News 12/15/03

I received a nice note from Alex, who authored a piece on offshoring for the Adam Smith Institute. Alex explains why offshoring is good. The more I think about it, the more I agree. Some folks will be negatively affected in the short term, but the changes are good.

Not on topic, but the capture of Saddam Hussein is fascinating. He spoke of jihad and the glory of giving young lives for the cause, but in the end he was dragged out of a hole in the ground looking like a New York bum, surrounded by weapons but not firing a shot. A good line spoken to Saddam by a US soldier taking him into custody: "President Bush sends his greetings." Good one. Chicken hawk. One down, one to go.

University of Utah's Health Sciences Center will use Softricity's SoftGrid to manage and deliver over 300 applications. I don't fully understand the product, but it's an alternative (or adjunct) to Citrix or Microsoft Terminal Services. What sounds interesting: it can replace software deployment such as SMS or LanDesk for certain installations. Application software doesn't run from the server, it is rolled out in chunks as needed to its fat desktop client. This reduces server count and also allows users to simultaneously run apps housed on multiple servers. UUHSC says weekly Cerner updates went from 12 person-hours in downtime to 1/2 person-hour at any time of day. I can't endorse it yet, but I'm giving it a look. If you know anything about it, let me know.

Soarian finally gets a mention, but not in a Siemens-friendly way. The guy who led Soarian's global launch bails for Kodak. Hopefully Siemens believes the argument that "bad PR is better than no PR."

The State of Florida does what every state will do within two years: establishes a task force that will recommend a statewide prescription database to track down fraud and drug abuse. Of course, there's an irony: guess who's offering $2 million to pay for the database? Purdue Pharma, makers of the widely abused, widely marketed OxyContin narcotic, one of Rush Limbaugh's favorites.

An odd mix in PA: Conemaugh Health System is the first tenant in a new Regional Technology Complex that will include a high tech incubator for the technology, healthcare, and biotech fields. Conemaugh's CEO described Johnstown as "a region infused with the renewed energy of entrepreneurs, technology professionals, researchers, students ..." The people I've known from Johnstown describe it in far less flattering terms. If they can get high tech types to work there, more power to them. I'm betting they flee like another flood's coming once the government money runs out.

Affinity Health System chooses ProSight's portfolio management software for IT governance. I've looked at Mercury Interactive's (formerly Kintana) IT Governance Center and I liked what I saw. I'll have pricing and scope within a few days. Portfolio management software is great if your IT organization is large and has complex projects and IT decision-making.

Abbot Labs will buy point-of-care diagnostic device maker i-STAT for $400 million. We use them at our place. Bedside results are relayed into our LIS via an batch interface.

Dumb comment: a tech company head says Logician EMR should be easy to integrate with hospital lab and pharmacy systems because they all use Oracle. The article involves Hawaii's Independent Physicians Association, who's giving member docs $3,000 to implement EMR software in their practices. Obviously not all systems use Oracle and even if they did, interfacing isn't usually hard because of incompatible databases - it's hard because of incompatible data.

Four Buffalo hospitals will install biometric security devices from local vendor Ultra-Scan. The interesting part: they'll be used to identify patients at registration and before treatments. Once a patient's fingerprint is captured, they won't be asked for ID information or cards again since they will be positively identified with a touch of the finger.

The VA wants a piece of the action from its moonlighting researchers. Some of them collect pay from up to a dozen entities each month as practicing physicians, scientists, faculty members, and proctors.

Two New York congressman brag about bringing home the bacon in the pork-laden omnibus federal spending bill. Some New York matters of Federal urgency: $100,000 for piloting wireless access in New York's farmers' markets, several million for hospital remodelings, and $8 million to kill off the Asian Long-Horned Beetle. Says a Citizens Against Government Waste spokesperson: "We read press releases bragging about these projects, but they're not bragging about the deficit, are they? The more pork you ask for, the higher the deficit is going to be. Each one of these projects should have a sign on the side that reads, 'This project helped contribute to the $500 billion deficit.'"

Medical University of South Carolina unveils the first of several renovation plans that will remake several blocks of downtown Charleston at a cost near $1 billion. Unlike most hospitals and the US government, I supposed they're making money.