Non Profit Social Interest Solutions Group and Microsoft Partner To Advance State and Government Health Exchange Initiatives

Back in February of 2011 Microsoft Government also announced their low cost State Insurance Exchange solutions.  Microsoft’s HIX solutions eliminate the need for states to evaluate numerous point solutions from various firms to find one that works well with government policies or existing IT infrastructures.

Microsoft Announces New Low-Cost Turnkey State Health Insurance Exchange Technology Solutions

From the Social Interest Solutions Website:

“Wherever possible, Social Interest Solutions utilizes the standard HIPAA transaction sets to form the basis of our interfaces as we have found that many of the entities with whom we share data have already adopted these standards. Our HIPAA companion guides are available upon request.

Social Interest Solutions is able to support a variety of data formats, including, but not limited to: HL7, HL9, X12, XML, Flat files, Comma Separated files and many others.

Social Interest Solutions is proud of our system integration capabilities and believe it is a key differentiator in making sure persons in need of benefits are efficiently supported. To learn more about the interfaces we support see interfaces. “

“Systems using a web service to communicate with each other don’t need to go through a great deal of change, as long as they adhere to the common message format. Services that can be used by multiple systems are more easily shared through web services because of the flexibility and reusability they provide. This shared usage is more cost effective because web services allow seamless integration and use of functionalities across multiple systems without the need to make significant changes to the systems that need to exchange information”

Social Interest solutions e-apps have been deployed in Arizona and California and connects low income families to programs ranging from Medicaid to food stamps.  One-e-App has screened nearly 7 million people and generated over 9 million applications for programs so far.  The PAL application is a web based tool that allows both doctors and patients the ability to apply for co-pay assistance for medications and other services.  From what I am reading in the press release though the focus here lies with insurance exchanges.  It’s nice to see a technology company involved here instead of the technologies of the insurers as we don’t know as we can’t audit and see if the procedures and algorithms are accurate all the time ad Microsoft doesn’t have a conflicting interest of healthcare claims that are processed for bottom line share holder profits either.  BD   

Press Release:

Social Interest Solutions and Microsoft Work Together to Leverage Social Interest Solutions’ Thought Leadership, Policy, Enrollment and Integration Expertise to Advance State and Government Health Insurance Exchange Initiatives

SACRAMENTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Social Interest Solutions (SIS), a mission-driven, nonprofit organization dedicated to leveraging technology innovation to improve consumers’ access to health and human services, today announced a strategic alliance with Microsoft. The relationship will involve working collaboratively to help government entities save time and money in the design and deployment of the technology and processes underlying health insurance exchanges.

“We are pleased to be working with Microsoft at this historic time”

“We are pleased to be working with Microsoft at this historic time,” said Claudia Page, co-director at Social Interest Solutions. “Both organizations have a successful track record of working closely with state agencies to help them achieve greater integration across health and human services silos and both view the implementation of health insurance exchanges as a way to reform the health delivery system and improve health outcomes.”

“With the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), states have new mandates to follow, deadlines to meet and risks to mitigate that require significant process improvements combined with innovative technologies,” said Brian Russon, national practice leader for Health Insurance Exchange, Microsoft.

“We are pleased to join forces with Social Interest Solutions and look forward to working collaboratively to help our clients meet the demands of implementing effective health insurance exchanges.”

For the health insurance exchange collaboration, Microsoft will be providing technology and state government expertise, while Social Interest solutions will be providing valuable knowledge and experience focusing on enrollment, standards, interoperability.

For nearly a decade, Social Interest Solutions has been instrumental in helping to modernize the process for identifying and enrolling in health and human services programs. In early 2003, Social Interest Solutions developed One-e-App, a Web-based system streamlining the complicated eligibility and enrollment process by making it possible to transparently connect and share data across otherwise disparate state and local social services systems and programs. Today, One-e-App is deployed in Arizona, California, Indiana and Maryland and has served nearly 9 million individuals. The innovative integration and process improvements achieved with the One-e-App platform will play a critical role in helping states using One-e-App to develop and deploy health insurance exchanges.

Social Interest Solutions is also focused on effective policy development and helped to craft language in Section 1561 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Section 1561 requires the Federal government to establish enrollment standards to facilitate access to coverage. Subsequently, SIS directors have served as consultants to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT to support the development of ACA enrollment standards and protocols. Social Interest Solutions has also worked with states to conduct ACA IT gap analyses, assessing the current status of IT systems against where the state plans to be in 2014. Gap analysis work has been completed for Arizona, Maryland and New York and is underway in Alabama.

About Social Interest Solutions

Social Interest Solutions (SIS) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to leveraging technology innovation to improve consumers’ access to public and private health and social services. As an active influencer and promoter of policy reform, SIS has successfully developed and deployed pioneering technology solutions having a positive impact on the quality of life for the nation’s underserved population. www.socialinterest.org

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110831005482/en/Social-Interest-Solutions-Microsoft-Join-Forces

Technorati Tags: Social Interest Solutions,Microsoft,coding,algorithms,analysis,policies,coverage,ONC,Health IT,ACA,Affordable Care Act

Windows Phone + Windows7 + Kinect + Surface + Speech Recognition – Wicked Technology and Integration

Wicked is about the best word I could come up with here.  When you watch the demonstration of all of these technologies together this is amazing.  I have used all of them separately but have never seen anything like this.  So far I’m a happy camper too with my Windows Phone and recently read where it’s the most secure device out there and that’s what I wanted.  If you have never seen any of Dr. Neil Roodyn’s material, he’s always coming up with a surprise and has been a very long time tablet developer. 

Cellphone Died This Week–My New Phone is Windows Mobile 7 - I Wanted Security, Privacy and Applications - In That Order

As mentioned below this is “in the wild” and done in Australia and not here in the US but they are a Microsoft partner by all means.  BD 

NSquared

What could this do in healthcare?  Any ideas?  I tried and put my thinking cap on and for some reason it was not working too well as I tried to come up with an idea that could use all of the technologies at once, and I’m sure there’s ideas out there but my tired brain couldn’t think today.  BD 

Another post, another video featuring Microsoft Surface. This time, it’s nsquared, a Microsoft Partner from Australia who showed off this impressive demo during the TechEd Australia 2011 developer keynote this week.

I thought the integration of Surface and Windows Phone was particularly impressive and seeing a developer using the voice capability of Kinect was also cool.

As Long Zheng notes, you sometimes see this kind of integrated demo in our vision videos (or sometimes in Craig Mundie demos) but to see it in the wild is testament to what’s possible and to the capability of nsquared. Kudos to them!

http://blogs.technet.com/b/next/archive/2011/08/30/windows-phone-windows-7-kinect-surface-coolness.aspx

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Kinect,Windows 7,Surface,technology,HealthIT,Integration,software,hardware

Don’t Get Stuck in the IT Past–Locked in an 8 Track World–VM Limited (Video-Humor)

This is funny and we may guess who VM Limited might be and there’s a company having their big meeting this week with a similar name.  Now I do have to say, “locked in an 8 track world also very well applies to many of our members of Congress too, doesn’t this guy look like some of them <grin>.  I love the van and portable office here too, good work on some funny humor here on selling virtual and cloud services.  BD 

More Congressional Testimonies About Health IT–Members of Congress Could Entertain Getting an “Algo Man” on Staff As Wall Street and Health Insurers Have Them–Don’t Leave Home Without One

Some IT providers claim they have a cloud solution but they really offer something less. They don't offer common management tools that allow you to easily manage and migrate across your private and public clouds. They don't allow you to manage deep within your applications. And they require licensing that charges more, the more you use.
If you're ready to move to a cloud, try a private cloud solution from Microsoft. It's built for the future and ready now. Find out more at http://aka.ms/VMltd.

http://vmlimited.ctp.trafficmgr.com/

Technorati Tags: VMLimited,Microsoft,technology,70s,software,virtualization,cloud computing,Health IT,Humor

NHS Doctors to Use “Redneck Telehealth” Also Known as “Skype”–A Good Thing

A while back I wrote about this topic with a friend who was out of town and needed to talk with his doctor long distance and the doctor wanted to know about his toe, so I said “Get on Skype put your toe up there”.  You can read more at the link below, but gee, why not?  Both the doctor and friend were happy with the suggestion and Skype is so widely known already too.  They had a great foot conference out of this:)

And Now A Word About “Redneck Telehealth” Brought to You by Skype and Microsoft

I had a ton of comments on this as well as pretty much everyone agreed and the reason for the “redneck” name is due to the fact that this is off the cuff as far as having a software system that does this automatically to document everything so in the meantime it’s Redneck healthcare, but it works!  Back when I wrote this a few months ago, Microsoft here in the US said they were also looking at incorporating Skype where they could but it may be a while before we hear anything but in the meantime, the NHS is hot after the trail of using Skype.  This is a big deal as you don’t have to sell the consumers and doctors on “value” either, it’s automatically recognized, unlike so much other software and programs that float around out there today too.  We are so over done with technologies that offer mobile apps that only do “one thing”, a huge glut and the stuff keeps coming.  I rant about it all the time and most of the developers that create consumer software don’t even think about using themselves to make matters worse.  We have ton of innovation in the US, but a big lack of collaboration. 

I read today where some VCs left their start ups high and dry so maybe a bit more of that type of action and collaboration might start getting some real attention soon, I hope!   If the VCs just only started funding software that does more than “one thing” we would be miles ahead.  BD

Patients will be able to hold online consultations with doctors as part of plans to technologically revolutionize the NHS, according to its medical director.

Professor Sir Bruce Keogh said that IT will ''completely change the way we deliver medicine'' making access to GPs at any time a reality and giving patients the ability to talk to specialists anywhere in the country.

The health expert told The Times newspaper he was looking at using online services such as Skype to make the NHS more convenient for users.

''I am looking at how we can put levers into the system to encourage doctors to do online consultations,'' he said.

''Once you have online consultations, it breaks down geographical boundaries. It opens up the specter of 24/7 access.''

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8729069/NHS-doctors-to-examine-sick-patients-over-Skype.html

Technorati Tags: Skype,Microsoft,Redneck,telehealth,humor,dictation,video conferencing,healthcare,Health IT,HIPAA,MD,patients,Gout,Toe,HealthVault NHS

Microsoft Announces New Leadership for U.S. Health & Life Sciences Group

Microsoft adds some new leadership to their healthcare services division.  Additional information can be found at the MSDN Microsoft in Health site with a little additional history on both individuals.  BD 

Press Release:

Washington, D.C. — August 24, 2011 — Microsoft Corp. announced today two new leadership positions within the company’s U.S. health organization. Michael Robinson is Microsoft’s new General Manager of U.S. Health & Life Sciences and Dennis Schmuland has been promoted to a newly-created role, that of Chief Health Strategy Officer.

Robinson previously served as the General Manager, Public Sector for Middle East & Africa where he was responsible for managing the growth and strategy for Microsoft’s Public Sector business in over 70 countries. With more than 35 years of sales, technology and management experience, Robinson has helped grow the Microsoft business since joining the company in 2002.

“With the opportunities and challenges we face as a nation, there is no more important time to be part of the health industry in this country,” said Robinson. “Microsoft is uniquely positioned to help health organizations deliver impactful solutions and strategies that improve care delivery, empower consumers to manage their own health, and ultimately drive down costs in the industry.”

Reporting to Robinson, Dennis Schmuland has been promoted to Chief Health Strategy Officer and will help to drive the company’s engagement with key constituencies, including consumers, providers, health plans, life sciences organizations and federal, state and local health and human services organizations. Schmuland previously served as Microsoft’s National Director of Health Plan Industry Solutions and has been with Microsoft for 10 years. He holds a doctorate in medicine from the University of Washington School of Medicine and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians. Schmuland also serves on the editorial advisory board for Managed Healthcare Executive and on the board of US Healthiest. 

Both Robinson and Schmuland will continue to collaborate with the worldwide Health Solutions Group led by Microsoft Corporate Vice President Peter Neupert. The Health Solutions Group is responsible for developing, selling and supporting Microsoft Amalga, a health intelligence platform for health enterprises, Microsoft HealthVault, a technology platform that puts people in control of their personal health information, and a suite of identity and access management solutions acquired from Sentillion in 2010.

For more information on Microsoft in Health, please visit: www.microsoft.com/health.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,healthcare,Health solutions,Health IT,doctors,consumers,providers,software

HealthVault Can Be Used As a Platform for Healthcare–Innovation Without Collaboration Part Two

The reason I call this part two is that for a couple of years I wrote about the Common User Interface for medical records which is also still out there and free for the taking and nobody bit on it, but rather we have many different and some complicated interfaces today for medical records. I can’t remember who, but someone on Twitter a while back said we needed a common user interface for medical records and I pointed out the Code Plex site and said it was there, free for the taking, but few bit, with the exception of a doctor I talk with in New Zealand who did quite a bit with it and I have written about Graham on here a couple of times.  I even had a professor from Germany that I chatted with a while back who wrote a medical records system and thought it was something he might want to explore. 

Innovation Without Collaboration Is Fouling Up The US Healthcare IT System–We Need Both As We Can’t Stand on Innovation Alone

It was funny back in 2008 when I was at HIMSS working to promote tablet PCs and I loaded up the predecessor to the CUI on the unit and walked around with it as all the medical record vendors asked “who’s system is that” and I had to explain it was a

MSDN electronic records

demo I picked up at a TechNet Dot Net meeting:)  It used Windows Foundation before Silverlight was really out there.  That was back in the days when using a tablet still put one in the “goober” category and look where we are today just 3 years later with tablets.  The video to the left shows what the demo looked like. 

Electronic Medical Records of the Future

Anyway, it looks like we are back once again to the same old thing here and Sean from HealthVault took time out to post about how HealthVault is free and available with no advertising and a heck of a lot of code and security already built in to let all know it’s available, so I am passing the word along. 

HealthVault Begins Storing Medical Images (Dicom) Using Windows Azure Cloud Services With Full Encryption

I rant here all the time about the gluts of software, especially in the mHealth area that appears almost daily and gee why not save some coding time and efforts, and make it easier for consumers and doctors to tie this all in.  HealthVault also takes advantage of the “Direct” program and was one of the first out of the barrel to write an interface.  One huge advantage here is the connecting of all the devices that are out there, as who in the heck wants to use several different software programs, I don’t and I can safely say consumers don’t want multiple software connections either. 

HealthVault-Setting Up Consumer Email Address For Secure Messages Using Government Direct Project

Who’s going to write a ton of additional code and run up the tab?  It’s what we are doing and as he points out grant money is getting tight as other items for Health IT these days, so reinvent the wheel and shovel out more money without even talking a look?  I don’t write any more but given a choice of some free code with all the built-ins available or start and write an interface from scratch?  No I would not start from scratch and would certainly take advantage of what was out there for fee by all means, and I like the security built in and that too is part of the reason I happened to stay with a Windows phone but that’s another story for another time and you can search and find that post here too. 

So much of the time key executive individuals who have never written a stick of code can’t see this value and today I sit back and read and research the web for this blog and I see it all over the place and it’s expensive too.  Don’t feel bad though have have an entire Congress full of folks that don’t get it at all the they are supposed to make laws to govern it.  FYI, this is where the creative technologists and the CIOs come in real handy as they get it for the most part and know what technologies work with others, that is if they are not over whelmed and over worked to the point to where they have time to help you. 

Even our US CTO occasionally gets carried away with his pep talks with trying to entice developers to “get rich” and help the country with writing code, but we all know that’s not going to happen and again I wish I could see more of a collaboration focus instead of being stuck on “innovation” as we don’t lack there at all, but we do need to do much better in the collaboration area.  Patients and doctors would love it. 

I think the 80% factor Sean mentions as re-plumbing is pretty accurate as again just researching and reading what various software and device companies put out there, kind of validates it.  Why do you think we have so much software out there that nobody uses on the consumer side?  One other quick item comes to mind too and that was the Surgeon General’s PHR which the developers actually did a pretty good job with the API and it went nowhere too, so again something to think about here. 

So what’s the plan here, spend a lot more money and write tons of code to further fragment what we have out there, or maybe think about at least taking a look at free resources that are there to build on.  BD 

Everything we’ve built into the HealthVault platform was created to help developers create connected health experiences --- leaving researchers and innovators free to focus on the novel parts of their work instead of all the plumbing necessary to healthcare. Just as a sampling:

Development on HealthVault is completely free. There is no charge to users, developers or enterprises to connect to HealthVault in the US. There is also no advertising on the system and we have strict terms of use that restrict Microsoft from looking at or selling data stored in the platform.

Privacy, security and compliance are baked in. HealthVault has undergone a ton of internal and external penetration testing and auditing. We have a fully HIPAA-compliant model for interacting with clinical systems, can sign BAAs when appropriate, and are registered with the FDA as a Class 1 medical device. So taking applications into real use is WAY easier that starting from scratch.

Home monitoring devices are already hooked up. More than 70 off-the-shelf home care devices are already connected to HealthVault using HealthVault Connection Center on a PC – and many more that share data with HealthVault through web or wireless connections. So if you want to experiment with blood pressure, glucose, pulse oximetry, weight, ECG, peak flow or heart rates and fitness, you’re ready to go. And if you want to connect a new device directly to HealthVault, there’s an API for doing that too.

Linking to clinical systems is simple. Much of what we do is move data between clinical systems. There are a bunch of patterns for matching patient identities to office systems for this purpose. HealthVault can automatically read and return data in the CCR and CCD (that link is kind of old but a good intro; note we now do data reconciliation automatically) formats that are quickly becoming the easiest way to exchange data with EHRs. We also fully support the Direct secure messaging protocol as another option.

HealthVault supports novel and extensible data types. HealthVault can store full-fidelity DICOM medical images, and allows users to burn them with viewing capability to CDs and DVDs. We have data types for genetic SNP data. And of course all of the clinical and fitness types you could ever think of. Then again, if you do think of a new one --- you can store that too, or extend an existing one.

Mobile development is a snap. Connecting mobile device platforms like iOS, Android and Windows Phone is completely supported with API libraries for each platform.

HealthVault is already connected to many data sources. HealthVault isn’t just about devices and manually-entered data. Users can connect their records to major pharmacies and labs, more and more hospitals and practices, use services that digitize paper records, etc.… so you can do research that uses data without having to figure out how to acquire it all from scratch.

All of this is super-important for research work. Grant money and coding talent is scarce, and I cringe whenever I see somebody presenting research that is 20% new stuff and 80% plumbing that's been done over and over before. By standing on top of HealthVault, smart folks can do more good work and try things that otherwise might have seemed out of reach.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/familyhealthguy/archive/2011/08/18/healthvault-as-a-platform-for-research-development.aspx

Technorati Tags: Medical Records,Microsoft,Common User Interface,EHR,EMR,User Interface,Medical Software,Templates,HealthVault,HealthIT,PHR,platform

Prevent Facebook From Suggesting Your Friends Tag You in Their Photos Using Facial Recognition

Ok here we go again with yet one more Facebook feature enabled by default.  This is an article written by Kurt, who I know from Microsoft that is the leader of the Windows Mobile User Group in Los Angeles and that I have know for a number of years and he’s a smart guy and engineer.  We used to learn a lot in those meetings with some of his expertise so when Kurt takes time out to inform I listen as the guy’s never wrong;)  Take that from many years of sitting in his meetings.  His disclosure clearly states too that these are his own opinions and again he knows his stuff. 

He also mentions the study done by Carnegie Mellon about how this can potentially end any kind of anonymity we have left.  You can use the link to his blog on how to disable this newest feature that they seem to think is good for us.  I don’t know about you but I’m tired of all of this and I shut my Facebook account off about 3 months ago and doing fine without it and worrying about this stuff.  Again, those are my thoughts but in other areas outside of what I do it may have some use.  I just flat out got tired of all the time it was taking and couldn’t work with the constant interruptions and way too much communication for me as folks used those tags to include me in way too many conversations and I couldn’t get out of them and now tags for images are on the horizon here.   We are all so busy today and I do miss those meetings as I learned a lot but perhaps they will come around again soon and thank Kurt for the heads up.  BD

Well, well, well.  It turns out that Facebook will, by default, recognize your photo in other people’s photos and suggest that they tag you with your real name.

In other words:  If a friend has a photo with your picture in it, Facebook will automatically identify you by placing a square around your face based on other places you’ve been tagged, using facial recognition, and autosuggest that your friend tag you in the photo.  And as you get tagged more and more, the richer the photo recognition gets.  It’s self-perpetuating.

HOWTO: Prevent Facebook from suggesting your friends tag you in their photos using facial recognition « Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Technorati Tags: Facebook,integration,facial recogntion,privacy,communications,study,Carnegie Mellon,user group

Microsoft Tags (Barcodes) Used with LifeSaver Mobile Application-Paramedics Scan a Printed Card to Access Your Records

Ok I like bar codes as everyone who visits here knows and this is yet one more way the Tags from Microsoft can be used.  I have written about Razcode encrypted Microsoft Tags here before and how they work with HeatlhVault and even Google Health as well as many devices such as the Withings Scale.  As a matter of fact I have a Microsoft Tag on this site in the right hand corner so go ahead and scan and read the blog on your smart phone too.  Here’s a couple links from the Duck archives below and there’s lots more like this if you do a search on the Medical Quack. 

RazCode/Windows Tags – Bar Coding to Add Information to PHRs, EHRs, and More…

Connecting HealthVault/Google Health and More to RazCode Encrypted Microsoft Tags – Automate Data Input

RAZCODE (Microsoft Tags) Using Smart Phones to authenticate MDs When e-Prescribing Controlled Substances

“Auth Tag” – Mobile Microsoft Bar Code Tags Using a Smartphone To Scan for Two Factor Authentication Giving Users Digital Tokens

Microsoft Receives Patent-Techniques to Create Counterfeit and Tamper Resistant Labels Using Fiber Optic Strands-Bar Codes Getting Closer for Drug/Device Recalls?

I have 2 links at the top of the blog and I have been campaigning for their use with FDA recalls, and when everyone talks about consumer use of mHealth, this is the ticket and it kills many birds with a half of a stone. 

Life saver App

A while back the folks over at Microsoft were kind enough to add my recommendations to the list too.

Tag Could Boost Safety in Medical Industry

“Microsoft Tag has had an exciting impact on the medical profession lately. The quarterly magazine Micro-Cap Review has recently featured one Ms. Barbara Duck, author of the Medical Quack blog, on the subject of Tag in the medical industry.

Micro-Cap Review is at the fingertips of all the movers and shakers of the medical industry, with approximately 35,000 subscribers and distribution in New York's financial district and conventions worldwide. The publication recently featured Duck and Tag in an article titled “Bar Code Solutions for those Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Recalls That Never End.”

Barcodes are where it’s happening and this also has use for in case of an emergency.  I am guessing your emergency information would be what you want on here, like medications, allergies, etc. enough to save your life and prevent mistakes made by clinicians that could occur without having the information ahead of time.  It is HL7 compatible. Again, bar codes and their use save lives whether it is medical information or finding recalls…FDA…hint..hint…as well as the drug and device companies.  I was also recently featured in the Milwaukee Journal newspaper with my thoughts on the recall issue too regarding the big Triad mess and the factory is still closed.  So all you frustrated folks out there trying to entice consumers into using mobile medical applications, get the vehicle that shows immediate value to the consumer and get behind this, otherwise we just keep having one more seldom used app after another showing up, which are of no value unless people want to use them and again “see value”.  BD

Recalled Wipes From Triad Still Out There in Consumer Medicine Cabinets and Possibly At Some Retail Locations-Manufacturers and FDA Need To Do A Better Job-Bar Codes

Scan any newspaper’s recent headlines and it becomes obvious: the world has been experiencing a rash of natural disasters, from the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, to the horrific tornadoes in Joplin, Missouri and the southeastern United States. And that’s just in the past few months. Sadly, each of these disasters has claimed many victims. One thing that could have helped was a technology that keeps track of the unique medical histories of every person affected. Now, thanks in part to Microsoft Tag, there is just such a technology: the LifeSaver App.

The next phase of the App, coming in about 30 days, will allow for the uploading of x-rays, EKG’s, EEG’s or any other file stored in PDF format. It will also have the ability to store a living will or a do-not-resuscitate (DNR) order for a patient.

Tag to the Rescue | Success Story | Microsoft Tag

Technorati Tags: Auth Tag,Microsoft Tags,bar codes,healthcare,Health IT,smartphone,picture,Razcode,transactions,LifeSaverApp,mHealth,PHR,medical records

White House Names Former Microsoft Executive as Next US CIO

$80 billion a year is what is spent by the government on information technology and we struggle to get our money’s worth.  Mr. VanRoekel plans to continue the project already in place by Mr. Kundra who leaving to go to Harvard soon.  With 15 years of experience at Microsoft it will be interesting to see how he lead the country in this area as well and not that doesn’t mean they are the favored vendor by any means. 

I hope this ends up being a good reaction from our digital illiterate lawmakers on the Hill though and perhaps they will take notice.  From what it noted below Mr. VanRoekel served as an assistant to Bill Gates so it sounds like his background was pretty interesting and varied as well as the couple of years spent at the FCC.  BD 

Steven VanRoekel, a former Microsoft executive, will become the next chief information officer for the federal government — a bigger, more policy-oriented technology job than any he held at the software giant.

Mr. VanRoekel worked for Microsoft for 15 years, including a stint as an assistant to Bill Gates, the co-founder. Mr. VanRoekel was a supporter of President Obama, attended the inauguration, and after a conversation with Julius Genachowski, the new chairman of the F.C.C., went to work for him.

As the government’s chief information officer, Mr. VanRoekel said he planned to move ahead with the work Mr. Kundra began.

“We’re trying to make sure that the pace of innovation in the private sector can be applied to the model that is government,” Mr. VanRoekel said.

White House Picks New Information Chief - NYTimes.com

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,CIO,White House,technology,government,data centers,IT infrastructure,Web servcies,cloud

Microsoft Data Center Video Tour–Where HealthVault and Other Cloud Services Are Stored And Deployed

If you are using HealthVault as your PHR, you might want to take a look and see where your data is stored and available for access.  Not too long ago HealthVault announced the use of their Azure cloud services for storing medical images with full encryption.  Encryption we want today with our medical images and records when stored in cloud services or any area for that matter.  Actually I have tried the image interface it’s not bad at all and has a nice viewer as well, so if the ER room does not have a DICOM viewer on their PCs, problem solved with storing in HealthVault. 

HealthVault Begins Storing Medical Images (Dicom) Using Windows Azure Cloud Services With Full Encryption

The video is worth a watch to get an idea of the size and complexity of the centers.  Some of the centers are powered by water.  Everything now is modular and the first center with this model was built in Chicago, using shipping containers.  Little did I think years ago, as I spent many years in logistics that servers would be stored in the ocean containers.  Plug and play has arrived at the data centers.  The size of the facilities ranges from 7 to 10 footballs fields so we have some big “clouds”.  I found this interesting to learn and see how the facilities are built and how they operating and see where my tiny little HealthVault account is stored.  BD

Microsoft Data Center

Microsoft has released a video providing an overview of its global cloud computing platform and the data centers that power it. The video begins with a big-picture overview of Microsoft’s cloud operations, and how the company’s 200 cloud services reach more than a billion customers and 20 million businesses in over 70 countries. The video then provides a closer look at how the company’s data center design has evolved from its first “Generation 2″ data center in Quincy, Washington and the “Generation 3″ container-driven facilities in Chicago and Dublin Ireland. The video closes with the most detailed video yet of the new “Generation 4″ site at Quincy, which uses a lightweight structure and next-generation IT-PACs (pre-assembled components).

Video: Microsoft’s Data Center Evolution « Data Center Knowledge

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Data Center,queries,cloud services,cloud,technologies,Azure,HealthVault,design,infrastructure,scale,privacy,operations

Craig Mundie from Microsoft Talks About Avatar Kinect and Use in Healthcare And How Technology is Reshaping Main Street (Videos)

This is kind of cute interview as part of the interview is actually done with Kinect Avatars.  Craig Mundie says Kinect is a good match to help autistic children with the automatic feedback.  He states there are going to be lots of new applications to be created.  In Germany it shows a system created that helps the blind.

He says as a country we are really struggling with brining aggregated technologies together to improve economics and create jobs.  He states businesses are not embracing technologies at the same pace as the pubic.  I might dispute that a little bit from what I see in the healthcare sector when it comes to mining and selling our data and some of the devices I report on here as they are way far advanced.

Now for another video that talks more specifically how jobs are not growing due to technology leaps as we don’t have enough people and we do not have a mix of tangible and intangible companies.  I have written a few times on that topic and the gap is getting larger each day. 

US Medical Companies Going Overseas for Investors While We Keep Driving Up Intangible Social Algorithms for Investments

In the video they talk about how companies are doing more with less.  Do the people who are out of work need to go open their own small business?  We might see more of this to survive.  We need more than just algorithms for jobs in the US and hopefully we can come to a better balance soon, but with a Congress that is for the most part digitally illiterate, it’s going to be hard to balance and grow.  BD 

Here’s a few more healthcare uses with Kinect.

Hospital Using Kinect Technology In the Operating Room To View and Manipulate Imaging-Saves Having to Rescrub! (Video)

Kinect And daVinci Surgical Robot Do Simulated Surgery Suturing Together (Video)

Microsoft Kinect Working with a PACS Server-Images on Steroids Via Gestures (Video)

Maria Bartiromo's & Xbox Avatar Kinect

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Kinect,healthcare,technology,Craig Mundie,Resarch and development,gestures,mobility,Avatar Kinect,jobs,economy

Microsoft Research Launches Free Tool Kit to Assist Big-Data Scientists-More Ways to Use the Azure Cloud With Large Scale Data Sets And Algorithms For Analytics

Here’s another topic we have been hearing a lot about and it will continue to grow “machine learning”.  There have been many articles about the topic and you might be familiar with IBM Watson servers as that is exactly what you have there.

We are talking about processing terabytes here to run algorithms  to extract patterns, clusters and to build training models to classify data based on data that has already been captured as a result of prior queries, etc.  The program is called Daytona and updated will be scheduled monthly and it is free.  The runtime for Windows Azure is free to download. 

The applications will be built on Azure, Microsoft’s cloud technology.  Groups both inside and outside of Microsoft will have the ability to use.

“Microsoft has developed an iterative MapReduce runtime for Windows Azure, code-named "Daytona." Project Daytona is designed to support a wide class of data analytics and machine learning algorithms. It can scale out to hundreds of server cores for analysis of distributed data.”

“There are a number of use cases for Project Daytona, such as for data analysis, machine learning, financial analysis, text processing, indexing, and search. Almost any application that involves data manipulation and analysis can take advantage of Project Daytona to scale out processing on Windows Azure.”

Additional information can be found here and this is “hard hat” area that mostly developers will understand.  Basically this is the Microsoft Cloud technology to be used for handling huge data sets with building on memory with queries and algorithms already used in the system so everyone can benefit from the “machine learning” portions for faster and more concise information.  BD 

Two years ago, during a cyber infrastructure meeting convened by the U.S. National Science Foundation, principal investigators from across the country found their scientific concerns begin to converge.

“All around the table,” recalls Roger Barga, an architect in Microsoft Research’s eXtreme Computing Group (XCG), “people were saying, ‘I need the means to analyze data,’ or ‘I need a library of analytics that scale out over large data.’”

Barga and his colleagues took note, and in Redmond, Wash., on July 18, the opening day of the 12th annual Microsoft Research Faculty Summit, they provided their response to the scientists’ plea: a platform code-named “Daytona,” designed to expand the tool set for scientists who require large-scale data computation.

“‘Daytona’ has a very simple, easy-to-use programming interface for developers to write machine-learning and data-analytics algorithms,” he says. “They don’t have to know too much about distributed computing or how they’re going to spread the computation out, and they don’t need to know the specifics of Windows Azure.”

Free Tool Kit to Assist Big-Data Scientists - Microsoft Research

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Science,Life Sciences,analytics,machine learning,Microsoft Research,Azure Platform,scale,Daytona

Nimbus, Seeded by Bill Gates Raises $24 Million From Gates and Lilly Ventures

Nimbus is a company that uses “computational drug” discovery methodologies in other words using technology to for research.  In short simulation is the key here with creating new drugs with a computer long before a wet lab is ever started.  Lilly Ventures and a couple other investors are in as well with the last $24 million raised.  Bill Gates also invested in the partner company Schrödinger, back in April of 2010.

Bill Gates Invests In Software Company That Predicts and Helps Generate Creating New Drugs

“In 2010, Nimbus established a strategic partnership with Schrödinger, the leader in chemical simulation and in silico drug discovery, that grants Nimbus privileged access to leading-edge technology and exclusive rights to key targets. Under the terms of the agreement established in 2010, Nimbus will receive unique access to capabilities and technologies including exclusive rights to exploit cutting-edge next-generation WaterMap™ and related technologies against specific Nimbus targets, exclusive use of customized software packages developed by Schrödinger for these targets, and access to a dedicated team of Schrödinger computational chemists. Schrödinger has a material equity stake in Nimbus and will receive a series of success-driven milestone payments.”

There are 2 targets for drug discovery here and one may be important with cancer research while the other project is working towards other diseases such as Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The research as mentioned below is conducted with a virtual screen of the discovery process.  Schrödinger is the software platform licensed by Nimbus for the research.  In modern day research with locating targets with computers it is also safer for researchers as again there’s no wet lab until final stages are reached.  BD 

Nimbus Discovery burst out of stealth mode in March with seed funding from none other than Microsoft chairman Bill Gates. Now Nimbus, a Cambridge, MA-based company that specializes in computer-aided drug discovery, is chalking up a second impressive milestone: It has raised a Series A funding round of $24 million, with money from Gates and from lead investors Atlas Venture, SR One, and Lilly Ventures.

Nimbus is rapidly advancing two drug-discovery programs. One target it is pursuing, an enzyme called ACC, may be important in cancer and metabolic diseases such as obesity.

The second target, called IRAK4, is a protein involved in Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and inflammation. Nimbus has already pinpointed promising drug-like compounds that target IRAK4 and shown proof-of-concept in early basic studies. “This occurred only 9 months after we initiated work on the target with a virtual screen,” says Jonathan Montagu, V.P. of business operations at Nimbus in an e-mail.

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Nimbus, Seeded by Bill Gates, Raises $24 Million For Computer-Aided Drug Discovery | Xconomy

Technorati Tags: Bill Gates,Microsoft,healthcare,software,algorithms,drug development,healthcare reform,Start up,Schrödinger,Nimbus

Microsoft To Offer Direct Protocol To Help Google Health Members Transfer Data to HealthVault-Still Big News for a Product Being Discontinued to Lack of Interest?

If you read here often enough then you know I have been a big advocate of personal health records, but I just wanted to add a short little commentary here on the huge amount of press the discontinuation of Google Health has received. If this was a product that is being shuttered due to lack of interest, why all the big press?  I guess I am adding to it, but again trying to keep all updated but in the last week this is totally ironic that so much time and effort has been directed in bringing the news around.  It just seems like a bit of an oxymoron if you will, right?  I added a tweet on Twitter to this effect and had several agreeing with me as to the substantial press given for something being discontinued for lack of interest, oh well.  I’m just trying to make sense of of press again which maybe I should leave that alone. 

Google Health Personal Health Records Will Call It Quits Effective January 1, 2012

Ok back on track here for those who were using Google Health, watch for an announcement to come forth within a few days to make it easier to transfer your health records, and this is good news so if you hold off for a few days, as Google Health records are not going anywhere for a while and you have time, this may make the process a little easier.  I do wonder at some point in time if we will ever hear about how many files were actually transferred? 

Right now though if you look at where software overall is going in healthcare it’s a mess and we have way too many technologies out there and frankly I’m a bit worn out here at the Medical Quack on updating some of this too, and I’m not speaking of the PHRs here, but all the other garbage that looms out there.  With everyone “marketing their ass off” and all the privacy issues in the news and with some good reasons for concerns, where does one put their priorities today? 

For a couple of years now I have written frequently about the folks who write these blazing reviews on PHRs and then find the authors themselves have never touched one or created an account at all, but merely somewhat are posing as “healthcare magpies” out there and for some reason or another find this driving force to be an “expert” and tell others what they should do when they don’t buy in themselves, just a odd observation that’s been somewhat going on since PHRs began.  It would certainly be nice to have a few less “healthcare consumer magpies” out there and would reduce the size of my inbox on some of the software being created for consumers today. 

When it comes to lack of role models there’s no bigger black eye here on this topic than HHS, NIH and CMS themselves and that’s the danger of having a department staffed with too many of what I call “non participants” themselves but somehow take the stand of being experts at telling everyone else what they should do, a sad state of affairs for the consumers by all means and here’s a link to a prior post, one of several where some of my own feelings are spoken.

Again, this is not to discount PHRs and the services that Google Health and HealthVault are providing as I have and use my HealthVault account and try to share what I learn with others, but just one more time to point out a huge weakness in how some areas of the government fail with providing motivation and incentives for consumers, a sad state of affairs indeed and they just don’t get it.  BD 

HHS National Plan to Improve Health Literacy – Not Going To Happen Until We Focus on Using Technology (The Tool for Literacy) Which Includes Role Models at HHS And Other Places in Government

NIH Announces Plan to Develop Medical Image Sharing for PHRs-Role Models Would Help Stamp Out “Magpie Healthcare”

On July 5th, the companies plan to announce that Google Health users will be able to transfer their health records to new or existing Microsoft HealthVault accounts using the emerging, Direct Protocol open standard for secure health data exchange, said Nate McLemore, Microsoft general manager of business development and policy, Health Solutions Group.

Using the Direct Protocol to transfer Google Health records into HealthVault means Google Health users will be able to "email" their health data to themselves, and then upload the information into their HealthVault accounts, said McLemore.

"Direct Protocol will make it easier," he said. Currently, Google Health users essentially need to "cut and paste" records from GoogleHealth to HealthVault, he said.

While the two companies work on a streamlined process for transferring files using the Direct Protocol, Google Health has posted instructions on how to "manually" move health data to HealthVault.

McLemore would not estimate the number of Google Health users that Microsoft expects to transfer their data to HealthVault, although "we can scale" to support any number of users, he said.

Microsoft Reaps Spoils Of Google Health's Demise -- InformationWeek

Technorati Tags: Google Health,HealthVault,PHR,personal health records,Google,medical records,API,Health IT,Direct protocol,Microsoft

“Auth Tag” – Mobile Microsoft Bar Code Tags Using a Smartphone To Scan for Two Factor Authentication Giving Users Digital Tokens

With all the recent security breach stories I though it was time to revisit and look at the use of bar codes for authentication.  One item for the end user that is a winner is the use of your phone, in other words no need to carry around a separate device with you.  It’s almost easier to watch the videos rather than to explain each function.  The first video shows how the codes are used via the encrypted gateway for financial transactions, there’s no sound here so just watch and observe the motions.  What I really like about the technology is the ease of use for the consumer, point and aim the the bar codes does the rest of the work for you.

Auth Tag Mobile authentication

Here is how Razcode works with HealthVault with entering information.  You can see how point and aim is used to add information to your PHR.  Also, while on the topic of HealthVault, it has just gone mobile and you can view more at the HeatlhVault blog for more information.  You can also sign in with Facebook now too but I’ll pass on that for now since I just deactivated my profile for a while as it became too much of a disruption for the work I do and was just one more spot I had a difficult time keeping up with questions and so forth.  

Health Jibe

Back in June of 2010 I wrote about the use of Microsoft Tags with an encrypted gateway to use for authenticating doctors for e-prescribing too.  The post is a bit lengthy but there’s a lot of good information that is still relevant. 

RAZCODE (Microsoft Tags) Using Smart Phones to authenticate MDs When e-Prescribing Controlled Substances 

The Razcode technology has also evolved to work with PayPal by using PayPics so use PayPal and make purchases by authenticating you account.  Its another way to further secure you authorization of payments.  In the future we will start seeing bar codes as a way to pay for goods and your phone number and other information is not needed to go through the air for the transaction. 

PayPics with Razcode

Here’s another video that shows how to connect a Withings Scale and connecting it to HealthVault.  Once connected, all a consumer needs to do is step on the scale.

Health Jibe and Medical Devices

Some of the area below would be considered “hard hat” technology so if you are an end user, you can skip some of this.

f you want some additional information on what a RAZCODE is, you can visit the site here and read up. Razcodes are digital tokens encoded in a Microsoft Tag so we somewhat get away from passwords here for authentication. 

You can also read up on OAUTH and how the cycle works.  I first started covering some of this back in October of 2009. 

THE BOTTOM LINE HERE WITH MICROSOFT TAGS IS THAT ONE TECHNOLOGY CAN BE A TECH CURE IN MANY AREA AND AGAIN THE SIMPLICTY FOR THE END USER IS THERE, LIKE MY OVER ALL CAMPAIGN FOR FDA RECALLS. 

Tracking Medical Device Recalls – Sounds Like A Good Place for a Microsoft Tag Data Base at the FDA

Check out your next box of Wheaties and look for the Tag or in TV Guide to see what they look like in the grocery stores today. 

On one more note, you can read how the technology could have saved a man’s life who died needlessly due to the hospital missing pulling the recalled device from inventory as published in Micro-Cap Review Magazine, a sponsor here at the Medical Quack and the related post at Microsoft about using Bar Codes/Microsoft Tags in Healthcare here.  BD

Tab Could Boost Safety in Medical Industry

Micro-Cap FDA Recalls Never End

AuthTag turns the simple act of scanning a mobile tag with a smartphone into a powerful tool for two-factor authentication.
Now you can turn your smartphone into an authentication device without the need for specialized hardware or software. And no text messages or phone calls either!

You simply take a picture of a RAZCODE bar-code image, using the camera on a smartphone, to initiate the authentication process.

Leverages your existing mobile phone. No extra hardware or software to buy, deploy, and support.

Simple integration framework and API makes it easy for any enterprise, financial institution, or platform provider to implement AuthTag. User enrollment involves simply taking a picture of a RAZCODE bar-code image.

http://authtag.com/

Technorati Tags: Auth Tag,Microsoft Tags,bar codes,healthcare,Health IT,smartphone,picture,Razcode,transactions,Pay pics,PayPal