Sharon Linsenbach

Patients and caregivers are demanding more cutting-edge healthcare technology than ever before, but the support and administration tasks required for this new care model are challenging some hospitals. Across the board, patients, doctors, nurses, hospital staff and administrators are in favor of any technology that can reduce costs, improve efficiency and increase quality of care, […]

Microsoft has created Amalga, an enterprise-class Unified Intelligence System designed to enable hospitals to access any patient data from any legacy hospital system, regardless of the type of data file it is based on. Amalga UIS is the new version of the product formerly known as Azyxxi, said Davide Vigano, director of enterprise marketing for […]

Google’s recent changes to pricing and support services for Postini e-mail security products have left partners reeling and searching for more channel-friendly vendors for their customers’ e-mail security needs. Google, which acquired Postini for $625 million in July 2007, said on Feb. 5 it was reorganizing its e-mail messaging security products into three new “Powered […]

According to one security expert, it’s possible to infiltrate an otherwise HIPAA-compliant hospital network from an unlikely place-the printer. Peter Mongroo, head of global health care marketing for Aruba Networks, said low-level peripherals such as printers and scanners are often overlooked as potential weak links in a hospital’s network, especially if that network is a […]

Misys Healthcare Systems released code for its Misys Connect EMR interoperability software to the open-source community Feb. 8, ending months of industry speculation about whether the company would make good on its promise to commit to open source. Misys Connect is a Web-based clinical data viewer that shares patient information across any infrastructure, regardless of […]

Federal IT spending will rise by more than $4 billion over 2008, but with a lame-duck president in an election year, it’s unlikely that the fiscal 2009 budget will be passed before the new administration takes office next January. So requests for hefty budget raises from the departments of Veterans Affairs, Defense and the Department […]

Hewlett-Packard will introduce an update to its entry-level storage area network products that the vendor hopes will spur customers to upgrade from older storage technology. The new MSA2000 line will replace HP’s MSA1000 line and will include Fibre Channel or iSCSI disk arrays, said an HP spokesperson. The line is targeted at SMBs (small and […]

Huntsville Hospital is implementing VMware’s virtual desktop infrastructure to improve infrastructure management, security and compliance and to reduce costs. With approximately 900 beds and a network of referring physicians spread out geographically in the region, desktop management and troubleshooting was extremely difficult, said Tony Wilburn, a network specialist at Huntsville Hospital, in Huntsville, Ala. However, […]

Privacy auditing software vendor FairWarning says it will double its customer base in 2008, as hospitals respond to security and patient information privacy concerns. FairWarning CEO Kurt Long said hospitals are faced with intense pressure from HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) to ensure that any applications that interact with patient data follow strict […]

Speech recognition could be the weight needed to push broad adoption of electronic medical records in health care. Nuance, an ISV that makes the popular Dragon speech recognition software, is betting data entry is the primary stumbling block to EMR adoption. The company is building tools and ties to EMRs, hoping doctors and technicians will […]