Healthcare IT News - August 2008 - (Page 35)

www.HealthcareITNews.com ManageMenT SoLUTionS August 2008 ■ Healthcare it News 35 Providers seek space to store critical data “ There are documents of all kinds, such as major announcements, blueprints for design, patient records By JoHn andrEws, Contributing Editor and videos, and they are the amount of data accumulating in the healthcare industry is reaching staggering being shared by a growlevels as a byproduct of more sophisticated ing number of people,” medical and information technology sys- he said. The most storage-contems. And it’s presenting providers with a space constriction challenge that has reached suming attachments are radiology and magnetic serious proportions, system vendors say. “Storage is the biggest problem in the resonance imaging files, enterprise right now, right up there with storage system vendors security, and the two are connected,” said agree. In fact, Rochester, Sina Miri, director of product management N.Y.-based Carestream for Mountain View, Calif.-based PostPath. Health offers a proprie“It is growing much faster than anyone tary storage product as a anticipated. And as more data is generated, companion to its picture it is getting harder to retrieve, classify and archiving and communication system. General secure it.” PostPath specializes in back-end storage manager John Madigan and archiving systems designed to provide calls it a “lifecycle manextra capacity to existing platforms like agement” package. “It’s the back end to Microsoft Outlook. Miri says it’s a natural extension that serves as a low-cost, low- our PACS system, created in response to Disaster backup is just one of many aspects of Fujitsu’s data storage and archiving maintenance alternative. “Outlook has tremendous functionality increased storage needs,” services, one that company officials say they take very seriously. he said. “We have projected and many organizations How precious is data? Boston-based “when it comes a 26 percent growth rate in Intronis Technologies cites a recent use it for practically everythe need for PACS storage University of Texas study that revealed the thing – schedules, files, right down to it, the in the future, which has following about companies suffering a catacalendars and searches,” business is built on been consistent with our strophic data loss: he said. “It’s in synch with data. it is the ■ only 6 percent survive; view for the past couple of Blackberries and iPhones. ■ 43 percent never re-open; and lifeblood of the years.” The problem is that the ■ 51 percent close within two years. Carestream’s focus has Microsoft Exchange has business.” been to link disparate sysa hard time handling the Properly sheltering data from harm is – Jim Gildea, Intronis tems together so that there a procedure that many organizations still massive amounts of data being generated now. It was good enough is consistency in archiving, Madigan said. haven’t made a priority, which is tremen12 years ago, but there is 10 times the num- The company’s still-in-progress Scotland dously short-sighted, says Intronis director ber of e-mails, documents, spreadsheets and storage project aims to tie together the of marketing Jim Gildea. country’s archives so that patient informaattachments being shared today.” “Especially when you think about the Immediate storage concerns involve e- tion, such as mammography images, can be amount that is spent protecting structures mail data management. Josh Liang, director retrieved from anywhere within its borders. and other physical assets,” he said. “When it of product marketing for Milpitas, Calif.comes right down to it, the business is built based MessageSolution, relates an eye-open- giMMe (daTa) SHeLTer on data. It is the lifeblood of the business.” ing statistic: Between 60 percent and 70 per- Without adequate storage infrastructure, Safely storing data in a remote site far cent of an organization’s vital information is precious data is vulnerable to being obliter- from the facility isn’t a difficult, complicated shared via e-mail. In healthcare, Liang says ated by natural disasters like hurricanes and or expensive proposition, maintains Tony it’s not only the volume of exchanges that is fires or human-engineered threats like hack- Cotterill, president and CEO of Woburn, growing, but the density of the files as well. Mass.-based BridgeHead Software. Besides ers, viruses and terrorist attacks. With the amount of data growing, storage emerges as challenge for healthcare. safeguarding the data, the objective should be fast and easy retrieval of it, he said. “It’s not just where you store, but how you store,” he said. “With the sheer volume of data that exists today, it’s not just moving it to another place, but making sure it’s available when needed, so we’re focusing on creating an accessible storage center, not a dusty old vault where it takes days to retrieve what you need.” Disaster backup is just one of many aspects of Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Fujitsu’s data storage and archiving services, but it’s one that the company takes very seriously, said Jim DeCaires, storage product marketing manager. Of particular importance, due to the increasingly heavy amount of cargo being hauled, is the fast, efficient and secure transfer of data, he said. “When you move data from Point A to Point B, you have to put a pipe in place for the data to travel,” he explained. “The pipe can be expensive and even more so the farther away the points are. Conventional TCP/ IP protocols are really chatty, which causes obstruction. So we created a way to go from A to B that maximizes the use of the pipe.” diSC vS. TaPe In the digital age, using magnetic tape may seem like an archaic method to save and store data, but plenty of hospitals still use it and storage vendors acquiesce. Not all of them do, though – Salt Lake City, Utah-based Revinetix is trying to convince its customers that discs are superior. And it is an argument that Brian Clark, vice president of sales, says he is winning. “Five years ago, tape was the standard for archiving,” he said. “But what we see now – and this is driving our growth – is that disc drive densities are increasing while tapes are decreasing. That makes discs a good, solid option for archiving. We’ve gotten to the point where you can store one terabyte of data on a disc, and when you consider its performance and reliability advantages, you can see why discs are becoming the new standard.” ■ more at Healthcareitnews.com e Connect: storaGe 0808 l rEviEws Continued from page 34 moBilE wireless connectivity options. Continued from page 34 e-295C The E-295C Convertible Notebook combines the power of a full-featured notebook with the flexibility of digital pen input. The E-295C has the flexibility to build low- to high-end solutions by optimizing system performance, weight, battery life, graphics and price. paNasoNiC Computer solutioNs diagrams. It even converts handwriting to printed text. The Toughbook 19 – tough times two. researCH iN motioN (rim) Mobile’s fast and efficient bar code scanner.” Lesson learned: “Our greatest barrier to project implementation centered around the lack of bar code labels on our medical equipment’s asset tag. This required an inventory conversion, which is presently underway as devices are replaced.” Rich Sable, CBET, Clinical Engineering Team Leader, St. Francis Medical Center “Happy staff makes for happy patients. Alegent Health leaders knew nursing satisfaction was a critical component to the study. Following the study, an anonymous online survey Michael of staff nurses revealed a 62 percent Wescott, MD increase in overall satisfaction with the new C5 and mobile workflow process.” Lesson learned: “Alegent Health staff appreciated that Motion designers welcomed their feedback on how to make the C5s more functional. We identified some opportunities for improvement that Motion is working on. They take our comments to heart. You just don’t always find that with vendors.” Michael Westcott, MD, chief medical informatics officer, Alegent Health Compaq 2710p Notebook PC offers you the functionality of an ultra-light notebook plus the flexibility of an ultra-slim tablet. motioN ComputiNG BlackBerry 8830 smartphone The BlackBerry 8830 World Edition smartphone strikes a unique balance of design, features and functionality, which work together to provide instant access to the information and systems healthcare professionals need; helping teams work safer and smarter wherever they are. soCket mobile Motion C5 The Motion C5, the first mobile clinical assistant (MCA) that integrates technology from Intel Health, combines durable design elements with key data capture technologies to simplify workflows, increase productivity and improve overall quality of care. mpC Computers SoMo 650 The SoMo 650 is an affordable handheld computer for healthcare and is ideal for applications such as BPOC, medication administration and inventory management. It incorporates Bluetooth and Wi-Fi and connects peripherals including barcode and RFID readers. ■ more at Healthcareitnews.com e Connect: mobile 0808 e-155C At 1.17-inch thin and 4.8 pounds, this 12.1-inch widescreen convertible combines the power of a dual-core notebook with the pen-and-paper-ease of a Tablet PC, plus the convenience of touch input and advanced Panasonic Toughbook Cf-19 With one quick swivel, the wireless Toughbook 19 transforms from a fully rugged maximumperformance notebook PC to a fully rugged handwriting-friendly tablet PC. Take handwritten notes, mark and edit documents, and draw l http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=9708 http://HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=9707

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Healthcare IT News - August 2008 Contents Closer to IT Bill PHIN or RHIOs? Making Leaps After the Flood Tidal Change Denmark Bound Bridging the Divide Robot That Could Mobile Computing Data Everywhere

Healthcare IT News - August 2008

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