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Business of Medicine, Consultations, Health 2.0, Healthcare, Healthcare Software, Healthcare Solutions, Online

Tier 2 Consulting Helps Healthlogistics Deliver Online Catalogue and Contract Price Data to the UK NHS

Healthlogistics.co.uk Ltd, the UK’s leading NHS e-procurement consultancy, has recently announced that ten leading NHS acute Trusts are now piloting its innovative online supplier catalogue and contract data system. Based on hybris and JEE technology, and customised and implemented by Tier 2 Consulting, HL-hybris provides a single source of reference for catalogue, contract and contract price data. The next phase of development of the system is now about to begin.

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Tier 2 Consulting announced today that the next phase of the development of Healthlogistics’ HL-hybris catalogue and contract management system is about to begin. This will deliver outstanding search, contract generation and dashboard functionality for both Trusts and suppliers.

As part of the roll-out, some 900 suppliers working with these ten Trusts, including Kings College Hospital, Royal Brompton & Harefield and Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trusts, are now or will soon be providing filtered product, price and contract data via their dedicated web portal where they can securely and confidentially access data specific to them.

These acute and acute Foundation Trusts are pioneering the adoption of private-sector best practices and are keen to achieve the cost benefits of efficient supply chain management and data synchronicity.

Commenting on the continuing development of HL-hybris, Healthlogistics’ Director Peter Elwin said, “As a hybris Premium Business Partner, Tier 2 Consulting has a proven track record in system integration and configuration. As we continue to enhance the platform, and as each new Trust adopts the HL-hybris solution, we benefit from the technical expertise of Tier 2 to help us bed-in new Trusts and support this initiative over the long term. I’m confident that we have the best team in place to do that.”

Andy Kennedy, Director at Tier 2 Consulting, commented: “We were delighted to be chosen in 2008 by Healthlogistics to deliver the technical aspects of their HL-hybris offering, and are excited about the many exciting further enhancements that are planned over the coming year. The combination of Healthlogistics’ undoubted expertise in the field of NHS e-procurement, Tier 2’s technical experience and the extensive functionality of the core hybris system has resulted in a truly innovative platform”.

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Business of Medicine, Health 2.0, Healthcare, Healthcare Professionals, Healthcare Software, Hospitals, Online, Society

Using ROAM, Authorized Healthcare Workers In New Brunswick Can Securely Access Any Health System In The Province From Any Location

The province is teaming up with partners to provide health-care professionals with better and faster access to medical information.

Health Minister Michael Murphy announced on Monday that new specialty software had recently been integrated with IT systems in New Brunswick’s regional hospitals and other health-care facilities.

“Providing all provincial health-care workers with a single secure access portal to provincial health information systems represents a significant modernization of our health system,” said Murphy. “This is a significant milestone in our One Patient One Record project, and further ensures the consistent delivery of care, regardless of the patient’s location.”

The access portal is supported by AnyWare Group’s ROAM platform. In addition to improving working conditions for health-care professionals, it will better protect patient privacy by providing to New Brunswick’s health-care professionals secure remote access to all of the province’s health information systems.

Health officials said that this innovative project will have an impact on the overall efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the system.

“Sharing a single common secure infrastructure across the province’s entire health-care system provides cost savings for the province, and a consistent experience for health-care workers,” said Gordon Gilman, CEO of FacilicorpNB. “This project is a result of excellent teamwork and collaboration between the regional health authorities, the Department of Health and FacilicorpNB.”

The portal will increase the efficiency of the health-care system by allowing clinicians to devote more time to patients, and improve patient safety. Health officials also mentioned the portal’s impact on innovation and cost-effectiveness, thereby lowering health-care expenditures and reducing wait times.

“AnyWare Group is pleased to be supporting New Brunswick’s iHER (interoperable electronic health record) initiative,” said Robert Lalonde, AnyWare Group Inc. CEO. “Providing a single secure remote access point for all health-care workers across the province makes New Brunswick a North American leader in e-health.”

The launch of the ROAM platform follows the introduction of government legislation designed to protect personal health information and privacy.

About AnyWare Group
AnyWare Group is the leading remote access solution provider for hospitals and healthcare organizations. AnyWare Group’s award-winning ROAM Platform enables clientless remote access to all applications from any device (PCs and Macs) without requiring the management of users’ computers. Through the ROAM portal, organizations present all relevant applications to authorized users, when and where required. More information is available at www.AnyWareGroup.com.

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Business of Medicine, Health 2.0, Healthcare, Healthcare Professionals, Healthcare Software, Hospitals, Online

Anyware Group’s ROAM Helps Radiologists, Physicians And Managers Access Hospital Systems From Anywhere

With doctors spread across 4 rural counties, Memorial Medical Center of West Michigan has implemented AnyWare Group’s ROAM (Role Oriented Access Management) as the remote access platform to deliver their medical systems and applications, leading to more timely adherence to the hospital’s “sign-off” policy.

All hospitals depend on physicians and radiologists to promptly “sign-off” on patient records – but it is challenging to encourage and sustain compliance when physicians are spread out over a wide rural area like Western Michigan. With ROAM, healthcare providers can access internal hospital systems, check patient records and sign-off reports, from home or in a distant office, improving the effectiveness, and lifestyles, of physicians, administrators and IT staff – who might otherwise be forced to stay overtime in the hospital.

“A high level of complexity can discourage consistent adherence to the “sign-off” policy,” said Sue Luskin, IS Supervisor at MMCWM. “ROAM is so intuitive, it’s easy to use right away and our physicians and staff took to it immediately.”

Sue Luskin recently received an email sent by Lynn S. McCurdy, D.O., a radiologist. Dr. McCurdy wrote:

“I just used ROAM to sign 28 reports (which were not transcribed yet when I left the hospital at 7:30 last night). It worked beautifully; in fact, much more smoothly than when I was editing and signing reports in house (perhaps because both I and the transcriptionist were busily accessing the list). Next time I won’t stay late while the weather is deteriorating, knowing I can sign things from the safety of my home.”

Memorial Medical also chose ROAM because it is “clientless” – so specialists in distant cities can be provided with a secure personalized portal that restricts access to only the systems and information they need, based on role, within minutes. Rural hospitals often rely on larger urban hospitals for consultations from on-call specialists, especially in emergency situations. Remote access systems that take days to add a new user, or require a high level of technical support for end users, are not well suited for this situation.

“We recently heard from a consulting radiologist from a large urban hospital who had provided a diagnosis for one of our emergency patients,” said Sue Luskin. “He said that consulting to Memorial Medical was such a wonderful experience – that we could set him up with a new temporary user account immediately and, within minutes, he was reviewing images and dictating his diagnosis. He was very impressed with the ease with which ROAM had made records available.”

Prior to introducing ROAM, Memorial Medical provided access to their HIS through IPsec VPN, which required that IT staff either burn and mail out a CD or visit distant offices and homes to install a client on each of the personal computers belonging to authorized users on the network. It was very time consuming for IT staff and tends to act as a disincentive to granting remote access to new users.

“We at AnyWare Group are very excited to be working with Memorial Medical on this important initiative that truly highlights the unique capabilities of the ROAM Platform,” said Robert Lalonde, CEO of AnyWare Group Inc. “By providing authorized physicians, clinicians and managers with a single point of access to hospital systems and applications, ROAM is helping Memorial Medical improve the work life and efficiency of physicians and staff.”

About Memorial Medical Center of West Michigan
Headquartered in the town of Ludington, Michigan, an area known for its beautiful beaches, spectacular sunsets and numerous parks, Memorial Medical Center of West Michigan serves a community spread out over 4 rural counties, with over 500 employees, including those working in a satellite primary care facility in a neighboring county.

About AnyWare Group
AnyWare Group provides remote access solutions designed to meet the needs of hospitals and healthcare organizations. AnyWare Group’s award-winning ROAM Platform enables clientless remote access to all applications from any device (PCs and Macs) without requiring the management of users’ computers. Through the ROAM portal, organizations present all relevant applications to authorized users, when and where required.

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Business of Medicine, Health 2.0, Healthcare, Healthcare Professionals, Healthcare Software, Hospitals, Online

MaineGeneral Health Selects AnyWare Group’s ROAM Platform For Remote Access

AnyWare Group Inc. announced today that MaineGeneral Health, one of the largest health care systems in Maine, has implemented AnyWare Group’s clientless remote access platform. The ROAM (Role Oriented Access Management) platform allows secure remote access to any designated application or file share within the health care system through a role-based portal.

Physicians associated with MaineGeneral’s Augusta and Waterville campuses may now use any PC or Mac, equipped with nothing more than a web browser and a basic version of JAVA, to access more than thirty applications within the health care system. Application examples include Eclipsys Sunrise, Allscripts TouchWorks, Philips iSite, Kronos and Lawson which reside in various environments including Citrix and Terminal Services.

“Initially we were looking for a very secure and cost effective remote access technology to connect our independent physicians to our EHR,” said Danny Burgess, CIO of MaineGeneral Health. “To be honest I had a very difficult time believing the claims of what ROAM could do for our organization. ROAM simply sounded too good to be true. Healthcare vendors routinely make extraordinary claims, but most have a track record of over-promising and under-delivering. It was not until we agreed to a ROAM pilot that AnyWare Group demonstrated they could do everything they said and much more.”

ROAM’s remote access capabilities have proven effective for the IT staff of MaineGeneral as well as a broad cross section of healthcare professionals. “The positive feedback from physicians has been overwhelming,” said Jimmy Mansir, System Support Technician. “Users are receiving the access they need, when needed”. “I have found ROAM to be an extremely powerful tool, simple to use and, best of all, it delivers only the applications that I require,” said Dr. Edward Ringel, Director of Clinical Informatics.

System engineering staff can deploy applications quickly, securely and reliably. “Prior to using ROAM for remote access, we had used IPSec VPN as well as one of the leading SSL VPN appliances – Citrix Access Gateway – for remote access connectivity. Both are great technologies, but we all agreed that ROAM delivered a level of security, simplicity and flexibility that was hard to ignore,” said Jerry Lindsay, Senior Systems Engineer. “Valuable IT resources have been freed to work in critical areas because, as a service, we just tell AnyWare Group what applications or roles we want to add to our ROAM Portal and they take care of it.”

AnyWare Group provides proactive monitoring and responsive 7/24 support as part of the service. “One of the most significant benefits of ROAM has been the support and engineering services that come bundled as part of the ROAM offering. There hasn’t been a single issue they couldn’t help us with”, said Mansir. “In addition our help calls regarding remote access have 
virtually disappeared as end users find the ROAM remote access solution extremely simple to use. There is virtually no learning curve for the end users.”

“Since AnyWare Group focuses on healthcare solutions, they have expertise that has helped us optimize a number of our applications including our PACS systems for remote access,” said Burgess.

“Having MaineGeneral Health as a customer is certainly a thrill for us. They have given us an opportunity to demonstrate the value we bring to both the IT department and end users – particularly physicians,” said Robert Lalonde, CEO of AnyWare Group. “The results at MaineGeneral legitimize the benefit claims of ROAM as a clientless remote access platform and are yet another customer proof point for us.”

About MaineGeneral Health
MaineGeneral Health is the parent corporation of a network of acute care hospitals, physician practices, long term nursing care, and assisted living and retirement communities.

About AnyWare Group
AnyWare Group is the leading remote access solution provider for hospitals and healthcare organizations. AnyWare Group’s award-winning ROAM Platform enables clientless remote access to all applications from any device (PCs and Macs) without requiring the management of users’ computers. Through the ROAM portal, organizations present all relevant applications to authorized users, when and where required.

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Business of Medicine, Health 2.0, Healthcare, Healthcare Information, Healthcare Software, Online

Medical Record Portable Storage Supports International Health Level Seven (HL7) Standards

Med Records to Go(tm) stores health information vital to medical professionals and emergency responders. A computer application called Med Records to Go(tm), that stores electronic medical records, can help reduce errors in emergency conditions, as well as in hospital or medical clinic admissions. Introduced by the Vital Record Corporation in November, 2006, Med Records to Go(tm) uses flash drive technology to record and store health information for emergency viewing by medical personnel and for electronic transmission to medical facilities using HL7 standards.

A new feature of the application allows electronic transmission of the stored medical records on the flash drive to medical facilities or offices in Clinical Document Architecture (CDA) format of the international HL7 standards. (See www.hl7.org). For electronic transmission of the CDA document, the application includes simple entry of the Internet address of the destination hospital or medical facility. If the stored medical records of the portable unit contain a digital photograph of the owner, it is included in the CDA document and in the transmission to a medical facility.

This new feature also includes the application option of creating and previewing the CDA document on the flash drive. A simple button click of the application automatically starts the installed Internet Browser (Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, etc.) of the computer system for previewing the CDA document. In similar manner, the CDA XML source code can be previewed automatically with the installed system browser.

All software, controls, transmission features, and electronic medical records of Med Records to Go(tm) are contained in the portable storage unit. A temporary Internet connection is required to transmit a CDA medical record document to a medical facility or office. Otherwise, the health information is kept private and secure and not vulnerable to access on the public Internet. For additional security, the medical information stored on the portable unit is encrypted and cannot be read using any other application.

The additional cell phone feature of Med Records to Go(tm) incorporates the transmission of electronic medical records from the storage unit to a standard cell phone. A temporary Internet connection is also required to send the medical data in encrypted form to the Vital Record Corporation server before placement on the cell phone. In addition to data encryption, user identification and password controls are used for retrieving the medical data from the Vital Record server for storage on a cell phone.

Emergency medical personnel have immediate access to the health information because the information is automatically displayed (auto run) when the storage unit is plugged into the computer. Medical personnel can view the medical information by browsing the various pages contained within the storage unit. No special application knowledge is required for viewing the data since the standard Internet browser installed in the computer is used. Optionally, the health information of the storage unit can be transmitted by emergency personnel to any medical facility that supports the international HL7 standards.

About Vital Record Corporation
Vital Record Corporation, headquarted in San Diego, California, is comprised of a small team of computer science experts. They provide application development, web site design and implementation services, including internet access services, to individuals and small businesses. The Vital Records team members are developers of the recent Med Records to Go(tm) application, a device that stores electronic medical records and other vital health information.

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