A Medical Device Daily

Taking full advantage of a conference dedicated to healthcare IT, InfoLogix (Hatboro, Pennyslvania) reported the launch of “an entirely new line“ of mobile workstation solutions this week at the Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS; Chicago) annual conference in Atlanta.

InfoLogix says its new ST7 Mobile Workstations are part of the company's integrated Healthcare Mobility Solutions Suite, designed to provide hospitals with a true end-to-end strategy for electronic medical record (EMR) implementation and mobilization.

Over the past decade, InfoLogix says it has invested significant time onsite with its 1,500 hospital clients, yielding a “unique perspective“ within the healthcare industry. “From the best practices at award-winning healthcare organizations, to the real-world challenges of facilities that are struggling with regulatory issues and patient safety concerns, InfoLogix has been trusted with a window into the greatest behind the scenes challenges in healthcare today,“ the company said.

Based on primary customer research and the expertise of its consulting team of nurses, pharmacists, wireless experts and healthcare practitioners, InfoLogix says it identified significant opportunities for redesigning traditional mobile workstations to better meet the technology, workflow and ergonomic requirements of busy clinicians. The InfoLogix ST7 Mobile Workstation is engineered to support critical patient care functions such as clinical documentation, computerized physician order entry, bedside medication verification, and vitals monitoring, the company noted.

“Unlike the stand-alone workstations of competitors, the InfoLogix ST7 Mobile Workstation is purpose-built as an integrated solution, along with InfoLogix's complete Healthcare Mobility Solutions Suite, to meet the specific clinical needs of hospital personnel, eliminate gaps in care delivery and improve efficiency at the point of care,“ according to the company.

Additionally, the ST7 workstations are powered by InfoLogix's new ST7 LiFe Battery (Lithium Iron Phosphate), which the company says dramatically improves clinician workflow by recharging in about an hour, a mere fraction of the time of other power solutions currently in place at hospitals. The advanced technology of the InfoLogix ST7 LiFe Battery also provides superior cell protection, in contrast to the high temperature safety risks associated with Lithium Ion, Sealed Lead Acid and Nickel Metal Hydride batteries, according to InfoLogix.

The ST7 has an “extremely small“ 16-inch by 17-inch footprint, the company noted, which provides caregivers with “significantly greater maneuverability in tight spaces.“

Many other healthcare IT companies are also taking advantage of the HIMSS meeting as a venue to launch new products and report on product upgrades.

In other news from the meeting:

• Aprima Medical Software (Dallas), a developer of EHR and practice management (PM) systems for medical practices, reported the addition of a revenue cycle management (RCM) offering to its suite.

According to the company, Aprima's revenue cycle management solution takes advantage of the fact that the EHR and PM share a common database, a meaningful differentiator in the industry. For example, billing and payment information in the PM plus coding data from the EHR can be accessed and reviewed without having to switch applications. As a result, reports can be easily and quickly produced that enable Aprima's new RCM service to tackle accounting and finance functions, including billing and coding reconciliation, financial reporting to monitor performance, communications with payers and automation of collections, the company said.

• Harris (Melbourne, Florida) says it is collaborating with Via Oncology (Pittsburgh), a subsidiary of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), to enhance Via Oncology's Web-based decision support system intended to help physicians determine the best treatment plan for cancer patients. The system is designed to ensure quality and reduce variability in the delivery of cancer care by leveraging a data-driven “decision tree“ that oncologists can readily use in their day-to-day treatment of patients, Harris said.

Under a three-month, quick-react contract from Via Oncology, Harris is providing the Content Authoring Module (CAM) for the Via Oncology Pathways tool. The new module is expected to dramatically reduce the time required to update the massive decision tree with new clinical content – from five days to less than a day, Harris said.

Harris also released the newest version of its CONNECT software to enable healthcare organizations to securely exchange patient information on the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN). The CONNECT solution was developed under contract for the Federal Health Architecture project within the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.

According to the company, CONNECT 2.3 offers key feature enhancements to the open source enterprise framework, and compliance with updated NHIN specifications. The open source CONNECT is being widely embraced as a health information exchange solution for NHIN connectivity, with many health enterprises abandoning proprietary solutions and opting instead for the CONNECT open source platform, Harris said.

• LG Electronics (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey) is introducing an array of products – healthcare HDTVs, network monitors, network attached storage and digital signage solutions – at the meeting. The company said it is displaying four UL Hospital Grade listed HDTVs and monitors as well as product solutions intended to provide cost-effective and secure technology to assist in the storage and sharing of digital records.

• Ingenious Med (Atlanta) reported a new application for BlackBerry smartphones. IM Practice Manager for BlackBerry smartphones will further enable the company's users to access the charge and data capture application virtually anywhere, Ingenious Med said.

At the meeting, the company is showcasing its application for BlackBerry smartphones, in addition to its other new features on the Ingenious Med Web application.