Lenovo’s new tablet offers greater portability for docs
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC – Lenovo has introduced its new ThinkPad X201 laptop, touting it as the industry’s fastest ultraportable laptop. The ThinkPad X201 weighs 3.5 lbs, and with battery life of more than 10 hours, the ThinkPad X201 Tablet offers better portability for doctors and nurses making the rounds. It features an enhanced Finger Print Reader with power on authentication, so that healthcare providers can feel confident that the information stored on the ThinkPad X201 Tablet is secure. Lenovo also introduced five new Think-branded products including: the ThinkPad X201s laptop, the thinnest and lightest ThinkPad; the X201 tablet, the smart tablet for business users; the W701 and W701ds mobile workstations, the most powerful ThinkPads; and the ThinkServer TS200v tower, which Lenovo touts as the first server with “unprecedented management capabilities and solid reliability at a desktop price.”
St. Jude Medical launches Wireless USB adapter for cardiac monitoring
ST.PAUL, MN – St. Jude Medical, Inc., a global medical device company, has launched its Wireless USB Adaptor for the Merlin@home transmitter, a system that allows important patient data from an implantable cardiac device to be wirelessly downloaded and securely transmitted via telephone for review by a physician. The new Wireless USB Adaptor enables patients using a Merlin@home transmitter to transmit data to their physician over cellular networks, allowing for more convenient care than existing landline services provide. The Wireless USB Adaptor is a small device that plugs into new and existing Merlin@home transmitters. The transmitter typically sits on a patient’s bedside table and wirelessly communicates with the patient’s device while they are asleep. The data are sent via the Merlin@home transmitter to the Merlin.net Patient Care Network (PCN), an Internet-based repository of patient and device data. Once transmitted, the Merlin.net PCN organizes the data for analysis and review and allows information to be sent directly to a clinic’s or a hospital’s electronic health record system for inclusion in the patient’s comprehensive record. The remote monitoring capabilities facilitated by the Merlin@home transmitter permit automated follow-up appointments and daily device checks to occur wirelessly, with limited patient action required. The transmitter supports all radio-frequency (RF) St. Jude Medical implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs), cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillators (CRT-Ds), and the Accent RF pacemaker and Anthem RF CRT-P (cardiac resynchronization therapy pacemaker).
Ingenix, HLI launch translator for ICD-10 conversion
EDEN PRAIRIE, MN – Ingenix and Health Language, Inc. unveiled the Ingenix Global Code Manager, a solution designed to translate between the 13,000-item ICD-9 code set and the expanded ICD-10 code set, which contains more than 68,000 codes. Overseen by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the 10th revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems is designed to facilitate better analysis of disease patterns, severity and treatment outcomes; simplify claims submissions, processing and payments; and support healthcare quality improvement efforts. Using HLI’s Language Engine translator, the Ingenix Global Code Manager will provide clinical coding interpretations to map ICD-9 diagnoses and procedure codes to their equivalents in the ICD-10 system while supporting the General Equivalence Mapping (GEM) standards set by CMS. Company officials say the solution will also lay the groundwork for future clinical and administrative projects, such as pay-for-performance and quality measurement initiatives, and support the Systemized Nomenclature of Medicine: Clinical Terms (SNOMED-CT) standard. Officials say the Global Code Manager solution will not only help organizations whose departments have different timetables for ICD-10 conversion, but also those dealing with both code sets before and after the CMS deadline.
New dictation management platform designed to boost efficiency, productivity
ATLANTA – Royal Philips Electronics has released SpeechExec Pro, the latest version of the company’s digital dictation management platform. The new release supports both digital dictation and speech recognition providing users with the ability to control the entire speech processing workflow within a single application. SpeechExec Pro provides a seamless interface with speech recognition software, Dragon NaturallySpeaking, allowing users to flexibly upgrade to speech recognition at any time and ensuring a future-proof investment and maximum control over the timing and dimension of speech recognition application. Additional benefits include:
* Less typing and increased productivity with the ability to download dictation files to the speech recognition system and edit the recognized text.
* The dictation profiles of the authors are adapted, even if the transcriptionist edits the recognized text. This constantly improves individual recognition accuracy.
* Users can pre-define document templates to be completed through speech recognition for instant document creation.
OSI Systems expands patient monitoring portfolio
HAWTHORNE, CA – OSI Systems, Inc., a vertically-integrated provider of specialized electronic products for critical applications, announced that its Healthcare Division, Spacelabs Healthcare, has expanded its patient monitoring portfolio with the introduction of the Spacelabs Ultraview 2900. The new dual display capability assists clinicians to efficiently chart and access lab results on one display, while the other display remains dedicated to their patients’ real-time physiologic waveforms and alarms. DNATM (Dynamic Network AccessTM), which functions like a Citrix thin-client, is embedded in the Spacelabs Ultraview 2900 monitor and enables full access to all applications installed on a hospital’s Citrix server. Consistent with Spacelabs’ commitment to open architecture, DNA operates on a non-proprietary infrastructure and no additional hardware is required.
Amazing Charts releases version 5
NORTH KINGSTOWN, RI – AmazingCharts.com, Inc., a developer of electronic health record systems announced the general availability of Amazing Charts V5, a CCHIT Certified 2008 Ambulatory EHR additionally certified for Child Health. Amazing Charts V5 includes a host of new features and functionality, including e -prescribing. Amazing Charts V5 is integrated with 5-Minute Clinical Consult (5MCC), which brings evidence-based practice tools directly to the point of care at no additional cost. 5MCC provides evidence-based recommendations on more than 700 medical conditions, and integration into Amazing Charts means one click from within a patient chart pulls up the relevant diagnoses to allow physicians to review current diagnostic and management recommendations. A robust health maintenance component based on USPSTF and CDC guidelines is also included in Amazing Charts V5 at no additional cost. Physicians and other users have direct access to health maintenance clinical guidelines for providing preventative services at recommended intervals. Functionality includes automatic reminders and the ability to find all patients overdue for health maintenance care. The new software can be downloaded and used free for three months at http://www.amazingcharts.com.
New software offers context-aware communications
EXTENSION Inc. announced that EXTENSION version 2.0 is now available for integration. Version 2.0 – replacing EXTENSION version 1.4 – offers features and functionality that further enhance clinical and operational workflows and overall communications among clinicians, healthcare staff and patients. Each bundled solution of the EXTENSION enterprise-class suite now runs on version 2.0 and offers a variety of workflow improvements tailored to various types of healthcare organizations, both large and small. The EXTENSION appliance-based software solution suite allows clinicians to automatically receive and respond to intelligent notifications derived from pre-defined rules and workflows.
The EXTENSION Solution Suite (ESS), including version 2.0, which is available now, is sold through the Cisco reseller channel. Healthcare organizations running EXTENSION 1.4 who have EXTENSION support and maintenance will be automatically upgraded to version 2.
