Sharon Linsenbach

Microsoft partner Accent on Integration has rolled out a patient safety screening tool at Vanderbilt University Medical Center that can improve early detection of hospital-acquired infections, with the potential to save thousands of lives. Sepsis is the body’s systemic response to infection, which in severe cases can cause organ failure and death. It’s estimated that […]

Microsoft and its partners can drive health care innovation by focusing on adapting horizontal technologies to fulfill consumers’ health care demands rather than developing industry-specific solutions, according to a company official. “The future lies in developing consumer-driven applications that leverage horizontal technologies,” Steve Aylward, general manager of Microsoft’s Health and Life Sciences Industry group, told […]

In this time of economic uncertainty and tight budgets, governors nationwide aren’t trimming IT budgets; they’re spending as usual in the hope that IT initiatives can bring increased efficiency and new savings. In its annual “State of the States: Technology Initiatives and Implications” report, government research firm Input found no evidence that state governments would […]

IBM is banned from bidding on federal government contracts while the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency investigates a charge Big Blue colluded with EPA employees to win a March 2006 contract with the agency for $80 million. The computer services vendor said in a statement it was “blindsided” by the suspension that bars the vendor from […]

You may think you’ve seen the last of a departed employee, but if your hospital doesn’t have a comprehensive identity and access management plan, you may be vulnerable to a security breach. “The disablement of user accounts during the employee termination process is a gaping flaw in most organizations’ policy,” said Kurt Johnson, vice president […]

Voltaire high-performance switches are helping financial services firms out-trade their competition and reap huge financial benefits. Voltaire’s Grid Director switches are high-bandwidth, low-latency switches based on the InfiniBand standard, and allow the formation of high-performance computing clusters from industry standard hardware. The company also manufactures Fibre Channel and Ethernet switches. Trading markets were a natural […]

Patients and caregivers are demanding more cutting-edge healthcare technology than ever before, but the support and administration tasks required for this new care model are challenging some hospitals. Across the board, patients, doctors, nurses, hospital staff and administrators are in favor of any technology that can reduce costs, improve efficiency and increase quality of care, […]

Microsoft has created Amalga, an enterprise-class Unified Intelligence System designed to enable hospitals to access any patient data from any legacy hospital system, regardless of the type of data file it is based on. Amalga UIS is the new version of the product formerly known as Azyxxi, said Davide Vigano, director of enterprise marketing for […]

Google’s recent changes to pricing and support services for Postini e-mail security products have left partners reeling and searching for more channel-friendly vendors for their customers’ e-mail security needs. Google, which acquired Postini for $625 million in July 2007, said on Feb. 5 it was reorganizing its e-mail messaging security products into three new “Powered […]

According to one security expert, it’s possible to infiltrate an otherwise HIPAA-compliant hospital network from an unlikely place-the printer. Peter Mongroo, head of global health care marketing for Aruba Networks, said low-level peripherals such as printers and scanners are often overlooked as potential weak links in a hospital’s network, especially if that network is a […]

Misys Healthcare Systems released code for its Misys Connect EMR interoperability software to the open-source community Feb. 8, ending months of industry speculation about whether the company would make good on its promise to commit to open source. Misys Connect is a Web-based clinical data viewer that shares patient information across any infrastructure, regardless of […]

Federal IT spending will rise by more than $4 billion over 2008, but with a lame-duck president in an election year, it’s unlikely that the fiscal 2009 budget will be passed before the new administration takes office next January. So requests for hefty budget raises from the departments of Veterans Affairs, Defense and the Department […]