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  • 5 yrs 5 wks 0 days old
  • Updated: 15 Jul 2008
  • 915 entries
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HIStalk Quotes

News 01/10/07

« H E News from the HIT front :: email
posted 01/09/2007
HIStalk
From Ward Cleaver: "Re: stock options. I give credit to McKesson for changing some of its practices by now forcing yearly stockholder approval of its board members. This is a great practice and more companies should do it. For us oldtimers, I say congratulations, McKesson." Good idea, but what do you make of the poison pill change? Why would that be a good idea? Maybe to keep management on their toes so an outsider raider won't get much support?

From The PACS Designer: "Re: history of PACS. TPD thought that it would be beneficial for HIStalk readers to know how PACS evolved, beginning in 1979. The very first experimenter was Heinz Lemke, PhD from the Technical University of Berlin. An article in Imaging Economics magazine in May 2005 detailed the key players who worked diligently prior to the release of the DICOM Standard in 1983. One of the key individuals that got things going was Steven Horii, MD from University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, who TPD mentioned in an earlier post on the subject. As we begin 2007, give thanks to the efficiencies we enjoy to those early pioneers." A good educational minute, as always. TPD's the man.

From Inside Outsider: "Re: new iPhone. Who is going to be the first to have a viable healthcare app on the new iPhone from Apple, Inc.? With full Internet capabilities, awesome graphic manipulations, etc., it seem prime for use in a hospital setting. Pull up charts, x-rays, EMRs, email them out, send to a fax server, etc." You beat me to the punch, IO. I was going to mention the massive splash Apple (renaming themselves from Apple Computer) made today with their iPhone announcement. Steve Jobs makes a good point: the BlackBerry is kind of lame and cell phones really suck with their cryptic menus, cheap buttons, and lack of intuitive design. As usual, Apple will trump everyone with design, develop new markets for their iTunes and video business, and make all the companies that preceded them feel justifiably inferior. Jobs is annoying, but he's passed Bill Gates in his ability to understand what people need (not necessarily what they know they need) and deliver it in an elegant package with only a slight price premium. Wonder what he'd come up with for healthcare IT?

From Frosty the Snowman: "Re: Frost and Sullivan awards. Thankfully someone is seeing through their nonsense. They basically 'sell' these bogus awards to anyone willing to pay them to write and distribute the press release. My employer was one of the lucky recipients of one of their awards a couple months ago (hmm ... right about the time that Misys won their award ...) We were excited about it until they told us they needed $60k for their trouble. We declined. I wonder how many vendors turn down their awards before they find a taker? I like to think of their awards like NCAA bowl games: if you have enough money, you too can have your own." Can't blame them if vendors keep paying, I guess. Maybe at times when there's just no good news, a vendor cops out and buys a phony award just to give the impression of continued momentum, at least to those readers not paying close attention.

From Babbage: "Re: your ideal job. On commenting on your recent psych/job profile test - you speculate that your ideal job might be 'serial killer.' But considering how bad so much HIT is, maybe you are a serial killer of bad HIT systems; systems that too often serially kill patients? Keep up the good killing." Thanks. I like to think of it as being objective, but sometimes vocally so. I'm not worrying about my predispositions since I cant do much to change them, but I'm sure they more often work against me instead of for.

From Lacy Underall: "Re: Sentillion. Reorg. People let go. Doing more with less."

From Graham: "Re: EMR. I just put together an EMR interface, trying to show that a good,  clean, easy to use interface is doable. This is after seeing eight other EMRs and sadly finding that VISTA was still by far the best. I'd love  to get feedback and comments from you and/or your readers! (I'm a blogger and 4th year med student with a passion for computers and design.)" Link. I've run it up the flagpole. Let's see who salutes.

From EMRNurse: "Re: UCDMC post-Tinstman. Now that Tinstman is out, his position is not being replaced. His #2 will be taking over. He comes from the newspaper industry, having brought several others from that industry into leadership positions within the UCDMC CIS team. Most of them have no healthcare experience. They are going to implement order entry?" Heck, how hard could this healthcare thing be?

From HIMSS Critic: "Re: New Orleans crime wave. It seems that everyone I talk to these days is reluctant about attending HIMSS this year, understandable given the recent crime wave. I'm sure the vendors will be there, but I wonder how the overall attendance numbers will stack up?" Nine people killed in the first eight days of the year, some of then random and despite state police and National Guard help. Police seem helpless. They're actually considering a curfew, even with Mardi Gras (and HIMSS) coming up. I'm expecting an significant attendance dropoff, maybe in the 18,000 range.
Listening to now: Los Straitjackets, surf rock.

It's a record: thanks to gentle coaxing from Semmelweis, every single Rumor Reporter chose a phony, tongue-in-cheek name instead of Anonymous this time. Fun, huh? Let's see how obscure you can get. I usually Google the names for fun. By the way, if you're new, here's the spiel: click the Join Mailing List button to your right and you'll get an e-mail update each time I write something new. The Search button invokes the massive power of Google to dig back through the 3.5 year archive of my writings here. Use the Rumor Report to slip me secrets, please. Lastly, now's a good time to sponsor (well, it's always a good time ...) so send in those pledges and touch your computer monitor as I heal you of your HIT ills ("... Those ProFit bugs are leaving the system right now ... there's a programmer in your shop stuck on a VB routine who has just resolved the inheritance problem ... surgery residents who were scoping porn on your hospital PCs are getting 110 volts through the keyboard as we speak ...")

I have volunteers from both Picis and Medicity to hand out (or to at least offer to hand out to willing takers) "I Am Mr. HIStalk" buttons at HIMSS. I've shipped the buttons to them, so we're underway. I was thinking about arming someone with a couple of small but cool prizes (I'm thinking iPod Shuffles) and have them stalk the HIMSS proceedings and give one to someone, just for wearing the button. Think that would increase compliance? I bet you'd wear my damn buttons if I was handing out iPhones at HIMSS, wouldn't you?

LMS Medical in Canada has finished programming an OB system to which McKesson will add its usual value, i.e. glue the Horizon name on it and sell it as integrated. Makes sense, I guess, since LMS has experience in that area. In related news, Rolls Royce has their new Platinum Phaeton model out at $350,000, although it's just a Hyundai with an RR hood ornament.

It's quarterly report time for publicly traded companies, so you know what that means: holding off sales announcements until the big day, laying people off in a desperate attempt to show management excellence, and otherwise keeping mum.

I'm puzzled: why aren't the contracts of college football coaches enforced? That scumbag Petrino signs a 10-year deal at the beginning of the season and he's bolting already and making excuses like it's not his fault he got a better offer? Maybe it's time for colleges to get out of the sports business.

Misys will sell Wellsoft's EDIS along with Misys CPR, taking a cue from McKesson and aliasing it Misys ED. That's assuming CPR sells, of course.

The IRS isn't saying whether nonprofit hospitals giving doctors EMRs will threaten their tax-exempt status. If making a few hundred million in profit and paying executives $2 million a year won't, why should EMRs? At least patients benefit. The IRS was supposed to be cracking down on nonprofits, but I'm sure that won't happen anytime soon.

Medsphere gets a third OpenVista sale, this time to Lutheran Medical Center (NY). They're still getting ripped for their inconsistent stance on open source, with no resolution yet in the company's $50 million suit against its founders for posting what was supposed to be open source programs on SourceForge. I don't consider them open source myself, just glomming VA code and passing the savings along, not that there's anything wrong with that if hospitals can save some money and get a good product.

Two Irish HIT companies merge: Systems Solutions (retail pharmacy systems) and Medicom (practice management systems.) Not real big: 100 employees between them and 10 million euros in sales.

I actually got a few messages and "friends adds" from my MySpace page. Thanks! You'd be surprised at who else has pages - how about physicist Steven Hawking, if it's not a phony one anyway (MySpace is loosey-goosey with security and verification.) If it's really him, he likes Caddyshack. You can scan on HIT company names and see how those crazy kids they hire spend their free time when they're not coding and demoing (hint: sex and general hell-raising.)

Healthnation, an Illinois-based transaction processing company I've never heard of, gets a technology award from Gartner. If they have a website, it wasn't mentioned and I couldn't find it. Actually, after further Googling, I did. Looks like they merged with another company I've not heard of (Verilet) and uses their domain, although Healthnation in both .com and .org flavors appears to be available.

Some kind of flaky Canadian communist blog claims that secret plans are underway to "chip" newborns here, quoting a "Dr. Kilde" (no first name or affiliation). "Implanted human beings can be followed anywhere. Their brain functions can be remotely monitored by supercomputers and even altered through the changing of frequencies ... Guinea pigs in secret experiments have included prisoners, soldiers, mental patients,handicapped children, deaf and blind people, homosexuals, single women, the elderly, school children, and any group of people considered 'marginal' by the elite experimenters." And John Halamka. Actually, after further Googling, I located Dr. Kilde. She was also abducted by aliens. I bet she's a load of fun with a few drinks in her.

ACS gets a five-year, $87 million IT contract for a Florida children's insurance program.

Tim Ries is named VP of Sales for EHR/PM vendor iMedica. Pretty hot marketing VP (at least in the picture) who's a CPA at that. It's mostly ex-Millbrook people running things there.

Kodak announces Carestream sales. I'm not sure what all that stuff is, so maybe TPD can help out (RIS/PACS?)

Coincidentally, this just in from The Shelton Shadow: "Re: Kodak Health Group. TSS has been on the investigative trail trying to collect info on who the buyer will be for the Kodak Health Group. TSS mentioned it previously that Philips may be the winner. Philips is so flush with cash that they are still buying back their own stock. It would make a lot of sense for them to increase their IT exposure in the healthcare marketplace to woo customers toward Philips solutions. Perhaps some HIStalk readers have more details than TSS was able to uncover." TSS is right up there with TPD in my book - thanks, guys.

Oracle's new release of SQL Developer can connect to MySQL, SQL Server, and Access. It's a free download. Anyone tried it?

Those lab guys are at the forefront again: CLSI publishes guidelines for validation of laboratory information systems. See what kind of discipline you can develop toward software when you're a highly fact-based profession and accustomed to strict standards (including FDA oversight?)

News, rumors, or how I can tap into that single women mind control thing: e-mail me.

Here's another Cerner intern parody, this time of a Mastercard commercial. Watch the guy writing "Yo Neal" on his tablet PC.



comments (8)


1. HIS competitor left...
01/10/2007 1:58 am

Medsphere has done a great thing. Just because the Shreeve's wanted one thing and Medsphere did not want to go that way due to bad decision making should be commended. I hope the Shreeve's get what they deserved. I interviewed with Medsphere. Thought the concept was great but the Shreeve's did not know when to separate business with out of the box thinking. Too bad, now they are just out.


2. Bill left...
01/10/2007 8:04 am

Regarding the GMR - (Graham's new EMR INterface) -

I could post for an hour, only don't have the time. But a few things to note...

1) I couldn't see all of it in my Web Browser (IE 7). Before IE 7 is blamed, I ran the website through an HTML validation site and it failed with 166 Errors: http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.grahamazon.com%2Fgmr%2F . I can only see the header and the sidebar.

2) Interesting color scheme from what i can see, but no differentiation between the items on the left. Or the top.. Allergies are among the most important items in a patient's chart (or readily accessable, anyway). Why is it blended in at the top? I had to really look hard for it.

3) Keep Up doesn't imply what it should do: Once I click it, I can see what I should be doing (research, reference, etc..). It needs a better name.

4) Now I'm starting to see what I think I should be seeing - I didn't realize you actually had to start by clicking an item on the left - Maybe I should have just tried that instead of thinking the blank screen meant it was broken.

Overall, a good first attempt.

The best EMR example I"ve ever seen was a version done by Eclipsys at an EUN a number of years ago (2004, or 2003?). I don't think it was ever put into production use (I am no longer with a hospital that runs Sunrise XA), but it blew every other EMR user interface I've ever seen out of the water by a long shot. Unique, but intuitive, ways of showing labs, alerting mechanisms, customizing of layouts, and so on.. If I remember correctly, it started up with a log-in screen that had pictures of people (including their CTO (Gomez?)) on it.

Does anyone else remember this? Can they share what they remember? Has Eclipsys put anything like this into production yet?


3. Rice Cake left...
01/10/2007 3:19 pm

To Inside Outsider: A phone that doesn't support native apps, no mention of J2ME, et. al and has a pseudo OSX-based OS that won't run OSX apps... sounds like the perfect architecture for another standalone healthcare app!


4. Jay left...
01/10/2007 3:43 pm

Regarding Rice Cake:

Gizmodo has an article on this as well.

"Windows Mobile 5 Already Does What the iPhone Does".

Both have: SMS / Calendar / Photos / Camera / Google Maps / Email / Browser / Video / Music.

The differences are that the iPhone doesn't support corporate email (yet), where Windows Mobile 5 does. iPhone has iTunes (and its own format), and multi-finger gestures where Windows Mobile 5 doesn't. The iPhone has "Widgets" where the Windows Mobile 5 has full applications which not only do weather and stocks, but also Skype, RSS, Terminal Servers, J2ME, .NET Compact Framework, etc...

If the iPhone becomes more popular than Windows Mobile 5 (or RIM for that matter), it's because of appearance. And, just like in High School, the prettiest ones are always the most popular, no matter how smart the geeks are.


5. Steve Jobs Clone left...
01/10/2007 11:57 pm

Due to IP restrictions and your need to buy a Mac, you can't use it in healthcare unless you buy the iHealthcare package with 0.1 upgrades every year for $99.

Actually, the iPhone is not a smartphone - you can't load programs onto it. It will only run what it has and what's provided via Apple's update service. Think of it as a 4/8 GB iPod with phone capabilities. How many of you have loaded new apps on your iPod lately?

Mobile 5 aside, the problem isn't neccessarily MS' OS - it's that everyone makes crap hardware that drains batteries and vendors load crap software on them. MS made keyboards and mice because Logitech started sucking at them - and now they're on par. They made a Zune because Creative and Toshiba couldn't do it (and, one would argue, Microsoft is still trying...) And, if you want a killer Mobile 5 platform, you're going to have to wait for Zuner (Zune + Phone). Maybe Zhone (Zune+Phone), Phune (Phone+Zune), Zell (Zune+Cell)?


6. Re: Steve Jobs Clone left...
01/11/2007 9:03 am

Not only is the misinformation here related to HIT, but now Apple, Inc.

I know the first sentence is related to the OS X upgrade policy. A) it's $129 (still much cheaper than Windows). B) Every year was back when OS X first came out, 6 years ago. Now it's closer to every 2 years between major updates. C) Just because the update is number x.1 larger, doesn't mean it's a small upgrade. All the x.1 upgrades have had hundreds of new features.

As for the iPhone, obviously you didn't watch the Macworld Keynote. Steve Jobs said himself that the phone runs OS X, and it will be easy for developers to write their own programs using OS X APIs. Obviously that means you CAN load programs onto the iPhone.


7. Jay left...
01/11/2007 9:54 am

Looks like Apple was beat to the punch 6 months ago by LG -

http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/11/iphone-and-lg-ke850-separated-at-birth/

LG already has a very similar design that won a design award (looks real nice). Looks like Lawsuit # 2 for Jobs and company.


8. Re: Re: Steve Jobs Clone (Jay) left...
01/11/2007 10:03 am

Last comment on the subject of the price of Windows vs. OS X. Windows Upgrades are slightly more expensive than the OS X upgrades (if you buy them off the shelf, not OEM), but look how often you'd have to pay to upgrade. If you upgraded every version (which most people I know do, if only to be up to date) from the Puma OS (10.1, which premiered around the time of Windows XP), you'd have to upgrade three times. $129.00 X 3 = $387.00 . All Windows updates (and new features / SP 2 functionality / etc.) were free. So, I think you can only say the $129.00 upgrade policy is cheaper, if you only upgrade one time.

Vista, on the other hand, does seem more expensive.. But most businesses who purchase large amount of Microsoft software also have site licenses which include new software. They'll make out a lot better than the small mom-and-pop shops.