Conmergence

Smart Phone Electronic Medical Record / Mobile Contactless Payment / Remote Monitoring, Developments Toward...

<ed.note>Since vendors are looking at remote monitoring for disease management I should list those as well. I'll also be on the look out for sensors which are car-based now that wi-fi is available in automobiles. There are some parallel developments which I guess I should mention: Major League Baseball and other event vendors as well as transportation providers and social networks are putting the cell phone closer to the center of their business models. ( Robert Neelbauer on social graphs here -- cells will eventually be tracked by them. ) Of course, on the other end of the spectrum is home automation.</ed.note>

Phillips (still using POTS lines)
Qualcomm
Nokia's Intellisync Call Connect for Cisco

Shout out to http://www.wirelesshealthcare.co.uk who usually gets these stories before anyone else.

The Tech Scene: Banking by Cell Phone - This Time It's for Real?,
Use of Mobile and Wireless Technology Jumps in Hospitals,

iPhone ? ? ? ( Remember Osirix ), icefirst, liferecord, Access, aKos, ARANZ Medical, Asia eHealth presentations, Banco do Brasil, Blackberry [2], Diebold, Docobo, ebay VOIP (Skype), Gemalto, Google [2][3][4], INSIDE Contactless, J/Speedy, mBlox, mFoundry, Microsoft, m-Wallet, Obopay, payWave, Mayo Clinic InTouch, NTT DoCoMo, PayPal Credit Card, Privium, Samsung, telSpace, Telzuit's Bio-Patch PDA,
Telemedicine & eHealth Directory 2005, Verisign, ViVOtech, FeliCa, [2], Mifare [2], NFC Forum, Blackberry, Ubuntu mobile, Globe Telecom and Smart Communications

Can Medical Banking Connect the Healthcare IT Dots for Politicians?

<ed.note>John Casillas testified today before the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) American Health Information Community concerning the medical banking vision of a unified view and unified platform to connect EHR|PHR, real-time adjudication, Healthcare Savings Accounts, High Deductible Health Plans, Consumer Driven Healthcare. AHIC decided at its November 29, 2005 meeting to form workgroups in the following areas: biosurveillance, consumer empowerment, chronic care, and electronic health records. Subsequently, at the May 16, 2006 Community meeting, two additional groups were formed: the Biosurveillance Data Steering Group as a sub-workgroup within the Biosurveillance Workgroup (renamed Population Health and Clinical Care Connections Workgroup), and the Confidentiality, Privacy & Security Workgroup, which was created as a cross-cutting workgroup responsible for an issue relevant to all the workgroups. More recent, at the August 1, 2006, meeting, the Community formed the Quality Workgroup to address the need for the development of quality measures; and at the October 31, 2006, meeting, the Personalized Healthcare Workgroup was formed to develop and make recommendations on standards for interoperable integration of genomic test information into personal e-health records.</ed.note>

Disintermediate Me! [ was Banking 2.0 ]

<ed.note>Updated Updated Update: MarketPlace on Prosper.com<ed.note>

BofA joins in. Update: why stop with banking when you can trade stocks free at Zecco. I'm waiting for the Mortgage and Healthcare Savings Account combo product offering to hit the holistic wealth market...

According to their web site, Zopa is coming to the U.S.

Three Massachusetts Communities Chosen To Be Test Cases For Digital Health Records

March 29, 2005 By Marianne Kolbasuk McGee, InformationWeek

Backed by $50 million from a health insurer, the multiyear project will test whether digital health records can cut errors and costs in the real world.

Three Massachusetts communities have been chosen as pilot sites for an electronic-health-record project that could serve as the model for statewide adoption of digitized medical-record systems.

... Within each community, health-care providers--including acute-care hospitals or group hospitals, physician practices, long-term care facilities, nursing and home health-care agencies, and community health centers--will implement interoperable E-health records systems.

Call the Ontologist -- Stat!

The future of the internet according to Tim Berners-Lee

Federal Reserve Board Eyes New Role in Medical Banking

The Medical Banking Report, July|August Vol. 3, No. 4

As ONCHIT seeks to harmonize standards, technology and architecture to create an electronic health records system, another effort suddenly finds itself in the landscape of the possible for implementing our “medical internet”.

While related to the work of the Medical Banking Project, the new “Independent Health Record Bank” (IHRB) is far different. Yet the profile of IHRBs in medical banking was signficantly raised when a new House bill seeking to establish IHRBs appointed the Federal Reserve Board (FRB) as the governance agency.

Because IHRBs can emerge external to existing banking infrastructure, MBProject doesn’t classify it as a pure medical banking play. Core to medical banking is leveraging existing banking systems for healthcare. Yet if IHRBs gain traction banks will likely get much more involved, especially if the FRB is involved.

“Yes, the IHRB can be implemented outside of banks but it can also work within the banking community,” insists Amnon Shabo, PhD., in an email to MBR. Shabo, who did early work in creating the IHRB model, works at IBM’s Almaden Institute in Haifa, Israel. Yet offering the new service could present challenges to banks. The proposed “Independent Health Record Bank Act of 2006” suggests that IHRBs are non-profit entities only, and that they are right off the bat, a HIPAA clearinghouse.

Bills stoke debate about health records

June 16, 2006 by Rob Roberts, Staff Writer, Kansas City Business Journal

Banks say they have systems, know-how

Legislation introduced by two members of Kansas' congressional delegation is sparking debate about who should become the bankers of Americans' electronic health records -- financial institutions or independent health record banks.

U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, a Republican, introduced the Independent Health Record Bank Act on June 6. U.S. Rep. Dennis Moore, a Democrat, filed a nearly identical House version two days later.

The bills call for independent health record banks to be formed by nonprofit cooperatives that, for a fee, would maintain members' lifetime electronic health records and make them accessible through swipe cards.

Some sources, however, say it makes more sense to build a nationwide health information network on top of the banking industry's existing financial infrastructure.

"We're advancing a model that is much more bank-centric than the independent health record bank model," said John Casillas, executive director of a Franklin, Tenn., think tank called the Medical Banking Project.

Casillas said the financial industry is positioned to roll out health record banking quicker and less expensively due to its nationwide electronic networks, 55 million online customers and existing accounts with health care providers and insurers.

Banks that provide services such as cash disbursement for health plans or lockbox check-processing for health care providers already must be compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

"So the next step is: What services can banks add onto these HIPAA-compliant platforms we're building?" Casillas said.

The Medical Banking Project, which plans to launch a demonstration pilot next year, envisions a day when bank-issued swipe cards will allow health care providers to verify insurance coverage, receive payment from patients' bank accounts and access their electronic health records.

The Independent Health Record Bank Act

"Brownback bill would centralize medical records", Kansas City Business Journal

<ed.note>Hmmm, doesn't this sound vaguely familiar?</ed.note>

U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., introduced the Independent Health Record Bank Act on Tuesday, and a companion bill is expected to be introduced later this week in the U.S. House.

The Senate bill, which doesn't yet have a number, was previewed during Brownback's April 14 visit to Cerner Corp. in North Kansas City. Health care information companies like Cerner could profit from the bill by providing necessary technology for the independent record banks.

The Independent Record Bank Act provides legal and regulatory guidelines for establishing the banks by nonprofit cooperative institutions similar to member-owned credit unions.

H.A.T.’s Off to PNC Bank

May/June 2006  Vol. 3, No.3, The MEDICAL BANKING REPORT

Over the past two months, PNC Bank has placed a stake in the ground in the evolving medical banking industry. Besides conducting a survey that helps to lay important groundwork for establishing the value of emerging medical banking services, (Mar/Apr Issue), the bank also organized a new annual seminar featuring prominent healthcare plans and provider systems.

PNC Bank, however, was saving the best for last.

On April 19 the newswires heralded a breakthrough in the medical banking space. PNC acquired a health data clearinghouse – Healthcare Administration Technologies, Inc., (H.A.T.) of Tulsa, OK – and announced that it will now offer services that streamline the entire claims process between
the healthcare provider and the insurance company.

The new integrated platform marks a first in the industry. Other acquisitions of health data management firms by banks have folded (First American/SSI; BoNY/CSI; Nation’s/Covation).
These acquisitions didn’t, however, position the asset within the bank’s treasury management services area.

In fact, MBProject contends that it is precisely this type of alignment – linking cash management and health data management assets – that creates new value for healthcare. Getting behind this new commercial idea has taken the banking and healthcare industries some time, but today, it is now the topic of growing focus.

More here

Bird Flu XML [was: ebXML at the CDC has been a success story]

Integration languages make B2B communication more effective

April 7, 2005 By Johanna Ambrosio, SearchCIO.com

... Granted, it's early going, according to experts, and adopting these kinds of communications protocols is anything but a quick-and-dirty kind of project. It can take years for systems to be built and for customers and partners to be brought fully into the loop.

But that's not stopping the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta. The federal watchdog organization over flu, hepatitis and other health threats has based the messaging portion of its new Public Health Information Network (PHIN) on ebXML. The protocol will act as the standard means for exchanging messages among all 50 states and the CDC. Other users -- including clinical facilities and medical laboratories around the country -- will be brought in as well, said Barry Rhodes, associate director for public health systems development.

At this point, PHIN has been implemented in about 15 state health departments, with the rest to be rolled out over the next three years, Rhodes said. PHIN, based on a bevy of computing and other standards, is about the secure and reliable exchange of information. It's envisioned to be a unifying framework built on top of existing standards whenever possible; for instance, Secure Sockets Layer and some Java technologies are included in the system as well.

For its part, ebXML is "the envelope into which we put messages," Rhodes explained. "Some are XML messages and some are not."

The CDC chose ebXML as the underlying message transport because it liked its approach. "The developers of ebXML looked at the business need of interactions between business partners, of how that could happen." Rhodes said. "We needed that business process modeling perspective that ebXML provides. [In comparison,] Web services tools take a bottoms-up approach -- that approach is more of a solution to a technical issue, of how to distribute functionality across servers and the Internet."

So far, ebXML at the CDC has been a "success story," because it has allowed much greater interoperability than what previously occurred among the states, Rhodes said. "Our ROI is about communication and getting more information to and from the CDC."

Rhodes was not able to share specific data, but he talked about one application -- in operation for years -- that gathers information about notifiable public health threats, including E. coli bacteria and the chickenpox.

"We look at the data and analyze it for things like latency and the amount of data received -- and we have compared those to what was happening pre-PHIN," Rhodes explained. "We've seen a demonstrable increase in the amount of data and a decrease in information latency."

The biggest threat to ebXML adoption, he said, is that it's early enough in the technology's lifecycle that it's not yet a sure bet that all the major computing vendors will support it. "It's one thing to put forth a standard," he said, "but if Microsoft and IBM choose not to implement it, that makes it very difficult. Predicting the future is a hard thing." ...

Open Healthcare Framework (OHF) Project using IHE/XDS ebXML Registry [was: IBM To Launch Electronic Medical-Record-Sharing Project { or ebIBM }]

Posted by David Webber at ebforum news and ebxmlforum.net

The Open Healthcare Framework (OHF) Project is using the IHE/XDS secure document server developed by NIST using the ebXML Registry OMAR open source implementation - (http://www.freebxml.org).

At the recent IHE connectathon and HIMSS showcase the OHF team demonstrated a full XDS system, end to end. The XDS system includes XDS Registry, Repository, PIX server, ATNA, and all related clients - Document Consumer, Source, PIX/PDQ, CT. and ATNA.

The project includes collaboration between IBM, BEA, Mayo Clinic, Cisco Systems and other clinical participants.

For more information on the project see the website: http://www.eclipse.org/ohf/

TennCare Saves Lives Coalition on TREAT bill (TennCare Reform, Ethics, Accountability, and Transparency Act of 2006, House Bill 2536)

By Tony Garr, Executive Director, TN Health Care Campaign, 1103 Chapel Ave., Nashville, TN 37206 1-800-280-8682

It is time to take action and let your voice be heard.

Currently, our TennCare reform bill is in the House Commerce Industrial Impact Sub-Committee of the Commerce Committee in the state legislature. The members of this committee and the counties that they represent are listed below. These legislators, in particular, need to hear from you before Wednesday. If you live in one of these counties below, I also need to hear from you. Email me your mailing address and phone number and a copy of your letter, fax, or email, tgarr@thcc2.org or if you called them, let me know. You can call your state legislators toll free by calling 1-800-449-8366 and by using the last 5 digits of their phone number below. If you do not live in the one of the counties below, please contact your state senator and state representative with the same message below.

Your message: Ask legislators to co-sponsor and support the TREAT bill (TennCare Reform, Ethics, Accountability, and Transparency Act of 2006, House Bill 2536). Ask the legislators below to vote for moving the bill out of the House Commerce Industrial Impact Sub-Committee when it comes up for a vote and ask them how they are going to vote). For summary of this bill, see below. For a copy of the bill, go to www.tenncare.org

Chair - Representative Bob McKee (McMinn county and part of Monroe county, including Tellico Plains, Rural Vale, Coker Creek ), 615-741-1946, rep.bob.mckee@legislature.state.tn.us

Representative Charles Curtiss (White county, eastern part of Putnam, and north and eastern parts of Warren county ), 615-741-1963, rep.charles.curtiss@legislature.state.tn.us

Representative John DeBerry (Part of Shelby county), 615-741-2239, rep.john.deberry@legislature.state.tn.us

Representative Dennis Ferguson (Roane county, and northern part and Lenoir City of Loudon county), 615-741-7658, rep.dennis.ferguson@legislature.state.tn.us

Representative Bill Harmon (Sequatchie, Van Buren, Grundy, and Marion counties), 615-741-6849, rep.bill.harmon@legislature.state.tn.us

Representative Joe McCord (Eastern half of Blount county and southern half of Sevier county), 615-741-5481, rep.joe.mccord@legislature.state.tn.us

Representative Richard Montgomery (Northern half of Sevier county), 615-741-5981, rep.richard.montgomery@legislature.state.tn.us

Representative Dennis Roach, (Claiborne, Grainger and north western part of Jefferson county), 615-741-2534, rep.dennis.roach@legislature.state.tn.us

Representative Charles Sargent (North central part of Williamson county), 615-741-6808, rep.charles.sargent@legislature.state.tn.us

Representative David Shepard (Dickson and northern part of Hickman county), 615-741-3513, rep.david.shepard@legislature.state.tn.us

Healthcare Standards: Too Many, Too Few, Not interoperable [Updated Update]

Global standard for avian vaccines needed - expert

Dec 8, 2005 By Patricia Reaney

LONDON (Reuters) - International standards should be set for avian vaccines to combat the spread of the deadly H5N1 bird flu in chickens, a leading virologist said on Thursday.

Unlike influenza vaccines for humans which must contain a minimum amount of antigen to stimulate an immune response, no figure had been stipulated for avian vaccines, said Dr Robert Webster of St Jude's Children's Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.

"We should at least establish a minimal level," he told a briefing during a meeting on emerging diseases in London.

"There are no international standards. There should be."

Top Financial Firms Architecting with XML

November 4, 2005 Vance McCarthy, Integrator Development News

Last month, Reuters unveiled a new XML-based secure trade notification system that enables financial institutions to manage their trading capital and risk exposures better as well as improve operational efficiency.

Reuters' service, already selected by Lehman Brothers, offers a trade messaging hub to make a variety of financial integrations easier and cheaper. At its core, Reuters Trade Notification Service (RTNS) is a trade messaging hub that facilitates the electronic transfer of all trade related messages. The service is already operational and is undergoing a controlled introduction.

RTNS will initially focus on trade affirmation and confirmation, and will be expanded to cover allocation and settlement instructions, amongst others. The service will support industry standard message formats such as FIX, FPML, as well as FIX and TWIST...

The FpML spec arises from consensus on XML for financial services reached by UBS Warburg, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Citigroup and others, under the umbrella of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA), the international trade association for derivatives traders.

A Guide To Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Coverage for people with developmental disabilities

This Web site will help individuals who receive Medicaid and Medicare benefits, known as dual eligibles, their families and caregivers, and advocates for people with disabilities nationwide understand the new Medicare prescription drug coverage, called Part D.  Dual eligibles must make decisions about which Medicare prescription drug plan will provide access to the medications they need. 

For dual eligibles, Medicaid’s prescription drug coverage will end on December 31, 2005 and the new plans will begin on January 1, 2006, so time is of the essence.

Need to Develop Global Standards for Smart Card ID Applications

Palo Alto, Calif. — November 7, 2005 — In the wake of increasing security concerns, the incorporation of secure identity management systems is assuming top priority for enterprises and governments worldwide. However, tight deadlines, lack of consensus and security loopholes has created considerable confusion in crucial programs such as the e-passport project.

Smart card organizations and governments need to work together in developing global standards for ID applications. Further, open platforms, which are expected to play a key role in this segment due to their scalability and security features, will have to evolve as strong foundations for the credible execution of such vital applications.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan (www.smartcards.frost.com), World Battle of Platforms, reveals that unit shipments for open platform cards totaled 400 million in 2004 and projects to reach to 1.15 billion by 2011.

Leading Global Advisors Join the Medical Banking Project to provide guidance for it's open source, open standards-based initiative

Franklin, TN (October 31, 2005) The Medical Banking Project has announced the ratification of an initial set of Advisory Board members related to its open source, open standards-based initiative called "C.O.M.B.A.T." for "Cooperative Open-source Medical Banking Architecture and Technology". The effort, intended to spur industry adoption of medical banking principles and technology, targets rising healthcare costs by implementing a real time administrative and clinical messaging test platform that banks can use to engage all healthcare stakeholders, including consumers.

"We are delighted that these prominent organizations have joined our membership-driven effort as advisors. We want to help banks to help their healthcare customers speed adoption of a 'medical internet'," said John Casillas, founder and executive director of MBProject.

The C.O.M.B.A.T. Advisory Board members include, by stakeholder:

* Healthcare Providers: American Hospital Association, Solutions (AHA)

* Banks: The National Clearing House (NCHA)

* Consumers: National Health Council (NHC); Consumers for Healthcare Choices (CHCChoices); Family Voices; National Center for Charitable Statistics (NCCS) at The Urban Institute

* Healthcare IT: Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS); Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE); Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission (EHNAC)

* Employers: Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG)

MBProject has attracted a growing list of prominent supporters that include The Walt Disney Company, Covisint, United Healthcare/Exante, Lasalle Bank/ABN AMRO, PNC Bank, ACS, Fiserv, Revolution Healthcare Group/ConnectYourCare, PricewaterhouseCoopers, BearingPoint, Duke's Fuqua School of Business and many others. Members, organized into six workgroups, provide input into a Steering Committee that in turn directs subcommittee work to build and test the platform. Use cases will focus on lockbox specialization (speeding X12N 835 remittance adoption), real-time administrative messaging (settling medical claims in real time), bank-driven Personal Healthcare Records and optimizing community safety net resources.

"The banking community can make a significant contribution to healthcare. Our initiative is as much about broadcasting this unique opportunity for all stakeholders as it is about implementing a platform," comments Casillas. "We are entering a very exciting and dynamic phase at MBProject with leading organizations. Our members, now assisted by an Advisory Board, will make a positive contribution towards implementing a digital healthcare environment that reduces costs and saves lives."

THELMA to Provide Financial Transactions in US Health Network

ICSGlobal Limited has signed a Letter of Intent with MedAccess Plus Health Informatics Network (MAPHIN), for THELMA to provide financial transactions such as insurance eligibility checking and electronic claims and remittance into MAPHIN's Health Informatics Network. The combined platform will be then rolled out across the United States, the world's largest healthcare market with over 30 billion electronic healthcare transactions per annum. MAPHIN is a Kentucky-based eHealth firm with swipe-card driven Electronic Health Record (EHR) technology that uses the Internet to integrate information generated by medical providers, insurers, hospitals and patients into a comprehensive EHR. The plan is to integrate THELMA's any-to-any electronic transaction technology with MAPHIN's EHR technology. The combined technologies will cover all functionality scenarios required to transform the US health system, and put MAPHIN and ICSGlobal at the forefront of eHealth system providers in the US.

The Letter of Intent outlines a non-exclusive arrangement between ICSGlobal and MAPHIN, with each party earning revenues principally through transaction fees from their respective technologies. MAPHIN will represent the MAPHIN/THELMA Network in the US. While there may be joint opportunities for the MAPHIN/THELMA Network in countries other than America, the initial working relationship will focus on the US health care industry. ICSGlobal and MAPHIN commenced a Proof of Concept for electronic claims and remittance in August, which is planned to be completed this calendar year. The Proof of Concept will see the MAPHIN/THELMA Network configured to send and receive transactions in 18 States of the US. The plan is then to implement the MAPHIN/THELMA Network on parallel fronts: firstly beginning in Kentucky, connecting health care providers to private health insurers as well as the State-based government Medicaid systems, then replicating this system through the other 18 States. In parallel, the Top 50 employers will be targeted, who are major payers in the US healthcare system. Discussions are in progress with General Motors and The Walt Disney Company.

ICSGlobal and MAPHIN met through their participation in the Medical Banking Project, a Tennessee-based firm whose objective is to integrate banking technology, infrastructure and credit resources with healthcare administrative operations to alleviate inefficiencies (see www.mbproject.org). John Casillas, the Founder and Executive Director of the Medical Banking Project, said the teaming of ICSGlobal and MAPHIN is indicative of a quickly expanding market opportunity for real-time healthcare transaction processing, not just in the US but around the world. "A highly secure and scalable web services architecture that is accessible via a simple card-swipe, like the MAPHIN/THELMA Network, can dramatically transform healthcare cost and quality. Even the large US employers are forming initiatives with the Medical Banking Project to implement this type of technology to contain soaring healthcare costs. We are at the ground floor of real-time financial and clinical processing in global healthcare markets, and the MAPHIN/THELMA Network is well placed to capitalise on this" says Casillas.

Released by: ICSGlobal Limited. For further information or media inquiries:
Tim Murray
Managing Director
ICSGlobal Limited
Ph: (02) 9247 2111
Tim.Murray @ icsglobal.net

About ICSGlobal and THELMA
ICSGlobal Limited is a publicly listed Australian company whose core business is the ownership and operation of the unique "any-to-any" health industry clearing house technology THELMA (Transactional Health Exchange Linking Multiple Applications). THELMA creates interoperability between the broad range of new and legacy software systems that typically exist in health systems. This enables health industry business partners in any country to conduct financial, clinical and administrative transactions electronically over the Internet. For more information visit www.icsglobal.net and www.thelma.com.au.

About MAPHIN
MedAccess Plus Health Informatics Network (MAPHIN) is a Kentucky-based eHealth firm with swipe-card driven Electronic Health Record (EHR) technology that uses the Internet to integrate information generated by medical providers, insurers, hospitals and patients into a comprehensive EHR. MAPHIN's Chief Executive Officer, Dr Steven Spady, is a highly respected Family Physician in Kentucky with a Master of Medical Management from Carnegie Mellon University. Dr Spady is seen as a leader in the field of eHealth, communicating his vision for real-time, integrated healthcare information processes to government and private health organisations since 1998. MAPHIN's Chief Technology Officer, John Hardin, is seen as a leader in the Internet business field. Mr Hardin most recently served as Chief Architect of e-Business for General Motors, and is the current chair of the OASIS e-business Service Oriented Architecture Technical Committee. For more information visit www.maphin.net.

Leavitt and Cerise: Katrina demonstrates the need for an interoperable health information exchange

Marchibroda: E-health work keeps pace, Sept. 16, 2005, By Janet M. Marchibroda, govhealthit.com

Interest in the room was extremely high, beginning with the first general session, during which Mike Leavitt, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, punctuated his remarks with verbal snapshots of his encounters with victims of Hurricane Katrina at temporary health facilities in Louisiana. Dr. Frederick Cerise, secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, joined us by telephone from Louisiana and spoke of the challenges that people there face.

Their firsthand accounts of the plight of those left homeless or displaced by the hurricane and the unforeseen loss of thousands of paper medical records underscored the need for an interoperable health information exchange.

Sri Lankan OSS in Healthcare

Lighting Up the Hospital at Nidahas.com

<ed.note>My thanks to James Governor of RedMonk for passing this permalink!</ed.note>

One of the biggest issues with software applications are that they don’t always take in to account the end user. As a result, there are many people who have issues easily solved, that aren’t solved because they don’t have the necessary knowledge. Dr. Nandalal Gunaratne used to be just an end user, but now he’s become part of a program to make good use of LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP/Perl/Python) for the Health Services.

Dr. Gunaratne started off his presentation by mentioning his postition as an end user and asked everyone to bear with him if he doesn’t use as many technical terms as the other speakers. After that, there was an interesting mention of the ruins of an ancient hospital in Mihintale. The story behind this would be explained later.

Apparently, there’s a huge need for Health Information Technology (HIT), so that’d be a great place for people start looking into. This is mainly due to the fact that data needs to be collected, manipulated and analysed a lot. Also, there was a need to shift from text based applications (which had been in use earlier) to Graphical User Interfaces (GUI) in order to enable the applications to be used by non-IT staff - i.e. doctors, nurses etc.

One of the main highlights of the presentation was the statement made with regard to the need for Electronic Medical Records (EMR) which the doctor says, are required “from Womb to Tomb”. So much so, that sometimes the staff ask parents at Kalubowila (Colombo South) Hospital for the kids’ names, before they’re even born. This is probably quite disturbing for the parents, since many would be waiting to check for auspicious names based on the time the kid is born, but I digress.

Teachers Federation Health signs up for THELMA

Teachers Federation Health ("Teachers"), the private health fund for educational union members and their families, have signed a three year User Agreement to use THELMA for eligibility checking and now have the ability to receive claims electronically.

Teachers is the ninth largest health fund in Australia, with some 77,000 members. Teachers is also the largest of the 23 health funds that use the HAMBS member management software, which THELMA is fully integrated to. Teachers will go live on THELMA next week.

For more information about Teachers, visit http://www.teachershealth.com.au.

About ICSGlobal and THELMA
ICSGlobal's core business is the ownership and operation of the unique "any-to-any" health industry clearing house technology THELMA (Transactional Health Exchange Linking Multiple Applications).  THELMA creates interoperability between the broad range of new and legacy software systems that typically exist in health systems. This enables health industry business partners in any country to conduct financial, clinical and administrative transactions electronically over the Internet. For more information visit www.icsglobal.net and www.thelma.com.au. For further information or media inquiries:

Tim Murray
Managing Director
ICSGlobal Limited
Ph: (02) 9247 2111

Hurricane Katrina - Testing Our Resolve To Do Better

By John Casillas, Founder, The Medical Banking Project

One of the worst hurricanes to hit Amerian shores evolved into a quagmire of epic proportions: poor communications, inadequate response to a post-disaster crime wave, infrastructure collapse, inaccessibility to bank accounts and healthcare records and much more. The outcry from the media has been steady: why didn't we respond sooner? Its hard to cast blame in a situation that morphed beyond the collective expectations of a nation. Were preparedness systems in place? Yes. Were these systems overwhelmed? Absolutely. Should we cast blame? Probably not. But we can do better.

The fact is that everyday, emergency units in communities across America respond to crisis. While these "mini-episodes" don't equal the impact of a Katrina, they are demanding and persistent and they impact quality of life. A systemic collapse of response, however, must be reviewed with a critical eye. Beyond the blame game, how can we fix things to do better?

One area that could help is the implementation of technology that is interoperable; specifically in the area of communications, healthcare and banking. We call this area "medical banking communications". These key systems form a fundamental response axis in every community. Yet the ability to send messages seamlessly among these stakeholders is for the most part, non-existant today. MBProject's C.O.M.B.A.T. initiative could change this.

The C.O.M.B.A.T. Initiative (stands for "Cooperative Open-source Medical Banking Architecture & Technology") has a driving mission: to fight against rising healthcare costs using medical banking principles and technology. Inherent to this effort is creating a seamless process between banking and healthcare systems that expedite payments and/or leverage existing banking systems to open information-rich portals (like online banking portals) that provide access to electronic health records. Another aspect of the platform is identity management, which can help folks access funds when the local banking system is compromised. The confidence level you expect when accessing your funds or your medical records is pretty much equivalent, so identity management is a key area that should be linked in a medical banking model.

In addition, MBProject has launched Charitable Communities Network to develop a bank-driven plan for helping charity, non-profit and faith-based healthcare communities to funnel help in areas where it is needed. By providing logistics, providers in emergency situations are able to gain quick access to help and thus care can be better coordinated and delivered. Integrating funding to this platform allows third parties like foundations, charity organizations, churches and others, to steer funds to discrete areas based on preference or need.

Finally, communications plays a vital role in this process, whether voice, data or video. Merging the nation's communications infrastructure to support medical banking interactions will improve first response systems and assist biosurveliance, prepardness and support "command post" functions that are necessary to drive responsive action.

John Casillas
Chair, Medical Banking Institute
Executive Director, Medical Banking Project
320 Main St., Ste. 230
Franklin, TN 37064
v: 615.794.2009, ext. 3
f: 615.794.1481
http://www.mbproject.org

eHealth, New Orleans - Revisited

Nic Robertson, CNN Senior International Correspondent, reported that in Jefferson parish recently families had to have photographic I.D. and show they have residency in the area. What would have been truly helpful for those who got out of New Orleans and needed medical attention would have been if that photo id were on the front of a portable healthcare infocard connected to a medical internet that allows for storage and back up of electronic healthcare data in more than one location (if necessary). While one set of servers is no less waterptoof than your local doc's paper files, wouldn't it be cool if, as a consumer, you could take a recent snapshot of your electronic healthcare record and have it held in a private, consumer medical data vault somehwere? When's the last time your doc suggested xeroxing your files at her|his office and storing it in a safe place?

ebXML registry suited for SOA complexities, say proponents

Sept. 05,  2005 By Colleen Frye, SearchWebServices.com
 
As deployments of service-oriented architectures grow more complex, the need for federated information management and governance is emerging -- areas for which an ebXML registry is particularly well suited, according to proponents. As such, the OASIS ebXML Registry Technical Committee is hitting the virtual road this month with webinars aimed at educating attendees on the features and capabilities of the ebXML Registry v3.0, which OASIS approved as a standard in May.

Use of an ebXML registry is also "an obvious next step for people looking to migrate from EDI [electronic data interchange]," said Carl Mattocks, consultant and project leader, asset inventory process improvement for Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. in Bridgewater, N.J., and a member of the technical committee (TC). Among vertical industries, Mattocks said e-government and health care are early implementers and, he predicted, "are obvious places where you'll see growth."
    
Vertical industry groups that have implementations of ebXML Registry include the Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) initiative, the Data Interchange Standards Association (DISA), and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). "NIST has created a registry to help people register artifacts across the Web," Mattocks said.

ebXML Registry v3.0 Webinars - Thursday, 15 Sept 2005

Discover the advantages of the new ebXML Registry v3.0 OASIS Standard from the people who developed it. The OASIS ebXML Registry Technical Committee invites you to attend an open webinar to learn more about how ebXML Registry enables secure, federated information management within and across enterprises.

ebXML Registry provides the functionality you need to manage electronic artifacts for SOA including WSDL, XML Schema, BPEL, e-business and other process descriptions, ebXML Collaboration Protocol Profiles and Core Components, as well as application-specific artifacts. The OASIS Standard promotes service discovery and interoperability, while enabling secure, efficient sharing, reuse, and version control of artifacts. ebXML Registry can also be implemented for event or information asset registry and repository. In fact, any requirement you have for describing and registering items of interest to an organization can be accomplished with ebXML Registry.

ebXML Registry is particularly suited to support application- and domain-specific use cases. The fully ratified OASIS Standard has been adopted and deployed in vertical industries including government, health care, geospatial, telecommunications, banking, and finance.

http://www.oasis-open.org/events/webinars/webinars.php

Health IT leaders congregate

Aug. 16, 2005 By Janet M. Marchibroda, FCW.com

The number of policy changes on tap that relate to quality and health information technology are at an all-time high, both within the Bush administration and in Congress. The eHealth Initiative will host the second annual Health Information Technology Summit (www.hitsummit.com) Sept. 7- 9, 2005, in Washington, D.C. The summit will bring together national, regional and state stakeholders to discuss the current menu of emerging policy changes relevant to eHealth Initiative and its goals.

Health IT has been increasingly at the forefront of public and private sector efforts to improve health care safety, quality and efficiency. The federal government, Congress, some states and private sector leaders have responded with the introduction of a myriad of policies and strategies designed to improve the American health care system through IT.

Vendors to Highlight Interoperability

August 08, 2005 Health Data Management

The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society has issued a call for information technology vendors to participate in an interoperability showcase at the 2006 HIMSS Conference and Exhibition, Feb. 12-16 in San Diego.

... Vendors wishing to participate in the 2006 HIMSS Interoperability Showcase are required to also participate in the IHE North American Connectathon in January. Additional information is available at www.ihe.net/connectathon/index.cfm and interoperabilityshowcase.org.

MBP Health Savings Account Workgroup Online Meeting

The Medical Banking Project is hosting an open Health Savings Account (HSA) Workgroup meeting (held online) on Monday, August 22, 2005 at 1:00 pm CDT. The HSA Workgroup is led by Dave Harris, National Healthcare Revenue Cycle Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers and MBProject's Dr. HSA columnist. The online session will continue the work of the first HSA Workgroup meeting held at the 2005 Medical Banking Leadership Forum, an exclusive MBProject membership event that was hosted at the Vanderbilt Center for Better Health in Nashville, TN in July.

"The HSA environment is driving convergence between banks and healthcare in ways that are hard to imagine today. David Harris' vision is that one day we will be able to walk up to a medical kiosk, swipe a card and purchase the healthcare required with no further obligations, much like how we purchase airline tickets online today. No paper trail of confusing statements or EOBs but a seamless, real time process. That took some time to develop, required bank participation and industry consensus, but was well worth the effort," comments John Casillas, founder of MBProject.

At the Forum, MBProject officially announced a new open source project dubbed "C.O.M.B.A.T." for "Cooperative Open-source Medical Banking Architecture and Technology". The initiative of the mission is to "combat the rising costs of healthcare using medical banking principles and technology". The HSA Workgroup represents one of six workgroups that will build out business level requirements and operating protocols that will be programmed into the reference architecture and tested in three safety net settings. The HSA Workgroup will build out real time administrative processing rules. The C.O.M.B.A.T. effort has gained increasing support among large employers, financial services firms and technology firms.

Registration for the event is required. MBProject members may place reservations at any time until Thursday, August 18th, by emailing us at evc@mbproject.org. Non-members may send an email to info@mbproject.org to reserve seating, which is limited to the first 50 non-member registrants.

Can a National Healthcare Information Network Work?

strategy+business and Knowledge@Wharton

A central medical records database could yield economic and social benefits. However, the network will only succeed if it is designed for all healthcare system stakeholders.

It’s been five years since scientists mapped the human genome — and nearly 40 years since doctors completed the first successful heart transplant — but in the realm of information technology, healthcare’s miracles are limited. Even as so many other industries have shown that handling information electronically is cheaper, faster, and more accurate than using written records, hospitals and doctors have stuck with their paper trails. A recent study by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that only 31 percent of hospital emergency departments, 29 percent of outpatient departments, and 17 percent of doctors’ offices use electronic medical records.

The Costs of a National Health Information Network

2 August 2005 | Volume 143 Issue 3 | Pages 165-173 Annals of Internal Medicine

Rainu Kaushal, MD, MPH; David Blumenthal, MD, MPP; Eric G. Poon, MD, MPH; Ashish K. Jha, MD, MPH; Calvin Franz, PhD; Blackford Middleton, MD, MPH, MSc; John Glaser, PhD; Gilad Kuperman, MD, PhD; Melissa Christino, AB; Rushika Fernandopulle, MD, MPP; Joseph P. Newhouse, PhD; David W. Bates, MD, MSc, and the Cost of National Health Information Network Working Group

Background: The use of information technology may result in a safer and more efficient health care system. However, consensus does not exist about the structure or costs of a national health information network (NHIN).

Objectives: To describe the potential structure and estimate the costs of an NHIN.

Design: Cost estimates of an NHIN model developed by an expert panel.

Setting: U.S. health care system.

Measurements: An expert panel estimated the existing and the expected prevalence in 5 years of critical information technology functionalities. They then developed a model of an achievable NHIN by defining key providers, functionalities, and interoperability functions. By using these data and published cost estimates, the authors determined the cost of achieving this model NHIN in 5 years given the current state of information technology infrastructure.

Results: To achieve an NHIN would cost $156 billion in capital investment over 5 years and $48 billion in annual operating costs. Approximately two thirds of the capital costs would be required for acquiring functionalities and one third for interoperability. Ongoing costs would be more evenly divided between functionality and interoperability. If the current trajectory continues, the health care system will spend $24 billion on functionalities over the next 5 years or about one quarter of the cost for functionalities of a model NHIN.

Limitations: Because of a lack of primary data, the authors relied on expert estimates.

Conclusions: While an NHIN will be expensive, $156 billion is equivalent to 2% of annual health care spending for 5 years. Assessments such as this one may assist policymakers in determining the level of investment that the United States should make in an NHIN.

SOA, Web services better health services

July 28, 2005 by John S. Webster, Computerworld

Health care has lagged behind other industries in implementing SOAs, for both budgetary and historic reasons. IT budgets in the sector are a fraction of those in other industries. To make matters worse, HL7 didn't include XML support until this past May. Moreover, the industry groups behind Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE), a 7-year-old project of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society and the Radiology Society of North America, are just now planning to include XML schemas in the framework.

Health I.T. Bill on Senate Floor

July 20, 2005 HealthDataManagement

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on July 20 reported the recently introduced health care information technology legislation from a bipartisan group of Senate leaders. The bill now moves to the Senate floor for consideration and a vote. The bill is on a fast track; it’s being sent to the floor only two days after being introduced.

The Wired for Health Care Quality Act, S. 1418, is designed to encourage provider adoption of interoperable health care information technology. The bill combines elements of previous legislation from Sens. Bill Frist M.D. (R-Tenn.) and Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), and Michael Enzi (R-Wyo.) and Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.).

Text of the bill is not yet available on the congressional Web site, thomas.loc.gov.

Request For Information Centers For Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Role In Personal Health Records

Background of Personal Health Records
Personal health records (PHRs) are an emerging technology to enable people to electronically manage their health information and that of others for whom they are authorized. PHRs allow an individual to store and manage important information about his or her current health status, and their medical history.  PHRs are available in several formats today, such as stand-alone software applications installed on a personal computer, or a website hosted by a private company, provider or insurance agency.  They may be populated by Electronic Health Record systems (EHRs) managed by provider organizations.  Using a PHR can allow an individual to be more involved in his or her own care and health management.  Therefore, PHRs have the potential not only to improve personal and family health but also to support national objectives for health care quality, safety, efficiency and ultimately, health outcomes.

There are currently many models of personal health records. Two broad types of PHRs are evolving in the private and public sectors, distinguished primarily by their relationship to EHRs. One is a patient-facing extension of clinician-controlled EHRs; the other is not routinely linked to the patient’s EHRs.

Some large health care organizations are developing models in the first category. These PHRs give enrollees a view of their EHRs along with other functionalities that facilitate administrative tasks (e.g., appointments and medication refills), health and disease self-management (e.g., exercise or blood pressure records), communication with physicians, and access to health information resources.

Crunch Time For Payment Processors

July 18, 2005 By Steven Marlin, InformationWeek

Transaction-service companies hustle to comply with security standards

As of June 30, any entity that stores, processes, or transmits cardholder data had to comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security standards, which require access-control measures, regular network monitoring and testing, and an information-security policy. Annual security audits and quarterly network scans also are required.

HL7 explained

14 Jul 2005, Tim Benson, e-health-insider.com

HL7 Version 3 is a lingua franca used by healthcare computers to talk to other computers. HL7 V3 has been adopted by NHS Connecting for Health for all national applications, to help provide information when and where needed. The name HL7 comes from 'Healthcare' and the top level (Level 7) of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model, which carries the meaning of information exchanged between computer applications.

Two versions of HL7 are in use – Version 2 and Version 3. This article relates to HL7 Version 3. Version 2 is mainly used within individual hospitals; this article relates to HL7 Version 3.

Study: Most Americans Support E-Health Records

July 20, 2005 By Marianne Kolbasuk McGee, InformationWeek

A whopping 93% of respondents to an Accenture survey say they believe digital health records would improve quality of care, 92% say E-records would reduce treatment errors, 75% say electronic records would cut costs, and 78% say the new methods would reduce waiting times.

Most Americans think electronic health records can boost quality of heath care, reduce wait times, and cut costs, according to a new study released Wednesday by IT services and consulting firm Accenture.

The apparently overwhelming support by consumers for electronic health records was "shocking," says Lewis Redd, a partner in Accenture's provider practice. The online survey of 519 consumers was conducted in March but released now, about one month after Accenture completed its acquisition of the health practice of IT services firm Capgemini. Redd joined Accenture from Capgemini, where he also headed that company's health-provider practice.

"There's lots of groundswell in using IT in health care and delivering electronic health records," Redd says.

Are Open Source Integration Solutions Mature?

by Henry Peyret and Michael Goulde with Andrew Parker, Forrester®, CIO.com

Companies have begun to use open source integration solutions in their critical projects. When compared with commercial integration solutions, the feature coverage of these open source tools remains poor. This is not surprising: Established standards are important as a platform for open source development, but standards bodies have yet to establish many standards in this area — particularly for the most advanced features. Despite this, open source integration solutions represent a viable alternative to commercial integration products for “follower” enterprises. To move forward, Forrester believes that large organizations — particularly government and large enterprises — will increasingly need to invest and participate in open source committees to drive requirements and interoperability standards and fund the development of more capable and coherent open source integration solutions.

Perot Systems Introduces PÉRADIGM™ Healthcare Technologies, A First-Ever Healthcare IT Platform Shared by Customers in an Open-Source Model

Plano, Texas – July 13, 2005 – Perot Systems Corporation today announced the launch of PÉRADIGM™ Healthcare Technologies, a new technology program designed to encourage participating healthcare organizations to adopt standards-based, interoperable information technology.

The PÉRADIGM program features solutions available to Perot Systems’ healthcare outsourcing customers through a unique open-source model that eliminates up-front software license fees and minimizes development costs. The PÉRADIGM portfolio includes application software, standards-based middleware and infrastructure solutions used by Perot Systems customers in all segments of the healthcare industry.

“The PÉRADIGM program represents a powerful engine for innovation and advancement in our industry that will drive technology cost savings and quality improvements,” said Chuck Lyles, president of Perot Systems healthcare group. “Moreover, the PÉRADIGM program can enable our customers to participate quickly in regional connectivity initiatives and the national mandate for healthcare IT transformation.”

Perot Systems’ healthcare outsourcing customers can now implement a common advanced middleware platform based on the company’s services-oriented architecture and a library of other software components. Importantly, PÉRADIGM’s middleware platform will enable users to more easily and cost-effectively integrate legacy systems with newer software applications.

According to Dr. Richard M. Pico, chief medical and technology officer for Perot Systems’ healthcare group, the PÉRADIGM program defines a new industry model for healthcare technology. “Perot Systems has created the first community effort within healthcare that permits customers to share solutions to common needs without the burden of up-front license fees. And, the PÉRADIGM middleware platform provides our community with a healthcare-specific technology for legacy integration, standardization, and interoperability.”

Hope for patient ID dwindles

July 11, 2005 by Nancy Ferris, govhealthit.com

Some health information technology planners have waited for years for the federal government to issue every American a unique personal health identification code, similar to a Social Security number that would distinguish each of the 16,000 William Smiths in America from one another.

But it’s increasingly unlikely that will happen, despite its seemingly obvious appeal for the architects of the national health information network.

And now many of the leaders in the drive to modernize and interconnect the nation’s health information systems say they wouldn’t rely on a single health identifier if one were to be issued.

Instead, they are endorsing two basic strategies:

* Record locator services, which would maintain indexes of patients and where to obtain their health records.

* Probabilistic matching, which is a relatively new technology used in search engines.

People's Guide to the Telecommunications Act of 2006

Alliance for Community Media, Community Media Review - Summer 2005

We, THE PEOPLE, must work TOGETHER to write U.S. Media and Communications laws that serve the public interest as we move into our digital future.

The Telecommunications Act of 2006 must:

• Recognize public access to media & communications as a fundamental human right and the foundation of our democracy.
• Affirm the airwaves and public-rights-of-way as shared public resource to be used expressly for the "public convenience and necessity"
• Enforce the public interest principals of open access, ownership diversity, accountability, local control, and community reinvestment to support non-commercial media and communications.
• Apply equitably across all platforms: Phone, TV and Radio, Cable, Satellite & Broadband Services.

[ebXML, UDDI] Registries mature for SOA management

July 13, 2005 By Colleen Frye, News Writer, SearchWebServices.com

There's a strong need for data and meta data to be presented together and integrated. Miko Matsumura, Vice President of Marketing, Infravio

As service-oriented architecture (SOA) management players build out their offerings, registry, security and contracts between requestors and providers will be key differentiators, according to Steve Garone, vice president for applications and integration infrastructure software at Ideas International, in Port Chester, N.Y.

For Web services, registries and Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI), a Web-based distributed directory standard, were considered enabling technologies -- but optional, Garone said. "As people begin to move toward the new architecture, the registry will become more important to implement an SOA and manage it in a secure way."

The notion of SOA and the virtualization of IT resources add an extra dimension to the service discovery process, he said. "You can say the Web service is called this, this is how it's accessed and what server it runs on. But what happens in real time when you're deploying [that service] on different platforms? A registry has to keep track of that, so it becomes even more important."

Korea's e-Business Solution Testbed To Be Adopted As International [ebXML] Standard

July 13, 2005 By Kim Joon-bae, Korea IT News

e-Business solution testbed developed in Korea is expected to be adopted as international standard next month.

According to government and academia sources, the Korea Agency for Technology and Standards (ATS) and KorBIT, a consortium led by Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), are set to seal accords with the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) next month, respectively, to use ebXML solution testbed as international standard for certification.

The ATS will exchange a comprehensive memorandum of understanding with the OASIS, while KorBIT will sign an agreement with the international organization. Being a non-profit international standardization organization headquartered in the United States, the OASIS is developing ebXML in cooperation with the UN/CEFACT.

The ATS has been developing the e-business solution testbed in conjunction with the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) since July 2003. In this project, the ATS is developing e-commerce message and registration depository, while the NIST is working on the development of electronic documents and business processes.

"As ebXML solution is widely spreading around the world, interoperability of the solution among enterprises is emerging as an important issue. The solution testbed being developed in Korea is about to be adopted as an international standard," said Pak In-su, manager at the ATS.

HP Consortium Releases Open Source Microfinance Banking Solution to Benefit Developing World

New solution to help alleviate global poverty assists financial sector in managing small loans for low-income borrowers

In partnership with a consortium of seven other public and private organizations, HP today announced the global release of an open source microfinance solution that is designed to change the way millions of people in the developing world access credit.

The Remote Transaction System (RTS) – a cost-effective means of tracking loan information even in rural and remote areas with little or no local infrastructure – is the culmination of a two-year collaboration by the group of thought leaders in microfinance, technology and business, and a six-month on-the-ground pilot program in Uganda.

The solution is being made available to developers – with no license fee – through a source code license or as user license executable code. This enables all players in the industry, especially smaller microlenders without the resources to obtain sophisticated software, to benefit from the core technology that was developed and tested by the consortium.

The RTS is composed of a handheld point-of-sale hardware device, a specialized software application, smart cards and an RTS backend system. All transactions captured on the point-of-sale terminal are uploaded to an RTS server, a basic PC. The data then flows from the server to the information management systems of the appropriate microfinance provider.

“True social change will occur when we are reaching hundreds of millions of low-income people with a range of financial services that enable them to build tiny businesses, send their children to school and plan for their future,” said Maria Otero, president and chief executive officer of ACCION International, a member of the consortium. “Mobilizing technology to reach that goal is essential and early results from the HP consortium are very promising.”

Convened by HP, the public-private consortium, known as the Microdevelopment Finance Team, includes ACCION International, Bizcredit, echange LLC, FINCA International, Freedom from Hunger, the Grameen Foundation USA, HP and PRIDE AFRICA. Consortium members have invested more than $2.3 million in grants, direct funding and in-kind support to the initiative. The U.S. Agency for International Development provided an additional $1.2 million in program funding.

“Neither HP nor any of the partner organizations could have accomplished this work alone,” said Janine Firpo, director, Global Multisector Initiatives, HP. “It took the participation of all the members of the consortium to be successful.”

In Uganda, the RTS solution was tested with several different business models and lending methodologies over the course of the pilot program, two of which demonstrated they could return positive value to the microfinance institutions and their clients. A key learning from the pilot was that re-engineering of the entire loan process was as important, if not more important, than technology innovation itself. The maximum benefit of the solution comes when a microfinance institution steps back and reengineers the whole lending process to take advantage of the opportunities – and possibilities – that technology offers.

“The RTS served as a catalyst for our Ugandan affiliate, FOCCAS, to begin a much needed business re-engineering process,” said Beth Porter, vice president, Program Services, Freedom from Hunger. “Even if they had chosen not to proceed with the RTS, what has already been achieved is a remarkable success.”

Also announced today was the incorporation of Sevak Solutions, a new not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization that will provide an open source version of the solution to the microfinance industry. The Microdevelopment Finance Team agreed that passing on key learnings and proven technology to a new group of strategic players would best serve the interests of the microfinance industry and move the effort closer to fulfilling its original vision.

“Sevak Solutions will lead the vision of the microfinance consortium into the future to achieve full breakthrough and impact in scale,” said Laura Frederick, president of consortium member echange, LLC, and who will serve as the acting chief executive officer of Sevak Solutions. “As before, we will continue to work in a collaborative manner to achieve results.”

The announcement was made at the 2005 Financial Sector Development Conference hosted by KfW in Frankfurt, Germany. Titled “New Partnerships for Innovation in Microfinance,” the conference aims to advance partnerships and innovations to grow microfinance delivery and contribute to the UN Millennium Development Goals.

More information is available at www.sevaksolutions.org.
More information about the members of the Microdevelopment Finance Team is available on their respective websites:

ACCION International: www.accion.org

Bizcredit: www.biz-credit.net

echange: www.globalechange.com

FINCA International: www.villagebanking.org

Freedom from Hunger: www.freefromhunger.org

Grameen Foundation USA: www.grameenfoundation.org

PRIDE AFRICA : www.prideafrica.com

About HP

HP is a technology solutions provider to consumers, businesses and institutions globally. The company's offerings span IT infrastructure, global services, business and home computing, and imaging and printing. For the four fiscal quarters ended Apr. 30, 2005, HP revenue totaled $83.3 billion. More information about HP (NYSE, Nasdaq: HPQ) is available at http://www.hp.com.

"C.O.M.B.A.T." Aims At Reducing Healthcare Costs

Effort Will Help Banks And Healthcare Support National Healthcare Information Infrastructure

The Medical Banking Project will officially launch an open source project targeting the cross-industry transaction needs of banking and healthcare constituencies at its 2005 Medical Banking Leadership Forum, hosted in Nashville, TN., at the Vanderbilt Center for Better Health. Dubbed C.O.M.B.A.T. for "Cooperative Open-source Medical Banking Architecture and Technology", the mission of the new membership-driven pilot program is "to combat the rising costs of healthcare using medical banking principles and technology."

"We wanted to implement an open source medical banking project since 1991," said John Casillas, founder of the Medical Banking Project. "The idea is that this type of project will provide real-world case studies that inform policy, commerce and academia."

Discussions with open source advocates materialized into an ad-hoc focus group that matured over the past 9 months. A proposed industry architecture presented at the Medical Banking Institute last February by John Hardin, CIO of MedAccessPlus Health Information Network in Manchester, KY and the former chief architect of e-business for General Motors, drew heavy interest by members of MBProject, which includes banks, healthcare providers, health plans, policy groups, IT/consulting firms, large employers and others.

MBProject workgroups will organize around the new initiative and provide issues resolution as the project gets underway. Leaders of the workgroups form a Steering Committee to oversee the program. An advisory board, comprised of liaisons to industry standards groups, and a Secretariat fill out the governance structure.

"Our first objective is to tie together established open source components that support real time administrative and clinical messaging for healthcare," comments Casillas. "Our targeted pilots – focused on community safety net interactions – will demonstrate how banks can engage the digital transformation in healthcare."

Members of the Medical Banking Project are rallying around the new initiative. For instance, a new HSA Workgroup at MBProject headed by Dave Harris, partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Healthcare Revenue Cycle Practice (also a featured MBProject columnist under the "Dr. HSA" label), will identify business level requirements for implementing real time financial processes in healthcare, and feed those requirements to the C.O.M.B.A.T. programming subcommittee. ACS’ BP Fulmer, a new member of MBProject who heads the commercial EDI division of the national Medicaid processor, said that "banks are seeking more education in this dynamic area and the C.O.M.B.A.T. initiative will provide practical guidance."

Tom Dean, CEO of Critical Technologies, Inc., winner of the Project’s "2005 Person of the Year Award" also expressed support. "Clearly banks have a unique position in that they reach over 55 million online banking consumers and nearly all healthcare organizations via bank accounts." Dean heads the Charity Workgroup at MBProject and is focusing efforts on the first pilots of the C.O.M.B.A.T. architecture, which will bridge community safety net interactions with traditional healthcare settings. The pilots are slated within the states of Tennessee, Delaware and Kentucky.

Casillas says that leveraging existing bank systems that have been rigorously tested against HIPAA requirements, a key early focus of MBProject, will reduce initial and ongoing costs for adopting a national healthcare information infrastructure. He adds that "large employer groups recognize this and that is why they are starting to turn towards MBProject."

For more information on the C.O.M.B.A.T. Initiative, please visit: http://www.mbproject.org/combat-homepage.php

Open up: State open-source effort might force vendors to change

By William Welsh, Deputy Editor, WasingtonTechnology.com

Massachusetts and Rhode Island are nurturing an effort that might be the catalyst for widespread deployment of open-source software for state and local governments.

The Government Open Code Collaborative already has released a half dozen sets of open-source code and is poised to develop e-government applications, officials directing the initiative said.

“One of the things that has come up time and time again is the lack of a really good open-source content management solution geared toward e-government,” said Jim Willis, the collaborative’s technical chairman and e-government director with the Rhode Island’s Office of the Secretary of State. “That’s an arena where the collaborative can leave a permanent mark in the landscape.”

The ascent of open-source code could rock the government over the next decade, forcing software makers to reassess how they sell to state and local governments, and creating a demand for them to routinely develop open-source code, experts said.

But everything needs a starting point, and analysts and industry experts agree that e-gov software applications are ripe for an open-source approach.