No More Blues
The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association (BCBSA), Chicago, launches a new Web tool linking consumers with local BCBSA plans providing Medicare products in their communities. The PlanFinder tool allows consumers entering state and county information to learn which Blue Plan Medicare options are available in their area.
Cardinal Updates Scrub Tracker
Cardinal Health Inc., Dublin, Ohio, introduces its new version of Pyxis ScrubStation. The automated system, which electronically secures, tracks and distributes scrubs, features alerts via e-mail, pagers or other mobile devices to alert support personnel about supply chain issues such as stock-outs and overflowing return stations.
CareScience Has Standards
Philadelphia-based CareScience has made its Standards of Care available to all. Designed to help providers aggregate and manage clinical data elements required for public reporting, as well as create and manage organizational strategies for quality improvement, the new offering streamlines data entry, analysis review and submission processes, according to the company.
Be Mobile and Rugged
Combining a mobile phone, mobile computer/e-mail, imager and scanner into one centrally managed PDA-like device, Holtsville, N.Y.-headquartered Symbol Technologies, Inc. releases its Enterprise Digital Assistant (EDA) mobile computing device. The pocket device weighs approximately 12 ounces.
Crystal Clear
ClearStory Systems — a Westborough, Mass.-headquartered digital asset management company — extends its support for Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM's WebSphere application server. The ClearStory Systems Enterprise Media Server acts as the foundation in the IBM environment, providing a J2EE and Web services offering to deploy, integrate and manage e-business applications with J2EE V1.4 compatibility, multiple deployment options and cross-platform support.
Dynamic Voyage
To support managed care companies' goals to boost revenues and operational efficiencies, Irvine, Calif.-headquartered Dynamic Healthcare Systems, Inc. expands its Voyager software suite with its Medicare health plan Enrollment Module. The Enrollment Module aims to automate and streamline the election process with a Web-deployed, rules-based workflow, providing health plans with a direct method to send election data to The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
Compiling Confident Compliance
Armonk, N.Y.-headquartered IBM launches a new version of its Tivoli Access Manager E-business software. With version 6.0., IBM aims to automate auditing and reporting on financial and patient health records information. The centralized reporting and role-based access assignment capabilities are intended to improve security while supporting compliance with federal regulations such as Sarbanes Oxley.
Think: 2x2=?
Purchase-N.Y. headquartered Lenovo introduces two ThinkPad notebooks with dual-core processors. Designed around Intel Centrino Duo, the company has incorporated new features into its X60 and T60 series ThinkPads including embedded wireless wide area network antennas and security chips with integrated identity verification fingerprint readers. According to the company, the notebooks draw significantly less power, resulting in extended battery life up to 37 percent.
Private HIPAA Solution
Minneapolis-headquartered New Boundary Technologies, Inc. offers a new and expanding HIPAA Security Policy Library with its HIPAA Policy Commander product. The rules-based product automates organizational policies and ensures enterprise-wide compliance with those policies.
A New Lab Harvest
Carmel, Ind.-headquartered Orchard Software releases its Anatomic Pathology module. Integrated with the company's Harvest laboratory information system, the module provides direct access to cytology, pathology, and clinical laboratory results, says the company. Other features include customization of worksheet templates, rules-based decision support tools, and an image management tool.
Get Smart
Chicago-headquartered power protection equipment manufacturer Tripp Lite introduces the SMART1500LCD Digital UPS (uninterrupted power supply) System. With a server-capable UPS and a rotatable digital display, this system is designed to allow administrators to visually monitor power conditions and adjustments in real time.
Workscape Compensates
Marlborough, Mass.-headquartered Workscape releases the OneForce/Compensation Planner 6.0 for enterprise compensation management. The on-demand product is designed to align rewards with employee performance and support the execution and ongoing management of multiple compensation elements — including base pay, bonus, and stock — enabling managers to view any employee's total pay history on a single screen.
Go On, Be Labeled Sensitive
In an effort to provide comfort and safety in short-term and outpatient patient identification wristbands, Cincinnati-based General Data introduces the Personal ID FoamWrap bracelet. Designed for infants and the elderly with sensitive skin, the bands are comprised of hypoallergenic, latex-free foam and a thermal label. The wristbands allow for high-resolution text, barcodes, and patient photos and are available in both a hook-and-loop closure and an adhesive closure.
Baby Names, Baby Tags
In an effort to meet the needs of hospital labor and delivery, pediatric and NICU departments, San Fernando, Calif.-headquartered Precision Dynamics Corp. is rolling out its new bar code tags for infants. Due to their size, traditional infant identification wristbands or ankle-bands provided little room for patient information and were prone to curvature, according to company. PBC's three-text line, linear 2-D barcodes are threaded onto the wristband in an effort to circumvent the curve scanning problem.
Band for Staying Together
Sato Corporation, Charlotte, N.C., a provider of barcode printing, labeling, and EPC/RFID, introduces its latest patient identification solution for healthcare — the neonatal patient identification band, Neonatal Secure ID. The offering provides a platform for point-of-care barcoding and helps to ensure correct mother/child identification. Points of potential use include birthing wards, delivery rooms, maternity wards, neonatal intensive care units (NICU), and obstetric wards, according to the company.
Taking Learning Online
Atlanta-headquartered MC Strategies, Inc., part of Elsevier Health Sciences, launches the ECG Interpretation curriculum from its online learning division. The latest course supplement in the WebInservice program provides cardiac monitoring training for general hospital and critical care health workers and uses a blend of video clips, “Scenario Challenges” and an “ECG Analyst.”
Look to the Heavens
Marlborough, Mass.-headquartered Skyscape introduces “Mosby's Drug Consult & Interactions 2006” for handheld devices. Formatted specifically for PDAs and smart phones, the product is designed to provide take-anywhere access to current drug information. It contains approximately 1,000 generic drug entries as well as prescription drug products, which are indexed by generic name, U.S. brand name, international brand name, indication, and drug class.
Practice Makes Perfect
Boardman, Ohio-headquartered Microsys Computing, Inc. introduces MicroMD 5.2. The latest product version is marketed as offering new enhancements to its physician group practice management software. MicroMD's practice management scheduling and billing software allows users to send claims electronically and receive remittances to post automatically.
Dial Guardian for Health
Atlanta-based McKesson introduces Telehealth Guardian solution, the latest addition to the McKesson Telehealth Advisor family of patient monitoring solutions. The offering is a personal emergency response system (PERS) consisting of a telephone-based communication unit, a wireless transmitter in the home and an emergency response call center. Telehealth Guardian uses wireless technology to create a communication link between patients and call centers.
Right on Time
Ellington-Conn.-based Accu-Time Systems (ATS) — a manufacturer of workforce management, time and attendance, and data collection devices — reveals its next generation workforce management terminal, the Optimus. The terminal offers multiple display and reader options including fingerscan biometrics, finger geometry biometrics, barcode, magstripe, proximity and smartcard. Communication options include encryption-secured Ethernet, WiFi and modem. The Optimus is designed and engineered to be upgradeable.
Bionic, All the Way
In an effort to help customers maximize system uptime and improve productivity, Foster City, Calif.-based Applied Biosystems is offering BioMonitor. The BioMonitor service will expand Biosystems' real-time remote instrument diagnostic monitoring service by remotely surveying and assessing the state of customers' instruments over the Internet.
Upgrading and Downsizing
In and effort to provide more compact computing, Burlingame, Calif.-headquartered Tangent Inc. is rolling out the Vita 7500S all-in-one touch screen LCD PC targeted at the healthcare industry. Powered by Microsoft Windows XP Pro, Tangent's computer is 3.5-inches thick and comes with an Intel Pentium 4 processor.
Taking the Fast Track
Aiming to create better delivery and warehouse automation, Fastrack Healthcare Systems, Inc. of Plainview, N.Y. is launching the Enterprise System for Windows/SQL. By utilizing wireless communications and hand-held PDAs, the Fastrack system is designed to integrate order entry with warehouse product selection to ensure the right product is sent to the right patient.
