‘Smart Room’ technology to improve patient safety
This fall, GE Healthcare will begin testing software and artificial intelligence-based reasoning at hospitals in an effort to make the hospital rooms “smarter,” improve patient safety, and reduce operating costs. The company’s Smart Patient Room Technology will initially focus on three common patient safety risks – hand hygiene, patient falls, and clinical rounds adherence – using various sensor technologies that provide real-time patient monitoring. The research will be performed in collaboration with the Healthcare Association of New York State and Bassett Healthcare in Cooperstown, NY, which will be the initial test site. GE is also developing a Patient-Safety Forecaster designed to calculate costs related to patient safety and adverse events, and help hospitals more accurately predict the benefits of various quality and safety investments. http://frontofficebox.posterous.com/...

Humanoid robot to possess human-like anatomy
European researchers are developing a robot modeled after human anatomy to make it more suitable for interaction with humans, particularly during surgeries and use of assistive devices. The Eccerobot’s design duplicates the way human bones, muscles, and tendons are linked together, according to Owen Holland, project leader at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom. Other researchers are from the Technical University of Munich, Germany; University of Zurich, Switzerland; University of Belgrade, Serbia; and French firm The Robot Studio. In addition to creating a more human-moving, “anthropomimetic” robot, the team also intends to endow the unit with some human-like artificial intelligence, according to Holland. http://www.medgadget.com/archives/...

Medical automation technology poised for huge increase
The market for medical automation technology is expected to grow by almost 80 percent from this year to 2014, according to a report by BCC Research. “Medical Automation Technologies, Products and Markets” forecasts an annual growth rate of 12.2 percent, increasing the market from $13.1 billion in 2009 to $23.2 billion in five years. The greatest degree of growth will be seen in the logistic and training segment, which will rise from $272 million now to $652 million by 2014. Automated medical technologies, such as health assessment and patient monitoring, medical imaging and image analysis, and prescription fulfillment devices, are key items for hospitals, stand-alone outpatient surgery centers, physician practices, home care, the military and medical research institutes, according to the report.  http://www.bccresearch.com/report/HLC066A.html

Virtual diabetes management program under development
Microsoft, Resolute Solutions Corp., and the University of Miami are collaborating on a virtual disease management program for diabetics that also preserves the traditional patient-physician relationship. The Overtown Health Education Access Through Information Technology Utilization Project (Overtown HEAT-IT-UP) is designed to “enhance and nuture” the relationship between 25 type 2 diabetes-afflicted patients and their providers, according to Prof. Robert Schwartz, M.D., chairperson of the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Participants will be given computers and trained to use the Internet, and be able to communicate with doctors and nurses through a Web portal. The group plans to eventually develop a scaled-up pilot, Schwartz adds. http://www.cataractoutsourcing.com/syndicated...

Philips-Visicu, Geisinger launch electronic ICU program
Royal Philips Electronics has signed an agreement with U.S. healthcare provider Geisinger Health System to launch an electronic Intensive Care Unit (eICU) Program. The eICU Program developed by Philips subsidiary Visicu, combines early warning alerts and remote patient monitoring technology to connect off-site critical care specialists with intensive care patients and their bedside care teams, according to Philips. It also leverages clinical expertise, patented processes, and cutting-edge technologies to improve critical care delivery, the company reported. The program could reduce severity-adjusted mortality rates by up to 50 percent and severity-adjusted length-of-stay by up to 48 percent.  http://www.ehealtheurope.net/news/...

Australia to fund national e-health chronic disease project
Australia’s Chronic Disease Management Network (CDM-Net), an e-health system designed to support treatment of illnesses in regional, rural, and remote portions of the country, has received funding through the national Clever Networks program. CDM-Net can cut the time needed for creating and managing a care plan from more than an hour to a few minutes, according to Stephen Conroy, the national Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy. CDM-Net has been successfully trialed on more than 700 patients in the Barwon South-Western Region of Victoria and the Eastern Goldfields in Western Australia, and resulted in a 200 percent increase in use of care plans and 300 percent rise in collaboration between care providers. Chronic disease accounts for 70 percent of Australia’s healthcare costs and significantly impacts workforce productivity, according to Conroy. http://thegovmonitor.com/world_news/asia...

AHIMA Foundation awarded $1.2 million for state HIE effort
The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) Foundation has been awarded a $1.2 million grant to continue its State-Level Health Information Exchange Consensus Project for another year, according to AHIMA Foundation Executive Director Mary Madison. The grant, made by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), continues a project managed by ONC and AHIMA since 2006. The project is designed to expand the knowledge base for effective state-level health data networks, offer targeted technical support, and provide an information service for networking and shared learning. http://www.ahima.org/press/HHSAward.asp

St. Jude deep brain stimulator tackles Parkinson’s
A 67-year-old German man who suffered from Parkinson’s disease for more than 26 years has been successfully implanted with St. Jude Medical’s Brio neurostimulator and become the world’s first recipient of the deep brain stimulator (DBS), the company reported. The Brio, slightly larger than a man’s watch, delivers mild electronic pulses to specific targets in the brain, stimulating the structures that are involved in motor control, according to St. Jude Neuromodulation Division President Chris Chavez. The product, which has the longest battery life of any rechargeable DBS device, recently received CE Mark approval for marketing in Europe, the company added. St. Jude is also developing new DBS applications for other neurological and psychiatric disorders, including essential tremor and depression. http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix...

Telemedicine services go offshore to oil drilling rigs
InPlace Medical Solutions, the world’s first video telemedicine-based offshore medical service, has been selected by Noble Drilling U.S., LLC to support its newest ultra-deepwater semisubmersible drilling rig. Noble is a leading offshore drilling contractor for the oil and gas industry. InPlace’s service aboard the Noble Danny Adkins will support medical needs of contractors and crew during continued operations in the Gulf of Mexico through early 2010, according to Shannon Caldwell, executive director for offshore and remote services at NuPhysicia LLC, the provider of InPlace Medical Solutions. InPlace supplies crew with access to specially trained remote duty paramedics, enhanced medical inventory and advanced video medicine technology. Noble U.S. Gulf Coast Division Vice President and Division Manager Tommy Travis said the program will improve existing first aid and basic medical services, which have been available for years on Noble vessels. http://www.inplacemedical.com/?p=news&news_id=10

New health IT security certification program in works
The Health Information Trust Alliance (HITRUST) plans to develop a health information technology security certification program to help healthcare groups determine whether IT security products comply with (HIPAA) criteria and HITRUST’s own Common Security Framework (CSW), and help organizations fix security gaps they may have. The CSW, unveiled last spring, attempts to standardize health IT security best practices and regulations. Certification criteria will examine a security product’s capabilities, effectiveness, functionality, and support of security practices. The Alliance will not become a certifier; independent third-party groups will conduct the evaluations and certifications will cost vendors $5,000 to $7,500, according to HITRUST Chief Executive Officer Daniel Nutkis. Certified products would receive a “CSF Ready” designation. http://www.hitrustalliance.net/news/index.php?a=39

Home care nurses could be replaced by robots in cost-cutting move
Robotic telepresence devices may be the key to reducing America’s $2.2 trillion annual healthcare bill, according to iRobot Chief Executive Officer Colin Angle. In an interview with CNET, Angle said such robots can act as nurses in a person’s home, reducing the cost of elderly and sick people having to relocate to nursing homes for care. The telepresence device could act as a proxy for the doctor to check in on patients, performing examinations, diagnoses, and making sure a prescription is correctly administered. “The patient, in other words, wouldn’t have to set foot in a hospital unless he or she needs care that is only available there,” Angle said. There is still some question as to whether people will be comfortable with robots moving around in their houses, but the market potential looks good, according to Angle. http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10345239-1.html

Australia launches new e-records Web site for public debate
Australian consumers are becoming fed up with the slow progress on electronic health record adoption, leading to creation of a new public forum to discuss confidentiality and security issues. The Consumer Centred eHealth Coalition (CCeHC) is developing a new Web site at www.consumerehealth.org to “give people a voice” in the debate over nationwide sharing of patients’ medical records, which are scheduled to begin going online by the middle of 2010. That deadline will probably not be met, as lawmakers continue to wrangle over patient record security, according to CCeHC founder Juanita Fernando. Such concerns already led to the defeat of earlier plans to develop an Australian e-health record card. A recent Health Identifiers and Privacy paper by the Australian Health Ministers’ Advisory Council proposes a “legal quick-fix” to prevent ministers from missing their deadline. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story...