Edward Hospital in Naperville, Ill., has started a concept of updating its emergency department waiting time by means of text messages, telephone and its Web site.
‘Waiting Time’  is the average time from when a patient checks in and is triaged to the time they are placed in a room where treatment begins. The times are [...]

DOHA: Providing high level healing in a comforting environment, the Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) and Qtel yesterday launched the Fahad bin Jassim Kidney Center. The opening of the center comes as a fitting tribute to kick off a week-long World Kidney Day activities.
“The Kidney centre aims to secure world class healthcare services as in all [...]

Health Level Seven® International (HL7®), the global authority for interoperability and standards in healthcare information technology, recently announced that it has published the Version 2.5.1 Implementation Guide for Electronic Laboratory Reporting to Public Health (as also specified in HITSP’s Interoperability Specification IS01).
 The implementation guide is directly related to the initial set of standards and certification [...]

Some 900 vendors exhibited at the HIMSS 2010 Conference in Atlanta and that means multiple announcements about new products, features or services. Among them:
The Take Care Health System subsidiary of Walgreen’s will use in some 380 worksite health clinics the practice management and electronic health records software of Greenway Medical Technologies Inc., Carrollton, Ga. In [...]

Saying ICD-10 holds potential to surpass even Y2K’s cost and impact, DeloitteConsulting has published a list of the ten most important things  that the providers should understand right now about the conversion. The consultancy is not alone in warning that advance planning is essential to a successful ICD-10 implementation, particularly for healthcare organizations to achieve business value [...]

The NeuroMind mobile application, developed by DigitalNeurosurgeon.com, is a good resource for surgeons, featuring beautiful hi-res images. It’s not without usability issues – the free version I’m running on my iPhone had me constantly zooming to make use of the images. The app provides great hi-resolution diagrams for surgeons to reference, but blowing them up [...]

 
Inc., the Salt Lake City-based health information exchange (HIE) company, has announced iNexx, its new “Health 4.0″ platform, which bridges systems, networks and people to create a care model that keeps the patient as the focus at all times. iNexx connects cloud services, bricks-and-mortar clinical, administrative, and financial networks, local applications such as PMS and [...]

CHICAGO – The American Medical Association (AMA) is offering physicians across the country a new online platform for access to an electronic health system from Ingenix, called CareTracker.
The AMA announced recently that it had selected Ingenix CareTracker as the first EHR system offered through the AMA’s new online health information solutions platform for physicians. The [...]

HIMSS Analytics, devised the EMR Adoption Model to track EMR progress at hospitals and health systems called the EMRAM.  The EMRAM scores hospitals in the HIMSS Analytics Database on their progress in completing the 8 stages to creating a paperless patient record environment as shown in the figure below:
HIMSS EMR Adoption Model
 
 EMR Adoption Model Structure Ensures [...]

Canada-based Cynoprod, in partnership with Jordanian investor Zaher Al Masri, has launched a dental manufacturing centre in Amman, Jordan. The investment cost of Cynoprod’s Jordan is estimated at $2m in addition to a research and development investment of over $130m.
source: ameinfo.com

Health information exchange (HIE) – in particular the electronic sharing of laboratory results are a matter of concern.  In lieu of the same, The National Academy for State Health Policy, U.S., has launched State and national initiatives using HIE which are gaining momentum in the wake of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) that provides [...]

Sebia has unveiled the latest addition to its automated capillary electrophoresis portfolio, the innovative Capillarys 2 Flex Piercing for clinical diagnostic laboratories.
Based on the proven technology of the original Capillarys instrument, the new system features cap piercing for analysis of whole blood directly from primary sample tubes.
For haemoglobinopathy testing, the new cap-piercing capability streamlines workflow [...]

ATLANTA – The biggest challenge in healthcare delivery is the fragmentation of the system and the clinical information gaps that result, according to Susan DeVore, president and CEO of the Premier healthcare alliance.
DeVore spoke at a “Views from the Top” session on Tuesday at the 2010 HIMSS Annual Conference & Exhibition. Premier is one of [...]

ATLANTA – In his inaugural appearance at HIMSS10, David Blumenthal, MD, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology reiterated his support for healthcare IT, calling information the “lifeblood of medicine.” Healthcare IT is “destined to be its circulatory system,” he said.
As long as the focus is kept on the value to patients and the promise to [...]

Quest Diagnostics, a provider of diagnostic testing, information and services, has confirmed its role as product provider at the InnovHealth 2010 summit in Abu Dhabi.
Commenting on the company’s attendance, Quest Diagnostic’s International Business Development director, Robert Quinn said: “Our company is uniquely positioned to meet the needs and demands of international laboratory services through our [...]