Microsoft Seeking Database Customers to Test Synchronizing SQL Server with the Cloud

Hard Hat Area:  This is a free open source software development kit that gives agencies, or third parties with access to that data, the tools they need to host their data in Azure and provide programmatic interfaces to the data. 

Another part of the program is called the Open Government Data Initiative which allows government agencies to host their data base material on the Azure cloud.  The tools for developers to work with this are pare of the Azure Cloud operating system, in other words applications developed for the cloud.  Government agencies that do not want to deal with the SDK can also send their data bases to be hosted.  A number of data sets have already been hosted such as building permits for a simple example. 

Here’s a picture of a portable cloud, and yes it is not as pretty as the real thing.  The idea of the entire project is to have a SQL server data base hosted in the cloud and have it synchronize with the local copy. 

Myself, I have been using a version of the cloud for a while called Microsoft Office Live – Small Business.  It works well and I have used it for over a year now and plan to move more of my small physician office clients over.  What I am using is the consumer end of the product as available, but MS Office is a platform and can be incorporated into an entire end solution too. 

Microsoft to soon sell full range of Web software – I use and like Office Live for Small Business and Office Live Workspace

I do like the Office Connector as it makes the process of uploading a document to the Share Point Server very simple.  By the way, all of this for me is free as I need the basics only, but for small monthly fees you can add services too.  It’s a good deal and Outlook synchronizes on all my PCs with my desktop software.  Good stuff and I have been very happy and host my simple website there as well.  I have not had the time yet to use my CRM Cloud services yet. 

Back on the topic, here’s the additional information on hosting SQL Server.  BD 

Microsoft is welcoming early adopters to Project Huron, part of its cloud-based push. The goal of Project Huron is to allow users to synchronize local copies of a database with a database in the cloud.

Microsoft is looking for customers interested in participating in an incubator project for online synchronization of databases.

Microsoft has dubbed the effort ‘Project Huron.’ Part of Microsoft’s growing focus on the cloud, Project Huron is aimed at making data synchronization easier within SQL Data Services.

From the Website:

Project "Huron" - Early Adopter Program

I wanted to give an update on our Project "Huron".  For those new to it, this is an incubation project that we have been working on for some time to provide database "friction free" (this is a one fo those Microsoft terms that basically means simple to setup :-)) synchronization capabilities to the Cloud (SQL Data Service) via a hosted Sync Service sitting within the Azure data centers.  The goal is to remove the typical complexities (configuration, scalability, security, etc) involved with sharing database information between local databases such as SQL Server and SQL Compact and provide simple UI tools for configuration and sync components developers can embed in existing applications.

One unfortunate scoping that we have decided to make is to temporarily hold off on direct support of Microsoft Access for v1.  Although we realize that there are a LOT of customers that are looking to support this, based on our current resourcing this has been an unfortunate scoping that we have decided to take.  The primarily justification was that we already had an existing SQL Server and SQL Compact provider from Sync Framework that we are able to easily re-use which greatly simplified our efforts.  It is our hope that some of these Access customers will consider initially linking their Access forms to a SQL Server database to then synchronize via the cloud in the short term until we can provide the full Access support.

Microsoft Seeking Cloud Database Customers to Test Project Huron

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Technorati Tags: Azure,Microsoft,Cloud computing,Huron,SQL Server,Live Services,Office Live,Office Connector

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Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard Uses Helicos Sequencing Technology – Single molecule processing

Helicos single-molecule sequencing technology generates large numbers of reads and does not require amplification of the DNA during the sample preparation.  Helicos uses single molecule sequencing, which a while back, I had the opportunity to learn more about sequencing from an interview I did with Dr. Patrice Milos.  Stanford University also uses Helicos sequencing machines and products.  

Helicos BioSciences and Personalized Medicine - Featured Interview with Dr. Patrice Milos

The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard reports that the Helicos Technology is a good fit for their research and development. 

Single Cell Gene Sequencing from Helicos – How it works

The video below also shows how single cell sequencing has a time advantage and a bit about how it all works.  BD 

The Helicos System Produces Better Scientific Results with Less Sequencing Required

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Helicos BioSciences (Nasdaq:HLCS) was featured prominently at The Biology of Genomes meeting this week at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. At the meeting, Helicos scientists and their collaborators presented scientific results using the Helicos Genetic Analysis system describing novel views of genome structure and function, and the high productivity gains available from single molecule sequencing versus the competing next-gen platforms.

Three sets of Helicos data were presented at the annual Biology of Genomes meeting, a cornerstone scientific conference for the genome community.

Overall, he said the Helicos sequencer is currently well-suited for "counting applications" such as transcriptome analysis, copy number variation analysis, and ChIP-seq because it generates "cheap abundant reads," has a "very easy" sample prep that involves no amplification, and requires small amounts of starting material.

http://www.genomeweb.com/sequencing/broad-institute-uses-helicos-sequencing-technology-analyze-replication-origins-y

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Single Cell Gene Sequencing from Helicos – How it works

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GE Healthcare to Commercialize Cytori Therapeutics Stem Cell Technology – Regenerative Medicine

The adipose tissue is taken from the patient using a minor liposuction-like procedure, placed into the system and, with the touch of a button, the processing begins.  The administered cells are extracted and concentrated from the patients' own tissue using Cytori's Celution™ System.

About an hour later, following a tissue wash, cell separation and concentration by the Celution™ System, a prescribed dose of regenerative cells are be delivered back to the patient.  This process is primary for patients with breast cancer to be used to restore tissue after surgery.  It is not FDA approved for use in the US yet and most of the procedures have been done in Japan to date.  It certainly looks promising.  BD

Stem Cells and Breast Surgery

San Diego’s Cytori Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CYTX) said today it has expanded its partnership agreement with GE Healthcare, a unit of General Electric, in which GE Healthcare will commercialize Cytori’s proprietary stem cell technology in North America. No financial terms were disclosed. Under a previous deal in January, GE agreed to commercialize Cytori’s products in ten European countries. In a separate announcement yesterday, Cytori said it reached an agreement to raise $4.2 million through a private investment in a public entity. The company, specializes in cosmetic stem cell technologies.

From the website:

Cytori Therapeutics is a global leader in regenerative medicine.

In the US, Cytori has developed technology to assist the physician in reconstructive and aesthetic surgery procedures. Our key technology is the Celution® 700 system that prepares an autologous tissue graft for delivery back to the patient in the same surgical procedure. This innovative technology is under review by the US Food and Drug Administration but is not available today in the US.

Internationally, Cytori’s technology is commercially available today in many countries in Europe and Asia through our offices in Japan, Italy or our global distribution partners. In addition, Cytori is currently investigating the use of our technology for many indications beyond reconstructive and aesthetic surgery.

Cytori also has begun development of its U.S. Celution™ System, designed to process a patient's own blood cells. The company wants to begin investigating potential applications for these cells in the future to enhance its product pipeline.

Cytori Expands GE Partnership; Raises More Cash | Xconomy

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Stem Cells and Breast Surgery

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One More Reason to Wash your hands - Don’t Share the Wealth with Testosterone Gels

The FDA is concerned that children, touched, after an adult has applied the gel could be exposed, so wash your hands and keep the testosterone to yourself:)  BD 

THURSDAY, May 7 (HealthDay News) -- Children can experience troubling health effects if they come into contact with topical testosterone gels used by some American men, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday announced that two of these preparations would now carry boxed warnings to highlight the risk.

Accidental pediatric exposures to the gels can occur when the "consumer forgets to wash their hands or forgets to cover a treated area, and then has close contact with the child, or may have not waited for their skin to dry and then picks up a child," Dr. Dianne Murphy, the FDA's director of the Office of Pediatric Therapeutics within the Office of the Commissioner, said during a Thursday afternoon press conference.

FDA Orders Label Warning for Testosterone Gels - ABC News

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Biotech Exec Sentenced to Probation in Washington – Submitted False Audits to the NIH

Add on one more less than honest individual to the world of biotech and science.  The NIH was the end recipient here of the invalid information and has been a source of grants for the company.  Also note, the article states he was a “former” director, so I would anticipate that he has been replaced in this capacity.  BD 

Christopher Ma, a former director of business affairs with Auburn, WA-based Syntrix Biochip, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to three years of supervised release, 240 hours of community service, and a $5,000 fine for making false statements. Ma, 35, was accused of submitting false audits to the National Institutes of Health, which provided $7.5 million in grants to the company over seven years for cancer research, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Washington.

Biotech Exec Sentenced to Probation | Xconomy

Technorati Tags: NIH,Biotech,Legal case,healthcare,Syntrix

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Senators Holding Closed Door Sessions Discussing 3 health-insurance plans – Why Are the Doors Closed?

Here we go once more, a Congress discussing health care for consumers that has not one clue and offers not one role model on how to take care of your health and has no clue on Health IT, it’s value and how it should be used.  Now we are adding on risk management with health insurance and the mess gets bigger, as risk management is only interested in cost, not necessarily better health care. 

Why is this a “do as I say world and not a do as I do” world? 

Right out of the halls of HIMMS this year, several others made the same observations.  We have no role model and keep working with Magpie Healthcare. 

From a previous post: 

Investing in Health IT: US Senate Testimonies

If you haven’t seen the broadcast today from the Senate and are interested, as almost everyone is these days in electronic medical records and healthcare, take a look and listen to what some of the guests are saying to the committee.  It will give you an idea of where we are and some of the questions posed by members of the Senate. 

It’s all right here with the Senate Committee from earlier this year, please watch and see the level of comprehension we have representing us with the Senate Committee.   This was from January, just before Obama took office.  Amazing nobody had seen an electronic medical record, much less a personal health record.  Education needs to start at the top so we can have role models as citizens.  Where are they? 

It scares me that some of the same individuals are discussing health insurance and what will occur as Healthcare, Health IT and Health Insurance all work together.  The best part is when Microsoft and Kaiser had to explain what a PHR was, which both handled very graciously.  “We don’t want techno-boon doggle”…. When Ms. Corrigan spoke the words EHR and PHR just appeared to fly right over everyone’s head. 

Take time and watch this to fully understand and maybe by chance this could be part of the reason why the sessions will be behind closed doors.  One video is worth a 1000 words and it may shine some light on the direction the discussion may take when it comes for a health insurance plan for the country. 

If they were this far behind on general consumer healthcare items that were included with the Health IT discussions, gosh where is that going to leave us with a health insurance plan??  BD 

WASHINGTON - Senators are considering three different designs for a new government health-insurance plan that middle-income Americans could buy into for the first time, congressional officials said Friday. 

Officials familiar with the proposals said senators plan to debate them in a closed meeting next week. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the controversial plans have not been released.

• Create a plan that resembles Medicare, administered by the Health and Human Services department.
• Adopt a Medicare-like plan, but pick an outside party to run it. That way government officials would not directly control the day-to-day operations.
• Leave it up to individual states to set up a public insurance plan for their residents.

Senators on the Finance Committee will consider the proposals during a closed-door session scheduled for late next week. Committee leaders want to bring a bill to the Senate floor this summer. It's unclear whether a public plan in any form will emerge from Congress.

Report: Senators mull 3 health-insurance plans - Capitol Hill- msnbc.com

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Northfield Laboratories Biotech Closes after Thumbs down from the FDA for Blood Substitute

20 years of work on a blood substitute now gone.  The website stated it had potential battle field as well as emergency use.  The clinical trial section was a little unclear on how it worked.  It is not meant to be a permanent substitute, just three to save a life until regular blood can be found.  BD

EVANSTON, Ill., May 9 (UPI) -- An Illinois experimental biotech company says it's closing its doors after failing to win U.S. government approval for its blood substitute. 

Northfield Laboratories Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLD), of Evanston, Ill., said Friday it is virtually ending its operations, saying it had "terminated the employment of substantially all of its operational and staff employees," The Chicago Tribune reported.

The newspaper said Northfield had been working for 20 years on a blood substitute designed for trauma patients. But the U.S. Food and Drug Administration declined to approve its product last week, dealing an apparently fatal blow to the biotech firm.

Company officials indicated Northfield has burned through $220 million since its inception in 1985 trying to develop the blood substitute.

Ill. biotech closes after FDA rejection - UPI.com

Technorati Tags: FDA,biotech,blood,blood substitute,healthcare,Northfield labs

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Hospital Re-Admissions – This should never be on a pay incentive basis to reduce the numbers

What is the solution to the problem or is it a problem, or just part of life?  Certainly business intelligence software can be of help to work on the situation to reduce the number of patients re-admitted and hopefully this is addressed with education for both patients and clinicians, but where is the fine line to be crossed?  The 2 are related, 2 doubt about it. 

In Texas, (see the link below) you can see how this all came to blows with the hospital firing the ER doctors, after asking them to find a way to increase admissions, so we have one big Catch 22 there.  There has to be balance, otherwise the battle will continue, just as balance billing continues to haunt everyone.  There’s a certain number of dollars needed for healthcare and when the line is crossed, healthcare suffers when the budget is not covering the bare bones. 

Hospital Admissions are Down – ER Doctors are Fired – Texas Medical Association

If hospitals are rewarded on a re-admission program, how is this going to work, will patients be turned away once the projected monthly quota let’s say it met?  How does that work.  Guidelines are great and they should be just that, guidelines and not incentives for payment.  The hospitals also have to invest in software to have the algorithms to run as well and many are still on paper. 

Recently at the Senate hearings, both patients and doctors were rejected from the hearings as voices of desperation were beginning to be heard.  Voices of anger and not being able to either provide or get adequate health care. 

Health insurers Come Up with One More Offer – Single Payer Supporters Disrupt the Senate

Hospital admissions should never be put on a payment plan, as the ER Room too is like a box of chocolate too, you never know what you are going to get, in other words who with what condition is going to show up. 

If we had lawmakers that were perhaps maybe a little more involved in their own healthcare to understand some of this, we might be making a little more progress, and again I go back to the hearings in January involving the stimulus money and was shocked to see how little was known, captured right on video for the whole world to see.  Most had not seen an electronic medical records and none knew what a personal health record was, and PHRs are a consumer product that have been around for a couple years now, but nobody seemed to be able to find the time to spend 30-60 minutes on Google to see a few search results and view a couple pages.

Until our law makers take the time to involve themselves in their own healthcare, as they are preaching to us, they won’t get it and all they can do is focus on dollars.  Education is still the big battle here from the top down. Do we see any law makers talk about their health records, no, as they don’t take the time to educate themselves on consumer products. 

All this creates is : Desperate Hospitals

The Diagnosis – Admit or not to Admit?

I could almost bet that most of those individuals who create the pilot programs who work at Medicare too are NOT personally involved in their own health care either, but just rather work on creating algorithms and formulas for the rest of us to live by.  If they had more of a personal involvement in their own healthcare, we might be seeing things from a different perspective I might guess, as once something becomes personal, the view of how issues are seen tends to change dramatically, so all we are getting now is more Magpie Healthcare. 

Do You Know What Your Doctor Is Talking About – Read up and help stamp out “Magpie Healthcare”

Again, Congress has an inadequate understanding of the value of Health IT as they are not actively involved in their own healthcare. 

U.S. Congress has an inadequate understanding Value of Health IT – HIMMS Opening Session

The Gates Foundation is doing their part to “pay” to have educational processes run on television and ads, again most foundations normally wait until someone donates time, but they are paying for it. 

We just flat out have no role models with healthcare, so how can we expect anyone to create a solution who is not walking the walk and talking the talk, but that’s what we have in Congress, sadly to say for the most part.  BD 

Millions of patients each year leave the hospital only to return within weeks or months for lack of proper follow-up care. One in five Medicare patients, for example, returns to the hospital within 30 days. Over all, readmissions cost the federal government an estimated $17 billion a year. 

But even when hospitals find ways to greatly reduce the return trips, saving money for Medicare and other insurers, their efforts go unrewarded. In fact, because insurers typically pay hospitals to treat patients — not to keep them away by keeping them healthy — hospitals can actually lose money by providing better care. Empty beds mean lost revenue.

Attuned to the issue, two Senate leaders of the effort to overhaul health care, Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, and the Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, recently announced their support for changing the way hospitals are paid, to reward them — instead of punishing them — for reducing the number of patients requiring readmission.

But the reduction has been a losing proposition. Although the effort saved Medicare roughly $5 million a year, Park Nicollet is not paid to provide the follow-up care. Meanwhile, fewer returning hospital patients mean lower revenue for Park Nicollet.

The Obama administration has already discussed reducing Medicare payments to hospitals with the highest readmission rates, and the Senate is discussing bundling payments.

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Hospitals Pay for Reducing Costly Readmissions - NYTimes.com

Technorati Tags: hospitals,Re-admission,healthcare,Medicare,Medicaid,health insurance Reserves

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UC Irvine Medical Center is Named a Designated Stroke Receiving Center – Orange County

The facility is set up to handle transient ischemic attacks, or mini-strokes.  To qualify as a center there needs to be a dedicated medical director and an emergency medicine physician on-site at all times, as well as a neurologist, neurosurgeon.

In addition, UC Irvine also has an interventional neuroradiologist, who does all the planning and routing and has the software and technology to accomplish this.  By using 3D and HD technology, targeting can be pinpointed more exactly than the human eye can see.  BD 

ORANGE — UCI Medical Center, equipped to provide state-of-the-art stroke care, is the first hospital in Southern California to be recognized as a designated stroke receiving center, officials said Thursday.

The hospital got high marks from The Joint Commission, formerly known as the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, for its stroke-care services.

UCI is also one of the first in the state to create a program for treating transient ischemic attacks, or mini-strokes, which may occur in advance of a major stroke, according to Dr. Steven C. Cramer, who spearheaded the program.

"This is an enormous step forward for the health of Orange County's residents," Cramer said.

UCI named key stroke-treatment center | stroke, center, uci, cramer, patients - Life - OCRegister.com

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Tenet Squeezes a Profit -Admissions Are Down

Admissions of patients with insurance were down 2%, but a profit of around $178 million was seen, compared to a loss for the previous quarter. Bad debt was up 4% and employee turnover was down.  Earlier this year shares had dropped below the $1.00 mark, but appear to be on their way back up. 

At one facility in Fountain Valley, California, the hospital is using robots to help provide care and keep costs down.  BD

INDIANAPOLIS -- A debt swap and expense reductions helped push Tenet Healthcare Corp. to a first-quarter profit, but the hospital operator said Tuesday the slumping economy nibbled at patient admissions.

Dallas-based Tenet lowered contract labor and malpractice costs, among other expenses, during the quarter. But total admissions and the number of patients covered by private insurance both fell slightly.

Private insurance is generally more lucrative than government forms of coverage like Medicaid or Medicare.

Tenet moves to profitability but admissions fall

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Pastry chef receives double hand transplant – Doing Well

In the picture below you can see how he had to use his current artificial hands to sign the documents for the surgery and it doesn’t appear to be an easy task.  I hope this is a success for both hands.  It’s somewhat risky and recently one failure in California with a hand transplant had to be amputated due to lack of blood flow, but the good news is that he could still have another transplant and it had lasted for 8 months.  This is the only failure to date of a hand transplant. 

He has been functioning for 10 years without hands.  The surgery took 9 hours and when you look at the pictures, it took 10 surgeons to make this a reality.  He will have a few months of rehabilitation.  He has plans to wanting to learn how to play the piano too.  BD 

The 57-year-old Augusta, Georgia, resident underwent the first double hand transplant in the United States on Monday at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

On Friday he remained at the transplant intensive care unit.

He is "very stable, awake and alert, and he's talking with us," said Dr. W. P. Andrew Lee, who led the nine-hour surgery. "He is having good circulation in the transplanted hands." Kepner shows no signs of transplant rejection, Lee said.

On January 22, Kepner signed up to be a candidate for the medical center's clinical trial for hand transplants. He had to pass a screening process, which included a physical and a psychiatric evaluation of his coping skills, his expectations and his understanding of the transplant.

Three months later, Kepner received the call. There was a donor whose hands matched Kepner's skin color, gender and size.

After getting permission from the donor's family, the surgeons removed the donor's hands extending midway to the elbows. A team of surgeons attached arteries and veins, repaired tendons and nerves and set the bones for both hands. The surgery involved 27 bones, 28 muscles, three major nerves, two major arteries, multiple tendons, veins and soft tissue.

Pastry chef receives double hand transplant - CNN.com

Technorati Tags: double hand transplant,hand transplant,amputation,University of Pittsburgh,healthcare,medical miracles,surgery

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Doctor pleads guilty with Sweaty-palm surgeries - Update

Recently his license was revoked and now there’s about a 10 year sentence to be served by the doctor.  Patients were paid between $300.00 and $1000.00 to participate and have the “sweaty palm” and a few other procedures performed. 

The “Sweaty Palms” Surgeon Loses His License – Serving 10 Years for Operating on a Healthy Patient

There are 2 other physicians that were involved in the scam.  It’s difficult enough at times to get needed procedures approved, so this cuts into what everyone has to to pay.  BD  

SANTA ANA – A former Seal Beach doctor pleaded guilty to insurance fraud today and admitted that he performed hundreds of unnecessary surgeries on patients for the money.

Dr. William Wilson Hampton Jr., 53, was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Frank F. Fasel to 16 years in prison. He also admitted to a sentencing enhancement that well in excess of $2.5 million was taken from the victims.

Defense attorney Donald Etra said the plea was a practical and efficient end to the prosecution because Hampton, who practiced medicine out of the now closed Unity Outpatient Center in Buena Park, is currently serving a 10-year term in federal prison in a companion case.

"What he did was outrageous," Welsh said. "Those surgeries were extremely invasive and dangerous."

Hampton sat at a counsel table in a mustard-colored jail uniform tapping his left foot as he admitted complicity in what prosecutors called a $30 million swindle of more than a dozen insurance companies such as Aetna, Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Healthnet and Cigna.

Doctor pleads guilty to unneeded sweaty-palm surgeries | hampton, insurance, patients, surgeries, plea - News - OCRegister.com

Technorati Tags: Healthcare fraud,Sweaty Palms,Surgery,Secret Heatlhcare shoppers,Surgeon,Orange County,Aetna

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Conductor in Boston trolley crash was texting his girlfriend – Similar to the an Incident in Los Angeles Not Too Long Ago

Not too long ago, this happened in Los Angeles, and the crash was worse, so now we have the same scenario in Boston, a conductor distracted with text messaging.  I’m sure more laws will result, and one additional cure to help might be adding voice technology to texting too.  If you can’t stop the texting, use speech to avoid the distractions of looking at the screen.  We are getting close but someday when voice to text comes around in a format that can be used by all, it might help.  Some of this is available now to enterprise network users with Windows Mobile.  BD 

Saying he was having difficulty containing his outrage, the MBTA's chief said a trolley driver was text-messaging from his cellphone when he rear-ended another Green Line trolley on Friday night, sending scores of people to the hospital and forcing the closure of the Government Center station.

The conductor, 24 years old and with 22 months on the job, was texting his girlfriend, said another MBTA official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation.

The driver's action caused a shutdown of a part of the Green Line and left a surreal scene as emergency workers set up a make-shift emergency area next to a circus tent before ushering the wounded to hospitals. It is difficult, MBTA General Manager Dan Grabauskas told reporters, "to contain my outrage'' at the driver's action.

MBTA: Conductor in Boston trolley crash was texting his girlfriend - Local News Updates - The Boston Globe

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Facebook On Windows Mobile Devices – Are you Still Just Using your Cell Phone for Phone Calls?

I have downloaded and installed the application and it works quite well.  There’s also the “fan” page on Facebook for additional information and communication.  Last week I posted about the upcoming technology with Windows Mobile Devices soon being able to function and provide ultra sound images.  More can be read at the link below. 

Windows Mobile Smart Phones on the Horizon for Imaging Kidneys, Liver, Bladder, Eyes, Prostate and Uterine Screenings

New from Windows Mobile: a Facebook application for your phone! Download the new Facebook application for Windows Mobile and:

• Send messages to any of the people in your Friends list.

• Take pictures and videos on your phone, then upload them right to Facebook.

• Send messages or call people in your Friends list.

• Manage your profile and post anytime, anywhere.

Here are a couple screenshots from my phone. 

Also, something not to forget is using Epocrates on your device too.  As well as having a link on the blog for drug look up, I also have the latest software on my phone and it includes the $4.00 prescriptions for Target, K-Mart and Wal-Mart, so I can easily look up and see what drugs are covered.  BD 

 

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/en-us/downloads/facebook.mspx

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Kiosks Feature OCR Card Readers, OCR for Cell Phones and Biometrics to read your hand – Medical Records Input methodologies…

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Healthcare Records are not alone with breaches - Air Traffic Software also on the list of being hacked routinely

If one were involved in an aircraft accident this could certainly have an effect on your health.  In the news this week are 2 healthcare breaches, one in Virginia and one in California.  According to this article, there is also a lack of budgeting to help protect the FAA with security and web based software and more money is allotted towards bird abatement.  The return here for a hacker would not be as great as securing credit cards and social security numbers as found in healthcare records, but the consequences with one crash could be horrific. 

One more time we are back to budgets and money.  Will those who serve on budget committees wake up and realize that if we are to fully utilize and take advantage of technology, we need to ensure security on web based applications as well as internal servers.  Hopefully, this last week has helped make the point here. 

One example of how security can be enhanced is shown here at Harvard, using a vendor to monitor and keep watch over web based applications: 

Harvard Medical School Deploys Third Brigade For PCI Security

Cool Technology of the Week - Security Enhancements

The attack on Berkeley is now being reported as a potential SQL Injection attack.  Below is a link on a fictional account on how far a SQL injection attack can go. The video is in Windows Media format and uses Las Vegas as the setting for the story.  You can also go here to view in Silverlight from the site.  This is a race between the good guys and bad guys.  The good guys come in and find flaws, etc. and save the day.  It is not too technical and almost anyone can grasp what is going on here.  Great video. 

• MSDN SQL Injection - Fictional Accounting on What can Occur 

The challenge for the team is to keep the system operating as the casino loss of money is huge, but also clean and update the system.  Money is being stolen from both the Casino and big roller guests. 

The long and short of all of this, SPEND THE MONEY ON SOFTWARE SECURITY SYSTEMS.  The developers were so busy functioning on the functionality of the software, security issues were over looked.  BD 

In the past four years, hackers have hobbled air traffic control systems in Alaska, seized control of Federal Aviation Administration network servers, and pilfered personal information from 48,000 current and former FAA employees, according to a newly released government report.

The report, "Review of Web Applications Security and Intrusion Detection in Air Traffic Control Systems," was published Wednesday by the Department of Transportation Office of the Inspector General.

It's also a matter of money, which could be easier to obtain under a cloud of imminent danger: The FAA has been pushing its Next Generation Air Transportation System, a project to update the nation's air transit infrastructure that's expected to cost at least $20 billion.

With any luck, that amount of funding will also buy a few scarecrows. There were almost 10 times as many wildlife strikes against airplanes in 2007 (7,666) as air traffic control cyberincidents in 2008. Such collisions -- recall the bird strike that sent US Airways Flight 1549 into the Hudson River in January -- cost an estimated $628 million in monetary losses annually, to say nothing of the potential loss of life. Hackers just don't have that kind of impact, unless they wander onto a runway.

Air Traffic Control System Repeatedly Hacked -- Government Security – InformationWeek

Related Reading:

Would Someone Give the Hacker 10 Million for Prescription Information In Virginia – We have already been for Sale for quite a while now..

Hackers breach UC Berkeley Data Base System

USB Memory Stick Round 2 – More Medical Record Information on a Lost Drive

The Hackers Could Possibly push the move for PHRs – Medical Records Hacked in Virginia Department of Health Professions computers

Security tightened over data loss – Flash Drives Can be One of HealthCare’s Biggest Nightmares

Malware attack - Department of Defense

Conficker and Malware covered by CBS 60 Minutes

Express Scripts offers $1 million award to nab extortionist in data breach case

Keeping Private Health Data Private - "Inadvertent Disclosures" with Peer to Peer Networks

Healthcare Workers Sharing Music and they could also be sharing Medical Records and Files

Express Scripts offers $1 million award to nab extortionist in data breach case

Technorati Tags: breaches,hacker,healthcare,FBI,Security,Data,FAA,aviation,medical records,MSDN. SQL Injection

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Chemical Found in Medical Devices Linked to Heart Problems - Cyclohexanone

The loss of memory and/or taste that can occur following bypass surgery has been a mystery and it appears to be the chemical in the tubing , IV bags and catheters.  Perhaps we might see some changes down the road in the manufacturing processes with plastics.  This has not been the only issue with plastic products as the heated discussion on BPA also continues.  

The side effects eventually dissipate, but they can also impair or delay recovery times.  This might explain why after surgery patients have noticed a change in their tasting abilities and decreased heart functioning.  BD

Johns Hopkins researchers have just discovered that a common chemical used to produce plastic medical devices impairs heart function in rats. Science Daily reported that researchers from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine said that the chemical can be found in intravenous (IV) bags and catheters. The findings appear online in the American Journal of Physiology.

According to Science Daily, the research points to some common side effects following medical procedures that involve blood circulation that occurs through plastic tubing, such as occurs during kidney dialysis procedures and heart bypass surgery. Some of the side effects cited include loss of taste, short-term memory loss, swelling (edema), and fatigue. The research also suggests that the findings present some significant issues for medical plastics manufacturing, said Science Daily. 

In lab tests, those rats who were treated with cyclohexanone “developed edema and impaired cardiovascular function, including impaired baroflex function; systemic hypotension; pulmonary hypertension; depressed contractility, heart rate, stroke volume, and cardiac output; and increased vascular resistance,” explained HealthDay News.   

Chemical Found in Medical Devices Linked to Heart Problems

Related Reading:

The Ban on BPA (Bisphenol A) is Heating Up – Congress reviewing potential Legislation

Some Water Bottles Linked to Diabetes

Phthalates to be removed from Household Products

Technorati Tags: FDA,Congress,Bottles,healthcare,toxic chemicals,plastic,manufacturing,Johns Hopkins,medical devices

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Overeating to blame for U.S. obesity epidemic – Lack of Exercise is Secondary

It appears lack of activity is secondary according to the study, so problem #1 is learning when to push ourselves away from the table.  BD 

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – The major reason for the obesity epidemic that has gripped the United States in the past three decades is increased food intake, not reduced physical activity, according to a study released Friday at the European Congress on Obesity in Amsterdam.

The study is the first to quantify the relative contributions of food and exercise habits to the growing number of Americans with bulging waistlines.

"In the U.S., over the last 30 years, it seems that the food side of the equation has changed much more than the physical activity side," Professor Boyd A. Swinburn, director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Obesity Prevention at Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia, noted in a telephone interview with Reuters Health.

Overeating to blame for U.S. obesity epidemic

Technorati Tags: overeating,obsesity,healthcare

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Knee Surgery Done with a Robot - MAKOPlasty Tactile Guidance System™

This is almost like having GPS for your knee surgery and this story is about a 72 year old man who underwent the procedure at a hospital in the Los Angeles area.  The robot surgery procedure is available so far at around 20 hospitals in the US.  You can find a listing of surgeons who perform the robotic knee surgery here. 

The procedure and product is FDA approved of course.  The surgeons still have the job of mapping and planning the procedure ahead of time and you can see with the pictures below, the accuracy of navigating is enhanced.  Normally only 24 hours is required in the hospital and patients are driving again within a week and walking within a day or two.

Patients are regaining quality of life without the pain with the procedure.  An implant replaces lost cartilage and stops the bone on bone grinding that causes pain.  The accuracy versus free hand surgery seems to be the real advantage here, again with a focus on higher success rates with precision targeting. 

OR Live Surgeries, who is featured on the blog here as a reference also has a full video available to see how the entire procedure is done.  The web site also had many videos available for both professionals and patients.  BD 

OR Live - MAKOPlasty Surgery Video

From the Website:

The robotic arm with tactile guidance adds the sense of touch, making bone resection highly precise and MAKOplasty® surgeon-friendly. The MAKO Tactile Guidance System™ is a proprietary, FDA-cleared, surgeon–interactive robotic arm system that enables the orthopedic surgeon to pre-operatively plan the
alignment and placement of knee resurfacing implants and to intra-operatively make complex, anatomic, tissue-sparing and bone-conserving cuts accurately.

HUNTINGTON BEACH – All the years of extreme sports, scaling telephone poles and engaging in shooting competitions had finally caught up with Jack Edmondson.

While Edmondson, 72, had retired from his physically taxing job climbing telephone poles and repairing wires and no longer hit the lake for waterskiing trips, long-range rifle shooting remained a favorite extracurricular activity.

Edmondson underwent MAKOplasty surgery in January at Los Angeles-based Good Samaritan Hospital in which a robot is used rather than a surgeon's hands for a knee implant.

"There are fewer mistakes that can happen and that's the beauty of it," Edmondson said. "It's deleting the human potential for mistakes, not deleting the human part that knows what he's doing."

Good Samaritan Hospital is one of about 20 medical centers nationwide that has welcomed a robot into the operating room, said Dr. Lawrence Dorr.

Robot performs knee surgery on 72-year-old sharpshooter | edmondson, shooting, knee, dorr, range - News - OCRegister.com

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Robot Helps Out With Knee Surgery - Makoplasty

Technorati Tags: Knee surgery,Robotics,Robitic surgery,MAKOPlasty,surgery,FDA,OR Live

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Would Someone Give the Hacker 10 Million for Prescription Information In Virginia – We have already been for Sale for quite a while now..

The information on prescriptions may not hold a lot of merit for a monetary return; however, additional information compromised could, such as social security numbers as well as credit card accounts.  

There are a couple of firms who have been buying this type of prescription information and selling it to insurance companies for a number of years through pharmacy benefit manager data bases. 

Prescriptions risk score used to deny health insurance

Sorry, folks, but it’s true: You are for sale

Is there a market to pay the ransom?  Good question here and I think more interest will be focused on the crime of breaching itself.  This makes me tend to think that the hacker is maybe outside of healthcare as it relates to the demands.  On the other hand, will security breaches finally make the case for consumers to utilize personal health records?  BD 

The Hackers Could Possibly push the move for PHRs – Medical Records Hacked in Virginia Department of Health Professions computers

So hackers have stolen the state of Virginia's pharmaceutical records and want $10 million to give them back. The hackers have threatened to sell the data if they don't get the ransom.

Hollywood makes hackers out to be some sort of evil geniuses but these guys sound pretty dim. Stealing prescription records? Who would even want that information? What would someone do with it? Most of us already get plenty of spam for "Ci@li$" without our personal medical info bouncing around the Internet.

“Still, someone must think there's a market for this stuff and $10 million is nothing to sneeze at.

I'm a Hacker, Give Me Money - John Kelly's Commons - A digital conversation with Post columnist John Kelly

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The search for John Doe – Who’s running the queries (Algorithms) and wants to know

Is This a Case for a New Law – Illegal Algorithms? How Do You Sleep at Night Rockefeller asked the CEO of United Health Care

The Ingenix Inquisition – Hearing Requested by Senator Rockefeller

Andrew Cuomo – You Have to Like This Guy – Healthcare Reform

Excessive Incentives and Rules – Where Did the Wisdom Go in HealthCare?

Consolidation in Health Insurance Carriers – Who will be the king of risk management?

Technorati Tags: records,breaches,healthcare,FBI,Security,Data,encryption,USB drives,medical records,medical nightmare

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Hackers breach UC Berkeley Data Base System

This one is particularly scary in the fact that it went on for such a long period of time, 6 months approximately.  Hopefully none of the critical information has been compromised.  I wonder how long it would have taken to find the breach if the hackers had not left messages.

Everyone was just notified a couple weeks ago who could have been affected.   This says a lot for having an outside scanning company run regular routines to check for security.  BD  

SAN FRANCISCO—University of California, Berkeley, officials said Friday that hackers infiltrated restricted computer databases, putting at risk the personal information of 160,000 current and former students, alumni and others.

The university said data include Social Security numbers, health insurance information and some medical records dating back to 1999. Personal medical records—such as patient diagnoses, treatments and therapies—were not compromised, officials said.

The databases also included personal information of parents and spouses as well as Mills College students who used or were eligible for Berkeley's health services.

The server breach occurred on Oct. 6, 2008 and lasted until April 9, when campus staff performing routine maintenance found messages allegedly left by the hackers, the school said.

Former and current students did not receive e-mail notification of the hacks until Friday morning.

http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_12326692

Technorati Tags: security breach,Berkeley,medical records,University of Southern California,data,hackers,health IT

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