M.L. Baker

WebMD Corp., which eases transactions between health care providers and payers, announced Monday that it plans to expand its empire by acquiring IT consultant and developer ViPS Inc. for $160 million. Privately held ViPS, based in Baltimore, provides health care consulting and data management services. Its clients include government, Blue Cross and Blue Shield, and […]

Physicians resistance to computerized physician order entry (CPOE) systems is impeding their adoption more than the cost of such systems, according to a new study by the Harvard Medical School. Researchers conducted extended interviews with 52 senior managers at 26 hospitals and identified physician resistance, high cost of systems and immature products as the top […]

More and more health care professionals are helping patients via computers and phones. IntelliCare, Health Dialog, and Health Dialog have set up call centers in Portland staffed by nurses and registered dieticians who answer medical and wellness questions. Some nurses also work from home offices, calling older people as part of a federal disease management […]

Radianse Inc., a startup that helps health care organizations track people and equipment, has raised $9 million in private venture financing. The Lawrence, Mass.-based company combines radio-frequency identification technology with what it calls an indoor version of the Global Positioning System. Traditional GPS does not work indoors. HLM Venture Partners of Boston and Partech International […]

MercuryMD Inc., a software company that supports mobile devices for hospitals, has added a 48th health system, Bayfront Health System, to its list of clients. The companys Mdata Enterprise System allows physicians to use handheld devices to access patient data wirelessly. Physicians can also use other wireless devices to access information securely when off campus. […]

In a recent survey, CIOs say integrating information technology into health care infrastructure is a task similar to building the US highway system. Central to its success is computerized physician order entry (CPOE) and electronic medical records. But the endeavor still faces a long, hard road, the experts say, describing what they see as the […]

Medicare providers have only a few days left to file electronic claims that do not contain all of the information required by HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) had said it would treat electronic claims that dont comply with HIPAA as paper claims starting July […]

Last week, the American Medical Association and a consortium of medical journal editors called for a national registry of clinical trials, one that would require drug companies to submit results of all their studies, both favorable and unfavorable. /zimages/7/28571.gifClick here to read “Drug Makers Support Clinical Trial Disclosure.” These groups are thinking, quite rightly, in […]

Life-sciences computing made headway in the TOP500 Projects latest listing of the worlds fastest supercomputers, announced on Sunday at the International Supercomputer Conference in Heidelberg, Germany. This summers list kept the Earth Simulator, built by NEC Corp., in the top spot. But two of IBM Corp.s Blue Gene prototypes, developed to solve biological problems, are […]

Responding to pressure from physicians groups and editors of medical journals, two of the worlds largest pharmaceutical companies said Friday that they support making results from late-stage clinical trials available to the public, even if they reveal unfavorable information about a drug. The announcements came just days after the American Medical Association said the Department […]

Lee Hood, one of the worlds leading molecular biologists, has a vision. In addition to a cell phone that can take pictures and organize your day, we just might have devices that prick your thumb, analyze dozens of components, and transmit data to databases that can alert doctors to change your prescription. The pricking and […]

Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson praised mandatory moves toward bar codes on drugs at the annual meeting of the Biotechnology Industry Organization Monday, but said additional technology could ensure greater safety. While bar codes can make sure that the right drug gets to the right patient at the right dose, RFID technology […]