDA and Big Pharma

That might explain a couple odd stories of earlier this year, like the pilot program of the “Fake commercials” being tested, but there has also been an attempt to increase awareness at YouTube with FDA material as well, perhaps to even encouraging a bit of humor as I found on this video on YouTube, which may or may not be official, but looks like it could be.  BD

“The FDA intends to create several ads for the fictitious high blood pressure drug using different images and text on the screen while a narrator reads risk info.”

Turns out that the FDA and Big Pharma have more in common than we thought. They both tapped the same PR firm to improve their reputations.

Earlier this year the FDA hired Qorvis Communications, an influential PR group in Washington, to help mend the agency’s ailing image with a public awareness campaign. But since 2006 Qorvis has been working for PhRMA, Big Pharma’s principal trade  group. Ooops.

PhRMA was surprised to find that out. Ken Johnson, a honcho there, told the WSJ’s Alicia Mundy that he wasn’t “aware that Qorvis had been doing work for the FDA. I would have expressed serious concerns.” As for the firm’s PhRMA work, Johnson said it was “only PR-101 outside Washington.”

Qorvis has worked on the FDA Web site, done media training for FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach and other officials and developed videos for online use, Goldberg said.

http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/10/03/same-image-polisher-has-worked-for-fda-and-big-pharma/

Technorati Tags: Pharma,YouTube,Advertising,Commercials,FDA

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Leadership Strategy for the Prevention of Line Sepsis – 10th Leading Cause of Death Worldwide

As this begins the week of the “Never-Never” rules with Medicare and with Sepsis being included on the hospital acquired  listings, the group is calling for standards to prevent, which includes the use of minocycline and rifampin impregnated catheters.  Severe sepsis is common, with over 750,000 cases diagnosed in the United States each year. It is the tenth leading cause of death worldwide, killing approximately one person every minute.

A couple months back I did an interview with Thomas Cherry from Cook Medical interview with Cook Medical that also sheds some light on how the catheters are used.  

Also Vanderbilt Medical Center created a Microsoft technology solution to quickly identify Sepsis and you can read more here, which entails a solution with Server 2008, SQL server and the use of Silverlight to give clinicians a clear and active visual to detect immediately before the condition would progress any further without immediate attention. 

Healthcare jumping out with Server 2008 and all the updated components for the application to track Sepsis, a systemic inflammatory response to infection which can progress to circulatory system dysfunction, multiple organ failure, and eventually death. 

Between the use of catheters and technology for immediate detection, hopefully this is a healthcare battle where some real impact can be made and save lives.  BD 

Press Release

Healthcare Industry Leaders Call for Improved Prevention of Catheter Infections

Recommendations Highlight Prevention Strategies that Will Save Lives and Reduce Healthcare Costs

Washington, D.C. – October 3, 2008 – Today representatives from the roundtable summit, “A Leadership Strategy for the Prevention of Line Sepsis,” released a policy statement outlining strategies for patients and healthcare professionals to reduce the incidence of line sepsis, a potentially fatal hospital-acquired infection that affects approximately 250,000 patients each year in the U.S. alone, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  The summit engaged healthcare providers across disciplines, government agencies and constituency groups.  The recommendations were announced by representatives from Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. (APIC), University HealthSystem Consortium and West Penn Allegheny Health System.

The recommendations developed independently by the distinguished panel members call for patients, healthcare associations, government agencies and healthcare professionals to work collaboratively to drastically reduce line infection and include: 

1. Standardized measurement and implementation of best practices
2. Expand patient education to foster greater involvement in their own healthcare
3. Cross-disciplinary team development and continuing education on best practices
4. Organizational leadership to support a culture of patient safety
5. Greater incentives for compliance and data transparency

“Line sepsis is largely considered preventable when adhering to evidence-based guidelines, so it is imperative that patients and hospitals are empowered with information to keep patients safe.  The summit’s recommendations are a great contribution to the ongoing, collaborative effort of improving the quality of patient care,” said John Nance, founding board member of the National Patient Safety Foundation and speaker at the summit.  “Moreover, the implementation of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) reimbursement changes on October 1, 2008, which precludes reimbursement for eight hospital-acquired infections, including line sepsis, further signifies the need for hospitals to reduce the occurrence of infections.  This presents both a challenge and an opportunity for American hospitals to adopt best practices in this area and make it mandatory.”

“The statement from this diverse gathering marks an important milestone in the effort to increase patient safety and quality care,” said David Nash, MD, MBA, Dean, Jefferson School of Health Policy and Population Health and the Dr. Raymond C. and Doris N. Grandon Professor of Health Policy at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and summit moderator.  “With nearly 1.7 million Americans contracting hospital-acquired infections each year, 250,000 of which are line related, hospitals are challenged to deliver a higher quality of care.  Only through true collaboration and open educational dialogue can we work towards eliminating these preventable infections.”

“A Leadership Strategy for the Prevention of Line Sepsis” roundtable summit, supported by an unrestricted educational grant from Cook Medical, a medical device manufacturer that produces minocycline and rifampin impregnated catheters aimed at reducing the occurrence of line sepsis, provided a forum to develop clear recommendations for patients and the healthcare community to follow to prevent line sepsis.  Line sepsis develops when bacteria enter a patient’s bloodstream through the channel created by a central venous catheter (CVC).  According to research conducted by Johns Hopkins Medical Institution, line sepsis causes approximately 28,000 U.S. deaths each year.

About Thomas Jefferson University:

Thomas Jefferson University, the largest freestanding academic medical center in Philadelphia, is composed of Jefferson Medical College, Jefferson College of Graduate Studies, Jefferson College of Health Professions—which includes the Schools of Pharmacy, Nursing and Health Professions—and Jefferson School of Health Policy and Population Health.  Jefferson is regarded nationally as one of the best universities offering a range of comprehensive programs for the education of health professions. The three colleges enroll more than 2,900 future physicians, scientists and health care professionals.  Thomas Jefferson University partners with Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, its education and clinical care affiliate.  For more information visit www.jefferson.edu.

Technorati Tags: Sepsis,CMS,Heatlhcare,Never-Never,Hospital acquired infections,Microsoft,Server 2008,Silverlight,Medical Records,Healthcare,Catheters,Cook Medical,Line Sepsis,Thomas Jefferson University,Vanderbilt University,Pharma

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HealthVault Has New Features Including Fax Services for $9.00 a year – Fax to the Vault!

I finally had time to take a look around in detail at some of the new features. The one that is very simple for anyone is the $9.00 a year fax service. This is neat as you get a dedicated fax number that you can give to anyone to send a fax, and the document will be found in your HealthVault Account.

That makes it easy for any office to fax you a copy of any paper document and have it in your records, thus it becomes a repository for things that are still on paper, but they are now in a paperless format for you to access through the Vault.

That in itself is a catch all for anything that can be faxed! Even if you are up to date with technology, you could be dealing with medical facilities who still use a lot of paper, so this way you are ready and set to go and don’t have to wait by a fax machine yourself to receive.

Did you just leave the doctor’s office with a paper of written instructions and don’t want to lose it, FAX IT TO YOUR HEALTHVAULT YOURSELF for safe keeping so you don’t lose it.

If you are seen out of network and need to get the information in the file, give the provider, hospital or other facility the fax number that is assigned only to your HealthVault account, then when back at the Primary Care MD, open up your Vault account and access the information or share it with your MD.

Go to the bottom of the record profile page for a link to get more information.

You can sign up ($9 annually) with our partner MaxEmail and get a personalized fax number just for a HealthVault record, and for an entire year $9.00 is a bargain. With the dedicated fax number, a provider can fax anything to your account with the number given and it is in your Vault. This can make it very simple, especially for offices that still rely heavily on faxing information.

Track your weight. View the chart or export to an Excel Spreadsheet too.

Uploading a file is easy, just like almost any other web format with documents or pictures.

One page devoted to information from Medical Devices too!

Many of our key partners are choosing to send data to HealthVault as CCRs or CCDs, often with an attached digital signature so that recipients can verify the authenticity of the creator. This is a great pattern, because the “snapshot” contained in these formats provides a great history of what each provider saw as “truth” at a given point in time.

You receive a snapshot and decide to add, ignore or replace current information, medications would be a good example of one where you might want to replace if your medications have been changed. HL7 format allows the information to go from one source and format correctly in the HealthVault.

Add family members to the account so everyone is in one place.

Decide here who gets to have shared information and whether or not they can modify or just read only. Parents of children would more than likely want to be able to read and modify but the creator of the HealthVault account is the deciding party.

And there is an audit trail report of all changes and by who.

On all 3rd party applications you need to grant access too, so you are in control. You may sign up for a new application such as a device, but you will need to allow access first.

There is always a permanent link on this site to access the HealthVault under resources on the right hand side of the page.

Technorati Tags: HealthVault,PHR,medical records,personal health records,E-faxing,medical devices,document management,healthcare,Microsoft,EHR

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Heparin Recalls didn’t work

Several California hospitals were fined as around 20% of those inspected still had heparin and some still administering to patients, but the article doesn’t state when the inspections were conducted, but the recall was last winter after the incident at Cedar Sinai.  BD 

LOS ANGELES—Nearly 100 pharmacists and the hospitals they work for face fines for failing to remove a blood thinner from their shelves after a federal recall last winter, a state agency said Thursday.

The recalled drug heparin was found 94 times in inspections of all 533 hospitals in California, and at least 16 hospitals administered the drug to patients, according to the state Board of Pharmacy. Fines range from $2,500 to $5,000.

Regulators have not released the full list of hospitals involved. However, documents obtained by the Daily Journal show newborns were allegedly given heparin at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center and Children's Hospital of Central California in Madera. Both hospitals are appealing the charges.

http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_10622529?nclick_check=1

Technorati Tags: Heparin,Hosptials,California

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Monthly Man – Sharing the PMS Experience

Hilarious!  For all the readers here who are not female. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByX8vd7kJ6c&feature=related

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More Candy From China – Are “Blind” Bills of Lading adding to the confusion and delay in locating the products for recall?

The reason for mentioning this is that a vendor of a food product could have a shipping document that shows a US point of shipping, in other words, the delivery document that is signed at the time of delivery on “blind” shipments would not indicate to the vendor where the product originated, as well as a purchase order, thus the tracking and delay time in getting this information to the end consumers. 

Blind Shipment

A B/L wherein the paying customer has contracted with the carrier that shipper or consignee information is not given.

After all the years I spent in transportation, they need to make it against the law to allow “blind” shipments, happens all the time.  If it’s a purse or a shoe as you are not going to eat it, not a big deal, but when you have food products it is. Food products are not always labeled as to where they originated either, just the corporate offices may be listed as the point of origin. 

A “blind” shipment is when you have ABC Company in let’s say Chicago, IL that has product made overseas and distributes all over the world. The product may only show Chicago as the address wrapper, label, packing slip, and on a bill of lading, when in fact it could come from many locations. When the bills of lading are created from a warehouse shipping the product, the origin shows Chicago, even though it came from a 3^rd party warehouse in Los Angeles for example where it was offloaded from a container from China. Companies do that to hide the outsourced manufacturing agent for branding purposes. That is called a “blind” shipment so by the time you match up an invoice to see where it came from, etc. it can take a few days, just like we are starting to see here.

Transportation companies don’t normally like to do that, but cave in when it means loss of business if others do it. Years ago was not an issue, but not by today’s standards and I can almost bet all of these incidents involved some “blind” bills of lading making it a nightmare to trace. FDA has done their bit on fresh food, but should really clamp down on this as I don’t think we have seen anything near the end of this. Actually there should be no food or drug products shipped without a full label showing complete origins, city, state, country, etc. and no “blind” shipments. Once it has cleared customs and is in a local US warehouse, and the bills of lading show a“ blind” origin instead of let’s say a 3^rd party bill when the product ships, we have one big mess.  BD 

SHANGHAI — More contaminated Chinese candy was discovered in the United States on Wednesday, this time in Connecticut, where consumer protection officials issued a public warning against eating the sticky sweet.

The discovery announced Wednesday involved the White Rabbit Creamy Candy brand, which is sold in 50 countries but has already been recalled from stores in Britain and many Asian countries. Jerry Farrell Jr., Connecticut’s consumer protection commissioner, announced that contaminated candy had been found at two stores in New Haven, one in West Hartford and one in East Haven. In each case, tests found traces of an industrial additive, melamine, in the candy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/02/world/asia/02milk.html?partner=rssyahoo&emc=rss

Technorati Tags: FDA,Bill of Lading,Tainted Food,China,Blind shipments,Commerce,Recalls

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No Credit Crunch in the Channels – Health Care IT Financing

This is another way to help finance Healthcare IT purchases.  Microsoft Partners can help advise on how to qualify and get started for a simple example.  Also in the news today, Dell computer, backed by Intel financing may offer some alternatives.  BD

“Microsoft Financing enables customers to have one financing resource for their end-to-end IT solutions needs—including software, hardware, and consulting services. Now organizations of any size can identify the best IT solution to meet their business needs, select the licensing and financing solution they want, and manage the costs in a predictable and affordable way.”

Solution providers looking to close deals and get paid upfront from cash-strapped customers should turn to financing and credit options. Despite the Wall Street meltdown, plenty of money still circulates in the channel credit system.

These VARs may be missing the boat. The use of technology financing is growing – particularly software financing – with or without VAR participation. Those VARs who make financing a regular option on the solutions they offer are more likely to close the deals than the VARs who don't. It's certainly something that end-customers are latching onto.

Distributors and banks aren’t the only sources of credit for solution providers and their customers. Technology vendors such as IBM, Cisco Systems and Microsoft offer generous financing terms.

Microsoft, for instance, is rapidly expanding its credit program, providing financing to solution providers that put together deals that need only include one piece of Microsoft product. Microsoft will underwrite more than $1 billion in solution provider sales next year, the company says.

No Credit Crunch in the Channel - News

Technorati Tags: Healthcare,Health IT,Microsoft Partners,Medical Records,Intel,Financing,Credit

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CLC Joins Illumina Bioinformatics Partnering Program – Sequencing Software

Software for genomics research, you could almost call this the medical records software of genomics and like medical records it is varied and comes in lots of flavors too.  This is some of the software that analyzes the sequencing performed by the manufactures of the machines that do the sequencing work.  More posts on sequencing machines can be found here.

Just last week I had a post on how one affiliate here was showing how Microsoft SharePoint was going to cut costs and offer the technology information to investors to show growth and income progress.   

If you are a physician or patient wanting additional information on genomics, try the Genetic Counseling Foundation link and it can help explain how this technology is working with healthcare today.  BD

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – CLC bio said today that it has become an Illumina Connect partner, joining a bioinformatics software partnership program established by Illumina to advance data integration and analysis.

The firm said that as an Illumina Connect partner it will have access to information in the ongoing development of next-generation sequencing tools.

CLC noted that in addition to Illumina’s Genome Analyzer, its Genomics Workbench platform can analyze and visualize data from all next-generation sequencing platforms including Applied Biosystems’ SOLiD, Roche’s 454 GS FLX, and Helicos BioSciences’ HeliScope.

http://www.genomeweb.com/issues/news/149783-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS

Technorati Tags: genomics,sequencing,software,Microsoft,Science,DNA Testing,personalized medicine

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Allstate testing “brain fitness” software on older drivers

I guess the local departments of motor vehicles aren’t doing the job in determining whether or not we are fit to drive, so here comes something new, software to determine how safe you are as a driver?  Of course it will all be related to money and the hope is to eventually offer a discount for those who prove they are safe drivers with the software.  Is this some type of clinical trial of sorts being it is “brain fitness” software?  

We all know how health insurance cherry picks applicants and so it looks as if this trending is moving into other areas of insurance, and how long before they start connecting records from both sides, someone will no doubt find a reason to justify that in time I would guess to see if in fact what they have in our medical records in healthcare will determine if we might be healthy enough to drive and mined through the MIB, where all carriers exchange insurance information on us. 

There’s a lot in the news today about the ffitness of our brains, and here’s a related article about a cap that can even stimulate your brain to give you “Rain Man” capabilities, put the cap on and get a nice “zap” to the left side of the brain?    Makes one wonder how far off we are from a total brain transplant.  

Back to the software test for driving, we might all be better off to wait until our cars drive themselves.  DARPA competition coming up in a couple months to see how far this has come in a year.  Last year the servers in the vehicles were doing pretty good, but Congress just cut their budgets.  BD

Allstate Corp. wants to reduce the number of senior moments, and accidents, among drivers ages 50 and older.
The Northbrook-based home and auto insurer soon will begin testing a program in which it is asking 100,000 Pennsylvanians ages 50 to 75 to try computer-based video exercises in hopes of improving the way their brains process visual information.

Allstate's partner in the endeavor is San Francisco-based Posit Science Corp., which makes "brain fitness" software. The tool used in the Allstate test is called InSight, which is designed to improve a driver's visual alertness and mental abilities.
Allstate, which called the Posit program "potentially the next big breakthrough in automobile safety," said it expects its software exercises to reduce risky driving maneuvers by up to 40 percent and improve stopping distance by an average of 22 feet when traveling at 55 miles per hour.

"Effects of the training can last up to three years without a refresher," he said.

Insurance co. testing brain fitness software on older drivers

http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/02/the-brain-stimulating-thinking-cap-low-fashion-high-iq/

Technorati Tags: Insurance,Healthcare,Allstate,Safety,policies

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