Brian T. Horowitz

As we move into 2011, the Obama administration’s meaningful-use requirements governing health care IT and EHRs (electronic health records) will continue to influence how health care companies adopt technology to improve patient care. In 2010, companies began to purchase EHR applications, but in the coming year health care companies will enter an adoption phase for […]

Microsoft and University of Washington Medicine have signed an agreement to collaborate on biomedical informatics technology. Under the deal, UW Medicine will expand its use of Microsoft’s Amalga UIS (Unified Intelligence System) data-aggregation platform to further research and medical education and improve patient care. UW Medicine is a network of medical facilities in the Seattle […]

Dell has announced it will buy InSite One, the developer of a medical archiving cloud application to make it easier for physicians to share medical images and make quick diagnoses by collaborating on images online. Terms of the Dec. 22 agreement were not disclosed. The deal will combine InSite’s InDex Vendor-Neutral Enterprise Archive (VNA) cloud-based […]

The United States and the European Commission have signed a memorandum of understanding to work together on compatible formats for EHRs (electronic health records) and to promote education in health care technology. Vice President of the European Commission Neelie Kroes and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius announced and signed the memorandum […]

Taking a tip from banks, credit card firms and insurance companies, CMS (the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) will implement predictive-modeling software to fight fraudulent claims for Medicare and Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance program. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Attorney General Eric Holder made the announcement […]

Humanitarian organization Direct Relief International has launched an online aid-tracking portal called the Online Medical Aid Distribution Map. Announced on Dec. 16, the Web tool provides pharmaceutical and medical manufacturers with precise data on where their aid packages have been shipped to. Founded in 1948, Direct Relief is a nonprofit organization that provides aid such […]

Adoption of an EHR (electronic health record) application could cost a physician $120,000 in one year, CDW Healthcare reports in its Physician Practice EHR Price Tag study. CDW Healthcare sells a wide variety of hardware, software and support packages for medical practices, including unified communications, security and mobile devices. Training of physicians on EHR platforms […]

A new report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project called “Internet Cancer 2.0: A Summary of Recent Research” suggests that the Internet is a great resource for people suffering from cancer and other chronic conditions, yet the potential exists for greater use. Currently 62 percent of adults living with a chronic disease use […]

Health plan firm Aetna has purchased HIE (health information exchange) provider Medicity for about $500 million to allow doctors and hospitals greater access to electronic health records across multiple networks, Aetna reports. Medicity operates one of the largest enterprise HIEs and is available to 760 hospitals, 125,000 physician users and 250,000 users, Aetna reports. The […]

Using technology from HP, Intel and Microsoft, a researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital has developed an algorithm to make colonoscopies less invasive, faster and less expensive. Hiro Yoshida, director of 3D imaging research in the radiology department at Massachusetts General Hospital and associate professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School, has developed a DTLS (datagram […]

IT infrastructure company EMC has unveiled plans to deploy its VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure) software at Northern Hospital of Surry County, in Mount Airy, N.C., to lower health care costs and increase data protection at the facility. “We were running out of processing capacity and space in our data center as we expanded our EMR […]

Real-time health care communications network NaviNet announced that it has acquired mobile-care-management company Prematics to boost NaviNet’s presence on mobile devices. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. NaviNet is a provider of UPIM (unified patient information management). The company’s Insurer Connect will incorporate the mobile messaging and e-prescribing functionality of Prematics’ services, NaviNet reports. […]