Product Briefs
The 1999 Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society Conference and Exhibition, just completed this week in Atlanta, produced the usual plethora of new product announcements. Following is a sampling of those rolled out at the annual gathering:
• Axolotl (Mountain View, CA) has unveiled release 3.0 of its Elysium range of products, which includes Web-based prescription writing and refill management. It also has enhanced electronic ordering capabilities.
• Data General (Westboro, MA) has collaborated with HealthGate Data (Malden, MA) to offer its Comprehensive Health Online Information Center for Enterprise (CHOICE). It is embedded in the integrated delivery systems of its web site and allows providers to offer customized medical information tailored specifically for local markets. Data General also announced an alliance with the Harmonite Group to offer the Harmonie WebKit for Healthcare. The WebKit allows local healthcare organizations to build and maintain Internets and intranets to provide their consumers with information on healthcare matters and new updates.
• DataHouse released its DocLinks, a medical information system for communicating and storing clinical information. It is specifically meant to serve large, single, and multi-specialty physician networks. DocLinks is a flexible Lotus Domino-based system, and was developed in cooperation with Lotus.
• Dragon Systems (Newton, MA) introduced a new version of the Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Medical Suite, a continuous speech recognition solution designed for medical professionals. New features include the Dragon NaturallyMobile digital recorder with built-in microphone and speaker and advanced file capabilities, voice editing and formatting capabilities.
• Global Telemedix (Westford, MA) unveiled its TeleConsult MD Release 3.0 featuring Internet access and DICOM compatibility. An enhanced version is a telemedicine information system that allows physicians, laboratories , and specialists to consult and collaborate.
• Hewlett-Packard (Palo Alto, CA) demonstrated its servers, ranging from the entry-level HP NetServer E Series through its HP9000 V2500 enterprise server capable of providing services for data center, Internet, system consolidation, data warehousing, and online transaction processing.
• Intelligent Medical Objects (Chicago) released its suite of clinical modules for Lotus Notes. The suite incorporates several high-end clinical relational databases and applications into plug n’ play modules that include an enhance disease vocabulary database and procedural database.
• Medical Manager Corp. (Tampa) released an HL7 interface product that allows medical offices to connect with hospitals, community health networks, medical practices, and other outside facilities. The interface provides a standardized methodology to exchange data between a database stored on the Medical Manager system and other databases in remote locations.
• Microsoft (Redmond, WA) announced that software vendors have developed more than 45 healthcare applications for Microsoft SQL Server 7.0. The applications range from physician practice management solutions to handheld devices to Web-based managed care solutions and enterprise-wide clinical and financial solutions.
• Sequoia Software (Columbia, MD), in conjunction with Microsoft, introduced an XML-based Portal Develop ment Software. The software will give businesses and other large enterprises a single vendor and primary technology standard for all portal development needs.
• Siemens ( Boca Raton, FL) demonstrated an Internet-based image distribution service with an enterprise PACS application called MagicWeb. It enables doctors and clinicians to share and access medical images using a Web browser. The company also demonstrated filmless radiology reading and reporting, and PC-based image and report management.
• Tremont Medical (Aston, PA) unveiled its new line of SC-1000 mobile wireless workstations. Enhancements in clude an advanced power-management system that provides up to 14 hours of continuous use and improved screens with brighter, more easily viewable tempered glass.
In other product news unrelated to HIMSS:
• CryoLife (Kennesaw, GA ) plans to update its web site to allow physicians to order cryopreserved human tissue for transplant over the Internet. Surgeons and hospitals will be able to check the availability of allograft heart valves, veins, and connective tissue on the new web site, and order them by phone, fax, or e-mail.
• CuraGen (New Haven, CT) has received a patent covering the company’s open architecture system of gene expression technology. The patent covers CuraGen’s GeneCalling technology process, which identifies both known and unknown differentially expressed genes. It can be used to detect genes in humans, animals, plants, and pathogens.
• EDS (Plano, TX) and Health Hero Network (Mountain View, CA) said they are working to provide an on-line service allowing patients at home and care providers to manage chronic illnesses. The service will allow medical professionals to track and support patients at home by creating a frequent two-way communication link. The service allows professionals to create customized patient programs and access up-to-date patient data via a standard web browser.
• Empower Health (Austin, TX), through its drkoop.com web site, is developing a web-based personal medical record for consumers. It will allow consumers to create a lifelong record of their health that is secure and private. The service, led by former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, will be free. Empower has entered into a partnership with HealthMagic (Columbia, SC), which will provide the health record technology and secure platform for the project.
• An Internet-based solution that allows cardiac surgeons to automate the collection and analysis of clinical outcomes has been released by iMedix (Bethesda, MD). CV Source provides caregivers with real-time clinical outcome data collection and analysis, and gives physicians Web-based access to a secure database.
• Integrated Surgical Systems (Davis, CA) has introduced a software package for planning for osteotomy surgeries using its Orthodoc Presurgical Planning System. Osteotomy is a surgically controlled fracture using geometrically correct cuts in bones to product a more normal joint alignment.
• MarkCare Medical Systems (Bloomfield, NJ) and Data General (Westboro, MA) have developed a new pictured archiving communications system solution, IntraScan II WB, that links hospitals and medical professionals to a wide variety of patient information via the web. It allows historical patient studies to be accessed from any Web browser for use in comparisons and diagnosing current patients.
• MedQuist (Marlton, NJ) and MasterChart (Bannock burn, IL) have released a new hand-held dictation device called PhysAssist. The palm-top application uses Micro soft’s CE operating system rather than traditional tape.
• NetGenics (Cleveland) has released a new version of its Synergy application framework for drug discovery. The new release can interface with Incyte Pharmaceuticals’ sequence data and includes a feature that allows transparent, real-time data sharing between research teams at multiple sites.
• Pangea Systems (Oakland, CA) has launched its EST Clustering and Alignment software tools, with eight sales to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in the first 90 days. The tools are used to convert high volumes of gene sequence fragments and partial gene sequences into full length gene sequences suitable for use in DNA chip design and drug discovery.
• StrandWare (Eau Claire, WI) has released BackTrack 4.1, a customizable item and inventory tracking system It includes features from Label Matrix, and allows anyone with a PC to track the movement of an item in any environment, including lab, admissions, pharmacy, emergency room, radiology, naturals management, and so on.
• USAR Systems (New York) has been awarded a patent for its proprietary Secure Signature Extraction technology from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The device works by providing microcontrollers with an electronic signature in the form of a user-extractable set of algorithms.
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