Conmergence

2008 Fiber To The Home Conference & Expo September 21 - 25, 2008 Gaylord Opryland® Resort & Convention Center, Nashville, TN

<ed.note>The conference's theme is "Linking Communities at the Speed of Light" but more intriguing to me is the the scheduled appearance of Don Tapscott (The Naked Corporation: How the Age of Transparency Will Revolutionize Business, Digital Capital: Harnessing the Power of Business Webs, Creating Value in the Networked Economy, Blueprint to the Digital Economy: Creating Wealth in the Era of E-Business, Growing Up Digital: The Rise of the Net Generation, The Digital Economy: Promise and Peril in the Age of Networked Intelligence, Who Knows: Safeguarding Your Privacy in a Networked World, Paradigm Shift: The New Promise of Information Technology)  adreessing his latest work, Wikinomics How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything. Implicit in Tapscott's writings is management's buy-in of the distrubuted digital enterprise-enabled results-only collaborative work environment. If you happen to be one of those creatures (especially if you are from Nashville), I invite you to join the Linkedin.com Project Net-Work group and Technology Nashville.</ed.note>

Sunday, September 21, 2008
1:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.	Registration Opens
Monday, September 22, 2008
7:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.	Registration Opens
8:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.	Developer Panel Workshop  *Additional fee*
8:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.	Home Networking Workshop  *Additional fee*
1:00 p.m. - 1:45 p.m.	Track Session - Series 100  *Conference Pass and Day Pass attendees only*
1:00 p.m. - 1:45 p.m.	FTTH Executive Summit *By invitation only* Moderated by: Don Tapscott, Author
2:00 p.m. - 2:45 p.m.	Track Session Series 200  *Conference Pass and Day Pass attendees only*
3:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.	EXPO Grand Opening & Opening Reception *Open to all registered attendees*
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
7:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.	Registration Opens
7:00 a.m. - 8:00 a.m.	Continental Breakfast *Conference Pass and Day Pass attendees only*
8:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.	Opening General Session    *Conference Pass and Day Pass attendees only* Keynote Speaker - Don Tapscott, Author Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything Sponsored by: FTTH Council Awards Sponsored by: FTTxcellence Awards Sponsored by:
10:00 a.m. - 10:15 a.m.	Refreshment Break    *Conference Pass and Day Pass attendees only*
10:15 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.	Global Carrier Keynote Panel   *Conference Pass and Day Pass attendees only*
11:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.	EXPO Hall Opens   *Open to all registered attendees*
12:00 noon - 2:00 p.m.	Luncheon in EXPO Hall  *Open to all registered attendees*
3:15 p.m. - 4:45 p.m.	ITCo Panel  *Conference Pass attendees only*
3:15 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.	Track Session Series 300  *Conference Pass and Day Pass attendees only*
4:15 p.m. - 4:45 p.m.	Track Session Series 400   *Conference Pass and Day Pass attendees only*
5:00 p.m. - 5:45 p.m.	Track Session Series 500   *Conference Pass and Day Pass attendees only*
6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.	International attendee Reception   *By invitation only*
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
7:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.	Registration Open
7:00 a.m. - 8:00 a.m.	Continental Breakfast  *Conference Pass and Day Pass attendees only*
8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.	Government and Regulatory Panel
8:00 a.m. - 8:45 a.m.	Track Session Series 600  *Conference Pass and Day Pass attendees only*
9:00 a.m. - 9:45 a.m.	Track Session Series 700  *Conference Pass and Day Pass attendees only*
9:45 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.	Refreshment Break  *Conference Pass and Day Pass attendees only*
10:00 a.m. - 10:45 a.m.	Track Session Series 800  *Conference Pass and Day Pass attendees only*
11:00 a.m. - 12:15 a.m.	Panel Session Series 900  *Conference Pass and Day Pass attendees only*
12:15 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.	On Own for Lunch
1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.	EXPO Hall Opens
4:15 p.m. - 5:45 p.m.	Closing General Session with Keynote Speaker  *Conference Pass and Day Pass attendees only*
7:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.	EXTRAVAGANZA - Closing Reception with Entertainment *Additional fee* "Don't forget your dancing boots!"
Thursday, September 25, 2008
8:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.	Post Conference Workshops

IBM Opens New 3D Virtual Healthcare Island on Second Life

Interactive environment displays IBM’s vision for consumer-driven healthcare

ORLANDO, FL - 24 Feb 2008: IBM (NYSE: IBM) debuted at HIMSS®08 its newest island in Second Life: IBM Virtual Healthcare Island.  The island is a unique, three-dimensional representation of the challenges facing today’s healthcare industry and the role information technology will play in transforming global healthcare-delivery to meet patient needs. 

The island supports the strategic healthcare vision that IBM released in October 2006, entitled, Healthcare 2015: Win-Win or Lose-Lose, A Portrait and a Path to Successful Transformation.  The paper paints a picture of a Healthcare Industry in crisis – of health systems in the United States and many other countries that will become unsustainable by the year 2015.  To avoid “lose-lose” scenarios in which global healthcare systems “hit the wall” and require immediate and forced restructuring, IBM calls for what it defines as a “win-win” option: new levels of accountability, tough decisions, hard work and focus on the consumer.

The IBM Virtual Healthcare Island is designed with a futuristic atmosphere and provides visitors with an interactive demonstration of IBM’s open-standards-based Health Information Exchange (HIE) architecture.  Working with project leads in the U.S., the island was designed and built by an all-IBM-India team.

Starting from the patient’s home, they create their own Personal Health Records (PHRs) in a secure and private environment and watch as it is incorporated into an array of Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems that can be used at various medical facilities.  As they move from one island station to the next, they experience how the development of a totally integrated and interoperable longitudinal Electronic Health Record (EHR) is used within a highly secured network that allows access only by patient-authorized providers and family members.

Patient avatars arrive and are welcomed at the Central Park and then visit a Central Information Hub, where IBM’s view of the healthcare industry and the power of information technology to transform it are presented.  An amphitheater on the Hub’s second floor provides an area that can support virtual meetings, complete with a large video screen and accompanying slide presentation on IBM’s HIE architecture and the positive impact that this technology can have in the transformation of the Healthcare Industry.

Visitors can then walk, fly or use transporters to visit the various island stations:

• The Patient’s Home:  In the secure environment of a private home, patient avatars can initiate a PHR and populate it with their personal health characteristics and clinical history, accessed and downloaded from physician EMR data.  They can also establish privacy and security preferences as well as health directives.  The ground floor demonstrates secure messaging with providers and activates the initial PHR.  Using a transporter to move upstairs, patients use home health devices to take weight, blood pressure and blood sugar readings in the privacy of a bedroom, further incorporating this information into the PHR, which is shown on presentation screens. 
• The Laboratory: This stop offers laboratory and radiology suites to help avatars extend their understanding of the benefits of  HIE.  Here, patients can check in at a Patient Kiosk and have blood work and radiology tests performed. The use of EHRs – revealing only appropriate portions of the PHRs -- shows how consumers can also benefit through cost and time savings.
• The Clinic: Patient avatars transport or walk from the Lab to the Clinic, where a welcome from their primary-care physician awaits.  A combination of scripting and information screens supports simulation of a patient exam, after which an electronic prescription is generated, and the continued development of the EHR is explained on nearby screens. 
• The Pharmacy: Here, avatars can check in at a Patient Kiosk that simulates the verifying of drug information.  They then receive their prescriptions and update their PHRs/EHRs with new medication data.  The HIE architecture demonstrates how use of PHR/EHR technology can prevent consumers from purchasing medications that are contra-indicated given the medicines they presently require, as well as alerting them about potential drug-to-drug interactions.  The PHR/EHR is again updated.
• The Hospital: In this futuristic, three story structure, avatars arrive for a scheduled visit with a specialist.  Physicians’ offices, patient rooms and exam rooms are all simulated here. 
• The Emergency Room: Avatars can chose to experience a virtual emergency by “touching” a specially scripted control.  This engages a medical episode and a ride on a fast gurney directly into the private and secure emergency treatment area, where a special screen is programmed to reveal the full incorporation of the PHR to ensure proper treatment.

“We are pleased to offer our IBM Virtual Health Island as a tool for our healthcare customers and our worldwide sales force.  The island allows each healthcare stakeholder to envision how the total system can be affected by intercession at each juncture of the healthcare delivery process,” said Dan Pelino, General Manager, IBM Global Healthcare & Life Sciences Industry.  “We believe that the use of our new virtual world provides an important, next-generation Internet-based resource to show how standards; business planning; the use of a secured, extensible and expandable architecture; HIE interoperability; and data use for healthcare analytics, quality, wellness and disease management are all helping to transform our industry. “

IBM’s Healthcare & Life Sciences (HCLS) Industry will continue to develop the new island in months to come.  The island can perform as a virtually “always on” demonstration tool for IBM’s sales personnel.  A video version of the island is also under production.

IBM believes in the significant promise of virtual-worlds technologies far beyond today's usage: the next evolutionary phase of the Internet. IBM is helping clients and partners to conduct business inside virtual worlds and to connect the virtual world with the real world through a richer, more immersive Web environment. 

Second Life is a 3D online world created by Linden Lab, a company founded in 1999 by Philip Rosedale, to create a revolutionary new form of shared 3D experience.  Last October, IBM and Linden Lab announced their intent to jointly develop new technologies and methodologies based on open standards that will help advance the future of 3D virtual worlds.

Project MedSend Nashville Host Committee Announces Informational Dinner, February 28, 2008

Traci Warner writes:

On behalf of the Nashville Host Committee for Project MedSend, we would like to invite you and your missions-minded friends to be our guests for dinner and an exciting account of God's strategy to bring the gospel of Christ, by medical missionaries, to those in other cultures. Your attendance at this dinner will help to increase the awareness of health professionals, students and churches in the Nashville community of ways to serve the Lord free of the burden of their educational indebtedness. You will enjoy a complimentary dinner held on Thursday, February 28, 2008 at 6:30 p.m. at the Hillwood Country Club in Nashville 6201 Hickory Valley Road (615) 352-6591.

Dr. Tracy Goen will tell how God has used him and his wife, Patty, a pediatrician, to bring the gospel to a settlement of Fulani cattle herders in Southwest Nigeria. A series of miraculous cures -- the result of much prayer and divinely directed medical interventions -- has opened the hearts of these people to the good news of Jesus Christ.

Randy Carey, Midwest Regional Director of Project MedSend, will bring you up-to-date on the role of the project in freeing medical missionaries for service by service by removing the major barrier they face -- the high cost of education for health professionals and resulting educational loans. To date, 329 physicians, dentists, nurses, physicians assistants and veterinarians have been freed to serve the underserved years earlier than they had dreamed possible.

We hope you can join us for what has proved to be a delightful evening for people across the country. Please RSVP by Monday, February 25th with your name, phone number, and the number in your party to: Ms. Traci Warner (615) 243-7529 (you may leave a message on the answering machine), psalm6201@yahoo.com 

Directions from downtown Nashville: South on Broadway to West End Avenue which turns into Harding Road at St. Thomas Hospital. Beyond St. Thomas Hospital will be the intersection of Woodmont Blvd. (left) and White Bridge Rd. (right) At the 4th stop light after this intersection turn right onto Davidson Rd. Cross over the the railroad tracks and go approximately 8/10 of a mile beyond the 4-way stop at Post Rd. Turn right onto Hickory Valley Rd. Entrance to Hillwood Country Cluy is on the right at 6201.

Faster, Cheaper Broadband Internet Coming to Michigan Health Care Providers

<ed.note>Story here. Project site here. But will auto manufacturers and Michigan management culture still require health care workers to "drive in" to access the Infogrid as the general practice? ( vs ROWE a la  culturerx.com )</ed.note>

"Expanding Africa’s Broadband Capacity", Connect Africa Summit in Kigali, 29-30 October 2007

Where: Kigali, Rwanda

Why: The main goal of the Summit is to help bring connectivity to Africa and promote "Connect Africa", a new partnership that seeks to expand the information and communication technology infrastructure of the continent, especially Internet broadband.

Who: Some 500 participants are expected to attend the Connect Africa Summit. Participants include the patrons of the initiative, Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame and Ghana’s President John Kufuor, who is also the African Union Chairman. High-level participants include International Telecommunication Union Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré; President of the African Development Bank Donald Kaberuka; and Intel Corporation Chairman Craig Barrett, who is also the Chair of the UN Global Alliance for ICT and Development. Robert Zoellick, President of the World Bank Group, will make a contribution by video link. The Presidents of several African nations are expected to participate.

The event will bring together political leaders, including Ministers and Heads of State, CEOs and senior executives of global and African IT companies, leaders from civil society and heads of international and regional development banks. Industry leaders including Cisco, GSM Association, Ericsson, Huawei, British Telecom, Qualcomm, NTT DoCoMo, Neustar, Safaricom, Nokia-Siemens and Microsoft will attend and announce new initiatives to help bring connectivity to Africa.

The Summit sessions are designed for television to encourage interactive participation and key sessions will be moderated by Stephen Cole, a renowned TV anchor with Al Jazeera International. The event’s press conferences will be webcast live, and time slots for telephone interviews with prominent participants will be allocated for those journalists who cannot attend.

The event is organized by the International Telecommunication Union, the African Union, the World Bank Group and the Global Alliance for ICT and Development, in partnership with the African Development Bank, the African Telecommunication Union, the UN Economic Commission for Africa, and the Global Digital Solidarity Fund.

For further information, click here or contact:

Sanjay Acharya
Chief, Media Relations and Public Information
ITU
Tel: +41 22 730 5046
Mobile: +41 79 249 4861
Fax: +41 22 730 5939
E-mail

Contact: in New York Enrica Murmura, Tel: +1 212 963-5913, E-mail murmura@un.org; in Washington, DC Henny Rahardja, Tel. +1 202 473 4857, E-mail HRahardja@worldbank.org; in Tunis, Emmanuel K. Ngwainmbi, Tel: +216 71 10 26 27, E-mail e.ngwainmbi@afdb.org.

About ITU

Advancing Virtual Organizing: Potentials and Realities from Scientific Grid to Citizen-Service Communities - June 20, 2007

The purpose of the workshop is to envision greater possibilities for distributed citizen service communities, in light of grid-based, research and design communities. How can emerging public service communities learn "build to share" principles from distributed research communities already benefiting from cyberinfrastructures they have built? What are the implications for accelerating Service Oriented Architecture in public service communities?

By discovering how different fields of business, science and healthcare are using grid computing, participants will share in lessons learned and best practices to provide a common foundation for establishing next steps in planning projects that leverage all the advances associated with grid communities.

"...Grids are the integrated platforms for all network-distributed applications or services whether they are computationally or transactionally intensive." Paul Strong, Grid Today, Sept.11, 2006

In addition, the workshop includes a focus on the U.S. HealthGrid. Current priorities as seen through the National Institutes of Health Roadmap for example call for advancing collaboration in biomedical research and using biomedical data and information to improve the quality and outcomes of health care delivery.

The President's goal to make an electronic health record available for most Americans by 2014 and the development of the Nationwide Health Information Network under the leadership of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, present a timely opportunity to share and collaborate advanced HealthGrid projects, systems, data and knowledge. Through collaboration, open solutions and innovation, the grid community can contribute to advancing quality, electronic health records, population and bio-surveillance and personal health records to achieve higher levels of performance and interoperability.

Wired for Health Quality Act

here. <ed.note>Note: Sec. 403. Facilitating the Provision of Telehealth Services Across State Lines</ed.note>

Michael Ramage is the Executive Director of Connected Tennessee

<ed.note>Though I probably would have gone with a TN-based web site designer to begin with ( this stuff can be oh, so, political! ) I'm glad he's finally here. Wonder if we'll follow Mexico's No Mas Cables approach? Or maybe deploy a Stratellite™ grid? Or a Nokia mesh?

Ramage will be working with the assistance of ConnectedNation, the leadership of which ( Brian Mefford ( bmefford@connectednation.com ), Mark McElroy ( mmcelroy@connectednation.com ), Andrew McNeill ( amcneill@connectednation.com ), Laura Taylor ( ltaylor@connectednation.com ) ) are also the current leadership of ConnectKY.</ed.note>

Michael Ramage ( mramage@connectedtn.org , 615-828-5113 ) is the Executive Director of Connected Tennessee, a division of Connected Nation, Inc. Mr. Ramage is responsible for leading the successful implementation of the State of Tennessee’s Trail to Innovation, a comprehensive broadband deployment and adoption plan slated to leverage state, federal and private investment aimed at blanketing Tennessee with high-speed Internet access, as well as improving the use of technology and the Internet.

Mr. Ramage previously served as a Project Manager for ConnectKentucky, Connected Nation’s Kentucky initiative. In this role, he was responsible for facilitating comprehensive GIS-based Inventory Assessment of existing broadband infrastructure and service availability, the community-by-community implementation planning process and ensuring that every county in Kentucky’s western region has an online presence and the ability to improve the quality of life at the local level. Through this effort, communities were empowered to use technology applications and build partnerships that provided real-time budget savings and process efficiencies over the Internet, ensuring their ability to compete within the local and global marketplace.

Prior to joining ConnectKentucky, Mr. Ramage served Murray State University as Special Projects Leader, Lecturer and Network Manager within the Department of Industrial and Engineering Technology and the Center for Telecommunications Systems Management. While at Murray State, he was the recipient of grants from the National Science Foundation, Cisco Systems Inc., the United States Department of Education and the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. Other accomplishments include the development of GIS mapping for Calloway County, which was the precursor to the mapping performed by Connected Nation, and the development of the International Telecommunications Education and Research Association. Additionally, Mr. Ramage led the West Kentucky Telehealth Initiative and conducted research on various telecommunications topics. Prior to joining Murray State University, he worked as a Network Specialist for BellSouth Telecommunications in Nashville following his employment as a Computer Technician at Camco Technologies in Paducah, Kentucky.

Mr. Ramage has an Information Assurance Graduate Education Certificate from Purdue University’s Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security. Additionally, he has a Masters of Science in Telecommunications Systems Management and a Bachelors of Science in Computer Science, both from Murray State University. Among the industry certifications that Mr. Ramage has held include Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer and Cisco Certified Network Associate. Mr. Ramage was also bestowed the honorary title of a Kentucky Colonel for his work with technology in Kentucky. He is married to his beautiful wife, Brittany, and is the proud father of a baby girl, Shelby.

Getting Clueful: Seven Things the CIO Should Know About Telecommuting [ was Esther Schindler, Senior Online Editor, CIO.com, is Researching Work Over IP ]

By Esther Schindler

<ed.note>FWIW: You'll have to click to the rest of the article to see my quotes.</ed.note>

IT workers who telecommute share advice for their bosses about the process, technology, and attitudes necessary for staff to be productive when they work from home.

May 09, 2007 — CIO — Telecommuting provides employees with the flexibility and quiet they need to optimize their productivity. Plus, it offers employers opportunities to save money and recruit workers from a more geographically diverse—and potentially cheaper—talent pool. For IT professionals, telecommuting is certainly the best work/life option.

However, working from home isn't always easy for individuals or employers. For telecommuting arrangements to work for both parties, employees need to be self-motivated, have access to the necessary technology (such as a high-speed Internet connection and a VPN), and clearly define job duties that can be accomplished remotely. At the same time, employers need to make their teleworkers feel like they're a part of the team, integrate telecommuters into workflows and judge employee productivity by results rather than visual cues.

But too often, IT management doesn't understand the key issues that can affect productivity and team morale. Managers can make painful and expensive errors even when their hearts are in the right place. If you get telecommuting right, you'll have a crew of independent technologists who get their jobs done efficiently; if not, you'll create dissension, distrust and workflow confusion.

American Telemedicine Association In Nashville This Weekend

The 12th Annual Meeting and Trade Show is quickly approaching and digital copies of the Final Program are now available. Check out all the plenaries, concurrent sessions, roundtables and acvitivies offered at ATA 2007!

Our People Are Our Greatest Asset - If Only We Could Trust Them

Updates: Senators Push for More Telecommuting, Telework Exchange Study Reveals Majority of Federal Telework Coordinators Spend 25 Percent or Less of Their Time on Telework, World Needs 4 Million Healthcare Workers, American Telemedicine Association in Nashville, May 13-15, 2007

PR via http://www.govtech.net/

"Forty-four percent of federal employee respondents to the survey, conducted by CDW Government Inc., indicate that they have the option to telework -- up 6 percent from 2006 -- while just 15 percent of private-sector employee respondents have that option. During the past year, telework growth in the federal government also outpaced the private sector: 35 percent of federal teleworkers started teleworking, compared to 10 percent of private-sector teleworkers."

Please see also "New Technology, Old Habits", by Moon Ihlwan and Kenji Hall, BusinessWeek - "Despite world-class IT networks, Japanese and Korean workers are still chained to their desks"

<ed.note>In addition to greater telework ( isn't it time to adopt "Work Over IP" or some such - does anyone really still use dial up? ) adoption, one of the areas I've anticipated from the "hr-xml-ish" world has been the idea of objective competency measurement, especially of the type that could be integrated into professional services human resource management tools. Tom Schmidt of Resumefit suggested that by completing the Workplace Big Five ProFile ( assessment at no cost, and review the results ) that this process can accurately measure 54 competencies. They also provide a digital signature to benefit HR which guarantees that the resume hasn't been tinkered with afterward.</ed.note>

Incenting Healthcare Disparity [ was: Toward a National Rural Telehealth IT Support Policy [Update] ]

<ed.note>I noted earlier that "The American Health IT sector needs to incent less with promises of stock options and more with upfront offers of educational loan repayment. While there is federal school loan repayment help for healthcare workers ( the National Health Service Corps Loan Repayment Program ) and healthcare researchers ( the National Institutes of Health Loan Repayment Program ), there is no similar help for those healthcare IT workers who will lay the "backbone" for telehealth."

Bank of America is actually helping primary care doctors, which is laudable -- although the actual need appears to me to be a lack of CYBER.NURSES. Instead of intentionally seeking a hybridization of nursing and IT ( via the NHIN related grants ), we underpay nurses and offshore HIT.</ed.note>

Sprint network to use Intel's WiMax

By John Markoff and Ken Belson, The New York Times

Intel has also made progress in South Korea, which is using a version of WiMax called WiBro, and in developing countries like Brazil and Pakistan.

...More broadly, Intel has long wanted to create a global wireless network that mirrors today's land-based Internet, in which dozens of competitors build equipment designed to support a single open standard.

Sprint says it expects to reach a third of the U.S. population with its new network by the end of 2008.

Sprint's WiMax gambit could put pressure on Cingular Wireless and Verizon Wireless, and on equipment makers, to move toward more open standards and what the industry refers to as "network neutrality," a network design in which all types of data traffic are treated equally by the network operators.

Doc's prescription for tele-medicine

Shashwat Chaturvedi, Cybertimes NewsDaily

It was an amazing promise made quite a few years back: a promise of a healthy life to the teeming millions residing in the innumerable villages dotting the Indian landscape.

Tele-medicine promised to change the way healthcare was to be delivered to the common man, be it Jhumritaliya in Jharkhand or Ganganagar in Rajasthan. No more, would the rural junta have to travel to nearby metros or state capitals to avail of specialty treatment as most of the healthcare facilities would be available at the public health centers (PHC) connected to the main hospital via dedicated communication channels -- be it ISDN line or even a VSAT.

Scores of pilot projects were launched and everyone waited with bated breath. Yet the promised remained unfulfilled. Progress has been excruciatingly slow for a variety of reasons, be it paucity of capital or infrastructure issues.

But now, Telemedicine has got a new lease of life, thanks to the spread of the Internet. With the number of Internet users growing by leaps and bounds (numbering over 50 million as of December 2005, according to Internetworldstats.com) and broadband set to explode into Indian homes, the World Wide Web might just be the medicine that the doctor had prescribed for an ailing tele-medicine.

Focused on Creating an Advanced and Interoperable Medical Network, HIMSS and Internet2 Announce Collaboration

The two organizations will leverage each other’s expertise to explore the viability of an independent and logically interconnected medical network in the United States

CHICAGO, Ill. and ANN ARBOR, Mich. - August 1, 2006 – The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) and Internet2 announced today that the two organizations have created a partnership to explore the development of a secure, reliable and advanced networking solution for the transmission of medical information, messages and images throughout the broad healthcare industry.

The two organizations are exploring a new network designed to offer the health sciences and healthcare sectors a private and secure medium for exchanging health information. A next-generation architecture built to meet federal regulatory requirements, this new network may also have value to offer in the work of the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN).

This ground-breaking collaboration is a natural extension for both not-for-profit organizations. Through a membership of 20,000 individuals, 45 chapters, and more than 300 corporations representing millions of employees, the HIMSS mission focuses on the betterment of healthcare through the most effective use of information technology and management systems. Internet2, the U.S. ’s advanced networking consortium led by 208 U.S. university members in partnership with over 100 industry and government members, works to develop and deploy advanced networks, applications and resources.

“HIMSS and our members look forward to this collaboration with Internet2,” said H. Stephen Lieber, HIMSS president/CEO. “The synergies between HIMSS and Internet2 brought our organizations together to consider and evaluate the feasibility of establishing a network that would meet the evolving needs of the biomedical and healthcare delivery community.”

Since 1999, Internet2 has operated an advanced nationwide network that supports leading-edge Internet technology development for the research and academic community. Internet2 recently announced a major upgrade to this network to provide members 10 times the capacity and speed of its current infrastructure. In addition, the Internet2 community has successfully developed important middleware technologies to address critical issues in authentication and authorization in order to enable active privacy management. Through this partnership, HIMSS and the Internet2 community will work closely together to leverage these leading-edge technologies to explore development of brand new capabilities that meet the specific security and privacy needs of the healthcare industry.

“The research and education community has long understood the potential for leveraging advanced Internet technology to enhance the healthcare industry’s ability to serve the public’s needs, to improve the flow of information for research, to streamline care processes and to enable cost savings,” said Douglas Van Houweling, Internet2 president and CEO. “Our partnership with the HIMSS community is a major step forward in realizing this vision. Together we will work to create a new state-of-the-art platform for biomedical research, education and clinical practice on a national scale.”

Through the partnership, four working groups have been established to explore the requirements and capabilities needed to create an advanced medical network during the next year. HIMSS and Internet2 will join each other’s organizations. Members of both organizations will also join each of the four working groups, which include:

Identity Management that will allow the identification and authentication of individuals regardless of their physical location.

Privacy & Security that will focus on the tools and techniques that will assure the privacy and security of the information that travels on the network.

Biomedical (Health Sciences and Healthcare) Education that will focus on meeting the unique needs and accessing the resources required for biomedical education.

Telehealth that will focus on the implications for clinical practice when a reliable advanced network is available.

In addition, members of both organizations will work for the development and implementation of the network with other partnerships and collaborations, including Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE).

Freeview [ digital TV service ] plans for NHS Direct

29 Jun 2006, e-Health Insider

Dr Mike Sadler, medical director and chief operating officer for NHS Direct, told EHI Primary Care: “The digital TV service is important because it is used by a different section of the population to those who use the internet service and expanding to Freeview would obviously increase our reach quite markedly.”

A total of 2.7 million contacts were made to NHS Direct in May, either via the internet, digital TV or one of the call centres. Of those the majority, about 1.5 million, were online visits to the NHS Direct website with the rest divided between telephone contacts and digital interactive TV.

The organisation is half way through a consultation exercise with staff over proposals to close 12 call centres with the likelihood that hundreds of staff will be made redundant.

Unified Medical Language System

The purpose of the U.S. National Library of Medicine's Unified Medical Language System  ® (UMLS) is to facilitate the development of computer systems that behave as if they "understand" the meaning of the language of biomedicine and health. To that end, NLM produces and distributes the UMLS Knowledge Sources (databases) and associated software tools (programs) for use by system developers in building or enhancing electronic information systems that create, process, retrieve, integrate, and/or aggregate biomedical and health data and information, as well as in informatics research. By design, the UMLS Knowledge Sources are multi-purpose. They are not optimized for particular applications, but can be applied in systems that perform a range of functions involving one or more types of information, e.g., patient records, scientific literature, guidelines, and public health data. The associated UMLS software tools assist developers in customizing or using the UMLS Knowledge Sources for particular purposes. The lexical tools work more effectively in combination with the UMLS Knowledge Sources, but can also be used independently.

There are three UMLS Knowledge Sources: the Metathesaurus ®, the Semantic Network, and the SPECIALIST Lexicon. They are distributed with flexible lexical tools and the MetamorphoSys install and customization program.

The missing last mile {Rural communities that lack broadband connectivity have an extra handicap when it comes to implementing health IT}

April 17, Nancy Ferris, govhealthit.com

When it comes to using health information technology, rural communities face many difficulties, including common ones such as figuring out how to pay for the systems and how to set up patient information exchanges.

But some rural areas have another tough problem. They can’t get affordable high-speed communications services.

When limited to dial-up connections, doctors, hospital workers and clinicians must spend minutes to accomplish transactions that high-speed Internet users can do in seconds, such as downloading a PDF or sending a photograph. Although medical records are not necessarily enormous files, most cannot easily transmit at slow data speeds. Sending radiological images and other graphic files is out of the question.

A 2005 Institute of Medicine report notes the lack of broadband in rural areas. “This aspect of the digital divide is one of the greatest challenges for rural telehealth, as well as other rural commerce,” the report states.

With slow Internet connections, simple tasks can be hard to execute. Gail Bellamy, director of community studies at the West Virginia Institute for Health Policy Research in Charleston, W.Va., cited the example of a federally funded project in which West Virginia hospitals report medical errors.

The hospitals receive reports that show their error rates compared with those from other hospitals. When the project started, one hospital could not use the Web-based reporting screen because of its slow dial-up connection, and no T1 line or DSL service was available in that area. Project leaders appealed to Verizon, the local phone company, and persuaded the company to install a high-speed line, Bellamy said.

“Broadband is a huge issue,” she said, although it’s not a problem in every rural area. “Different parts of rural America have differential access,” and the cost of high-speed service varies.

Bellamy led a National Rural Health Association team that drafted an issue paper on health IT. It states that “simple access to the Internet is not sufficient for secure health care transactions” because of the need for security at every point along the transmission path. And a single high-speed line is not enough because redundancy is necessary to avert an unacceptable communications breakdown.

“In addition, the technology infrastructure needs to support telehealth applications, as these are critical to rural health systems,” the association’s paper states. “For example, the infrastructure must be able to accommodate regional Picture Archiving and Communications Systems [used in radiology], streaming videos and telehealth educational programs that can be broadcast from anywhere in the country.”

More

Africa's New Twist: Technology [The Next Silicon Valley?]

By Jessica Springgay, convergemag.com

Africa is often stereotyped as a Third World continent, working to alleviate poverty and AIDS without much success. People repeatedly overlook the advancements the continent is making in strides, leading Africa toward a 21st century seat.

To draw attention to the increasing number of information and communication technology (ICT) innovations coming out of Africa, the Stockholm Challenge created a side event called the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Challenge. Approximately 130 ICT projects, out of roughly 1,100 total applicants, submitted to the 2006 Stockholm Challenge came from Africa. The WSIS Challenge Award will pick the best African ICT project and award its winners 10,000 euros, to be used for further development of the project. Two winning team members will then travel to Stockholm for the final event in May.

The Stockholm Challenge searches for the project that best accelerates the use of information technology for the social and economic benefit of citizens and communities. The challenge's objective is to help local entrepreneurs working to bride the digital divide by bringing research communities, development organizations and strong corporate initiatives to an area lacking such resources.

Three projects competing for the WSIS award involve revolutionizing ICT and education in Africa: the Distance Learning and Information Sharing Tool (DLIST-Benguela), Multimedia in Arts Training and Production in Tanzania, and the Digital Design School in Nairobi.

Ken Rutkowski on Global Broadband penetration leaders

<ed.note>If you don't get the daily Kenradio.com newsletter... well, bless your heart! In addition, Ken has an IQ listserv which you should investigate if you are into media, entertainment and technology news.</ed.note>

Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development published worldwide broadband rankings. In Iceland, 26.7% of citizens have broadband connection, compared with 25.4% in South Korea, 25.3% in the Netherlands and 25% in Denmark. The number of broadband subscriptions throughout the OECD countries grew to 158 mln by December 2005 from 136 mln in June 2005. This is an average of 13.6 subscribers per 100 inhabitants in the entire OECD. The United States, with 16.8% broadband penetration, counted 49.39 mln subscribers in 2005, compared with 22.52 mln in Japan which has 17.6% penetration.

* In December 2005, four countries (Iceland, Korea, the Netherlands and Denmark) led the OECD in broadband penetration, each with more than 25 subscribers per 100 inhabitants.

* Iceland now leads the OECD with a broadband penetration rate of 26.7 subscribers per 100 inhabitants.

* Korea's broadband market is advancing to the next stage of development where existing subscribers switch platforms for increased bandwidth. In Korea, fiber-based broadband connections grew 52.4% during 2005. This switchover effect is evident by the net loss of DSL (-3.3%) and cable (-1.7%) subscribers during the year.

* The strongest per-capita subscriber growth came from Iceland, Finland, Norway, the Netherlands and Australia. Each country added more than 6 subscribers per 100 inhabitants during 2005.

* Japan leads the OECD in fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) with 4.6 million fiber subscribers at the end of 2005. Fiber subscribers alone in Japan outnumber total broadband subscribers in 21 of the 30 OECD countries.

* DSL is still the leading platform in 28 OECD countries. Cable subscribers outnumber DSL in Canada and the United States.

* The United States has the largest total number of broadband subscribers in the OECD at 49 million. US broadband subscribers represent 31% of all broadband connections in the OECD.

* Canada leads the G7 group of industrialized countries in broadband penetration

* The breakdown of broadband technologies in December 2005 is as follows:
            DSL: 62%
            Cable modem: 31%
            Other technologies (e.g. satellite, fiber and fixed wireless) : 7%

Bredesen creates e-health advisory board

April 3, 2006 Nashville Business Journal

Gov. Phil Bredesen has signed an executive order establishing an e-health advisory council to coordinate Tennessee's various initiatives leading toward the adoption of an electronic medical record.

The Governor's eHealth Advisory Council will encompass 16 members from various stakeholding interests, including employers, regional health information organizations, payers and consumer groups. Chairing the body will be Antoine Agassi, a former chief technology officer at Spheris and chief information officer for WebMD.

<ed.note>I'll keep checking my voicemail; nuthin' so far!</ed.note>

The council will advise state government on promoting the successful adoption of EMR's. Electronic medical records are viewed as a way to improve care by collecting a patient's updated health data and eliminate waste by cutting out the need for repeated tests. President Bush has made a goal of nationwide EMR adoption during the next decade.

Federal Telework Picking Up Speed

Public-CIO.com

<ed.note>Please study these graphics ( courtesy "Attitude, Not Cost, Barrier to Disabled Workers" by Catherine Komp, newstandardnews.net ) as you read about the federal telework status quo.</ed.note>

On Monday, CDW Government, Inc. announced the findings of its second annual CDW-G Federal Telework Survey. The report reveals new momentum in federal telework, with 41 percent of responding federal employees indicating that they currently telework - up from 19 percent at the same time last year. Validating the jump in participation, 43 percent of surveyed federal teleworkers indicate that they have started teleworking in the last year.

The 2006 CDW-G Federal Telework Report is based upon online, telephone and in-person interviews with 542 federal employees and an online survey of 235 federal IT professionals.

The report also reveals that federal IT professionals have significantly expanded technical support for telework initiatives over the past year. Thirty-two percent of surveyed federal IT professionals indicate that their agency has started or expanded a telework program in the last year. Twenty-eight percent of the same respondents believe that their agency provides IT support to 100 percent of eligible teleworkers -- up from just 5 percent of respondents in 2005.

Information Security Remains the Largest Roadblock

For federal IT professionals, information security remains the single most significant roadblock for broader telework adoption in 2006, as it was in 2005. Fifty-three percent of federal IT professionals feel that information security is the primary challenge associated with telework. Federal IT professionals' distant second and third concerns about enabling telework are service and support (26 percent) and collaboration (16 percent). That said, just 6 percent of federal IT professionals believe that federal telework requirements hamper compliance with the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA). Thirty-nine percent believe that telework poses no conflict with FISMA compliance.

"More than half of federal IT professionals still are unclear about how telework programs will impact FISMA compliance," Peterson said. "This is clearly an opportunity for industry, the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Office of Management and Budget to step in and tear down a major roadblock for telework growth."

Delivering Quality Healthcare to the Digital Home

Healthcare costs have been increasing at double-digit rates over the past ten years and will account for almost 16% of U.S. GDP in 2005. As 76 million baby boomers enter retirement age in the next 15-20 years, the demand for healthcare products and services will rise significantly. Further, many factors threaten the delivery of quality healthcare services, including a record budget deficit, a national shortage of skilled nurses, and a disintegrating healthcare system prone to human errors.

Delivering Quality Healthcare to the Digital Home is a comprehensive industry report analyzing the emerging technologies and their applications in the healthcare industry. It focuses on products and services that help consumers manage their chronic disease states at home through advanced communication tools, self-diagnostic devices, and home-monitoring appliances. The report also examines incentives, regulatory and reimbursement issues, and the drivers and barriers for the implementation of home-based care services. Finally, the report profiles emerging players and offers a future roadmap for this industry.

“With the recent advances in healthcare technologies and improvements in communications infrastructure at home, home healthcare could evolve from a sporadic practice today to a mainstream care delivery model in the next 5-10 years,” said Harry Wang, research Analyst at Parks Associates. “New home-based healthcare services will be consumer-centric and technology driven, and if these trends continue, we may be on the verge of finding a good solution to reduce healthcare costs while improving overall care quality.”

Home Healthcare Servers, baby!

"Digitally Speaking: Q&A With Louis Burns, Intel" by Edward F. Moltzen, Digital Connect 

GM of Intel's digital health group sheds light on health-care tech market

Louis Burns, General Manager of the Intel Digital Health Platforms Group, has been spearheading the company's efforts in developing technology, forging partnerships and working toward an ecosystem that can support and grow a digital health market.

Digital Connect's Edward F. Moltzen recently interviewed Burns:

DC: When you talk about new standards, and devices and products for a digital health infrastructure that reaches the home, how will it work? What home prototypes will we see in the coming months?

Burns: We're sitting with nurses and doctors trying to figure out what are the right combinations of technology: RFID, bar-code technology, form factors. They are an active part of that development, and they think that's really cool.

Pan African Scientific Conference and Exhibition on Telemedicine and eHealth (Society for Telemedicine and eHealth in Nigeria)

SFTeHIN supported by International Society for Telemedicine and eHealth in partnership with Africa Telehealth Group is pleased to announce its first yearly Scientific conference that will be held June 19 – 21 2006 at International Conference Center Abuja, Nigeria. This year's conference will focus on the use of information and communications technology to overcome challenges in the healthcare sector in Nigeria and the continent.

Sub themes:

• International cooperation on developing eHealth
• Distance education, Combating HIV /AIDS, Malaria, Tuberculosis with ICT
• Electronic medical records
• Hospital information systems and management
• Telemedicine and eHealth applications & technology infrastructures
• Policy, legal, ethical, reimbursement issues
• Satellites and eHealth
• Standardization and interconnectivity

The conference will bring experts in the fields of health care, medical education, information and telecommunications industry, policy makers, government and development partners. We invite you to join us.

The objectives of the conference are to:

• Create a common ground upon which knowledge is disseminated, innovative thinking by medical and information communications expert on the use of ICT to promote health of Nigerians and Africans.
• Create an environment for networking which is an important factor in the development of telemedicine and ehealth in Africa .
• See how health information and communications technology can be use to solve problems encountered in the health care sector by learning from international experiences.
• Review the latest international developments in the application of telemedicine and ehealth strategies in achieving health promotion and disease prevention in Africa .
• Recommend measures to enhance current investments in information based technology resources in order to advance widespread health promotion, disease prevention, treatment in Africa using telemedicine and ehealth applications.
• Identify an appropriate policy and program support framework(s) that would best facilitate successful telemedicine /ehealth services within Nigeria and between various African countries.
• Create a professional and business-minded environment, by bringing together manufacturers, suppliers, health care providers and key contacts such as representatives of government, international organizations, and insurers in other to establish national, regional, continental and international relationships, which is a huge value in any telemedicine initiative.

For more information, please contact:

Dr Joseph Awolola
2348023253372 e-mail:drawolola@sftehin.org

House Calls

8/1/05 By Josh Fischman, USNews.com

Remote monitors can be lifesavers for chronic disease patients

An extra pound doesn't seem like much. But for George Grande, that little quiver on the bathroom scale could signal that his heart is drowning. Grande, 82, has heart failure, and what used to be a strong, muscular pump now lets blood and fluid pool in his lungs, adding an extra pound or two. More fluid and he'll end up unable to breathe, fighting for his life.

That's the last thing he wants. "I've been to the hospital so many times," says Grande, who lives in the small town of Boxford, Mass., about 20 miles from Boston. His voice sounds tired as he recites the litany: "Three open-heart surgeries, an aorta problem, a leaky heart valve." To keep him safe at home, any weight change needs to be spotted quickly.

It is. About three months ago, Grande's nurse gave him a little device called a monitoring station, which let him input his vital signs. "Every morning it reminds me to check myself," says Grande. "I plug in a blood pressure cuff and a scale, and it sends that stuff over the phone, right to my nurse. A few weeks ago, it picked up a weight gain, and they called me right away and told me to adjust the dose of my medication. That's very reassuring, to know someone is always watching out for me."

Daily care.
More healthcare professionals are watching out for patients with chronic conditions like Grande using this kind of remote monitoring. Heathcare agencies spent about $55 million in 2003 on telehealth and expect to spend $260 million in 2010. The key is the daily check of vital signs, a drill that can catch problems much faster than a monthly clinic visit. The technology is easy to use for senior citizens and for kids and adaptable to a wide range of illnesses. Study after study has shown that it helps keep people healthy and out of the hospital and allows scarce medical resources to be stretched over a wider area for a longer period. "It's been great for our patients and great for our agency," says Rhonda Chetney, director of clinical operations for Sentara Home Care Services in Chesapeake, Va. "These are very brittle patients who go in and out of the hospital a lot. With these units in the home, that stops."

National Conference on m-Health and EOE

December 12-14, 2005 Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina

Once again for 2005, the Mobile Healthcare Alliance (MoHCA) in association with Medical Records Institute is proud to sponsor the National Conference on m-Health and EOE which will take place December 12-14, 2005 at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina.

Join us in San Diego to learn from industry experts how to optimize your mobile options, and gain an understanding of issues to consider for long term planning. The following is an outline of the program

The pre-conference tutorials, which take place on Monday, December 12, will give an in-depth introduction into the mobile technologies.

Tutorial #1: Overview of Mobile Technologies in Healthcare Peter Waegemann, CEO, Medical Records Institute

Tutorial #2: Wireless Voice Communication at UC Davis Medical Center Willard S. Ellis, PhD, MD, Assistant Clinical Professor, UC Davis Medical Center; Lisa S. Track, RN, MPA, Assistant Director, Hospital and Clinics, UC Davis Health Systems and Children's Hospital

Tutorial #3: A Mobile/Wireless Perspective on e-Prescribing Jeff Blair, Vice President, Medical Records Institute; David Murphy, Regional Director, SureScripts; Tery Byrne, Vice President, Standards & Product Management, RxHub; Chelle Woolley, Senior VP, RxHub

Tutorial #4: RF Survey: A Key Tool for Managing Your EMC Environment Dara McClain, EMC Engineer, EMI Investigations, Philips Medical Systems, Hardware Quality Engineering

Tutorial #5: Understanding RFID within the Healthcare Enterprise - A Technology and Clinical Discussion Tony Marisco, CEO, Patient Care Technology Systems;L. Albert Villarin, Jr. MD FACEP, Director of Medical Informatics, Department of Emergency Medicine, Albert Einstein Medical Center, Philadelphia, PA; Cory Wagner, Director of Product Development, Tracking & Communication Solution Division, Patient Care Technology Systems

Tutorial #6: Mobility and Tablet PCs Joel French, Vice President of Health Industry, Motion Computing, Inc.

On Tuesday, December 13, conference keynote speakers will address the current and future impact of mobile technologies used in healthcare.

Don Jones, Vice President of Qualcomm will explore the influence of today's mobile technologies on patients, providers, insurance companies and government agencies in his talk "The Momentous Impact of Mobile Technologies on Healthcare"

Join Bill Crounse, MD, Global Healthcare Industry Manager in Healthcare and Life Sciences at Microsoft Corporation for "The Future of Healthcare Information Work in a Mobile, Connected World" as he addresses the business trends, mobile devices and exciting technologies that will redefine the way health information and medical services are delivered.

Plus, Medical Record Institute's VP Jeff Blair will unveil the results from the "Seventh Annual MRI Survey of EHR Trends and Usage" and give revealing insights into the trends driving mobile/wireless healthcare priorities, applications, platforms, and concerns

Learn how mobile technologies are changing healthcare, how best to achieve interoperability and get the latest on e- prescribing. Click on the items below for complete information on the conference program.

Complete Program

Track #1: Communications Strategies and Systems for Healthcare Providers

Track #2: e- Prescribing Strategies, Challenges & Successes

Track #3: Successful Installations and User Success Stories

Track #4: How Wireless Technologies are Changing Healthcare

Track #5: Overcoming Barriers to Interoperability

Track #6: Interactive Panel Discussion - Wireless: Taking Care of the Patient

Track #7: Home Health, Telemedicine and the Latest Technology in Patient Connectivity

Track #8: The Future of Mobile Technology

Track #9: RFID and Beyond

Track #10: New Ways of Phone Communications in Healthcare

The National Conference on m-Health and EOE is produced by Medical Records Institute and the Mobile Healthcare Alliance. Special rate for MoHCA members and prospects of just $495 Plus, attend any of our pre-conference tutorials for $195/per tutorial.

MoHCA Registration

For hotel reservations at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina, call their reservations center at 877- 734-2726, and be sure to mention "Medical Records Institute" to get special rates.

Contact Information: Claudia Tessier, Executive Director, MoHCA
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
email: ctessi@attglobal.net
phone: 202-352-3019
web: http://mohca.org
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Partners HealthCare launches home health pilot

Bernie Monegain, Managing Editor, Healthcare IT News

Partners HealthCare has launched a pilot project aimed at providing better care for patients with leg wounds. The goal is to make it possible for a limited number of wound-care specialists to examine and treat more home health patients. The answer could be a cell phone camera.

The goal of the study, which started at the beginning of September with 34 patients, is to have the cameras in use for the entire patient load.

Partners has about 20 visiting nurses who each call on four to five patients per day. The patient load is high – about 500 altogether in a 30-mile radius of Boston. Leg wounds are common among patients diagnosed with diabetes. The right treatment at the right time is essential for healing. The visiting nurses don’t have the expertise in caring for wounds that an enterostomal therapy nurse has. The specially trained ETNs take up to 15 years to train. They are in short supply. Partners has two ENTs on staff, and they spend most of their time at the hospitals. The cell phone digital photo is geared at providing expertise for home-care patients who might be miles away.

Using a Motorola MPX220 Smartphone, with a built-in digital camera, visiting nurses take pictures of the wounds. The phones automatically upload the photos to the Web application for the specialist to examine and develop a treatment plan.

NTEN ICT and Humanitarian Relief Conference Monday, Oct 17 * Omni Shoreham * Washington, DC

Being prepared, launching your response, and creating sustainable change

From the Tsunami to Darfur to Afghanistan, humanitarian relief operations depend critically on the effective use of information and communications technologies (ICT). In both emergencies and ongoing relief efforts, humanitarian relief operations present enormous ICT challenges: working environments with non-existent or damaged communications and support infrastructure; the need to interoperate with other aid organizations and government agencies; and managing massive logistical problems and information flows. Successful relief operations that bring about sustainable change depend upon early preparation and planning.

This conference will bring together practitioners with hands-on experience and fresh ideas about the use of ICT to share "lessons learned" and innovations, to identify opportunities for collaboration, and to craft best practices. The conference will focus on ICT in all phases of relief operations: preparation and planning; emergency response; long-term relief; transition to self-sufficiency.

http://www.nten.org/conferences-ict-agenda Agenda

http://www.nten.org/conferences-ict Registration

telemedicine information exchange

an unbiased and all-inclusive platform for information on telemedicine and telehealth

We've redesigned the TIE to enhance its usability and highlight valuable content and features. In the process we've added some new features, including new sections for health care professionals and consumers. We hope you find the new information and new design helpful.

Association of Telehealth Service Providers TeleUpdates: TelePediatrics

ATSP TeleUpdates: TelePediatrics

Despite anecdotal evidence of telepediatrics, there remains very little published evidence on the subject. In a recent US survey of telemedicine activity, 38% of respondents reported pediatrics as an application (Grigsby 2004). In this report, pediatrics was the third most common application after mental health and cardiology. However, there are remarkably few papers in Medline about telepediatrics.

Join Dr. Richard Wootton and Dr. Anthony Smith of the Centre for Online Health at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia as they provide an overview of telepediatric activity around the world and outline the development and evaluation of a novel telepediatric service in Queensland. Aspects such as feasibility and cost-effectiveness will be addressed.

In November 2000, the Centre for Online Health, (University of Queensland) commenced a research project aimed at establishing and evaluating a novel telepediatric service in Queensland. The telepediatric service is characterized by a centralized coordination unit, responsible for the facilitation of telepediatric referrals. This service is currently available to five regional and remote hospitals in Queensland.

[Georgia] Telemedicine Network gets under way

March 9, 2005 By Patricia Guthrie, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

She wasn't really a patient, but her skin problem was real. So were the two doctors conferring, Star Trek-style via screens and light beams, from downtown Atlanta to Cordele, 138 miles away.

On Tuesday, Georgia launched a telemedicine network using a dermatology "patient" to demonstrate how rural doctors soon will have the ability to consult with specialists at large urban hospitals and medical schools.

 
"This is an attempt to equalize the quality of health care," said State Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine, who brokered the financing of the $26.5 million project through an agreement with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia. The network is a public-private partnership, overseen by the state Department of Insurance.

Using long-distance high-speed telecommunications, specialized cameras and computer technology, telemedicine health care systems have been up and running for more than a decade in states with large rural populations, such as Alaska and Texas. Georgia's system — which eventually will connect 36 rural hospitals and clinics — is the first to wire a state with one coordinated network, Oxendine said. Making it so that patients don't have to drive more than 30 minutes for specialty care is the program's goal.

Blue Cross has run a similar program in California for the past six years.

Cardiology, diabetes, neurology, psychiatry and children's health are among 20 specialty areas conducive to long-distance medicine, said Dr. Wright Caughman, director of the Emory Clinic, where the telemedicine equipment will be located.

During Tuesday's demonstration, Dr. Suephy Chen, an Emory University School of Medicine dermatologist, stood before two small screens set up inside Emory's Crawford Long Hospital.

She listened as Dr. Neill Lee, primary care physician and chief of staff at Cordele's Crisp Regional Hospital, spoke about the pretend patient, Marty Nall, actually a telemedicine tech who volunteered for the media presentation.

With a tiny handheld camera on a cord, Lee zoomed in on Nall's leg, the site of an old trauma wound. Doctors and patient all talked, then Chen recommended a biopsy. A cardiac telemedicine demonstration also took place at Piedmont Hospital.

Blue Cross has agreed to cover telemedicine consults as office visits, Oxendine said. Other major health insurance companies have said they'd probably do the same even if a current bill in the General Assembly requiring coverage doesn't pass.

Last year, when Oxendine approved the merger of health insurance giants Anthem and WellPoint Health Networks, he secured a $126.5 million pledge to launch the Georgia Rural Health Care Initiative, including telemedicine. Most of the money — $100 million over 20 years — is to provide debt financing for expansion and renovation of rural hospitals.

Currently, only two hospitals — in Cordele, and in Bainbridge in southwest Georgia — are connected to Emory and Piedmont Hospital.

UK Telecare reporting at E-HEALTH-MEDIA

Faced with an ageing population and sharp rise in chronic conditions, like diabetes and asthma, health and social care organisations need to find new ways to deliver care. Part of the solution looks certain to involve embracing telecare services to remotely monitor, support and treat patients in their homes, improving self-care and cutting avoidable admissions to hospital and residential care.

Until now telecare has remained strictly a niche technology – there have been many pilots but its use has never become widespread or mainstream. But there are now some encouraging signs this may be about to change. As we report this week Kent County Council is to begin a large scale project to use technology to support people with chronic diseases in their own home.

Even more encouraging is the news that PCTs and Social Services Departments will soon be able to apply for a special grant to develop telecare, with the Government investing £80 million through a 'Preventative Technology Grant' from next year.

Microsoft, Intel Team to Target Healthcare Market

By Joris Evers, IDG News Service

Microsoft Corp. and Intel Corp. have partnered to create products and services targeted at European healthcare providers, who the vendors say have antiquated IT infrastructures.

The partnership to create an E-Health Integration Platform currently covers Germany, Austria and Switzerland, but the companies are looking to expand across Europe and possibly beyond, representatives for Microsoft and Intel said Thursday. The partnership agreement wasl to be formally signed yesterday at the Cebit trade show in Hanover, Germany.

Task Force Addresses Globalization's Effects On HIT

The HIMSS Globalization Task Force has released "HIMSS Globalization of the HIT Industry,” an exploratory framework on the effects and impact of globalization on healthcare. The document, written by Simmi Singh, FHIMSS, chair of the task force and vice president, healthcare, with Cognizant Technology Solutions, looks at globalization in relationship to telemedicine, importation of drugs, staffing issues, and medical transcription work. The Globalization Task Force, formed in September, is charged with studying the impact of globalization in relationship to the industry and to HIMSS members by focusing on legislation review' governance and best practices; privacy, security and confidentiality; and legal/jurisdiction issues. Click here to read "HIMSS Globalization of the HIT Industry" exploratory framework. For more information, contact advocacy@himss.org

Tech Industry's Tsunami Relief Efforts Pick Up

By Jim Wagner, Internetnews.com

As the official death toll from the tsunami in southern Asia grew beyond 70,000 Wednesday, tech players were offering any aid and support they could in response to devastation from an underwater earthquake that struck near Indonesia Sunday, unleashing massive tsunami waves in the region.

Fortune 500 companies and individual bloggers were offering donations and free services in order to support relief operations to the stricken regions across Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Somalia, Sumatra, Thailand and Somalia.

Paul Roberts, director of Hong Kong-based ForgetMeNot Software, said the company is donating free SMS (define) messaging via its ChatBar service to anyone in the affected region or anyone trying to reach a person in the countries impacted.

The ChatBar service is available on Internet-connect PCs as well as mobile phones. It's browser-based, and the recipients don't need to be signed up to the service before receiving the SMS messages.

"We are all shocked and stunned by the devastation wrought by the earthquake," he said in a statement Wednesday. "In an effort to help, we wanted to make the functionality of ChatBar available free to everyone who needs to communicate with loved ones at this difficult time. Experience has shown that SMS messages may get through to mobile phones even though voice networks may be overloaded."

Users can download the ChatBar software to make contact here (English), here (Simplified Chinese), here (Traditional Chinese) and here (Tagalog).

Amazon's home page carried information about how customers could make a one-click donation to the American Red Cross for disaster relief assistance. According to the site, nearly 30,000 people have already made more than $1.6 million in donations through Amazon.com at press time, with the amount growing by the hour.

The service is anonymous for donations under $250, unless donors choose to release their name, e-mail address and amount donated to the Red Cross after the payment has been made.

Enterprise mobility software company Symbol, with operations in India, pledged $150,000 Tuesday to the Red Cross, Mercy Corps and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to help out with emergency relief; employees in India all donated one day's pay to the donation.

Australian telephone company Telstra said it would donate its phone service to non-government, not-for-profit organizations in Australia who are helping with efforts directly in the affected countries, as well as a rebate for Telstra mobile phone users in the area who made phone calls to loved ones in Australia or vice versa. The company is also donating $100,000 to Australian aid agencies.

Over at Google, the company has invested its Web search services to aggregate the latest Google mainstream news coverage on the tsunami and a page with links to Web sites where people can make donations.

The blogosphere is providing expertise in the area it does best, providing first-hand accounts of the devastation as well as a viral network for relief opportunities. While mainstream media reports on the disaster were sketchy at first, bloggers quickly jumped in and spread information after the tsunami's wake.

Other efforts were also taking shape:

• Benjamin Rosembaum's blog journal has a table rating the effectiveness of relief organizations involved in the disaster, compiled from several watchdog organizations.
• A post at thewirelessweblog from a person going by the name of Mike Outmesguine is helping create a Post-Tsunami Reconnect project with the Southern California Wireless Users Group (SOCALWUG) to send wireless equipment and technical expertise to the affected regions. It noted how, in the coming days, re-establishing communications will be as important an operation as providing food, shelter and water.

The Command Post weblog, one of the earliest blog sites to feature information and donation links, had updated its site Wednesday to include more relief organizations and ways for individuals to help.

• The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami blog at blogspot.com carried a new entry asking people to donate bottled water, first aid materials, canned goods, clothes and household items for the New Jersey Buddhist Vihara.

The New York Times also carried a list of relief organizations on its Web site.

European Telemedicine Project: Tele–laboratory

Dec. 16, 2004 IBLNEWS

It is a home care service: periodical test on patients on home care programs and in elderly people’s homes.

Possible use of tele-laboratory application as a support for telecounselling services as test during ambulance transportation.

The objectives of Tele – Laboratory are:

• To rationalise the use of human resources;
• To reduce the cost of this high – volume medical procedure;
• To reduce time gaps between test and the availability of results and their handling by the prescribing doctor;
• To increase data confidentiality protection bay avoiding results being handled and seen by other people apart from the sender and the receiver (data are encrypted and digitally signed).

In order to guarantee the maximum level of interoperability for the applications, documents produced within the parameters of the project will be stored in the patient file, following IHE guidelines. (IT Infrastructure Technical Framework) (www.rsna.org/ihe) with particular reference to XDS profile.

AHIMA's Letter to the Secretary of Department of Health and Human Services

The Honorable Tommy Thompson
Secretary
Department of Health and Human Services
Hubert H. Humphrey Building
200 Independence Avenue, Southwest
Washington, DC 20201

Dear Secretary Thompson:

On behalf of AHIMA’s more than 50,000 members, I want to thank you for your efforts in helping our nation move the administration of its healthcare system into the 21 st century through the use of electronic health records and a national health information infrastructure. Considering the dedication shown by you, the President, Dr. Brailer, and countless others, I was shocked and disappointed to learn that Congress failed to provide the $50 million requested by the President to support health information technology efforts.

Considering the importance of the health information technology issue and the progress and momentum generated over the last year, AHIMA believes it is necessary to ask you to consider using any undesignated and/or unspent discretionary funds in the Department of Health and Human Services budget to fill the void left by Congress’ failure to provide funding to the Office of National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONCHIT). Restoration of this funding is essential to continuing the momentum towards widespread adoption of standardized electronic health records and a national health information network within the timeframe established by you and President Bush.

With your support, significant milestones and achievements have already been made towards building an int