Hospital Chapels Evolving Into “Meditation Rooms” On The West Coast

Chapels have been a mainstay with hospitals for years but now due to the fact that patients and families belong to many different religions, the chapel as we have known it is taking on a new identity to accommodate.

You can read below and some well known hospitals, such as Kaiser Permanente and Sutter Hospitals are going with the flow here as well.  With this effort a sanctuary is provided for all, no matter what your religion may be.   As mentioned, this is somewhat of a west coast trend, thus all hospitals may not have moved into a non denominational area yet.  BD 

They have space for prayer rugs and windows facing east – but no pews or religious symbols. They are called meditation rooms, sanctuaries where families can pray for patients, and doctors can pause for spiritual refreshing.

At least three area hospitals have plans to open meditation rooms – or expand and revise what were once known as chapels – for nondenominational observance. Reasons range from the changing needs of hospital staff, with more Muslims seeking a place to follow daily rituals, to the evolving view of medicine that the body and soul can heal together

Kaiser Permanente, for the first time in the Sacramento area, is constructing four meditation rooms in three hospitals. The first, at Kaiser Medical Center on Morse Avenue, opens in two weeks. UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento will open a large interfaith space in its new pavilion wing, scheduled to open in the fall. Sutter Health's new hospital for women and children in Sacramento will open in 2013 with a 40-seat meditation room.

Hospitals rethink spiritual spaces, create meditation rooms - Sacramento Living - Sacramento Food and Wine, Home, Health | Sacramento Bee

Technorati Tags: chapel, hospital, meditation room, Kaiser Permanente, Sutter, prayers, religion, non denominational

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Health Insurance Becoming an Issue with Actors – Earnings Split Between Unions With Actors Not Meeting Thresholds to Qualify

The acting business has also been hit by the economy with more reality shows and now many are working between both unions to get enough work.  In order to qualify for health insurance, a certain earning threshold needs to be met.  Now there are talk going on about a potential merger – for health insurance benefits.

Being able to get health insurance benefits means either getting or not getting one job sometimes.  BD

Actors find it increasingly difficult to meet earnings thresholds for receiving benefits, because their income is carved up between the unions. That's one reason a merger is again under discussion.

 

But now they are finding it increasingly difficult to meet the earnings thresholds required for receiving benefits, which range from about $10,000 to $30,000 a year, because their income is carved up between two unions. Each union has separate health and pension plans, and they don't allow contributions to be combined.
"People are very, very upset and worried," said Kevin E. West, founder of the Actors Network, a professional business organization for actors. "It's a huge problem that affects several hundred working actors."

Both unions have steadily raised earnings requirements for insurance at a time when reality TV programs have taken away jobs, movie stars increasingly are filling guest star roles on TV shows and the income that actors get from residuals — the fees paid out when shows rerun — has shrunk.

Actors lose out on health benefits as SAG, AFTRA maintain separate plans - latimes.com

Technorati Tags: health insurance, SAG, AFTRA, unions, income, actors, actresses, television

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Partners HealthCare Report Substantial Drop Of Income of 25%

When it comes to healthcare news, Partners is no stranger.  Recently in the news the Department of Justice opened an inquiry as to how they were able to substantiate larger compensation contracts compared to other hospitals in the Boston area. 

How Does Partners HealthCare Negotiate Those Higher Compensation Schedules from Insurers – Department of Justice Wants to Find Out

Currently there is money in the bank so nobody is in dire straights yet.  During the Madoff affair, several hospitals were hit in the pocket book there as well, with either investments or sources of donations and philanthropy dwindling away.  BD

State panel to examine payments to Partners Hospitals in Boston – Other hospitals in the State are looking for a bail out…

Faced with flat patient volume, higher expenses, and a shortfall from government payments, Partners HealthCare System Inc. today reported a 35 percent drop in its income for the second quarter.

The income decline to $22.5 million for the three months ending March 31, compared with $34.5 million during the same period a year ago, comes as Boston-based Partners finds itself at the center of a growing debate over how to contain rising medical costs in Massachusetts.

Last month, the US Justice Department opened a civil investigation into possible anti-competitive behavior by Partners, the region's most powerful hospital and physician network. Earlier this year, Attorney General Martha Coakley issued a report pointing to the market cloud of some health care providers, including Partners, as a principal driver of increasing medical costs in the state.

For the second quarter, Partners said its operating income fell to $13.1 million from $36 million a year ago. That was partly offset by nonoperating income of $9 million, mostly from investments, compared with an investment loss of $1.6 million last year when the stock market tumbled.

Partners, like other health care providers, also saw its shortfall from government payments widen as higher costs outstripped increases in payments from Medicare and Medicaid, the federal programs that insure senior citizens and low-income people.

Partners HealthCare reports lower income - Daily Business Update - The Boston Globe

Technorati Tags: Hospitals, Partners Health CareHealthcare, Massachusetts, Blue Cross, Boston, DOJ, department of justice, healthcare reform, physicians

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Does Your Dog Need a Tweet – Not Treat, Tweet – Puppy Tweets Can Make That Happen With Twitter

First off, if you need followers that bad you are in trouble here.  Second of all, I don’t want to see this in the areas I follow so do everyone a favor and make it a “private feed” if you would as I don’t want to follow my own dog, much less anyone else's.

Mattel is the genius with this idea and the cost is around $30.00 and it comes in pink for females and blue for males.  It can detect around 500 different types of activities so your dog can join the 140 character club called Twitter.  “Guess what I am licking right now” “I need to poop” could very well be a couple of the pre-sets of text you will receive.  It has a USB dongle and I think it is soon to be released.  It requires a Wi-Fi connection to your computer and it hangs on the dog’s collar.  

I am dog person and love my dog, but this is not for him.  If tweeting is not enough, then there’s another product which is a camera which you can hang around his neck and view where he’s moving all day. 

Spy on Your Dog – Home Monitoring Devices for those Guys Too

Dogs are therapeutic if you let them be without having to tweet and and spy on them when you are not home, or that’s how I think and either one of these would probably make my dog mad and he would pee all over the house(grin). 

In its first-ever toy created for the canine community, Mattel is introducing a product called "Puppy Tweets" that meshes the hugely popular Twitter with consumers' love of pets.

Puppy Tweets is a plastic tag with a sound and motion sensor that you attach to your pet's dog collar and connect its USB receiver to your computer. Then you create a Twitter account for your dog and enjoy updates all day from Sparky or whatever its name is on your computer or smartphone.

If Sparky is napping, he'll tweet "Somedays it feels like my paw is permanently on the snooze button!" If he's making a ruckus, his tweet will let you know that as well, saying"YAHOOOOOOO! Somedays you just gotta get your bark on."

"Puppy Tweets capitalizes on two popular trends - the use of social media and real time communication, as well as peoples' extreme love for their dogs," said Susan Russo, Mattel's director of marketing

Mattel takes innovation to the dogs with its Puppy Tweets - Jan. 21, 2010

Technorati Tags: Twitter, dogs, puppy tweets, spy, wireless, trends, Mattel, silly, monitoring, bark

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Home Screening for Self Funded Benefit Employers Offered Via United Healthcare for Mail In Lab Results to Screen for Diabetes and Heart Disease – Corporate Wellness

The mail order business is certainly in the news today with patients “doing it yourself” at home.  First we have the controversial genetics test this week being offered over the counter and now one more addition here with lab results you do at home.  This is limited as I read here to employers who self fund, in other words pay for their employees health care but use an insurance company to do the administration.

This is also another way to capture the employee’s attention and drive participation over to the online United Healthcare PHR.  If you don’t get tested at your doctor’s office you now can do it at home and discuss at your next visit.  The focus is clearly for corporate marketing as shown on the website with finding out earlier if you have healthy or not so healthy employees.   The company includes health risk assessments which recently changed due to the new GINA law where family history cannot be included. 

Also it appears as a single consumer you can enroll for your own lab tests without insurance backing and test costs start at around $25.00. 

I see the service as a convenience but once again I look at privacy issues here and the accumulation of additional data and again question whether or not the information within the PHR used by United can be used with “scoring” procedures used to pay claims.  Recently in the news there’s the pay for performance items with Walgreen pharmacies and the YMCA getting paid from United Healthcare to enroll patients into their various programs. 

UnitedHealthCare To Use Data Mining Algorithms On Claim Data To Look For Those At “Risk” of Developing Diabetes – Walgreens and the YMCA Benefit With Pay for Performance Dollars to Promote and Supply The Tools

Also, AARP has their buses going out for screening too, and AARP markets health insurance plans from United Healthcare.  With all these recent moves and marketing combinations it is a pretty clear message somebody representing insurance coverage wants you screened one way or another.  I think a conversation still between doctor and patient is still required though before jumping on the bandwagon here too, as they may be set up with other arrangements and work with a lab that already may have a history of your screenings too, something to think and ask about before jumping out there.  We still need the doctor/patient relationship.

AARP and Walgreens Sending Out a Fleet of Buses to Offer Free Screenings

Taking the results and putting them in your own PHR might also be an option here so you can share where and when you want as a patient.  The corporate sell here also involves the wellness coach concept too and there’s a lot of that still up for discussion as biometrics are entering the communication areas here and it needs to be productive and helpful, not disruptive to command and demand compliance.  If not done right, that is what you end up with and everyone hates it as it takes on the appearance of bottom line dollar investments and not healthcare driven for the consumers with data collected that can be used against you when paying for claims and underwriting.  BD 

MINNETONKA, Minn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--UnitedHealthcare, a UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) company, is now offering at-home health screening kits as part of corporate wellness programs for employers. The health screening kits enable employees to more easily test for conditions such as diabetes and heart disease. Test results will help patients work with their doctors to detect conditions early and develop appropriate treatment plans.

The kits, developed by Santa Barbara, Calif.-based BioIQ, are available nationwide to employers who self-fund their health benefit plans. Each BioIQ at-home health screening kit contains components and instructions for drawing a tiny blood sample, from a finger prick, that is mailed to a certified laboratory for analysis. The easy-to-understand lab reports, along with personalized health recommendations based in part on the test results, are available through password-protected accounts on BioIQ’s secure Web portal. In addition, the lab reports are automatically populated into the patient’s online health assessment and personal health record on www.myuhc.com. 

The kits test for both heart disease and diabetes from one small blood sample – only a few drops of blood are required. For heart disease, they measure the amount of total cholesterol, HDL, triglycerides and LDL cholesterol value. The kits also include a choice of diabetes tests – either for A1c, which measures average blood sugar over the past 90 days, or glucose, which measures blood sugar at the time of testing.

UnitedHealthcare Wellness Programs Now Available with at-Home Health Screening Kits | Business Wire

Hat Tip:  Medgadget

Technorati Tags: UnitedHealthcare, BioIQ, employer insurance benefits, healthcare, health insurance, labs, PHR, personal health records, marketing, mail order, heatlh disease, diabetes

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DARPA Has Device That Knows You Are Sick Before You Do – FDA Might Want To Collaborate

I just said this about a month ago how the FDA could collaborate with other government entities to help with some of their processes and procedures and here’s a perfect example and somewhat right in their own backyard.  The hope is to have a device the size of a glucose meter to use to do on the spot testing. 

FDA Moving Toward Major Infrastructure Overhaul And It’s Getting Complicated – Partnerships With Other Government Entities is Key for Success

The devices are already showing an excellent track record when used 24 hours ahead of when an infected patient becomes symptomatic.  Use for the military is said to be the priority but with the speed that other devices in healthcare are being created and implemented, I don’t think there will be much of a gap here.

They are talking even about a device that attaches to the telephone to diagnose and the article mentions this is moving so fast that the FDA has no benchmarks for genetic tests and may not know what to do, so perhaps an early visit over to the Pentagon would be beneficial here to see what other agencies have in the works.  It’s all about collaboration today at rocket speeds. 

30 genetic markers have been identified with blood samples, that are activated by a virus. BD 

Imagine knowing you’ll be too sick to go to work, before the faintest hint of a runny nose or a sore throat. Now imagine that preemptive diagnosis being transmitted to a national, web-based influenza map — simply by picking up the phone.

That’s the impressive potential of an ongoing Pentagon-funded research project, spearheaded by geneticists at Duke University. Since 2006, they’ve been hunting for a genetic signature that can accurately assess, well before symptoms appear, whether someone’s been infected with a virus. Eight months into a $19.5 million grant from Darpa, the Pentagon’s out-there research agency, the expert behind the program is anticipating a tool with implications far beyond military circles.

Dr. Geoffrey Ginsburg, director of Duke’s Institute for Genome Science & Policy, is collaborating with a team of colleagues to create a gadget that can detect viral infection hours before the sniffles. Between 2006 and 2009, his team made rapid strides in identifying 30 genetic markers, found through blood samples, that are activated by a virus.

They’ve since moved to human trials, testing 80 people in four studies. Healthy participants were exposed to three different viral strains. Their blood, saliva and urine were then tested for “viral specific signatures,” that would characterize illness.

“This would eliminate the ‘default’ of giving antibiotics, which is a significant public health concern,” Ginsburg said. “So what we’d have, essentially, is a tool to drastically improve clinical judgment in a day-to-day setting, which wasn’t a Darpa goal, but a corollary benefit because we had a chance to find these specific signatures.”

And Ginsburg has a more elaborate vision for the devices, which he hopes to see shrink down from “suitcase size” to that of “a diabetic glucometer,” which would use a finger pinprick to test for illness.

Ginsburg anticipates a suitcase-sized device in the war-zone within “a couple years,” and says the devices are already showing excellent accuracy 24 hours before an infected patient becomes symptomatic. In an effort to validate the results in a real-world setting, his team has turned to Duke’s campus, using crowded dorms — already human petri dishes of infection — as improvised research labs.

“The major uncertainty, in my mind, is the regulatory atmosphere,” he said. “These are such a new diagnostic tool, the FDA is still trying to figure out not only how to supervise them, but whether they even need to.”

Pentagon Virus Detector Knows You’re Sick Before You Do | Danger Room | Wired.com

Technorati Tags: DARPA, Pentagon, Viruses, genetics, geonomics, markers, FDA, healthcare, viruses, medical devices, technology, sensors, anti-biotics, drugs

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Tourist In New Zealand Bit By Spider on the Penis While He Slept – 16 Days In the Hospital Recovering

The spider is said to be a relative to our Black Widow spiders we have here in the US.  As a tourist on the beach, this was not a happy day for him by any means. 

The Katipo spider is referenced here as a “night biter” so his attack was true to his form.  The bites are not normal deadly but can make on very sick it appears.  BD

The 22-year-old Canadian, who had earlier left his clothes in the sand dunes while he went for a "skinny dip", then spent 16 days in hospital suffering from potentially fatal heart inflammation.

"He woke to find his penis swollen and painful, with a red mark on the shaft suggestive of a bite," Dr Nigel Harrison, who treated the man, writes in the latest New Zealand Medical Journal.

"It was a rather nasty, ill-placed bite," Dr Harrison said.

By the time the tourist reached the nearest hospital, in the northern town of Dargaville, his penis was severely swollen, his blood pressure was up and his heartbeat racing.

The following morning, chest pain and other symptoms developed and doctors diagnosed he had been bitten by a katipo, a rare native spider related to the Australian redback and North American black widow spiders. It is the first known case of myocarditis, or heart inflammation, occurring after a katipo spider bite.

Tourist hospitalised by venomous spider bite on penis - Telegraph

Technorati Tags: spider, myocarditis, heart inflamation, New Zealand, hospital, beach, tourist, Katips spider, bite, insect

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Canadian private For-Profit Hospital Files Bankruptcy In Calgary – Government Bail Out In Action

Three public hospitals were closed in the area and the Health Resource Centre was to take over, one problem, no money.  The hospital will stay open to provide hip and knee replacements and the government is supporting the effort as if the facility were to close, there would not be enough operating facilities to take care of everyone.  One doctor argued that private care is never cheaper and you don’t get better outcomes, sound like what we are hearing in the US with the debate on some of our care here.  The hospital defaulted on their loan and that’s when the government had to step in and partially bail out the hospital.  BD 

A Calgary for-profit hospital, once a beacon of hope for medical entrepreneurs across the country, declared bankruptcy last week. And who will have to pick up the pieces? None other than the public health-care system and ultimately Alberta taxpayers.

For years, critics predicted that this experiment in privatized health care would prove unreliable and expensive. But no one imagined a scenario in which publicly funded Alberta Health Services would go to court in a bid to keep the lights on over the operating tables in an investor-owned hospital. No one imagined that AHS would be paying receivership fees in order to keep the doors open. But this is, in fact, what has happened because Calgary’s public health-care system is so reliant on private partners.

The contracts continued and HRC became so successful that it decided to expand and rent expensive space in a new development. That’s when HRC ran into trouble. Before it had even moved in, the developer claimed HRC had defaulted on payments. HRC claimed that Alberta Health Services had cut back on promised contracts, and declared bankruptcy.

The private hospital, was once the focal point of premier Ralph Klein’s health-care strategies. It was for the benefit of HRC and its bevy of investors and orthopedic surgeons that in 2000 the Alberta government passed the Health Care Protection Act, which allowed private surgical clinics to keep patients overnight, thus allowing HRC to perform hip and knee replacements that had previously been permitted only in public hospitals.

Canadian private, for-profit hospital files for bankruptcy - PNHP's Official Blog

Technorati Tags: Health Resource Centre, Calgary, Canada, bankruptcy, healthcare, HRC, public health, for profit, hospital, bail out, default

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Ingenix Gets Contract from State of Alabama To Review For Fraud – Same Company Underpaid Doctors for 15 Years Settled Recently with the AMA – Algorithmically Incorrect Calculations

If you are not up to date, this is the same company (wholly owned subsidiary of United Healthcare) that had the data base that calculated the short payments United, Blue Cross, Healthnet and other insurers who used it.  The New York Attorney General pursued the case and millions now available to claim. 

AMA Has Online Assistance and Forms For Filing Claims For UnitedHealthCare/Ingenix

Why do we give contracts to run algorithms to the very same company that ran a data base to pay short for 15 years is a question that comes to mind.  This is one of the reasons that “trust” for the health insurance industry is so low.  Can we trust them now?   There’s more lawsuits in the tumbler as well over the same data base used for calculations. 

Are we hiring the hacker as it would be stated when it comes to security with computers and networks?

Ingenix Data Base Has Some Long Reaching Legal Tentacles with Aetna, Blue Cross, Blue Shield, Humana

We all know criminals do a better job at billing as most have one focus only and that is fraud and granted audits are needed to double check and go over what has been paid and billed, no problem there with that function. 

Little Progress on Fighting Healthcare Fraud – Look At Who’s Getting the Anti-Fraud Contracts

When looking for healthcare fraud, it may look great on the numbers but outside agencies that go beyond just algorithms are still needed to find fraud, otherwise many doctors and hospitals get hit with “false positives” if this is the only means used.  We have seen a lot of that tied up in our legal system.  The incentives here are that the company will get paid on a percentage of what they find.  BD   

The state of Alabama has awarded Ingenix Inc. a two-year contract to review claims and identify any funds owed to the state.

The Alabama Medicaid Agency, nationally recognized for its payment and eligibility accuracy, will work with Eden Prairie-based Ingenix on a focused post-payment review of claims filed for the past two years by all Alabama-based health care provider groups, including hospitals, physicians, dentists, pharmacies, medical equipment companies and home health care providers.

Under the terms of the deal, Ingenix will be paid a percentage of any incorrect payments identified and recovered, rather than a standard flat fee.

Ingenix to review Alabama Medicaid claims - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

Technorati Tags: health insurance, healthcare, healthcare reform, House subcommittee, Health Net, UnitedHealthCare, Ingenix, algorithms, transparancyAMA, fraud

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Hospital Using Cell Phone Texting to Broadcast ER Waiting Times

This is a good idea so at least you can make a decision on whether or not to wait, or if you are not in dire need, take time out to go get your groceries or go to the bank while you wait (grin).  If the waiting room is crowded and the wait time is a few hours, this would also make more room for people to sit down too.  Of course we don’t want to see those long waits, but sometimes depending on volume of people waiting, it can’t be helped.  BD 

If you've ever had to go to an emergency room to be treated, you might know how unpredictable the wait for a doctor can be. Someone might see you in five minutes, but it's possible -- likely, even -- to get stuck there for hours.

To make the ER more patient-friendly, Reston Hospital Center has devised a text-messaging service that tells you how long the wait will probably be. People can text "ER" to the number 23000 and receive a reply with the most up-to-date wait time. Standard message rates apply, as they say, depending on your cellphone plan.

Waiting times are also publicized on the hospital's Web site, http://www.restonhospital.com.

Reston's ER medical director, Darren Lisse, stresses that the service is designed for folks with relatively minor medical conditions, such as a sprained ankle, and that anyone with chest pains or other potentially life-threatening problems should still call 911.

Reston hospital uses cellphone texting to announce emergency room waiting time

Technorati Tags: Technology, cell phones, ER Room, waiting time, hospital, doctors, nurses, emergency services, text messages

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Medtronic CareLink(R) Network Goes Cellular – Devices That Report Data Connecting to EHR Records With HL7

Now with your cell phone connection,cardiac resynchronization therapy-defibrillator (CRT-D) or implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) are monitored through the CareLink Network.  The cell phone connection is taking over with implants reporting data.  I have done several posts over the last couple of years on this subject and I still feel it is one of the neglected areas of “meaningful use”.  For sure, it’s a difficult area to assess too as it is evolving almost daily.  Check out the link below for a summary of some of what is out there. 

Wearable Sensors and Other Healthcare Innovations Set to Flourish

If you are not implanted, you will be carrying one, wearing one, or sticking one on your body somewhere it seems.  Next with aggregation we will see multi purpose devices too, one that may serve 2-3 purposes, and then of course there’s the question of the software being correct with no bugs before we track off into our brave new world here.  2000 certainly appears to be shaping up as the “decade of the sensors”.   Medtronic is ready to get connected with EHRs and EMRs to send the data with their Paceart System to integrate.  

Medtronic has shown the ability to connect with EHR vendors including Epic, General Electric, NextGen, and Medical Micrographics and I’m sure there’s more in the works.  You can view a flash presentation here.  

After viewing the presentation myself we need some serious software training here in order for this to work for both doctors and patients.  What happens when you have a patient that gets upset over the fact that their doctor may not have checked the results in the time frame that the patient thinks is required?  Remember doctors have to step out from the connected world here and there to see patients and conduct exams, so we are back to looking for balance here again.

From the website:

“While a number of systems offer a one-way interface to or from an EHR, to date, only one device information system can provide a bidirectional interface. The Paceart System supports universal integration of device data, and the Connected Systems Gateway provides a real-time message-oriented interface that is commonly accepted by EHRs. Paceart HL7 connectivity ensures the seamless flow of cardiac device information to the EHR (Inbound Messages) and of patient scheduling and registration data from the EHR (Outbound Messages) into Paceart.”

The CareLink Programmer can connect to your clinic’s network via an Ethernet cable or a wireless connection.* For programmers used at remote locations that aren’t connected to the clinic’s network, the programmer will store up to 200 follow-up sessions and automatically transfer data to the Paceart System once the network connection is re-established.”

“Use of SessionSync in a wireless configuration requires a Medtronic-supplied 802.11b wireless card and an established 802.11b-compatible wireless network. The network must support WEP wireless security.”

Now let’s get serious and see a list of supported devices – warning there’s quite a few on this list from Medtronic. 

SessionSync software supports direct data transfer for about three-quarters of Medtronic’s implantable cardiac devices

What is still lacking here though is the balance for the physicians who are going to be held responsible for all of this and I stated last year that a portal that combines all device that report data would definitely be in order and of course import data to a medical records system so a "Device Portal” that is open source or non vendor specific to gather and aggregate all of this certainly needs to be on the agenda, otherwise the doctors are going to be driven “nuts” as you can only market this so far and claim an area of responsibility as they need to spend time with patients too, you know the old fashion stuff like a conversation on the phone or via the web and personal visits in the office too.  Medtronic has aggregated their information into a portal, but what about everybody else and their devices?  I can’t help but think these are some of the issues that cause people who work at the FDA to lose sleep at night too.

Wireless Healthcare Medical Devices and the FDA – The Reasons They Are Slow to Come to Terms

If you don’t want to do cellular as a patient, then we have the “Home Monitoring Device” that plugs in that can work without either a land or cellular line.

Having this capability is great but we need to manage it as well so it does not turn out to be too disruptive and too big of a distraction for all concerned.  I like technology and all it can do and writing this post even made me tired and it took a while to research all of this to hopefully bring this into layman’s terms where hopefully readers can get some idea as to what is going on out there.  Maybe we should hook up Congress to some Home Monitors while they are in the process of making laws so they can become participants and see what is happening outside the walls they live within Washington DC?  I think more would literally fall over with shock to see some of this and it’s use. 

Let’s not forget privacy here too, and how much of this information will go to the insurers at some point to enable their “scoring” algorithms so they can decide and determine if we are worth insuring or worth paying our claims or not.  This is still a very gray area and very few laws here are in place and it’s hard to enforce and create such laws without some digital and algorithmic formulas filed along with the text, patents, and whatever else they want to throw in there.  Of course we still need a recall system as that will happen and I suggest this:

Microsoft Tags on CBS Early Show – Wake Up FDA, Pharma and Medical Device Companies –Scan Those Drugs, Medical Devices and Synchronize with an FDA Tag Data Base – Recalls, Theft Tracking and More….

Those tags can go right into the health records and even facilitate the movement of data.  BD 

MINNEAPOLIS, May 10, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Medtronic, Inc. announced today that it now offers the new Medtronic M-Link(TM) cellular accessory, which provides cardiac device patients with an option to securely send information stored in their implanted devices to their clinics via the CareLink(R) Network using cellular signals, rather than a telephone landline. This simplified connection to the CareLink(R) Network enables clinicians to remotely monitor more patients who are implanted with cardiac devices. 

 

"The M-Link cellular accessory is making remote monitoring accessible to a greater number of eligible patients," said Pat Mackin, president of the Cardiac Rhythm Disease Management business and senior vice president at Medtronic. "Now patients without a telephone landline have a convenient option to access the CareLink Network and take advantage of the benefits that come with remote monitoring, including fewer in-clinic visits and peace of mind from knowing their device data can be transmitted using cellular technology, without the need for a landline."

 

The M-Link cellular accessory provides patients with a convenient option to stay connected with their clinic from home, work, or while traveling globally. The M-Link cellular accessory securely connects to any CareLink Patient Monitor and allows patients to transmit data from their implanted device directly to their clinic through the secure CareLink Network. It also allows Medtronic CareAlert(R) Notifications to be transmitted when any of the programmable alert conditions from a patient's implanted device has occurred. Physicians and nurses can view the transmitted data through a secure Web site, giving them the opportunity for a "real-time" look at how the patient's device is functioning. The information transmitted is comparable to that provided during an in-clinic device follow-up visit.

Medtronic Launches New Cellular Accessory for the Medtronic CareLink(R) Network - MarketWatch

Technorati Tags: Medtronic, technology, M-Link, cell phones, cardiology, data, devices that report data, implants, EHR, EMR, PHR, doctors, dashboard, sensors, HL7, software, recalls

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Office Web free Online Apps from Microsoft Coming Next Month – Use Web Services or Desktop Office or Both

I use both and started with the Office Live/Small Business beta a while back.  So far it has been great and wonder around the web and try a lot of services, etc. so I have gone through the transitions as it has evolved.  When at home or in the office, sure I like to have my desktop Office.  I had an old domain name I transferred over too and no problem there and it took me a very short time to set up a website with the templates here, and this is all free from the web side, so you could start with free and purchase the desktop Office or vice versa. 

What I did for the website was create a template to where I have links from this blog and I feature other blogs who have made a “widget” for a simple and easy format to preview.  There are some of the same folks here as you find under my Blog Roll.  This is my old ducknet.net domain.  http://ducknet.net/  There’s a permanent link at the top of the blog to find the page as well. 

I like having the Outlook Connector too on my desktop installation and it synchronizes easily enough with my cell phone too. 

Microsoft Office Outlook Connector Available – Synch Email and Calendars - Free

Also on new computers, “Works” had officially died. 

Microsoft's Office (Free) Starter – Replaces “Works” and Will be Available on New PCs Soon

It has just been a real good experience for me and I have recommended it to small physician practices.  BD 

Microsoft has divulged the date it will begin rolling out Office Web Apps, the free online version of its breadwinner Office software suite: June 15. That also will be the same day Office 2010 will hit store shelves.

However, it could take several weeks beyond mid-June for free Office Web Apps to become available to everyone, Chris Capossela -- senior vice president of Microsoft's business division -- told reporters at the NBC studios in New York City on Wednesday, adding Office Web Apps will undergo a "rolling thunder" introduction.

Microsoft rolling out Office Webs Apps on June 15 - USATODAY.com

Related Reading:

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

Microsoft Offers Free Web-Based Office Extension - Software as a Service

Microsoft Delivers Office Live Workspace Beta

Windows Live Services – Wave 3 – Free Download

Microsoft Store Opens On The Web For U.S. Shoppers – Software and Hardware

Microsoft BizSpark – Free help, Software, Venture Capitalists and Angel Connections

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Office, Office Live, healthcare, technology, software, Outlook, Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Office Starter

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Biotronik Pacemaker That Sends Emails, SMS and Faxes Gets FDA Approval

The CardioMessenger^® functions like a cell phone and you keep it with you. Below are a couple of links from prior articles.  The cellular connection here is what we need to be aware of and how it functions. 

Biotronik Home Monitoring – Wireless Cardio Implant that Connects To Sends Email, SMS and Faxes now Available Europe

Biotronik Home Monitoring – Cardio Implant that sends email, SMS or faxes

The world of devices that report data continues to grow and so does the occupation of being a cardiologist with additional capabilities of data being sent for analysis.  BD

Biotronik, a manufacturer of implantable cardiac devices and the provider of wireless remote monitoring technologies, has received FDA clearance for its Evia pacemaker for distribution in the US.

Biotronik Evia is the device that provides therapies for physiologic pacing packaged into a device that is 20% smaller than current can size and which has integrated wireless remote monitoring. Evia provides patient management with the integration of the clinically proven Biotronik Home Monitoring system.

Biotronik claimed that Evia has the capability to cellularly transmit required patient and device data, including IEGM Online HD, to perform a complete remote follow-up. It is the smallest pacemaker with integrated wireless remote monitoring. The technology is fully compliant with Heart Rhythm Society and European Heart Rhythm Association device follow-up specifications.

Evia includes Biotronik’s Closed Loop Stimulation (CLS), which is the advanced and physiologic rate regulation algorithm available on the market. CLS integrates into the natural cardiovascular loop by measuring changes in myocardial contraction dynamics and translating them into appropriate heart rate regulation, emulating a healthy sinus node, the human heart’s natural pacemaker.

Biotronik Pacemaker Evia Receives FDA Approval - Medical Devices Business Review

Technorati Tags: Cardiology, implants, wireless, home monitoring, clinical trials, cardiomessenger, Biotronik, healthcare, email, SMS, remote, hospital, FDA, cardiology, medical devices

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Walgreens Changed Their Minds on Selling Home Genomic Test Due to FDA Inquiry – What Is The Big Deal?

Pathway Genomics and a few others have been doing this on the web for a while now and you will have consumers getting confused thinking that the over the counter price is a bargain, well they still have to register online and go through the normal processes, with the only difference being they don’t have to wait for the mail to bring the kit!

Walgreens Stores To Offer Genetic Testing From Pathway Genomics Over the Counter

If someone has not noticed, we are an aging society here in the US and those over 65 of age are not going to jump on this anytime too soon either.  I do agree there needs to be interaction with their physician to help interpret and understand what the results mean, and for that matter more doctors could learn a bit more about it as well.  For a good point of reference, it helps to read about what the first participants who had their genome sequenced had to say:

Steven Pinkerton, Harvard Professor of Psychology talks about his genome, what he found out, what he learned, and how the psychological interpretations are somewhat still up for discussion

Here’s a couple of statements from Steven Pinkerton:

“The two biggest pieces of news I got about my disease risks were a 12.6 percent chance of getting prostate cancer before I turn 80 compared with the average risk for white men of 17.8 percent, and a 26.8 percent chance of getting Type 2 diabetes compared with the average risk of 21.9 percent. Most of the other outcomes involved even smaller departures from the norm. For a blessedly average person like me, it is completely unclear what to do with these odds. A one-in-four chance of developing diabetes should make any prudent person watch his weight and other risk factors. But then so should a one-in-five chance.”

I also have genes that are nothing to brag about (like average memory performance and lower efficiency at learning from errors), ones whose meanings are a bit baffling (like a gene that gives me “typical odds” for having red hair, which I don’t have), and ones whose predictions are flat-out wrong (like a high risk of baldness).

____________________

CVS is in the market too with genomics in a little different way and have their program going and their plan is for analysis with a “genetic benefits management company” called Generation Health.  Their plan is much more to worry about if you ask me as it could restrict patient access to certain drugs too as this begins to fall under areas of “health insurance” compensation as they want to manage testing costs for payors.  Pay attention here:

“Genetic Benefits Manager” is the CVS program venturing in this area – be aware.

CVS Caremark Launching Collaborating with Generation Health To Launch Program to Predict Patient Response for a Dozen Drugs With Genetic Testing

Again, I don’t understand the fuss over the kit being available over the counter versus sending off for it on the web and again I don’t see people breaking the doors down to get one as we other more important issues with getting medications we need now and ensuring patients can afford them.  It sounds like time for a little collaboration at the FDA on this topic and a thorough look at the CVS plan too while they are at it.  As patients we will of course be aware of anything that could stand to restrict access and lead to further analysis for risk management purposes, but worrying about having the box available for over the counter purchase here to me looks like the whole issue has turned into a “wild good chase” for now.  BD 

Walgreen Co. reversed a decision to carry genetic test kits in its stores after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration began looking into the supplier.
The drugstore chain, based in Deerfield, Ill., had planned to begin stocking its shelves Friday with the Pathway Genomics home test kit, which the manufacturer claimed could provide information on the risks of getting conditions such as Alzheimer's and heart disease, and also examine the likelihood of passing on health problems to children.

The product claims to assess the risk of dozens of health conditions, but some scientists and physicians had expressed concerns. Earlier this week, the National Society of Genetic Counselors issued a statement saying that receiving genetic information without input from a doctor "increases the chance for misunderstanding or misinterpretation of results."

Walgreen holds off on carrying Pathway Genomics genetic test kit - latimes.com

Technorati Tags: Walgreens, Pathway Genomics, healthcare, DNA, sequencing, drug store, genetics, disease, retail drug stores

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FDA Needs A New Set of Tools For Drug Approvals and Scrutinizing Consumer Advertising on Over the Counter and Food Products

Recently I had read in a couple places where the FDA should think about regulating medical records and when you look at where they are today, there’s no way they can bite off more right now as they have more than full plates to deal with.  Not too long ago the agency lost their top scientific medical device advisor to Microsoft as well. 

FDA Regulate Health IT What “Nutcase” Thought of This – Must Be A “Non Participant” Living in “Tech Denial”

The agency is trying to get their own “Sentinel” data system up and running and had to give a grant to an insurance company to test and try the data aggregation systems being built.  The FDA is not the only government agency in this mess with updating tools and infrastructure, it’s all over with most government agencies in the same boat after 8 years of an administration that sat on “snooze” control and didn’t see value in keeping up government technology.

FDA Awards a Big Grant to Health Insurance Company For Pilot Program To Monitor Safety of Drugs and Medical Devices

Don’t forget we still have Social Security still hanging on with Cobol too.  I think at the FDA today, everyone’s head has to be swimming all the time as we have new developments that require their attention daily and some of these areas are where the FDA has not gone before.  I have my own little campaign going on for the use of cell phones with recalls and that issue is going to grow huge in a short amount of time.  Kroger grocery stores does a better job with technology and recalls at present. 

Tags for Use in Healthcare – Medical Stents, Medications - One Scan Away From Safety Information in Real Time

Anyway, long and short, more issues for the FDA to work through as well as facing that new left hook they get every day.  Collaboration with other government entities has also escalated to a new level, where it is an absolute must today and not really a choice any more.  BD

Relying on so-called biomarkers is confusing the entire process of drug development, the public and doctors alike, they said.

The FDA also needs to use the same strict standards for assessing health claims of food and supplements as it does for drugs, said the panel appointed by the Institute of Medicine, which advises the federal government.

The committee recommended a new framework the FDA could use for judging studies that companies provide to support health and safety claims for their products.

"Congress may need to strengthen FDA authority to accomplish this goal," the institute's report reads.

The committee's report focuses on biomarkers, which can include measures as simple as temperature. Common biomarkers include levels of cholesterol and blood sugar.

Drugs to treat diabetes are often approved simply because they lower blood sugar and heart drugs can win FDA approval because they lower cholesterol. But the report said this does not mean they make patients healthier.

"Right now the supermarket is a jungle of unsupported health-related claims," the group said in a statement.

FDA needs new tools to check food, drugs: experts | Reuters

Technorati Tags: FDA. technology, healthcare, biomarkers, studiesFDA, Grassley, Senate, Tech denial, non participants, technology, government, Health IT, resources, HHS, heatlh insurance, Finance Committee

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New Defibrillator Has No Wires Leading to the Heart – Clinical Trial in the US, Device has Europe CE Mark

 Cameron Health in San Clemente, California has been developing the device.  It is on the market in Europe, but not here in the US and a clinical trial is in place with 330 patients.  Why is this big news?  Here’s 3 recalls on defibrillators in the last 6 months. 

Medtronic to Recall External Defibrillators

Boston Scientific Suspending Sales of Implanted Heart Defibrillators – 2 Production Changes Not Cleared by the FDA

HeartStart Defibrillator Recall – Phillips

The built in batteries of the devices have a lifetime of around 5 years, so at that point, when replacing a device, the decision is there to replace the cables at the same time.  The physicians performing the removal process state that the learning curve is pretty large too, which brings up the next issue, finding a facility and physician who is qualified and knows how to do the removal procedure of the wires.  

One patient had tissue so overgrown that the wire ended up in a vein.  The Sprint Fidelis was formally recalled by Medtronic, as it sometimes failed to give the life saving jolt and on other occasions the opposite occurred with a number of jolts when not needed.

From the Website:

“Conventional ICD’s require placement of at least one lead in or on the heart. Most frequently, these leads, constructed of thin insulated wires, are threaded through a vein and then placed inside the heart. These conventional transvenous leads allow for sensing of the heart’s rhythm and delivery of a life saving electric shock when a harmful arrhythmia is detected. The surgical placement and long term implantation of these transvenous leads within the patient’s heart are associated with a significant proportion of the complications related to this highly effective therapy. In contrast, the Cameron Health S-ICD System resides just under the skin, potentially avoiding many of the complications associated with the conventional implant procedure.

Cameron Health’s trial is a prospective, multicenter, single-arm design approved by the FDA under an investigational device exemption (IDE). The company plans to enroll up to 330 subjects at up to 35 sites globally. The study has primary clinical endpoints of arrhythmia conversion efficacy and complication free rate at 6 months for patients at risk of SCA.”

Replacing the units and their wires is no cakewalk either.  A year ago an article came out that stated there could be 1000s of the units that will stop working in the next few years so one without wires would be blessing indeed.  BD 

Researchers said Wednesday that they had developed a new type of implantable defibrillator that avoids the need to connect the device directly to the heart with wires, called leads, that are associated with complications of the traditional technique.

The researchers said a series of small studies showed the new defibrillator successfully detected and corrected potentially life-threatening irregular heartbeats after leads from the device were placed under the skin adjacent to the heart. Conventional devices employ leads threaded through veins into the heart itself.

The findings were presented at a meeting of the Heart Rhythm Society in Denver and published online by the New England Journal of Medicine. If the results are substantiated in a larger study, researchers said the device could become an attractive option for doctors and patients in what Wells Fargo Securities says is a $3.8 billion global market for the devices.

New Defibrillator Avoids Wires in Heart - WSJ.com

Technorati Tags: Defibrillator, heart, implanted devices, cardiology, New England Journal of Medicine, heart failure, Cameron Health, medical devices

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Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 Available Worldwide – CareGroup Hospitals in Boston Are On Board

Microsoft today announced the worldwide availability of Microsoft Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010, providing business customers with significant productivity gains and greater return on their software investments.

CareGroup Healthcare System, the parent company of hospitals including Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital and Medical Center, will use SharePoint 2010 to allow IT staff to track usage of reports, enforce security policies for sensitive information, conduct audits, and monitor network performance when intranet-based analysis is refreshed with new information from CareGroup databases. 

CareGroup began in late 2009 with the pilot program of the PowerPivot technologies and SQL Server 2008 RC2 will come in to play around the middle of this year. 

“CareGroup also plans to upgrade its intranet from Windows SharePoint Services to Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 to take advantage of Microsoft SQL Server PowerPivot for Microsoft SharePoint. This will mean that CareGroup users can share and collaborate more easily and publish analysis and reports directly on the intranet, with data feeds that regularly update information. They will no longer need to distribute and update spreadsheets manually by using e-mail or public folders.”

This sounds like the work of Dr. John Halamka at Beth Israel Deaconess or (Life as a Healthcare CIO blog) and I was right as here’s his post from October of 2008 under “Cool technology of the week”. 

How did I find his post so quickly, the Google search on my blog whereby I can search by keyword on all those blogs I have listed in my blog roll, so this made it easy for me to search and find his original post.  If you don’t have this on your blog with Blogger, seriously think about adding it! 

 

One other small note, it’s ready for LINQ and Silverlight too, so developers can write some pretty awesome interfaces down the road too.  LINQ is the language that connects SQL Server to the Silverlight interface, which is some pretty hot stuff and requires Visual Studio to set it up, so in time they could have some very dynamic dashboard and interfaces here.  BD 

Press Release:

NEW YORK — May 12, 2010 — Today, Microsoft Corp. announced the worldwide availability of Microsoft Office 2010 and Microsoft SharePoint 2010, as well as Microsoft Visio 2010 and Microsoft Project 2010, for business customers worldwide. More than 90 million businesses can now deploy the 2010 suite of products, and customers can expect to see significant productivity gains and greater return on their software investments.

“Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 define the future of productivity,” said Stephen Elop, president, Microsoft Business Division. “With the 2010 set of products, organizations will save, innovate and grow as their people benefit from working across the PC, phone and browser.”

A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting, “The Total Economic Impact™ of Implementing Microsoft’s Integrated Office Productivity Platform,” May 2010,¹ evaluated the 2010 releases of Office, SharePoint, Exchange and Office Communications Server 2007 R2. The Forrester TEI model employs four fundamental elements including costs, benefits to the entire organization, flexibility and risk. Based on the customer interviews, Forrester constructed a TEI framework for a composite organization and found the ROI to be 301 percent with a payback period of 7.4 months after deployment.

The study also found that the composite organization would see more than $13 million in savings over a three-year period and on average, a savings of more than two work weeks per year.

Microsoft’s Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 beta programs were the largest ever, with three times the number of participants compared with the Office 2007 beta program. As a result, 8.6 million people are already using Office 2010 and related products. In addition, more than 1,000 partners are already building solutions for the 2010 set of products.

“We evaluated a number of competitive options in our recent technology assessment, and chose Microsoft Office 2010 as our new desktop productivity standard,” said Mark Mastrianni, manager, global technology licensing and acquisition for GE. “This platform will continue to position GE on the leading edge of technology and provide a clear road map that supports our business priorities in the coming years. Office 2010’s familiar, easy-to-use interface — coupled with its new tools that will enable better collaboration and drive improved efficiency and productivity for our employees and customers — made this selection the right decision for our company.”

Productivity Solutions Across the PC, Phone and Browser

With a familiar productivity experience across the PC, phone and browser,² Office 2010 and related products deliver new capabilities to help people:

•	Connect and collaborate with co-authoring in Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint and Microsoft OneNote; advanced e-mail management and calendaring capabilities in Microsoft Outlook; and the addition of the new Microsoft Outlook Social Connector, which brings communication history and social network feeds directly into Outlook.
•	Work virtually anywhere with Microsoft Office Web Apps, the online companions to Word, PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel and OneNote. Along with easy access to documents from virtually anywhere, Web Apps help preserve the look and feel of a document regardless of device, so content and format are generally preserved while moving between the PC, phone and browser. Effective today, Office Mobile 2010 will be available for free via Windows® Phone Marketplace for all Windows Mobile 6.5 phones with a previous version of Office Mobile. People using Office Mobile 2010 can perform lightweight editing of Office documents and take notes on the go. With Office Mobile, people can work with Office documents stored on their phone, attached to an e-mail, and can browse, edit, and update documents stored on a Microsoft SharePoint 2010 site. SharePoint intranet sites and communities also help people collaborate, regardless of location.
•	Help bring ideas to life with video, text and image editing, new broadcast capabilities in PowerPoint, auto-previewing in Word, easy document preparation through the new Microsoft Office Backstage view, and new Sparklines in Excel for precise trend and data visualization.
•	Quickly access data to make real-time decisions using the business intelligence capabilities in familiar Office applications that transform everyday work data into valuable information.

Flexible Cloud Solutions

Microsoft’s signature productivity technologies are available in the cloud, ³ offering unprecedented choice and flexibility for IT departments when purchasing and deploying solutions.

Office Web Apps will now be available to all Office volume licensing customers. In addition, customers will be able to purchase a subscription to Office Web Apps as part of Microsoft Online Services, Microsoft’s cloud-based applications.

With more than 40 million paying customers on Microsoft Online Services, businesses are embracing Microsoft’s vision for the cloud. New customers including Kraft Foods, Novartis International and Codelco, the largest mining company in the world, are choosing Microsoft Online Services for its ability to delight end users while delivering enterprise-grade capabilities, security and flexibility.

“We chose Microsoft Online Services for our collaboration applications in the cloud for our 100,000 employees around the world,” said Leon V. Schumacher, Group CIO of Novartis. “It will enable our large research and development population to better collaborate to innovate. We can trust Microsoft to provide the enterprise capabilities our company requires to further improve personal productivity and collaboration among our associates so we can focus on our core mission — improving the lives of patients worldwide.”

Developer and Partner Opportunities

SharePoint 2010 delivers the business collaboration platform for the enterprise and Internet, enabling developers to rapidly respond to business needs with custom applications and solutions.

SharePoint 2010 delivers on the promise of flexible deployment options: Use Sandboxed Solutions to limit code central processing unit time, Microsoft SQL Server execution time, and exception handling. Plus, use these same technologies to deploy custom code to SharePoint Online.

Through design integration with Visual Studio 2010, developers can use familiar application development tools to create, package and debug SharePoint solutions. It also includes rich application programming interfaces and support for Open XML, Microsoft Silverlight, Representational State Transfer (REST) and Language-Integrated Query (LINQ), which help developers build applications quickly. Developers can also build applications that connect to line-of-business data, use custom workflows, and provide business intelligence data and dashboards to an entire organization.

The SharePoint integration services opportunity for Microsoft partners and developers today is $5.6 billion and is expected to grow to $6.7 billion in 2011, according to Microsoft data.

Availability

Available today in 14 languages, over the course of the next few months, Office 2010 and related products will eventually be available in 94 languages.

Microsoft’s global launch website http://www.the2010event.com for the 2010 suite of products was built on Microsoft SharePoint 2010, reaching more than 60 countries and 26 languages worldwide. The site includes a rich set of content that will help customers choose and benefit from the 2010 products, which are available for business purchase now.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

¹ “The Total Economic Impact ™ of Implementing Microsoft’s Integrated Productivity Platform” is a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Microsoft in May 2010. The study evaluated Office 2010, SharePoint 2010, Exchange 2010 and Office Communications Server 2007 R2. Based on interviews with early adopter customers, Forrester constructed a TEI framework for a composite organization and the associated ROI analysis illustrating the financial impact areas.

² An appropriate device, Internet connection and supported browser are required. Some mobile functionality requires Office Mobile 2010, which is not included in Office 2010 applications, suites or Web Apps. There are some differences between the features of the Office Web Apps, Office Mobile 2010 and the Office 2010 applications.

³ Cloud services may have different features than installed software

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Heatlhcare, Share Point Server, Business Intelligence, data, CareGroup, SQL Server, Excel, technology, HealthIT, PowerPivot. Halamka, Office 2010, Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital

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