December 10, 2007 - Health Level Seven Inc. (HL7), America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), and the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association (BCBSA), recently said they signed a memorandum of understanding to create a collaborative process for the maintenance of portability standards for personal health records (PHR).

This memorandum expands the number of stakeholders involved in the standards development process to help facilitate data portability between health insurance plans to give plan members the ability to move their personal health data when their health coverage changes.

December 10, 2007 - U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt urged Congress Dec. 4 to include a requirement for doctors to use electronic health records as part of any proposed Medicare physician payment bill.

In a letter sent to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) and ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-IA) Tuesday, Secretary Leavitt laid out the administration's demand that any Medicare legislation this year include a requirement that doctors adopt health IT.

December 10, 2007 - Stony Brook University Medical Center is now using the ExacTrac X-ray 6D System, a new radiotherapy system that combines high-tech imaging with precision tumor-targeting capability, meant for patients who do not want surgical treatment.

The system reportedly adds to patient options for stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT), a technique that features high radiation doses with pinpoint precision to tumors.

December 10, 2007 – TomoTherapy announced that it has signed contracts with distributors in Israel, Greece, Poland, Turkey, Russia and the United Arab Emirates to market, sell and service the TomoTherapy Hi-Art treatment system.

The system is an advanced radiation therapy system for the treatment of a wide variety of cancers, combining integrated CT imaging with conformal radiation therapy to deliver radiation treatments with speed and precision while reducing radiation exposure to surrounding healthy tissue. The company completed its initial public offering in May 2007.

December 7, 2007 - Studer Group today said its Discharge Call Manager software solution (DCM) has been purchased by 100 hospitals around the country to help improve clinical outcomes and bottom-line results by ensuring staff follows up with patients after discharge and gets quantifiable answers to specific questions.

DCM is a Web-based application that automates the framework of post-discharge calls by auto-populating patient lists, showing customized questions by area and automating results for tracking.

December 7, 2007 - To assist facilities with the transfer of patient images and/or medical records into an electronic information management system for EMRs, clinical information systems (CIS) or PACS, eHealth Global Technologies introduces a new service for migrating film or paper into a digital format - the eHealthLoader.

December 7, 2007 - Driven by an aging population and continued advances in biotechnology, the worldwide surgical and trauma wound treatment market is expected to post a compound annual growth rate of 5.5 percent and grow to $7 billion by 2011, according to “Wound Care Markets, Volume III: Surgical and Trauma Wounds,” a new report released this week by Kalorama Information.

December 7, 2007 - Sage Software Healthcare Inc. said this week more than 500 ambulatory care practices chose the Intergy Practice Management system during the 2007 fiscal year, with the majority of those practices also implementing the Intergy Electronic Health Records system.

Sage Software Healthcare provides integrated electronic health records, EDI applications and practice management systems to thousands of ambulatory care practices throughout North America. These systems enable physicians and practice managers to better manage their practices and improve profitability.

December 7, 2007 - Optimal Readings Services Group has acquired Pin Point Radiology of Fort Worth, TX, combining all operations, and bringing to the table Pin Point’s radiology management contracts, with hospital and radiology group clients ranging from the Mid-Atlantic region to Florida under the Optimal service optimization platform.

December 7, 2007 – The University of Rochester, Department of Imaging Sciences 8th Annual Digital Healthcare Information Management System (DHIMS) Conference, formerly PACS, will be held March 25 through March 29, 2008 in San Antonio, TX, at The Westin La Cantera Resort.

The five-day conference titled “Getting Connected in Radiology…Interoperability & Workflow,” will tackle solving problems that impact interoperability, workflow and communications within Radiology and between Radiology and the other departments and healthcare personnel in the healthcare enterprise.

Subscribe to
© Copyright Wainscot Media. All Rights Reserved.
Subscribe Now