Healthcare Technology Featured Article

March 30, 2013

Health TechZone Week in Review


Happy spring weekend! It’s time to take a few minutes to check out the week’s happenings in the world of health technology in the Health TechZone.

In an effort to improve the communication between transportation service providers and health and human service providers, passenger transportation technology solution provider RouteMatch Software, Inc. has developed a solution called the Facility Web Portal. This program enables organizations to access an online central repository to register, reserve, cancel or check on the status of trips.

Smartphones are providing solutions to improve efficiency and create innovative ways to resolve problems affecting certain segments of society. The healthcare industry is in dire need of solutions that will improve the bloated system currently chewing up almost $3 trillion annually. mHealth at The University of Alabama in Huntsville has been working on a wireless personal health monitoring system using smartphones to provide data to healthcare providers using the Internet.

The Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and its associated Medical Group recently implemented services and solutions from Avantas, a provider of strategic labor management technology, services and strategies for the healthcare industry. Specifically, Penn State Hershey is now relying on Avantas' consulting services and its Smart Square proprietary labor management software, which enables an automated, paperless labor management system across the entire center.

At the rate it is going the healthcare industry will soon hit the $3 trillion annual mark. The system is bloated, inefficient and lacking in its capacity to adopt new technologies and use it efficiently in order to improve overall operations. One of the biggest problems within the healthcare industry is its inability to communicate effectively, and research conducted during a 10 year period has shown this lack of communication is responsible for 66 percent of medical errors.

DocPath, a company specializing in the development of document software solutions, has announced a wide range of improvements to its document management solutions powered by Ipanema Technology, the new technological core. The new DocPath document software technology platform provides an optimized electronic forms environment, graphical design of process flows and integration with everyday tools such as Word and Excel.

Physicians Interactive (PI), a division of Skyscape.com, Inc. and a resource for healthcare information, medication samples and mobile decision support tools for medical professionals, announced it has launched Omnio, a new app for medical professionals that connects clinicians to comprehensive drug and disease references and calculators that are essential in their specialty.

Former President Bill Clinton, speaking at HIMSS13, said that medical practices need to embrace IT and let go of outmoded administrative systems that he likened to “horse and buggy systems.” At the same time, the American College of Physicians (ACP) released a report stating that clinicians lowered their satisfaction and usability ratings for certified electronic health records (EHR) solutions since 2010. Healthcare IT News reported that ratings of “very dissatisfied” had increased 15 percent in the last three years.

That’s all for this week in the Health TechZone. Have a great weekend.



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