Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Dr. Ware Will Launch a New Low-cost Electronic Health Records/Practice Management System
Dr. Ware, in partnership with Microsoft and PracticeFusion, is happy to announce the launch of a world-class Electronic Health Records EMR/PMS system on September 15, 2009. In step with our SaaS (Software as a Service) and “managed services” business model we will be offering doctors and hospitals a suite of offerings targeted at reducing IT costs while increasing efficiency and bringing patients improved care. The three primary modules in this system will be:
Practice Fusion addresses the critical needs of today’s healthcare environments by providing a revolutionary application and delivery model for physicians and patients at no cost. Practice Fusion’s award-winning, free, web-based applications require no on-site software, hardware and integration, eliminating the burden of supporting traditional enterprise software products. As a result, Practice Fusion dramatically reduces costs and complexities, enabling medical practitioners to deliver the highest level of care possible to their patients.
Microsoft® HealthVaultTM, is a platform that puts people in control of their health data. It helps them collect, store, and share health information with family members and healthcare providers, and it provides people with a choice of third-party applications to help them manage things like fitness, diet, and health. Microsoft has also developed HealthVaultTM Search, a new intuitive Web search service that helps people discover answers to their health questions, learn more about topics important to them, confidentially store the information they discover, and act on that knowledge to improve their health and wellness. Healthcare organizations can use the HealthVault platform to deliver compatible tools and services to facilitate communication between patients and healthcare professionals and enable patients to participate more actively in their care.
Microsoft Online Services makes it easy for you to leverage and rapidly deploy familiar Microsoft server products as flexible services. These hosted services-our Business Productivity Online Standard Suite-include the following:
Exchange Online
Provide employees access to e-mail, calendar, and contacts from virtually anywhere, at anytime, on desktops, laptops, and mobile devices-while helping to protect against malware and spam. Exchange Online can be rapidly deployed, flexibly expanded, and is designed to be securely administered using a powerful yet easy-to-use Web-based console.
SharePoint Online
Share documents, contacts, calendars, and tasks in a single location. Based on Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server 2007, SharePoint Online delivers rich collaboration capabilities that enable team members to flexibly and efficiently collaborate, find organizational resources, search your intranet site, and manage content and workflow.
Office Live Meeting
Connect with colleagues and customers through real-time meetings, training sessions, and events using only a PC with an Internet connection. Hosted Web conferencing services from Microsoft Office Live Meeting give your employees the power to collaborate wherever they are, to set up project meetings, brainstorm ideas, and collaborate on whiteboards without the cost and hassle of travel!
Office Communications Online
Enable users to find and rapidly connect with the right person from the applications they use most. Office Communications Online provides streamlined access to rich presence and instant messaging capabilities that are centrally managed by IT and work seamlessly with a range of Microsoft Office system programs.
With this combination of services doctors and hospitals can concentrate on caring for their patients while they employ low-cost integrated solutions that promote communication between all participants involved in a patient’s care – labs, pharmacies, insurance companies, employers, family members, etc. I.T. support resides on the desktop and is monitored full-time for immediate response. PracticeFusion is free, Microsoft® HealthVaultTM is free, and Microsoft’s Online Services are as little as $15 a month per user for the complete suite. No in-house server(s), networks, IT staff required. Additionally an integrated solution allows patients to use devices at home: like blood-glucose meters, pulse oximeters, blood-pressure gauges, and even scales. The data is automatically uploaded to the patient’s HealthVaultTM account and then made available, by the patient, to medical professionals and/or family, etc. If you would like more information we would love to speak with you. Feel free to contact us.
10 Men Who Helped Shape Today’s Technology Landscape
Often a good idea, hard work, and timing contribute heavily toward a successful venture. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Larry Ellison, Pierre Omidyar, Shawn Fanning, Sergey Brin, and Mark Cuban are tech industry leaders who underscore these principles. Their experiences, thinking outside the “norm,” have given them much earned insights to pass on to those willing to listen. This 60 Minutes montage covers interviews with these men at different times and situations over several years. While their companies have changed over time they had some interesting things to say about their contributions to technology and the world.
Plans For Microsoft’s Retail Stores – The (interactive) Details
According to Gizmodo the presentation below was leaked to them, “by Lippicott, a ‘design and brand strategy’ consultant firm with extensive retail experience that it appears Microsoft has hired to help develop the store’s concept, principles, and design. It looks pretty legit to us–if it’s a fake, it’s fairly elaborate, with detailed graphics, research, plans and even rough store layouts.”
To operate the presentation start by clicking on the Home icon at the top. You can drag the slides around with your mouse and zoom in/out by using your scroll wheel (or the buttons in the top left corner). To view in full screen mode click on icon in the top right. Enjoy!
Taking Control of Your Health Records
I think it would be great if I, a patient, could have a copy of my own health record, or medical chart. Not that I don’t trust my doctor but it is my health. Besides, when I need to go to a specialist, or to an emergency room, it would be handy to have my medical record with me. It is extremely inconvenient, not to mention redundant, to have to fill out my contact information and medical history every time I see a different health professional. Now with electronic medical records gaining wider acceptance shouldn’t I be able to have a digital copy of my own records? It seems reasonable to me.
The obvious problem with making the patient responsible for his own medical record is the fact that many patients are not that responsible. Medical records contain very sensitive data, like social security numbers, which can, in the wrong hands, wreak havoc. The security and privacy concerns outweigh the convenience issues. Also there is the matter of doctors having to make an extra set of records for patients. Back-logged busy practices are not about to add this to their current overload.
However an answer may be lurking. Microsoft’s HealthVault and Google Health are two laudable efforts in the Patient’s Health Record (PHR) revolution. Patients taking more active ownership of their healthcare can only be a good thing but what about the security concerns? The idea behind these ventures is to centralize the data, secure the data, and allow patients to decide who can access their data. As more doctors come online with EMR systems that interface with these PHR systems patients will only need to give access to a specialist to immediately “send” them their medical records. No more forms – imagine!
Another benefit has to do with patient wellness. Devices like blood pressure monitors, pulse oximeters, blood glucose meters, scales, and pedometers, interface with HealthVault and Google Health. This means the doctor’s plan for the patient can be monitored beyond the office. Specialized applications manage patients’ diet and exercise plans and log the results. Other apps connect to drug stores, labs, insurance companies, employer’s plans, and more.
But what do you do if you want to use Microsoft HealthVault now and your doctor is not with the program? Well, tell them to get with the program. Dr. Ware (that’s us) is committed to helping physicians and patients use technology to improve healthcare. Contact us with your physician’s office number and we will contact them on your behalf to explain the benefits to them. HealthVault and Google Health are free. Another alternative, if your doctor uses an EMR system but does not want to access your HealthVault account, is to ask them to copy your record to an encrypted USB jump drive. You can supply both the jump drive and the encryption. The video at the end of this article will show you how.
Please don’t let the tortoise-speed of healthcare professionals discourage you. We can help at no cost to you. Please contact us.
Netbooks Are for Everyone Everywhere
Sometimes called mini-laptops and sub-notebooks, Netbooks are becoming ubiquitous, and for good reason. I recently purchased an Acer Aspire One for my wife. For over a year she has been struggling with finding just the right device. I bought her a full size laptop but it was just too heavy and clunky for her to carry around – impractical. I got her a dual device that plays DVD’s and carries a video iPod that displays the image on a larger screen but that was too complicated to setup and operate. So I took a chance a couple of months ago and I bought her a Netbook for around $300.00. She fell in love with it almost instantly. It weighs 2 pounds, came loaded with Windows XP, 1 GB of ram, 1.6 GHz processor, 120 GB hard drive, 802.11 Wi-Fi, SD card and multi-media card reader, and a Web cam. And for the price – Wow! Netbooks do not usually come with DVD players in order to keep the weight down. However you can get an external DVD player for about $50.00. On the latest 10″ Acer Aspire One the battery life is about 6 hours. The LED backlit display is amazingly clear and detailed with a resolution of 1024×600 pixels. It seems to respond as well as my high-powered laptop but at a fraction of the cost. If you are looking for the perfect mobile device for under $400.00 I think this just might be the one. Here is a CNet review (pardon the ad):
Of course there are more expensive models with even more offerings for the gadget Guru. The Sony Vaio Lifestyle PC weighs less than two pounds but will set you back about $1000.00. HP has a couple of nice offerings in this field: the Mini-1000 and Mini-2000 series. The generous keyboard is their most outstanding feature. For some strange reason the Mini-1000 comes with a 16 GB hard drive upgradeable to only 60 GB (extra price). By the time you configure it to nearly match the specs on the Acer Aspire One the price doubles to around $600.00. These units weigh about 3 pounds. Asus, the mother of all Netbooks, has the impressive Asus Eee PC 1000. It is comparably equipped to the Acer Aspire One for $50.00-$100.00 more. It weighs 3 lbs and has up to a 9.5 hour battery life. So, bottom line, my suggestion would be to go with the Acer Aspire One or the Asus Eee PC 1000. For the money you won’t beat the Acer. For a few bucks more you get a longer battery life and wider keyboard with the Asus. Either way you can’t go wrong.
Site Development is Where Right Brain Meets Left
What would you say constitutes a great Web site? We have all visited sites that elicit a “wow that’s cool!” So is that it: cool design, cool images, cool video, and other cool stuff? Since there are so many really amazing online spectacles there seems to be no shortage of “cool sites” lists. Yet I get this question a lot and I am certain most people don’t realize how controversial it is – in my world. Web site creation is where technology meets art; where development meets design; where right brain meets left. This not exactly a marriage made in heaven.
Actually this confluence occurs with all application development. The two sides of the house, developers and designers, have to play nice to bring an app, or Web site, to fruition. Typically the designers create a user interface and a strong vision of how they want the application to function. To the developers they say, “Just do it.” It is then up to the developers to figure out how to make everything work. To most developers this seems counterintuitive; whatever happened to “form follows function?” Although this is often a painful process, the truth is, both teams are vital to the process. Designers have no desire to write code and you definitely don’t want developers creating your graphics.
The bottom line is you need to hire a development company that can provide both professional graphic design and development. Ignore this principle and you will likely end up with an unsuccessful Web site. Typically what happens is a small business goes to, let’s say, a “graphic arts” firm. The artists create the coolest Web site ever, what with its Flash, 3-D graphics, and video montage. Unfortunately their shop is soon barraged by calls from customers who “can’t ever see anything” when they visit the site. This small business happens to be a golf shop and their customers are mostly over 50, many of whom are using dial-up to access the Internet. When some visitors to the site are told to download something called “Adobe Flash Player” they run away in fear of attack. Apparently not many even find the site because (who knew?) Flash sites are not as easily indexed by Google (oops!).
Another small business, an interior designer, hires a “techy” to create their Web site. The site functions properly and it comes up in search engine results but it looks like it was designed in Microsoft Word. Potential clients are not impressed. The amateurish look of the site fails to represent the real abilities and offerings of the business. In time the company wishes their site did not come up in Google searches.
The point is this: give thoughtful consideration to the company you hire to develop your site. The cheapest won’t be the best and the most expensive might not be either. Don’t be fooled by flash. Keep your focus on your business plan. Ask yourself these questions: How will our Web site fit into our overall business? What do we want our Web site to accomplish? How will we update and maintain the site? What is our marketing strategy?
Think about other successful Web sites. Let’s take Google for example. From a graphics arts perspective google.com certainly does not “Wow!” To my knowledge it has never been included on any “cool site” list. In fact, you will hardly find a more basic design anywhere, and yet it is the busiest search engine in the world. Why? Google does not have an identity crisis. It views itself as the world’s repository for information. It knows its audience and its role. It gives us what we want, when we want it, in the simplest and quickest fashion, and then gets out of our way. Genius!
Google.com is clean and efficient but most importantly it integrates into the company’s business model. Can this be said of your Web site? If not it is time to start over. If you are looking to develop your first Web site then ask yourself how your Web site will be used by your business to better serve your current customers and attract additional customers. How will the site integrate into your current work flow? Who will maintain the site? Will we use the site to facilitate communication and project management? A site that adds value to your staff and current clients, right from the beginning, is already a success. Launching a successful Web site is really not that difficult but it does take careful consideration and planning. Your site must support your current business model. And, don’t forget, you need the right development partner.
Client Care – What I Learned from Starbucks
Recently I have been reading the book “The Starbucks Experience” by Joseph Michelli. I find the Starbucks story particularly compelling due to the seeming impossibility of their ambition: sell a product that is already ubiquitous for four times the price. Insanity! Yet not only have they succeeded but they have rewritten the playbook in the process. If you are in the service industry, which I am, Starbucks is a model. We are “selling” an experience. Customers will not only pay for the right experience but they will be loyal to it. Starbucks achieved this by indoctrinating their “partners” (employees) in this simple client care philosophy:
Connect, Discover, Respond
“Let’s face it, whose going to pay four dollars for a cup of coffee?” Me. The first time I saw the European motif of Starbucks I knew this was no ordinary coffee shop. A bartender (barista) fixed my drink to my exact specs, after asking my name, and everyone seemed so happy to be working there. I thought to myself, “I could see myself coming here often.” There was a buzz about the place that was contagious and I caught it. This is part of what is meant by the Starbucks experience. All partners are trained on the initial contact: the smiling, “What can we make for you today?” It would seem silly if it weren’t so sincere. Corporate Starbucks understands that the initial contact must lead to a connection rather than just a transaction. Using people’s names is a mammoth stroke of genius. Who would think something so simple would be so important? Not only remembering the person’s name but remembering their favorite drink – pure gold! From a customer’s perspective this is a valuable connection. It means someone thinks enough of me to remember me, “I am important to them.” Who doesn’t like going somewhere that makes you feel appreciated?
Okay let’s say you walk into a Starbucks and you don’t know what you want. Try this: tell the partner you would like to try several different types of coffees. You know what will happen. Now order the coffee in a very peculiar combination; with a specific amount of sugar, at a certain temperature, low-fat milk, etc. Come back several more times, order the same drink, and during the visit tell the same Starbucks partner a little bit about yourself. Now watch what happens. Each time you visit, that partner will greet you by name, ask you about your exact drink, and inquire about something you mentioned or something they noticed about you. A typical visit for me goes something like this: “Hey Scott, how are you? That will be a grande three Splenda latte right? So how is the computer biz?” Taking the time and getting to know a little bit about me turns a Starbucks into “My Starbucks.”
Responding to a customer’s specific needs (stage three) is often exemplified when things do not go exactly as planned. “This drink is not to my liking.” After apologizing the barista gladly makes another for you free of charge. “I spilled my drink,” another freebee. No questions, no haggling, no problems. “Which coffee maker should I buy?” After asking several questions the Starbucks partner directs you to the best fit. Can you ever remember having a problem with a Starbucks employee, ever? This culture makes doing business a pleasure. The three step “Connect, Discover, Respond” method is a masterstroke. I am going to strive to apply it in my client relationships, with a focus on the connection rather than the transaction, on the relationship rather than on the bottom line, on the experience.
Opportinities for IT in Stimulus
The much debated $787 billion stimulus package is officially called the “American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009.” Among its many provisions is one very interesting opportunity for Health-IT professionals. An estimated $19+ billion dollars will be invested in health information technology infrastructure so doctors and hospitals will adopt and use certified electronic health records within the next decade. Here is a quote from the bill:
“HEALTH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Funding for Health Information Technology (IT) through Medicare and Medicaid Incentives. This bill promotes the use of health information technology (health IT), such as electronic health records, by: requiring the government to take a leadership role to develop standards by 2010 that allow for the nationwide electronic exchange and use of health information to improve quality and coordination of care; investing $19 billion in health information technology infrastructure and Medicare and Medicaid incentives to encourage doctors, hospitals, and other providers to use health IT to electronically exchange patients’ health information; and strengthening Federal privacy and security law to protect identifiable health information from misuse as the health care sector increases use of health IT. If the bill is enacted, approximately 90% of doctors and 70% of hospitals would adopt and use certified electronic health records within the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office. In turn, that would save the government more than $12 billion (through reduced spending on Medicare, Medicaid, and other programs) and generate additional savings throughout the health sector through improvements in quality of care, care coordination, and reductions in medical errors and duplicative care. The estimated net cost of this provision is $17.2 billion; in addition, $2 billion for affiliated grants and loans is available through discretionary funding.”
About Dr. Ware, Inc. – provide, protect, promote
Dr. Ware’s mission statement is:
“Providing and protecting the information systems our clients rely on to promote their businesses and add value to their customers.”
Dr. Ware takes a diagnostic approach to client care. We start with a check-up of your vital business systems. Once identified we weight them by relevance and chart how to best use technology to support these systems. It really is all about the flow of information to have quick, reliable, and accurate information when we need it, in the way we want it. The right information is also prepared for public consumption to support your marketing online and in the “real world.” The technology should be natural to the processes. When it comes to information systems we subscribe to the 3 P’s – provide, protect, promote.
Provide. Once the flow of information is charted to match your business processes then the systems to support those processes must be designed, developed, and deployed. Often this involves centralizing the data, providing a consistent desktop experience, and training staff to adopt new practices for greater efficiency and effectiveness.
Protect. Centralized data allows for greater security and standardization. Updates, antivirus, spam/hacker prevention, backups, etc., all managed within one planned environment. Preventing data loss and protecting proprietary information are vital to your business.
Promote. The Worldwide Web can seem like the Wild Wild West when it comes to launching a Web site and other online ventures. Search engine placement, social media, email newsletters, shopping carts, blogs, galleries, and the list goes on and on. What is best for your business? Which strategy will bring real results? How do you track online traffic and build an Internet audience? You need to know what works and how to get the best return on your investment.
This is what Dr. Ware does. Isn’t it about time for your free business check-up? Please contact us for more information.