HIStalk Quotes
News 04/12/07
posted 04/11/2007
From Miss Bankhead: "Re: IBM VM. UPMC is on to something. I just finished a client install where we replaced 10 servers with one IBM P series running VM. Good play."
From Mogall: "Re: Sentillion. Some rumors at HIMSS included that Sentillion had let go a number of provisioning developers and is looking to partner rather than try and sell an in-house solution."
From Inside Outsider: "Re: Andy Grove on healthcare IT." He says blaming our lack of success on doctors is a "lame excuse" and says it will take a pandemic to get our act together. I didn't realize he was Hungarian until I tried to place his accent, this being the first time I'd actually heard him.
From Scot Silverstein: "Re: mini-IT departments. I disagree with what I think this means. In healthcare IT the needs of specialized areas is often better served by IT personnel who have some degree of separation from the Central IT Commissar. The analogy makes the assumption of a symmetry' between IT personnel and clinicians, while there is a great asymmetry. Clinicians enable healthcare; IT personnel facilitate it; clinicians are accountable for patient harm and death; IT personnel are not. When IT personnel move away their control mentality and become part of the clinical team, everyone (including the poor patients) will be better off." I editorialized this week in Inside Healthcare Computing about that topic, which I called "Rogue IT Shops: Provide Rules, but Leave Them There." Darn, now I've given away my conclusion. Well, my arguments were equally fun.
From Anonymous: "Re: Misys. Heard yesterday that Misys lost 50 current physician practice customers in January alone." Reliable sources indicate that Vern and company are indeed closely watching the defecting customers and gave numbers in a recent town hall meeting, although it was less than 50, I'm told.
From New to HIT: "Re: EMR. Is there any official or unofficial statistics about the percentage of hospitals using different EMR systems?" Probably, but not publicly available. KLAS and HIMSS Analytics would certainly know, but they're in the business of selling that information. If anyone has figures that didn't come from a proprietary source, let me know.
From Semmelweis: "Re: ALERT. Loved the website and music for ALERT. Spiffy uniform for the tech support lady! I didn't see any place to apply for a stateside position to help them grow their business ... too bad." It is pretty dramatic, isn't it? I'd forgotten about the interesting uniforms. The video with Dr. Marques in Portugal is pretty cool, starting off with "Welcome to Portugal," which I thought was a nice touch. I know ALERT is growing, so if they have US openings, maybe they'll let me know.
I had a thought about the anonymous Rumor Reports. They have two problems: (a) someone could be scamming me, and (b) they could be legit, but inaccurate. I don't run anything that doesn't pass the sniff test, but I was thinking about putting up a secure area to post rumors that would require logging in with a confirmed e-mail address (or just asking to have them e-mailed to me.) I'd still be fiercely protective of everyone's anonymity, of course, but at least I'd know I was dealing with a trusted source. That would only leave trying to confirm their information. Good idea or not?
If you donated to Sumter Regional Hospital's cause here, you'll be getting a receipt from Nyla at their foundation. Marcus Johnson sent a note: "Dear Tim, I picked up the check today and delivered it to our Foundation Director. Again, on behalf of SRH I want to thank you and your readers for the generous donation. Like I say so often, we have had a tough road but it has been made bearable because of kind people such as yourself. We will make sure we keep you abreast of the happenings here at SRH, and feel free to come and visit anytime. Take care and may God Bless, Marcus Johnson." Thanks to the individuals and companies who donated. Cynics may say it's a tiny part of what they need, but thank goodness not everyone feels that way.
Picis announces CareSuite Extelligence OR, a BI tool for surgery.
From the just-released HIMSS Leadership Survey: clinical systems are hot, they're selling because of medical errors, and they'd sell even better if they didn't cost so much. Also hot: barcoding, Intranets, and bigger IT budgets and departments. Think of the time I saved you by boiling it down.
Did your vendors handle the daylight savings time change OK? Our big one did on the "early" change, but things went squirrely on the original "spring forward" date. I expect we'll see more foul-ups on the original "fall back" date as well. I keep hearing about all this QA work vendors do, but I'm beginning to think they do mostly collaborative QA, i.e. ship stuff right from programmers to customers to see what happens.
Capitalization and spelling rules make it easier for people to communicate. And then we have this: "digiMedical Solutions, Inc.(TM) (OTC:DGMS) today announced the introduction of the company's latest digital prescription handling software product digiRXComp(TM) 3.0." I'm not picking on them because lots of companies are equally guilty, but does anyone think those seemingly random mid-word capitalizations, leading off with an uncapitalized letter, are memorable? Your eyes just run for cover when they see that jumble. Proof: without re-reading, what was the name of the company and product again? I rest my case.
Inga (who you'll meet in a minute) tells me that medical management software vendor Click4Care just raised $10 million in first-round funding from Psilos. I interviewed founder Dave Blauer last summer.
VHA and Attainia co-develop Web-based capital budgeting software that will be available only to VHA members.
Medsphere's OpenVista goes live in the first of seven West Virginia state hospitals. Medsphere also installed Keane's Patcom revenue cycle as part of their contract.
A now, a very special moment in HIStalk history. I'd like to introduce you to a new collaborator, the lovely Inga Terry. Actually, I'll let her introduce herself. Inga will be going after some deeper information about some of the stuff I've only had time to briefly mention here in the past. You will also note her commendably dry humor, so if we can just add some withering sarcasm to her arsenal, she'll be one of us. You can contact her at inga_histalk@yahoo.com. She's got me energized enough that here I am writing on a traditional Wednesday night off.
Mr. HIStalk asked me to provide you with a bit of information on my background. He thought readers might want to know something about the individual he is hoping will help him reduce his long hours and provide him more opportunity to watch TV on the couch with Mrs. HIStalk.
Well, first off, he didn't ask me to help him as much as I begged him to give me a chance. I have been an avid reader for quite awhile and have relied on it to expand my knowledge of the various facets of healthcare IT - different technologies, companies, products, etc. Of course, the rumor stuff has always great fun. My expertise comes from 20+ years on the ambulatory vendor side, and one hope I have is to help Mr. HIStalk expand coverage on ambulatory PM/EMR vendors and products (as some readers requested in the recent survey.) Help me be of maximum value to my new boss (and impress him, of course) by sending any suggestions for specific topics that might be along these lines.
On a personal level, I subscribe to People magazine (and thus have a strong grasp of the need to balance solid writing skills with credible, investigative journalism.) And, I watch American Idol (thus understanding that it is the will of the people and our ability to vote that makes this country great.) Also, one of my all time favorite movies is Young Frankenstein (a shining example of the value of experimental medicine ... plus his lab assistant and I share the same first name.) I am excited for the chance to add value to HIStalk and its readers!
comments (5)
1. P_Anon left...
04/13/2007 8:26 am
Re: Sumter Hospital piece. Is your name Tim? That's what your
cut-and-pasted letter from them indicates. Anyway feel free to delete this.
2. Mr. HIStalk left...
04/13/2007 9:07 am
Re: is your name Tim? It may or may not be my real name, but I go by it
here, anyway, at least when I'm not in the mood to call myself Mr. HIStalk
(like with Sumter's foundation people, who I didn't figure would understand
what that meant.) Thanks for watching out for my anonymity, though!
3. Clinical Productivity left...
04/17/2007 1:21 am
Or perhaps a Monty Python reference? "There are some who call me... Tim"
