HAMILTON HEALTH SCIENCES (HHS) WINS MEDSEEK’s 2009 eHEALTH EXCELLENCE AWARD

MEDSEEK recognizes HHS for its outstanding web portal vision, innovation, performance and achievement.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--MEDSEEK, the leading provider of enterprise portal connectivity solutions, announced today that Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) won MEDSEEK’s 2009 eHealth Excellence Award for outstanding vision, innovation and performance in using web portal technology to enhance care delivery, information access and service. The award was presented to Dale Anderson, HHS’ manager of projects and eHealth solutions, at MEDSEEK’s 9th Annual eHealth Client Congress in Tampa, Fla., on Feb. 25, 2009.

Hamilton Health Sciences is one of the most comprehensive health care systems in Canada. Its six hospitals and cancer facility are licensed for more than 900 beds and serve more than 2.3 million residents of Hamilton and central south and central west Ontario. Through its affiliation with McMaster University's Faculty of Health Sciences, HHS offers some of the most innovative treatments and talented medical professionals in Canada.

“MEDSEEK is pleased to recognize HHS for the exceptional efforts it has made to provide safe, high quality care as well provide a total user experience throughout the entire healthcare system,“ said Peter Kuhn, MEDSEEK’s CEO. “We are excited to acknowledge the impact our portal solutions have had across HHS’ enterprise and among its physicians, patients and employee constituencies.”

Over the past 4 years, more than 2,700 HHS clinicians have registered to access its patients’ electronic medical records in real time via a portal called ClinicalConnect. Through this portal, clinicians have access to a unified, single view of a patient’s clinical reports, laboratory results, medication lists, images and other data stored in disparate clinical systems. These systems include a hospital information solution from MEDITECH, picture archiving and communication system from GE Healthcare as well as a health information management application from Sovera Document Imaging.

In 2007, HHS redesigned its consumer portal to make it easier and more convenient for patients and visitors to access health information and interact with the organization. The consumer portal provides greater emphasis on patient education and included an upgrade of the existing infrastructure to make the site more stable and reliable for end users.

HHS, which is the largest employer in Hamilton, has also implemented an employee portal to disseminate and streamline communication with its more than 10,000 employees, improving efficiency, productivity, job satisfaction and staff retention. Employees are using the portal to access staff directory, schedules, internal job postings, training and more, helping HHS’ human resources department operate more efficiently.

“We are honored to be recognized by MEDSEEK for excellence in the use of eHealth to improve patient care, safety and operational efficiencies,” said HHS’ Anderson. “We chose to partner with MEDSEEK for its unparalleled insight into healthcare technology innovations and best practices, and its focus on the user experience which has truly transformed and streamlined our ability to provide quality patient care.” Although ClinicalConnect began at Hamilton Health Sciences, it is now being extended and adopted by the Local Health Integration Network or region to interconnect other hospitals, community healthcare agencies and healthcare providers.

About Hamilton Health Sciences
Hamilton Health Sciences is a family of six unique hospitals and a cancer centre, serving more than 2.3 million residents of Hamilton and central west Ontario. Hamilton Health Sciences is the second largest hospital group in Ontario and serves as a regional referral centre for burns, trauma, cardiac, stroke, neurosurgery, pediatrics, digestive diseases, high-risk obstetrics, cancer, orthopedics and rehabilitation services. With a staff of approximately 10,000, the hospital is the largest employer in Hamilton, Ontario. As an academic teaching hospital with more than 900 beds and an affiliation with McMaster University and Mohawk College, Hamilton Health Sciences is committed to providing exemplary health care for the people and communities we serve and advancing excellence in education and health research.

About MEDSEEK
For more information, visit www.medseek.com or call 888-MEDSEEK.

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WAL-MART TO SELL LOW-COST ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORD SYSTEMS in the US

It seems everybody wants in on the action. Known for its low-cost food, clothing and appliances, Wal-Mart soon will be offering reasonably priced electronic health record systems.

In a story apparently leaked to the New York Times earlier this week, the big box store will join forces this spring with Dell computers and eClinicalWorks, a provider of healthcare information technology, to offer low-cost EHR systems to physicians, The New York Times reports. Systems are expected to only cost $25,000 for the first physician and $10,000 for additional physicians in a particular (non-acute care) practice.

What's included? Dell is offering its laptops and tablet PCs for physicians to use. eClinicalWorks will provide its electronic health record and practice management software. eClinicalWorks is an Internet-based service that also allows physicians to manage billing and registration online. Dell will install the hardware, while eClinicalWorks will be responsible for installing its software on the PCs, as well as for training and maintenance of the system.

A $19 billion healthcare information technology initiative in the recent stimulus package would provide physicians more than $40,000 over several years for implementation of EHRs, according to the Times.

A former Bush administration healthcare IT official told the Times that such low-cost EHR systems from Wal-Mart could be a "game changer" in the industry's efforts to spur adoption of the technology. Long-term care is working with the rest of healthcare to contribute its portion to the development of an electronic health record system. Bush had set a goal of 2014 for the establishment of such a system.

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Vendor Profile: DIGIRAD CORPORATION

After numerous grants from the Department of Defense, the National Cancer Institute and the U.S. Department of Energy, in 2000, DIGIRAD CORPORATION notably brought the first commercial solid-state gamma camera for nuclear medicine to the market.

Today, publically-listed DIGIRAD CORPORATION provides advanced cardiovascular imaging services solutions and solid-state nuclear medicine imaging products to nearly 1,000 clients worldwide. Notably said to be a “textbook example of how a company paid close attention to market conditions and was able to carve out a unique product opportunity. DIGIRAD's proprietary technology is based on solid-state semiconductor technology, which was developed in-house and originally used in defense technology applications.”
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Note: DIGIRAD is distributed in Canada by ADN Canada (www.adn-nichemedical.com)

VENDOR PROFILE: Thinking Systems Corporation

KLAS® Award Winning THINKING SYSTEMS CORPORATION is the developer of ThinkingPACS™ and ThinkingRIS™ ---a comprehensive imaging suite (that includes an advanced Nuclear and Cardiology toolset) and extends well beyond traditional radiology modalities such as CT, MRI, DR and CR.)

Imagine an enterprise-wide, multi-disciplinary, integrated, vendor-neutral (web-based) imaging solution using one database. Thinking Systems seamlessly manage and store nuclear medicine, PET, echo cardiology and Cath lab images; supporting image registration and even fusion among multimodalities (i.e. PET, SPECT, CT, MR, etc.,) including image quantitative analysis (for cardiac and brain studies) and orthopedic templating. Providing truly customized implementations, Thinking Systems translates the power of its versatile product portfolio and expertise into highly effective solutions tailor-made for each installation.

THINKING SYSTEMS solutions are installed worldwide in leading hospitals, research institutes, imaging centers, and doctor’s offices, including US notables like Yale, Mass General, Univ. of Miami, and Kettering Medical Center.

In Canada, THINKING SYSTEMS are utilized by the Humber River Regional Hospital. Mount Sinai Hospital (MSH,) Women’s College Hospital (WCH,) Toronto Western Hospital, Toronto General Hospital, Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH,) the University Health Network (UHN,) and a number of clinic sites.

Intuitive. Intelligent. Innovation. | Thinking Systems

More about Thinking Systems Corporation. Note: In Canada, Thinking Systems solutions are provided by ADN Canada (www.adn-nichemedical.com)

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

ACUMEME is seeking articles, commentary and ideas on the state of electronic health records (EHR) and e-Health 2.0 in Canada. Have something to say? Here’s your sounding board. Anonymity assured. E-mail us at acumeme@yahoo.com.