May 2009 - The Medical Quack .... by Barbara Duck

Big Pharma Exploring and Moving Data to the Cloud – IT Execs Talk about How It is Being Done

Amazon, Google and Microsoft are the 3 big players for now in the Cloud market. For the purpose of this post, we are talking about external clouds. There is also the internal cloud which is a virtual machine configuration. ...

Published Fri, May 29 2009 9:40 PM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, Technology, Pharma/FDA News, microsoft, Pharma, Biotech, Google, Merck, software, Pfizer, Heatlhcare, Genentech, Lilly, collaboration, document sharing, Oracle, Cloud Computing, Amazon

Homeland Security Working on a Device that Can Capture Vitals from up to 40 Feet Away – Is the Future of an Emergency Room at the Hospital Too?

Vital signs would come from the carotid artery, the head, chest, abdomen, even a foot. The technology being used for a device is Laser Doppler Vibrometry. The device would be connected to a camera and coordinate with algorithms to converts...

Published Fri, May 29 2009 8:04 PM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, Technology, My Commentaries, Medical Devices, ER Room, Heatlhcare, Emergency Care, Homeland Security, SPTT

Reader Comment: American Cancer Society Circle of Sharing Tool Is a Good Thing

Yesterday I posted about the American Cancer Society Circle of Sharing Tool and had a reader post the comment below, which I think is well worth taking a look at. There are multitudes of social networks on the web where patients can and are encouraged...

Published Fri, May 29 2009 2:23 PM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Pharma/FDA News, Microsoft/Windows News, microsoft, Medical Records, PHR, Cancer, Personal Health Records, HealthVault, American Cancer Society, ASCO, Circle of Sharing

Tenet Announces Joint Venture with MED3OOO – Focus on Electronic Medical Records and Business Intelligence

If you work with a Tenet Hospital, it looks like some possible changes and upgrades could be on the horizon. Many of the ones I am familiar with have used systems from McKesson, but that’s only a few that I am acquainted with locally. With the joint...

Published Fri, May 29 2009 1:41 PM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, Technology, Insurance, EMR, Medical Records, EHR, Physicians, Tenet, Hospitals, HealthIT, Allscripts, Transparancy, Debt consolidation, Vendors, HCA, Med3000, InteGreat

Merck Issues Statement on Singulair Patent Challenge from Teva

Teva has certainly been busy with a number of legal challenges of late, yesterday one filed against Amgen too. The challenge of intellectual property in the pharmaceutical business is certainly heating up. Teva produces generic drugs...

Published Fri, May 29 2009 12:25 PM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, Pharma/FDA News, drugs, Biotech, FDA, Generic Drugs, Merck, kidney disease, Patents, Intellectual property, Teva, Biosimilar Drugs, Singulair, Sensipar

Push For Electronic Medical Records Must Slow Down - Howard Schmidt, Former White House Security Czar Advises for Secure Applications

This is in fact a good question, are we rushing to get the money available and perhaps pushing matters a bit to fast. I post enough security breach stories on here that somewhat encourages me to agree with the basis of this. Having written...

Published Fri, May 29 2009 11:56 AM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, Technology, Other Items of Interest, EMR, healthcare, Medical Records, EHR, Health IT, Security, Programming, encryption, breaches, ARRA, cybersecurity, HITECH

Teva Suing Amgen Over Intellectual Property Infringement – Sensipar for Kidney Disease

Teva wants to sell a generic version of the product and claims Amgen is using it’s patented technology to create Sensipar and now it wants Amgen to pay and halt production. This is unusual to somewhat see the tables turned here, usually it is the...

Published Fri, May 29 2009 1:18 AM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, Pharma/FDA News, drugs, Biotech, FDA, Generic Drugs, kidney disease, Patents, Amgen, Intellectual property, Teva, Biosimilar Drugs, Sensipar

Need an RFID System at the Hospital – Plug it in to the Electrical Outlets

The system can co-exist without interrupting other Wi-Fi services, so it appears that “dead zones” would not be an issue. They also have devices that can be worn and sterilized too. One the device is plugged in, ensuring you have a live plug...

Published Fri, May 29 2009 12:17 AM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, Technology, Security, Hospitals, RFID, Heatlhcare, wireless, assets

Deaconess hospital in Spokane Will No Longer Serve as Major Trauma Center

Down in Orange County here, I am starting to see some of the same or similar with hospitals, the signs out front are changing. I recently drove by a hospital owned by Prime Health Care and the sign out front listed the hospital name and underneath...

Published Thu, May 28 2009 11:54 PM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, Insurance, healthcare, ER Room, Hospitals, Emergency Care, trauma centers

Microsoft HealthVault Device Logo Requirements 1.20 Available for Device Vendors

If you have purchased a blood pressure or glucose device, you may have already seen the sticker on the devices, depending on what device you bought. Devices will need certified drivers to work and the old 1.0 certification is up in June. BD...

Published Thu, May 28 2009 7:50 PM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, Microsoft/Windows News, healthcare, microsoft, Medical Devices, PHR, Developers, Personal Health Records, HealthVault, software

Those Who Just Take What the Payers Offer May be Missing Out – Money Left on the Table

This is an issue close to my own heart, as years ago and still even today it’s difficult for me to hopefully get the point across of how important business intelligence software is to mine and drill down to find where you may have been short changed and...

Published Thu, May 28 2009 3:57 PM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, Technology, Insurance, Physician, healthcare, Claims, Health Insuance, Algorithms, Greed, payers, accountability, business intellience

Stand Up to Cancer Grants Go to 2 Arizona Doctors and Their Teams to Turn Science Into Cures for Cancer

I have covered a few posts from the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) which is where the grant money is going. Joshua LaBaer formerly from Harvard heads up the bioscience lab at TGEN. BD PHOENIX (AP) - Two prominent cancer...

Published Thu, May 28 2009 3:30 PM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, Technology, Pharma/FDA News, healthcare, Cancer, Grants, R and D, Stand up to Cancer, AACR, TGEN

Isotope Update – Nuclear Radiation Treatments Could be Delayed As Other Plants Close Down for Scheduled Maintenance

No doubt there will be shortages if the reactor in Canada ends up being down for 8 months potentially. It appears that France, Argentina and Belgium will be holding up the show with production as there are only 5 facilities in the world who manufacture...

Published Thu, May 28 2009 2:42 PM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, Technology, Other Items of Interest, Hospital, Cardiology, MRI, Cancer, Cancer Treatment, Nuclear Medicine, Parkinson's, Isotopes, Radiation Treatment

We Deny Fewer Claims than They Do – Is this Necessary?

Good news for Humana I guess, but when it comes down to the matter at hand, it makes no real difference unless it is YOUR claim, at least that is the way I tend to look at such matters with an industry that continues to struggle with transparency. ...

Published Thu, May 28 2009 2:05 PM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, Insurance, My Commentaries, healthcare, health insurance, Rankings, Humana, PayerView

Aetna Web Site Data Breach – Employees and Former Employees Affected

Have you had any spam from Aetna lately? The article states this is how the breach was identified with individuals complaining. If you applied for a job with Aetna, might we worth taking a look into this too. Everyone gets a year of...

Published Thu, May 28 2009 1:34 PM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, Technology, Insurance, healthcare, health insurance, Aetna, Security Breach, websites