INFOGRAPHIC
Tape storage record set: 220 Tb
Scientists at IBM have managed to store 123 billion bits of uncompressed data per square inch in areal data density (220 terabytes on a full tape cartridge) on low-cost linear magnetic particulate tape. The effort represents an 88-fold improvement over an LTO6 cartridge, the latest industry-standard magnetic tape product, and a 22-fold improvement over IBM’s latest enterprise-class tape product.
The record was achieved using a new advanced prototype tape developed by FUJIFILM of Japan. This is the fourth time in less than 10 years that IBM scientists in collaboration with FUJIFILM have achieved a new feat in data storage capacity. IBM says that the new density record makes the format an ideal technology for migrating back-up and archival data in the cloud for decades to come.Scientists at IBM have managed to store 123 billion bits of uncompressed data per square inch in areal data density (220 terabytes on a full tape cartridge) on low-cost linear magnetic particulate tape. The effort represents an 88-fold improvement over an LTO6 cartridge, the latest industry-standard magnetic tape product, and a 22-fold improvement over IBM’s latest enterprise-class tape product.
EHRs
One in five hospitals stuck with less-than-par EHR
Nearly one in five hospital IT managers (19 percent), including CIOs, feel that the EHR system they selected and currently operate is not the best system for their organization, according to Black Book Market Research’s annual comprehensive hospital EHR user poll. Five thousand hospital EHR technology staff and 14,000 nursing users were surveyed by Black Book in several polls conducted from August 2014 to February 2015.
“Hospitals and their network affiliates find themselves trapped with an EHR system that does not and/or will not meet their foreseeable needs,” says Doug Brown, Managing Partner of Black Book.
According to the surveys, the top three reasons hospital tech managers feel stuck include their vendor overselling system capabilities or mismatching functionalities to the hospital situation (65 percent of those “stuck”), the EHR vendor cannot or will not flex to meet the hospital’s interoperability goals (81 percent), and the vendor is considerably more draining to the hospital bottom line than anticipated with unexpected cost overruns and add-ons (90 percent).
Black Book Market Research conducted its annual sweeping hospital EHR user poll to determine the highest-ranked inpatient electronic health and medical record vendors for 2015. The final sample represented 702 hospitals total. Learn more about the survey results atblackbookmarketresearch.com.
FUTURE WATCH: RADIOLOGY
Melding high-end imaging techniques is a first
Using mathematics and pixel mapping, researchers at Vanderbilt University have fused mass spectrometry and microscopy images – a marked technical achievement that has created a “molecular microscope” that could improve the diagnosis and treatment of cancer dramatically.
Microscopy can yield high-resolution images of tissues. Mass spectrometry provides a precise accounting of the proteins, lipids, and other molecules in a given tissue sample. Combining the best features of both modalities allows scientists to see the molecular makeup of tissues in high resolution.
Richard Caprioli, Ph.D., senior author of a paper about the technique published in March in the journal Nature Methods, said the capability could one day redefine the surgical “margin,” the critical line between cancer cells and normal cells where the scalpel goes to remove the tumor.
Source: Vanderbilt University
SERVICES
Optum expands hospital IT services, partners with Cisco for Internet of Things
If you are looking to upgrade your hardware and software infrastructure, Optum wants to talk to you. The healthcare technology specialist is also offering several new ways to make information more accessible to key decision-makers and facilitate easier, more effective analysis. Patient communications are also on their radar.
The company recently introduced:
- Optum Analytics Data Warehouse Services, which integrate a hospital’s clinical, financial and supply chain data and drive analytics that support data-driven decisions about care delivery and spending. This offering also helps hospitals identify trends affecting patient care, cost, and quality.
- Optum IT Infrastructure Services, which are scalable resources for system management that aim to centralize and standardize operations processes, and improve service levels across the entire organization.
- Optum Smart Connection Solutions, which use Cisco technologies to help hospitals strengthen their relationships with patients before, during, and after their care with simple, unified applications and services accessible via personal mobile devices and technologies within healthcare facilities.
“Optum will be Cisco’s partner in bringing Internet of Everything concepts to the health system,” says Randy Pond, Senior Vice President of Operations, Cisco.
Source: Optum
PERSONALIZED MEDICINE
Personal health dream team created
IBM is making a big play to help patients and providers make timely, evidence-based decisions about health-related issues. The company has formed partnerships with Apple, Johnson & Johnson, and Medtronic to optimize consumer and medical devices for data collection, analysis, and feedback. It has also acquired Explorys and Phytel to advance its healthcare analytics capabilities.
Health-related data from all those personal devices – estimated to be 1 million gigabytes generated per person in a lifetime – will need a healthcare home, so IBM is establishing its HIPAA-enabled Watson Health Cloud. This secure and open platform allows health information to be anonymized, shared, and combined with a dynamic (and constantly growing) aggregated view of clinical, research, and social health data. Physicians, researchers, insurers, and companies focused on health and wellness solutions can access this data to create a more complete picture of the many factors that can affect people’s health.
IBM will open a headquarters location for its new Watson Health Cloud unit in the Boston area and expand its Watson presence in New York City. It will dedicate at least 2,000 consultants, medical practitioners, clinicians, developers, and researchers to design, develop, and accelerate the adoption of Watson Health capabilities. The new unit will include IBM’s existing Smarter Care and Social Programs practice, which was created three years ago following the acquisition of Curam Software, a leading provider of health and social program management solutions.
Source: IBM
MOBILE DEVICES
Mobile tech is key to patient engagement
The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) released the results of its “2015 HIMSS Mobile Technology Survey” at HIMSS15 in Chicago. The study of more than 200 healthcare provider employees found that nearly 90 percent of respondents are utilizing mobile devices within their organizations to engage patients in their healthcare. The report also showed that respondents believe that mHealth technologies are beginning to drive cost savings and improve the quality of care delivered.
With 90 percent of American adults owning a mobile device, the healthcare industry is making a concerted effort to keep up, especially since these technologies are critical to the industry’s shift to patient-centered and value-based care. Respondents of this year’s survey reported leveraging a variety of mobile tools including app-enabled patient portals (73 percent), telehealth services (62 percent), and text communications (57 percent). Of these technologies, 36 percent of respondents believe the use of app-enabled patient portals is the most effective tool in patient engagement to date.
Source: HIMSS