News 01/24/06

From Terrano Flashback: "You made me remember Terrano too ... scary. I think he has resurrected himself with Telcor. Not sure if it is the same Jim Terrano but I think so."

From Wheelybop: "What is your source of finding new music?" Yahoo Unlimited. $5 a month, play whatever you want. I try a lot of stuff. And, listening to right now: Heavenly and The Softies. 

This week in Inside Healthcare Computing's e-mail update: why I dislike the Most Wired survey slightly less than before, but why I'm more interested in what the Lesser Wired are up to. There's a special subscription offer to HIStalk readers over to your left if you want to ante up. They're the primary sponsor here, so let's show 'em some love.

More on the Allscripts acquisition of A4 Health: the company approached three other potential acquirers, one of which didn't return their call. The other two offered bids lower than that of Allscripts. At least 10 A4 employees will become millionaires from the deal.

I'm fascinated with the Siemens Medical Systems federal fraud charges. If you know anything, send me an anonymous e-mail or use the Rumor Report form to your right.

The BlackBerry, or CrackBerry as some of its addicted users call it, could be history. RIM's Supreme Court patent appeal is a bust, so the company's putting a happy face on their claimed contingency plans, which likely are limited to paying huge royalties to the tiny company holding the patents they allegedly tromped on. It's that or close the doors. Short attention span executives may just have to start listening to people facing them across the conference room table instead of the faceless strangers on the other end of their BlackBerry. And if you think that's bad, watch what passes for social interaction among teens and even younger kids -- MySpace and IM have replaced just about every other form of social interaction.

CIO Field Report

• Hospital type: Commercial/For-Profit, Multiple Hospital Group, >800 Beds, East.
• IT Operating Budget: >$20 million.
• Most important IT projects now underway: CPOE, ERP, clinical documentation, collaboration tools, portal solutions, document management.
• Best application vendors: Epic, Keane, Eclipsys.
• Worst application vendors: GE.
• Hottest IT skills in the market: Project management, network security, architect/designer, communication skills.
• Trends really heating up: Podcasting, pervasive computing, pervasive telecom, open source everything.
• Trends cooling off: CPOE for the sake of patient safety.

If you're a CIO or IT director, I'll e-mail you an HIStalk Yearbook just for completing the quick online CIO Field Report. Thanks.

I keep forgetting to mention this. Several HIT and healthcare bloggers are having an informal get-together at HIMSS, hooking up with their readers at Hennessey's Gaslamp in San Diego, right after the opening reception is over Sunday evening (8:30 p.m.) You can sign up here, but bring your wallet, since it just wouldn't do to have firebrand, muckraking bloggers subsidized by button-down vendors.You can see who has signed up here. I'll either attend anonymously or not at all, but I still think it's a great idea. I'm all for wearing black turtlenecks, hiring pierced goth chicks for atmosphere, and passing vegan canapes in homage to those wacky dot-commers and their launch parties, being that we bloggers are so hip and all.

Senatorial candidate and ex-IDX'er Rich Tarrant makes a rookie politician mistake. He's lived in Vermont since 1960, yet his legal primary residence is in Florida. He blames clerical error.

Coding software maker CodeCorrect is acquired by Accuro Healthcare, which sells coding and contract management software.

Idiotic non-hospital lawsuit of the week: a prisoner charged with bring crack cocaine into the prison's booking room sues the county, sheriff, prison physician, jail administrator, and jail for $5 million each plus $20 million in punitive damages, claiming he was not given medical treatment for seizures despite having none and mentioning none during his medical history. He was examined at least weekly during his stay and found to be fine. Included in his $45 million claim is a shot-in-the-dark gripe about inadequate recreational time, which by policy is reduced for inmates under medical watch, even when they are obviously lying scumbags.

Australia's huge HealthConnect network is either being unceremoniously dumped off on the states as a shadow of its former self or is undergoing a much-needed critical review and right-sizing, depending on whom you believe. Critics say the government has backed off ambitious plans and will do nothing more than set standards (pretty much like here, sounds like.) This might be a good case study to follow if you're a NHIN fan.

Earnings announcement time is upon us, causing news to be scarce. Vendors may be holding off a few tidbits until HIMSS, too.

LiveData's OR dashboard goes live at Mass General.

Reminders: you can do the talking on HIStalk Discussion, including posting or finding a job. Also, The 2006 HISsies, The Brutally Honest Healthcare Information System Awards, Nominated and Voted On by the Readers of HIStalk, will be closing soon, so vote now. I like to wrap it up early so the winners can crow at HIMSS, especially those bagging the "stupidest strategy" and "executive into whose face HIStalk readers would most like to fling a pie" trophies.

Are you steeling yourself for HIMSS? Power drinking, flexing the glad-handing muscles, practicing a sickly, rictus-like grin in preparation for your 125th floor demo, working the old voice in preparation for hyper-volume mindless chattering and maniacal back-slapping laughter over the bedlam, and practicing badge-hiding techniques so you can spy on your competitor without getting caught? What will it be this year: painfully choreographed oxford shirts and khakis with all the impetuous fashion fun of a Nazi rally, or will it be suits because some of the big vendors are dragging them out again to show they're more serious than before? What do you dread and what do you look forward to? It always feels odd to see the same old ego-driven faces up there on the podia, somehow elevated to superstar status while you're stealing glances at your watch and hoping to sneak out for golf or a hedonistic vendor bash. All I want to do is attend some education sessions, eat and drink free stuff, have people I know and don't know kiss my ass for one reason or another, and find people stupider than me to talk to so I seem smarter. That and a little soft porn on the hotel's free Showtime is about as good as it gets for me. I don't get out much.

News, rumors, ideas, anything that will amuse or enlighten me: e-mail me. I try to answer each e-mail, but I shamefully admit that I don't always have the time or don't always know what to say (especially when a stock analyst wants me to analyze the entire industry for him or her for free.)