Vendor / Product News news from FierceHealthIT

Over next 18 to 24 months, a group of New York area hospitals will be pilot-testing smart cards that can carry the equivalent of 30 pages of medical records. The hospitals, which include Mount Sinai Medical Center, Jersey City Medical Center, Queens Hospital Center, Cabrini Medical Center and several others, plan to hand out 100,000 of the cards, that were developed by Siemens Medical Solutions. Siemens is actually subsidizing the initial round of cards, not to mention the hardware and …

Former national HIT coordinator Dr. David Brailer has launched a new venture investment fund targeting health IT firms whose technology stands to cut healthcare costs substantially. The venture fund has only one investor, but it's a giant. Brailer's Health Evolution Partners will start with $700 million from CALPERS, the California Public Employees Retirement System, which has assets of $240 billion. CALPERS, which funds care for 1.5 million workers, retirees and their family members, …

Over the last few weeks, Google vice president Adam Bosworth has been making the rounds spelling out the search giant's vision for medical data sharing. Among his key points has been that strong authentication will be critical for the kind of online sharing necessary for patients to really benefit. Perhaps to reassure privacy advocates, who have vigorously questioned Google's philosophy of data ownership, Bosworth has been telling audiences that consumers "should own their total personal …

Last week I had the chance to attend the VHA's annual leadership conference in Denver. Aside from being wowed by the civic energy and natural beauty of Denver--which seems like a city on the move!--I was a bit …

Over the past year, study after study has documented that physicians aren't investing heavily in HIT upgrades, particularly EMR systems. But a new study suggests that the tide is about to turn. Researchers with Manhattan Research surveyed 1,353 physicians this year and found that about 30 percent are using EMRs, including not only the larger, better-capitalized finances practice but also smaller medical groups. Another 20 percent reported that that they were "ready" to adopt, the analyst …

SAP and Microsoft have struck an agreement to expand their Duet platform to offer two new versions, a move the two companies say should offer new options for health information management. The two vendors worked together to create Duet, which lets users access SAP data through Microsoft Office. The software allows users to perform many types of common transactions, including travel management, purchasing and scheduling, already resident within SAP. The interface could also support …

While healthcare lags behind other industries in rolling out self-service technology, times may be changing. Very gradually, providers and health plans are launching self-service options, particularly kiosks, to streamline access to key information, following the lead of industries like retail and travel which have had them for many years. Right now, vendors are definitely ahead of providers when it comes such technology, but their enthusiasm may help drive things along. When giants like …

In a move heralded as a first of its kind, this week New York City officials announced plans to give free EMR technology to medical practices for whom 30 percent or more of their patient encounters are Medicaid-insured or uninsured. City officials say that they're the first state or large local government they're aware of which has tried this strategy (though states are arguably moving in this direction with e-prescribing technology). The city will distribute the software to about 1,500 …

Never shy about taking on new markets, Red Hat has struck a deal with the University of North Carolina under which it will encourage the use of open source technology in healthcare research, biotechnology, bioinformatics and public policy. The deal follows a larger announcement by Red Hat in which it launched its Enterprise Healthcare Platform in cooperation with McKesson and Intel. …

Folks, it's on. The Microsoft versus open source battle is heating up quickly, and I think this one's going to be a doozy.

As most folks know, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer gave a slick presentation at this year's HIMSS, …