Healthcare IT News - January 2008 - (Page 36) 36 Healthcare IT News January 2008 ■ www.HealthcareITNews.com NEWSBRIEFS PhIlIPS caPS BuSy holIday WIth RESPIRoNIcS dEal Dutch IT vendor Philips had a busy Christmas season with four deals. The largest is the planned $5.1 billion purchase of home medical equipment supplier Respironics, based in Pennsylvania and France. Also on the table is a planned $430 million purchase of Baltimore-based Visicu. Earlier in December, the company announced it would buy lighting manfacturer Genlyte Group and hospital alert system supplier Emergin. “We are taking a very important step that will establish Philips as a leader in healthcare beyond the hospital,” said Gerard Kleisterlee, the company’s chief executive. InforMedix dials up the Med-ePhone Health management tool targets chronic conditions. By ErIC WICkluNd, Managing Editor ROCKVILLE, MD - There are approximately 50 million Americans taking three or more medications for the rest of their lives – and those lives may be adversely affected or even cut short if they don’t take their medicine at the right times. InforMedix, a Rockville, Md.-based developer of health management tools, is looking to make the process of medication adherence a bit easier with the launch of the MedePhone, an automated system that not only reminds people to take their medicine but records and monitors patient information for further clinical uses. The Med-ePhone follows on the heels of the Med-eMonitor, an interactive smart pill- “What we’ve designed is a pretty comprehensive mEdIcatIoN adhERENcE SyStEm that’s interactive.” – Bruce A. Kehr, MD box system that was rolled out by InforMedix a few years ago. It’s designed as an entrymEdEpHoNE see page 37 Giving NURSES the TOOLS they need Are healthcare vendors providing high-quality IT applications for nurses? triCipher eyes new uses for MySignatureBook By ErIC WICkluNd, Managing Editor PRactIcE FuSIoN PaRtNERINg WIth PSI, azalEa hEalth Practice Fusion, a San Francisco-based company that provides free online electronic health records to physicians, is partnering with Physician Services, Inc. of California and Azalea Health Innovations, Inc. of Georgia. PSI, one of the largest billing services in California, will provide preferred billing services for the Practice Fusion community, while Azalea, which serves independent practitioners in Georgia and Florida, will add technical and billing consulting services to the company’s offerings. Earlier in December, the company announced a partnership with Zydoc Medical Transcription Services to add medical dictation to its portfolio. SOURCE: SPyGLASS CONSULTING GROUP e l Connect: GraPHS 0108 Mass. taps Vignette for online insurance details the Commonwealth Health When Massachusetts Insurance Connector Authority. decided in April 2006 to make “Using Vignette enabled us it mandatory that all residents to build this very quickly and have health insurance, offi- to be flexible, allowing us to react to changes cials realized t h e y ’d b e tt e r “Basically what in information to keep people have something we’re doing is informed.” in place to help Conleth residents and lEvERagINg thE O’Connell, businesses comWEB to get people Vignette’s chief pare and choose from available to sign up for some technical officer, said the health plans. E n t e r type of insurance.” Commonwealth is using an V i g n e tt e , a n – Conleth O’Connell enterprise porAustin, Texastal product that based provider of Web services that helped has been around in one form or redesign the Commonwealth’s another since 1999, and is curWeb site. Working with rently used by, among others, the Commonwealth Health NASA, MarthaStewart.com and Insurance Connector Authority, Kaiser Permanente. The chalVignette launched a Web por- lenge in this case, he said, was tal that enables residents to to bring in third-party applicashop around and choose the tions, making it possible for the health insurance plan that various insurance parties offerbest suits them. Six of the ing plans in Massachusetts to Commonwealth’s largest health advertise their plans and sign insurance plans are included up new members. “Basically what we’re doing on the Web site. “We’re kind of blazing a new is leveraging the Web to get trail here,” said Bob Nevins, people to sign up for some type chief information officer for INsuraNCE see page 38 By ErIC WICkluNd, Managing Editor BOSTON – A new technology designed to capture and store signatures in a centrally managed location may be developed for the pharmaceutical industry, but its creators say the healthcare industry could see the benefits as well. TriCipher, Inc., which provides a unified authentication infrastructure for Web and enterprise portals, rolled out its MySignatureBook product in October. Originally developed by LOS GATOS, CA – Pfizer and used by that company since 2006, MSB has been certified by the SAFE BioPharma Association, which provides the pharmaceutical industry’s legal foundation for digital signature. TriCipher has expanded the product to support multiple credential types, making it appropriate for a number of uses, including healthcare. “We’re just entering the market now, and we think there’s significant advantages,” said Jon sIgNaTurE see page 37 uS PREvENtIvE mEdIcINE hookS uP WIth IhEalth uk Dallas-based U.S. Preventive Medicine has signed a letter of intent with iHealth UK, Ltd. to jointly develop three preventive medicine businesses in the United Kingdom and abroad. The deal allows iHealth to leverage USPM’s systems, operating procedures and branding and marketing materials – including The Prevention Plan – to market preventive medicine services outside the United States. Christopher Fey, USPM’s chairman and CEO, said the deal “is the first step in USPM’s plan to provide practical solutions at every point in the healthcare continuum both internationally and locally.” MedQuist, which provides medical transcription and documentation services to healthcare providers, is pondering its future in the wake of Philips’ decision to sell its majority stake in the company. EclIPSyS coNSolIdatES WIth RESouRcE cENtER SalE The Eclipsys Corporation has moved to consolidate its resources by selling its Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Clinical Practice Model Resource Center to Elsevier, a Netherlands-based publisher of scientific, technical and health information products and services. The move allows Eclipsys to focus on its Sunrise Knowledge-Based Charting and other Sunrise Clinical Manager integrated solutions. More at HealthcareITNews.com e Connect: VeNDorS 0108 MedQuist appoints directors, eyes life after Philips selloff By ErIC WICkluNd, Managing Editor MOUNT LAUREL, NJ – ● MedQuist has announced the selection of a board of directors to guide the troubled company through what might be an active year. Shareholders of the company, which provides electronic medical transcription, health information and document management products and services, voted at the Dec. 31, 2007 annual meeting to elect Brian O’Donoghue, Clement Rivetti, Jr., Stephen H. Rusckowski, Mark E. Schwarz, Gregory M. Sebasky and Scott M. Weisenhoff to one-year terms on the board of directors, or until the election and qualification of their successors. The company’s major shareholder, Dutch-based Royal Philips Electronics N.V., has indicated it is willing to sell its 70-percent stake in the dIrECTors see page 39 http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=8438 http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=8439 http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=8440 http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=8441 http://MarthaStewart.com http://HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=8442
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