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Post & Schell Appoints Paula Sanders Chair of the Firm’s Health Care Practice Group

Health Law Veteran to Lead National Team of Attorneys Serving Health Care Industry

PHILADELPHIA – April 8, 2013 – Post & Schell, P.C., a leading multi-disciplinary law firm, today announced that Paula Sanders has been appointed chair of the firm’s Health Care Practice Group. Representing a broad range of health care stakeholders across more than 35 states, the team provides representation in litigation, appellate, regulatory compliance, government inquiries and general transactions. As chair, Ms. Sanders is responsible for the strategic development and growth of the practice group and coordinating appropriate counsel for clients.

Post & Schell’s Health Care Practice Group is comprised of nearly 30 attorneys, many of whom have a national reputation for their legal expertise, while serving as stewards for specific industry causes to help shape the direction of health care.

“Health care is an industry in transition, and it is no longer sufficient for advocates to simply ‘know the law.’ It is having that in-depth understanding of our clients’ very unique industry and critical issues which are at the core of successful counsel,” said Brian Peters, president and chief executive officer for Post & Schell, and the former and founding chair of the Health Care Practice Group. “Paula holds those same ideals and has become a recognized thought leader in public policy and practice across health care – not only within legal aspects, but also as a prominent national speaker and author. Her leadership will continue to both energize the group and bring an increased client focus to such an important industry.”

“I am honored to be chosen to direct the Health Care Practice Group and help establish Post & Schell as the law firm of choice for health care,” said Ms. Sanders. “My colleagues and I share an allegiance with our industry and our clients, working in concert with their boards, executives and general counsel when and where it is needed. Our focused group brings unique perspectives from multiple practice areas – from health care law, business law, litigation and employment, to professional liability, antitrust, white collar defense and compliance and risk management.”

Ms. Sanders joined Post & Schell in 2004 and focuses exclusively on health care law. She represents clients on both substantive and procedural aspects of health facility regulation, such as surveys; licensure; Medicare/Medicaid; compliance; RAC, MIC, PERM, CERT and ZPIC audits; accreditation; payment matters; HIPAA; fraud and abuse, False Claims Act investigations and voluntary disclosures. She vigorously advocates for her clients before multiple regulatory and law enforcement agencies and is especially successful at coordinating an integrated response to her clients’ issues. Ms. Sanders is based in Post & Schell’s Harrisburg, Pa. office.

About Post & Schell’s Health Care Practice Group

Established in 1986, the Health Care Practice Group serves a variety of institutional health care providers nationwide, including academic medical centers, hospitals, health care systems, nursing homes, continuing care retirement communities, dialysis providers, behavioral health and developmental disability providers, hospices, home health agencies, durable medical equipment providers, ambulance companies and pharmacies. In addition, the Group represents individual providers and physician groups, pharmaceutical manufacturers, medical device manufacturers, and national and state trade associations, among others.

The group represents clients on issues related to governmental oversight, reimbursement, licensure, labor and employment, fraud and abuse, medical staff issues and business transactions. In addition, the practice group also provides counsel and representation in audits and investigations as well as privacy and technology matters.

Visit http://bit.ly/11MFneb for more information.

About Post & Schell, P.C.

Post & Schell, established in 1968, provides litigation, corporate, transactional, regulatory, compliance, consulting and educational services locally, regionally and nationally to a broad spectrum of proprietary and not-for-profit industries. Post & Schell concentrates on providing these niche services in sophisticated, complex matters. The firm has more than 150 lawyers in seven offices: Allentown, Harrisburg, Lancaster, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Pa; as well as Princeton, N.J. and Washington, D.C. Post & Schell focuses on a broad spectrum of industries including: health care, pharmaceutical, medical device, manufacturing, transportation, communications, construction, energy, retail, security, social services, professional services, municipal services, insurance, banking and financial services, and hospitality. www.postschell.com

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April 9, 2013 I Written By John

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit.

Filed Under: EMR

Tags:Brian Peters health care Health Care Industry health care law Health Care Practice Group Health Law Veteran HIPAA P.C. Paula Sanders Post & Schell Post & Schell’s Health Care Practice Group

HIPAA Compliant, Secure Texting Doc Halo App Lands Key Contract with Premier Healthcare Network

The Doc Halo app ensures confidential patient information remains private during the text messaging process for physicians and for healthcare networks.

Cincinnati, Ohio. March 21, 2013. Doc Halo, the secure healthcare texting app that allows physicians and medical professionals to communicate within a HIPAA-compliant platform, has announced that a renowned healthcare network, TriHealth, Inc., has agreed to offer the Doc Halo secure texting solution to the TriHealth network’s affiliated physicians.

With the Doc Halo secure texting app, physicians can transmit critical and timely information to other healthcare professionals connected to the Doc Halo system.

Co-founder and CEO of Doc Halo, Jose Barreau, MD, explained that Doc Halo provides efficiency, immediacy, privacy, and technology to an industry entrusted with the health and well-being of patients.

“As a physician of more than 20 years myself, I know first-hand the need to communicate immediately – and yet securely – with my colleagues. The benefits that the Doc Halo smartphone technology offers are significant.”

Dr. Barreau added that several key elements have driven the Doc Halo app development team from the beginning. “It was critical to us that we perfect the mobile app to ensure that its operation is flawless, its technology is superior, its user interface is intuitive, and that its privacy compliance is HIPAA-secure at every touch-point.”

Doc Halo President and Co-founder, Amit Gupta, MD elaborated, “Texting and smartphone technology have become second-thought to many of us. In our everyday lives, we can see the value of accuracy and efficiency when we text a friend, family member, or business colleague. Those same fundamentals are needed in the medical field. And yet, ensuring patients’ privacy is equally paramount. Doc Halo offers that needed secure physician texting solution.”

The popularity of smartphones, tablets, apps and innovative communications mediums is pervasive today in popular culture. Similarly in the healthcare industry, this technology is in demand.

Participants, presenters and exhibitors at the recent March 3-7, 2013 HIMSS Conference in New Orleans generated a multitude of articles, blog posts, tweets, and Facebook and Google+ posts about mobile health (mHealth), health information exchange (HIT), electronic health records (EHR), electronic medical records (EMR), and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

Dr. Barreau commented, “There are many popular healthcare apps in the smartphone world. The bulk of those options have been, and are, in the areas of patient-to-patient apps, physician-to-public apps, and public-to-public apps. Doc Halo offers an important, new secure texting app technology.”

TriHealth serves the Greater Cincinnati area and is a unified health system of physicians, hospitals and communities.

For more information on the Doc Halo secure texting app, visit http://www.dochalo.com or call 1.855.362.4256.

About Doc Halo
Doc Halo is the professional standard for HIPAA secure texting for physicians, medical practices, hospitals and healthcare organizations. The Doc Halo app is designed to streamline compliant physician sharing of critical patient information within a secure environment. Doc Halo is trusted by individual physicians, by their staffs, and by comprehensive healthcare networks for secure communication. Because of the intuitive operational structure of the Doc Halo app, physicians see efficiencies with their communications within minutes of registration.

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March 28, 2013 I Written By John

Filed Under: EMR

Tags:2013 HIMSS Conference Amit Gupta Doc Halo Doc Halo app EHR Electronic Health Records electronic medical records EMR Health Information Exchange Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act HIPAA HIPAA-compliant platform HIT Jose Barreau mHealth Mobile Health secure healthcare texting app TriHealth TriHealth network’s affiliated physicians

Riverside Healthcare Customer Case Study – Deployment protects distributed network of healthcare facilities from the latest threats, comply with new regulatory requirements

Riverside Healthcare Selects Fortinet® Enterprise-Class Network Security Platforms to Help Protect its Distributed Network of Healthcare Facilities from the Latest Threats, Comply with New Regulatory Requirements and Lower IT Costs

FortiGate, FortiAP and FortiMail Platforms Provide Cutting Edge Protection Against the Latest Advanced Persistent Threats; Simplified Management and a Lower TCO than Competing Security Platforms

SUNNYVALE, Calif., March 5, 2013 - Fortinet® (NASDAQ: FTNT) – a world leader in high-performance network security – today announced that Riverside Healthcare has deployed a multitude of Fortinet appliances to help protect its distributed network of healthcare facilities from the latest threats, comply with new regulatory requirements and to help lower their overall IT costs. Riverside has selected the FortiGate-1000C, FortiGate-80C, Fortimail-400C and FortiAP-221B platforms to provide encryption, advanced malware and messaging protection and wireless control throughout its core network, which hosts numerous applications for its distributed affiliate organizations.

“Fortinet’s network security platform allows us to address the latest compliance requirements and implement new IT services while lowering costs through consolidation,” said Erik Devine, CSO of Riverside Healthcare. “Our network of doctors and colleagues are continually impressed with our ability to quickly address the latest security challenges, such as providing secure BYOD for employees and patients and protecting against advanced persistent threats, all while maintaining compliance with strict regulatory requirements.”

The Fortinet platforms provide Riverside with firewall, IPSec VPN, SSL VPN, antivirus, intrusion prevention, application control and Web content filtering protection. In addition to protecting Riverside, its affiliates and customers from the latest threats, the platforms offer a simplified management console that reduces IT complexity and lowers total cost of ownership.

Prior to selecting Fortinet, Riverside used a combination of network security vendors to secure patient records and meet regulatory requirements; however they ultimately found this approach too difficult to manage on a day-to-day basis and proved to be extremely costly over time. Using Fortinet’s security platforms, Riverside was able to consolidate their security infrastructure, reduce costs and achieve compliance with Federal regulations such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) and Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).

About Riverside Healthcare

Riverside HealthCare is a fully integrated healthcare system serving the needs of patients throughout the Illinois counties of Kankakee, Iroquois, Will, Grundy and beyond. Riverside HealthCare is composed of five separate entities:

Riverside Medical Center is located in Kankakee, Illinois and is part of Riverside HealthCare, a fully integrated healthcare system. Riverside Medical Center is a 325-bed hospital that provides a full scope of inpatient and outpatient care. Riverside is a nationally-recognized, award-winning hospital with leading programs in heart care, cancer care, neurosurgery and orthopedics. It is the area’s only Magnet® Recognized hospital and has been named a 100 Top Hospital four years in a row. Riverside also operates several community, primary and specialty health centers throughout the region.

Sojourn, a Riverside community, addresses the health care needs of the area’s elderly population. The four facilities that are a part of Riverside Senior Living Center include: Butterfield Court, an assisted living facility, Miller Center, a skilled nursing facility and Westwood Oaks/Westwood Estates, independent retirement communities.

Oakside Corporation operates the Riverside Health Fitness Center and also coordinates community counseling programs, pharmacy, health equipment sales and leasing and home health care.

Riverside HealthCare Foundation raises funds for the health system for use in facility construction and repair, new equipment acquisition, community health care education initiatives and clinical research.

Riverside Health Fitness Center is a 70,000 square foot medically-based fitness center owned and operated by Riverside HealthCare. It is a world class center that reflects Riverside’s commitment to improving the health and fitness of the community.

“Riverside Healthcare is a great example of a healthcare organization that is taking full advantage of Fortinet’s breadth and depth of products. They recognize that network security is more than just a firewall or a single point product that satisfies a single security function,” said Mark Hanson, director of healthcare sales at Fortinet. “The combination of FortiGate, FortiMail and FortiAP wireless access points provides a world-class security solution while addressing the budgetary constraints in healthcare of needing to do more with less.”

The full case study can be downloaded here: http://www.fortinet.com/sites/default/files/casestudies/Riverside-CaseStudy.pdf

Follow Fortinet Online: Twitter at: www.twitter.com/fortinet; Facebook at: www.facebook.com/fortinet; YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/user/SecureNetworks.

About Fortinet (www.fortinet.com)
Fortinet (NASDAQ: FTNT) is a worldwide provider of network security appliances and a market leader in unified threat management (UTM). Our products and subscription services provide broad, integrated and high-performance protection against dynamic security threats while simplifying the IT security infrastructure. Our customers include enterprises, service providers and government entities worldwide, including the majority of the 2012 Fortune Global 100. Fortinet’s flagship FortiGate product delivers ASIC-accelerated performance and integrates multiple layers of security designed to help protect against application and network threats. Fortinet’s broad product line goes beyond UTM to help secure the extended enterprise – from endpoints, to the perimeter and the core, including databases and applications. Fortinet is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif., with offices around the world.

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March 6, 2013 I Written By John

Filed Under: EMR

ExtraHop Provides Insurance Policy for Healthcare Applications & IT Infrastructure with IT Operational Intelligence

Growing Number of Healthcare Organizations Rely on ExtraHop to Manage Major IT Initiatives such as Citrix VDI, EHR, and HIPAA

SEATTLE, WA, & NEW ORLEANS, LA — March 4, 2013 — ExtraHop announced today at the HIMSS13 Annual Conference and Exhibition that its real-time IT operational intelligence platform has been adopted by a growing number of healthcare organizations to ensure that vital technologies like desktop virtualization, picture archiving and communications systems (PACS), and electronic health records (EHR) are deployed and perform optimally. ExtraHop’s agentless, network-based platform provides correlated, cross-tier visibility to identify and solve problems quickly for organizations such as Practice Fusion, MedSolutions, and many more. ExtraHop delivers this deep visibility in a way that is compliant with HIPAA security and privacy standards.

In a 2012 survey of more than 500 IT decision makers, 44 percent of healthcare organizations indicated they plan to increase their adoption of server-hosted virtual desktops (SHVD) in 2013, a higher proportion than all other industries. However, while virtualization is a key healthcare initiative, patient care can suffer from latency or slow login times if organizations use legacy application performance monitoring tools, which cannot correlate issues across tiers.

The ExtraHop platform is verified as Citrix Ready® for Citrix XenDesktop®, Citrix XenApp™, and Citrix NetScaler® and provides essential IT operational intelligence through real-time analysis of the Citrix ICA wire protocol. John Smith, Netscaler/Citrix Architect at a major healthcare information technology company, and one of only 46 official Citrix Technology Professional Awardees, says of his experience: “ExtraHop is a great APM tool but it is also a great network monitoring tool and has value to every branch of my IT department. This is not a product whose value can be judged by finding its bubble in a scatter plot. I have not even scratched the surface of what this product can do.”

ExtraHop also offers healthcare organizations a way to monitor applications while complying with HIPAA security and privacy standards. Amidst 270 percent annual growth, Web-based EMR provider Practice Fusion found that only ExtraHop could provide real-time visibility across the network, web, database, and storage tiers without requiring any configuration and without risking privacy violations by storing packets. “We manage more than 50 million patient records,” says John Hluboky, VP of Technical Operations at Practice Fusion. “It’s incredibly important that ExtraHop can monitor all our traffic—even the encrypted traffic—and do it without any potential privacy violations.”

For healthcare cost-management services provider MedSolutions, ExtraHop equips every IT team member from application developers to the CIO with operational intelligence to continually improve everything from team collaboration to application rollouts to customer experience. Additionally, ExtraHop’s performance benchmarking abilities have enabled MedSolutions to migrate critical applications from physical to virtual environments—in one case saving $70,000 in hardware costs.

The ExtraHop platform meets the rigorous demands of modern healthcare applications and infrastructure by delivering key capabilities and supporting important initiatives, including the following:

· Visibility and monitoring for all clients, applications and infrastructure communicating over the network, regardless of technology or software platform

· Compliance and security insight that tracks logins by client as well as activity down to the file access level

· Support for bring-your-own-device (BYOD) efforts by automatically discovering and tracking new devices and clients, and distinguishing between those client types, including doctors’ tablets

· Plug-and-play deployment with no configuration required and no agents to install and maintain

· Proactive early warning to fix issues before customers are impacted or SLAs are breached.

· Automatic discovery and classification of all new applications and systems in the IT environment

· Drill-down capabilities that provide for transaction-specific analysis of problems

“Hospitals and doctors are under pressure to modernize, and they cannot afford disruptions or slow performance that would negatively impact patient care,” says Jesse Rothstein, CEO, ExtraHop. “The rapid adoption of our platform among companies in the healthcare space arises from the safety net that we provide, making sure that these new systems do what they should while also making IT operations less burdensome and expensive.”

To see how the ExtraHop operational intelligence platform can transform your healthcare IT organization, try it for free for 60 days by downloading the ExtraHop Discovery Edition. Visit us in booth #5755 at the HIMSS13 Annual Conference and Exhibition to learn more.

About ExtraHop Networks

ExtraHop provides the real-time operational intelligence required to make IT more agile and proactive. The world’s best-run IT organizations use ExtraHop to manage more than a quarter-million devices and monitor over a trillion transactions daily, including Adobe, Alaska Airlines, Concur, Expedia, and Microsoft. Winner of many innovation awards from Gartner, Interop, and others, the ExtraHop platform auto-discovers and auto-classifies all applications and systems out of the box, providing the correlated, real-time visibility essential for dynamic environments. The ExtraHop platform deploys without agents and delivers value in less than 15 minutes, making it the most cost-effective solution on the market. Follow us on Twitter @ExtraHop.

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March 4, 2013 I Written By John

Filed Under: EHR

New designs, features, functionality in Enovate’s 2013 products

CANTON, Mich. – Wall stations with fresh, new designs and more space to secure peripherals, and mobile computing carts for laptops and LCD screens bring even more functionality to Enovate’s product line in 2013.

e750 Room

Enovate redesigned its popular e750 wall cabinet workstation to give it a cleaner, more elegant appearance that fits well in a modern, high-tech environment.

Available in six colors – wild cherry, port maple, honey maple, hard rock maple, fine oak and white – the new e750 Room now is deeper and wider for secure storage of barcode scanners, charging bases, oversized CPUs and larger high definition video screens.

The e750 Room has a 12-inch height adjustment that allows use from a seated or standing position. It comes with Enovate’s Smart Dashboard, which provides immediate access via keyless, electronic PIN code; sit to stand height adjustment; keyboard lighting, and manual locking and unlocking.

The e750 Room also is available with Enovate’s eSensor System, which automatically closes and locks the cabinet when the operator walks away – a HIPAA-sensitive feature that fits well in busy hospitals and healthcare centers. It also may be equipped with eLift controls that raise or lower the system at the push of a button.

e550 Hall

Enovate’s space-saving wall-mounted workstation designed specifically for hallways is now deeper and wider for secure storage of barcode scanners, charging bases, oversized CPUs and larger high definition video screens.

Like the e750 Room, the e550 Hall also has a 12-inch height adjustment that allows use from a seated or standing position, as well as Enovate’s Smart Dashboard, eSensor System and eLift control features.

UltraLITE LCD & Laptop Carts

Equipped with a new base that makes them more cost-effective and maneuverable, Enovate’s line of UltraLITE Carts remain a top choice for mobile computing.

These medical-grade carts for LCD screens and CPUs, or laptops, are even lighter and effortlessly roll over hard floors or carpeting, through tight spaces and around obstacles. They go wherever patient data or a simple mobile workstation is needed – patient, emergency and operating rooms; labs; radiology centers, or nurse stations.

About Enovate

Headquartered in Canton, Michigan, Enovate is a leading international provider of mobile and wall-mounted computer workstations for healthcare, office and home. Enovate’s scalable, easy-to-use, ergonomic designs feature the best technology to create a flexible work environment that enhances productivity and performance. Enovate has been named by Inc. Magazine as one of the fastest growing companies in the U.S. for the past four years, and is celebrating 10 years of innovation in 2013. For more information, please contact Enovate at 877-258-8030 or visit www.enovateusa.com.

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I Written By John

Filed Under: Healthcare

Tags:e550 Hall e750 e750 Room eLift control features Enovate Enovate’s eSensor System Enovate’s Smart Dashboard eSensor System HIPAA mobile computing mobile computing carts

Health Organizations Prescribe a Move to the Cloud to Help Improve Patient Outcomes and Solve Business Challenges

Microsoft Office 365’s cloud-based communication, collaboration, and HIPAA privacy and security capabilities win over customers across the healthcare industry.

REDMOND, Wash. — March 4, 2012 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that healthcare organizations large and small, including FHI 360, Gwinnett Hospital System Inc., Kindred Healthcare Inc. and Mihills Webb, have selected Microsoft Office 365 as the trusted cloud service to help address their end goal of providing the highest quality, safety and best outcomes of care for each patient.

The choice has simultaneously helped those required to do so comply with critical regulatory and privacy obligations under the United States Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), which among other things is designed to protect the privacy of healthcare information for individuals. Office 365 is the only major cloud business productivity solution that addresses rigorous HIPAA regulations, and programmatically offers a HIPAA Business Associate Agreement (BAA) to customers.

“We’re pleased to work with health organizations and partners to offer the cloud-based productivity and collaboration infrastructure they need to enable their people and teams to communicate and collaborate anytime, anywhere and substantially lower their IT operating costs,” said Dennis Schmuland, MD, chief health strategy officer, Microsoft U.S. Health & Life Sciences. “And by incorporating the required HIPAA privacy and security protections, and IT control safeguards in Office 365, Microsoft is enabling health organizations to move to the cloud at their own pace, and with confidence that Office 365 is designed to meet or exceed their requirements for patient-centered collaboration while simultaneously helping them address their HIPAA regulatory requirements for privacy and security compliance.”

The following healthcare organizations have recently implemented Microsoft Office 365 solutions for benefits that include these:

• Unifying and streamlining. FHI 360 is a global development organization dedicated to improving lives in lasting ways by advancing integrated, locally driven solutions for human development. Professional staff includes experts in health, nutrition, education, economic development, civil society, environment and research. They serve more than 60 countries and all U.S. states and territories, which meant FHI 360 needed a single solution to unify all offices. By adopting Office 365, FHI 360 was able to cohesively harness the power of cloud computing for the entire organization.

“We were looking to move every employee to the cloud, and Office 365 offered the best blend of feature set, corporate support and reliability,” said Michael Mazza, chief information officer, FHI 360. “Microsoft demonstrated a commitment in deployment and support that could not be matched. Microsoft’s ability to support our top five languages while understanding future considerations across our disciplines and geographies, within the organization and with our partners, was also important.”

• Low-cost, high-tech. Gwinnett Hospital System was not utilizing instant messaging and conferencing technologies and needed the ability to collaborate remotely without having to travel. The company wanted an effective cloud solution to interoperate with its existing technologies, so it chose Microsoft Lync Online.

“In general, hospitals tend to be behind in deploying new technologies,” said Rick Allen, assistant vice president of information systems at Gwinnett. “But we are competing for talent, and new technologies help attract young employees. With Lync and the cloud, we can provide easy collaboration regardless of location at a cost we can handle.”

• Standardized communication, improved collaboration, stronger management. Kindred Healthcare Inc. has experienced technological challenges in the past when acquiring and integrating healthcare companies and business portfolios, including during the most recent acquisition of RehabCare. After deciding to deploy Office 365 across all RehabCare employees, however, Kindred was able to standardize its lines of business on a common cloud platform, expand communication abilities via Microsoft Lync, and improve collaboration opportunities with Microsoft SharePoint, all the while leveraging the benefits of both cloud and on-premise offerings with robust security. Office 365 has also provided Kindred with a platform that enables it to continually improve productivity and manageability across the company.

“Because Kindred was already leveraging the Microsoft technologies before acquiring RehabCare, we felt confident in migrating RehabCare’s mobile therapists to Office 365,” said John Vorreiter, senior director of Technical Services. “Kindred has 78,000 dedicated employees providing IT and healthcare services to 546,000 patients and residents on an annualized basis, with more than 2,200 locations across 46 states. Having the latest cloud technology that supports a wide range of clinical and business applications, user collaboration, and needs and still helps ensure HIPAA security compliance enforcement tools is essential.”

• Security features and privacy compliance. Mihills Webb Medical, a small five-physician family practice, deployed Office 365 for communication and compliance benefits. Microsoft’s cloud offering not only improves communication and collaboration but provides robust security and helps meet privacy and other regulatory requirements as demanded by HIPAA, the federal law that applies to health organizations which need to protect patient data. Many organizations seeking to consolidate resources and save money in their infrastructure and email storage businesses needed to combine the benefits of moving to the cloud with the need for a solution with the highest level of scrutiny around how data is secured and accessed from the cloud.

“Compliance in particular was critical for us, and it’s a non-negotiable requirement that we demand from our technology solution providers,” said Dr. Cody Mihills, family physician at Mihills Webb. “Because Microsoft cloud services are HIPAA-compliant and came with a HIPAA business associate agreement, we’ve used Office 365 to unify communications across the office with confidence. Tasks like coordinating schedules between employees and collaborating with peers outside the office who support patients now can be executed in an efficient, HIPAA-compliant manner. Office 365, from a business standpoint, has been a winning proposition.”

More information about how organizations are turning to Microsoft technology is available in the Microsoft Customer Spotlight newsroom.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

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I Written By John

Filed Under: Cloud Computing

Tags:Dennis Schmuland FHI 360 Gwinnett Hospital System Inc. Healthcare Organizations HIPAA HIPAA Business Associate Agreement John Vorreiter Kindred Healthcare Inc. Michael Mazza Microsoft Microsoft Corp. Microsoft Lync Online Microsoft Office 365 Microsoft SharePoint Mihills Webb Nasdaq “MSFT” nited States Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 r. Cody Mihill Rick Allen

Dell Latitude 10 Enhanced Security Tablet Meets the Security, Manageability and Reliability Needs of Government Agencies, Financial Institutions and Healthcare Organizations

Dell Latitude 10 with enhanced security sets the standard for business-friendly tablets with more industry-leading security features than any other device
A third-party study finds Latitude 10 tablets are up to 17 times faster and 94 percent less expensive to deploy than iPads in large scale enterprise implementations [1]

ROUND ROCK, Texas, Feb. 25, 2013 Dell today introduced the Latitude 10 enhanced security configuration, a business-ready tablet designed to address the costly and time consuming management and security challenges faced by organizations deploying tablets. The Dell Latitude 10 is ideal for highly regulated industries such as government agencies, financial institutions and healthcare organizations and builds upon Dell’s heritage of delivering trusted business PCs with industry-leading manageability, security and reliability.

Study Reveals Multiple IT Challenges of Deploying Tablets in Enterprise Settings
A recent Dell and Intel-commissioned Harris Interactive online survey [2] of 204 U.S. healthcare IT decision makers highlights the tablet management challenges faced by organizations today. The results show that tablets are increasingly becoming a standard IT device (51 percent of the healthcare organizations surveyed have deployed them). However, other studies show tablets can cost significantly more time and money to manage than other standard Windows-based devices such as laptops and desktops. According to the results of the Harris survey:

On average, those institutions managing tablets spend an estimated $2,235.20 configuring these devices to work within their organizations. These costs are often several times more than the actual expense of acquiring the device.
Fifty-one percent of tablet using institutions report that the devices required additional software or tools beyond what is used to manage laptops and desktops.
Forty-two percent of IT decision makers in tablet using organizations spent between 10 and 29 minutes per tablet to achieve the same level of security inherent in Trusted Platform Module (TPM) chips.
Forty-four percent of those in tablet using organizations reported that there are applications that are currently used in their organization on desktop and laptop computers that cannot currently be accessed on tablets.

These results demonstrate that the introduction of tablets into enterprise environments has created a more expensive and difficult management process for IT managers in multiple industries. The Dell Latitude 10 was designed to overcome these challenges by combining a great user experience with ease of management and deployment by IT. The Latitude 10 fits easily and securely into existing IT environments to help improve IT efficiency and decrease total cost-of-ownership. Because it is managed like any standard Windows-based laptop, the Latitude 10 is significantly easier to deploy and manage than the Apple iPad in large scale enterprise implementations. According to third-party testing performed by Principled Technologies [1], when compared to the iPad the Latitude 10 tablet is:

Up to 17 times faster and 94 percent less expensive to deploy saving approximately 580 hours in system prep and applications installation.
Up to 99 percent faster for software updates, saving approximately 197 hours with automated updates.
Up to 85 percent cheaper per device to maintain over a three-year period.

Industry-Leading Tablet Security
The Latitude 10 tablet, powered by the dual core Intel® Atom™ processor Z2760, delivers more hardware, authentication, data protection, tracking and recovery security features than any other tablet device on the market today and is ideal for organizations that must comply with stringent regulations such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS). The Latitude 10 enhanced security configuration is the only dual-authentication Windows 8 tablet with both an integrated smart card and fingerprint reader, in addition to the Latitude 10’s already robust security features that include:

Dell Data Protection|Access providing an integrated end point security management suite that utilizes the fingerprint and smart card reader in the Latitude 10 as well as third-party security devices. A Dell wizard provides simple setup.
Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 1.2 hardware to allow networks to check device integrity and to assign full trust.
Microsoft® BitLocker Drive Encryption.
Computrace Support for stealth tracking software to allow the recovery of lost or stolen devices.
A Noble Lock slot for added hardware security.

Quotes
“Other tablets being deployed in business environments can cause more harm than good in the long run with unforeseen management costs and unsecure data protection and access,” said Neil Hand, Vice President of Tablets and Performance PCs, End User Computing, Dell. “With Latitude 10 enhanced security configuration, our customers will be able to give their workers the mobility and productivity they want while having the peace of mind they can easily enforce and adhere to some of the most rigorous security regulations.”

“While tablets can improve access to patient information for clinicians at the point of care, healthcare IT decision-makers should be informed about potential side-effects,” said Andrew Litt, M.D., Dell’s Chief Medical Officer. “The time and expense to connect, manage and secure these devices could be nearly five times the device’s purchase price2, which can be a significant concern for most healthcare institutions. Dell’s Latitude 10 tablet and integrated solutions like Mobile Clinical Computing address these concerns by simplifying device management and ensuring that information is both secure and accessible for patient care.”

“In our testing and analysis we found substantial advantages in managing the Dell Latitude 10 over an Apple iPad in an enterprise SCCM environment,” said Bill Catchings, co-founder of Principled Technologies. “Our analysis found that these advantages would translate to significant cost savings, especially when managing large numbers of these devices.”

Product Availability and Pricing [3]
The Dell Latitude 10 Enhanced Security is available worldwide today and costs $779USD.The Latitude 10 essentials 64GB configuration is available starting at $579USD. The Latitude 10 essentials 32GB configuration is available for $499USD.

About Dell
Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) listens to customers and delivers innovative technology and services that give them the power to do more. For more information, visit www.dell.com.

[1] Tablets in Large Enterprises: Dell Latitude 10 with Windows 8 vs. Apple IPAD, A Principled Technologies Test Report, Commissioned by Dell, Jan. 2013

[2] The Dell Healthcare and Technology study is a third-party study commissioned by Dell. It was conducted online within the US and UK by Harris Interactive on behalf of Dell between Dec. 27, 2012 and Jan. 17, 2013 among 204 US and 81 UK IT decision makers who work in the healthcare industry who were either hospital/clinic administrators or IT professionals working inside or outside a dedicated IT department, and who had at least a major influence on decision making regarding purchasing computer equipment for hospitals/clinics. 105 IT decision makers in the US and 50 in the UK report that tablets are used in their organization. No estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated; a full methodology is available here.

[3] Offers subject to change, not combinable with all other offers. Taxes, shipping, handling and other fees apply. Offers available only to qualified U.S. customers and subject to restrictions in your applicable contract, if any. Dell reserves right to cancel orders arising from pricing or other errors.

About Harris Interactive
Harris Interactive is one of the world’s leading market research firms, leveraging research, technology, and business acumen to transform relevant insight into actionable foresight. Known widely for the Harris Poll® and for pioneering innovative research methodologies, Harris offers proprietary solutions in the areas of market and customer insight, corporate brand and reputation strategy, and marketing, advertising, public relations and communications research. Harris possesses expertise in a wide range of industries including health care, technology, public affairs, energy, telecommunications, financial services, insurance, media, retail, restaurant, and consumer package goods. Additionally, Harris has a portfolio of multi-client offerings that complement our custom solutions while maximizing our client’s research investment. Serving clients in more than 196 countries and territories through our North American and European offices, Harris specializes in delivering research solutions that help us – and our clients—stay ahead of what’s next. For more information, please visit www.harrisinteractive.com.

About Principled Technology and Management Cost Methodology
Principled Technologies (PT) compared a set of typical enterprise IT management operations on the Latitude 10 and the Apple iPad. PT looked at what the cost of doing these operations would be in a typical enterprise with 1,000 of the devices using existing management tools like SCCM. Principled Technologies provides industry-leading technology assessment and fact-based marketing services relying upon extensive experience with and expertise in all aspects of technology testing and analysis, from researching new technologies, to developing new methodologies, to testing with existing and new tools. Principled Technology’s founders have worked in technology assessment for over 20 years. They created and led the Ziff-Davis Benchmark Operation, which developed such industry-standard benchmarks as Ziff Davis Media’s Winstone and WebBench. They founded and led eTesting Labs, and after the acquisition of that company by Lionbridge Technologies were the head and CTO of VeriTest.

Dell, Latitude and OptiPlex are trademarks of Dell Inc. Dell disclaims any proprietary interest in the marks and names of others.

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February 25, 2013 I Written By John

Filed Under: Healthcare Healthcare IT

Tags:Andrew Litt Bill Catchings Dell Dell Latitude 10 Federal Information Processing Standard FIPS Harris Interactive Harris Interactive online survey Harris Poll Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act HIPAA Latitude 10 tablets Microsoft® BitLocker Drive Encryption Neil Hand Principled Technologies Sarbanes-Oxley Act Trusted Platform Module chips U.S. healthcare IT www.harrisinteractive.com

Graham Hospital Selects iConnect(R) and Merge Honeycomb(TM) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Image Interoperability and Storage

Upgrade to Latest Version of Merge PACS(TM) Also Enhances Workflow for Community Hospital

CHICAGO, Feb. 22, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Merge Healthcare Incorporated (Nasdaq:MRGE), a leading provider of clinical systems and innovations that seek to transform healthcare, today announced that Graham Hospital has selected Merge Healthcare’s entire iConnect Enterprise Clinical Platform as well as Merge Honeycomb Archive to implement an enterprise-wide imaging strategy.

“At Graham Hospital we strive to apply forward-thinking technologies to deliver on our mission of providing compassionate, quality health services. Clearly, interoperability and cloud solutions represent the future of imaging,” explained Jim Schreiner, CIO, Graham Hospital.

“With iConnect Enterprise Clinical Platform we will be able to deliver anywhere, any time access to images as well as secure storage of images in the iConnect Enterprise Archive. We will then be utilizing Merge Honeycomb Archive for cost-effective, long-term storage of the second copy of our patient images. We believe that by taking an enterprise-wide view of imaging we will see a decrease in our total cost of ownership and reduce the drain on our internal IT resources,” Schreiner concluded.

“As a long-time Merge PACS user, this new enterprise-wide imaging strategy builds on our partnership with Merge,” added Penny McElroy, Director of Imaging. “We knew that we wanted to upgrade to the latest version of Merge PACS and realized it was also the perfect opportunity to think longer-term while simultaneously improving our radiology workflow in the near-term.”

“We have seen clients from large IDNs to community hospitals like Graham Hospital start to really embrace enterprise imaging strategies and look at the cloud as a viable solution to the business and operational challenges they are facing,” said Jeff Surges, CEO, Merge Healthcare. “Additionally, now that Meaningful Use Stage 2 rules include image-enabling the EHR as a menu set measure, Graham will be well-positioned to meet these future requirements.”

Merge’s iConnect Enterprise Clinical Platform is the industry’s only comprehensive solution for collecting, archiving, viewing, sharing and exchanging any type of image, anywhere, any time. It includes iConnect Access*, a zero-download DICOM image and XDS server, iConnect Share, a gateway for image sharing across the enterprise and iConnect Enterprise Archive, a vendor-neutral archive to create an enterprise imaging strategy. Ranked the VNA global market leader by InMedica, it works with existing applications, leveraging widely-used web and healthcare technology standards, to provide a vendor neutral interoperable environment.

Merge Honeycomb cloud-based applications are designed to help healthcare stakeholders collaborate and improve the delivery of care while reducing costs. Merge Honeycomb Archive provides a long-term storage option that houses images securely, in multiple locations, providing anywhere, any time access. It delivers comprehensive functionality in a high-availability, high-security framework that meets HIPAA and other privacy requirements.

Merge PACS, a real-time picture archiving communication system, enhances clinical, operational and administrative functions with an approach that emphasizes workflow efficiency and customer satisfaction. Its modular design allows for easy integration with a broad range of third-party systems.

*iConnect Access is not FDA-cleared for diagnostic use on mobile devices.

About Merge Healthcare

Merge is a leading provider of clinical systems and innovations that seek to transform healthcare. Merge’s enterprise and cloud-based solutions for image intensive specialties provide access to any image, anywhere, any time. Merge also provides health stations, clinical trials software and other health data and analytics solutions that engage consumers in their personal health. With solutions that are used by providers and consumers and include more than 25 years of innovation, Merge is helping to reduce costs and improve the quality of healthcare worldwide. For more information, visit merge.com.

The Merge Healthcare logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=10757

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February 23, 2013 I Written By John

Filed Under: Electronic Health Record Healthcare

Tags:EHR Graham Hospital HIPAA iConnect Enterprise Archive iConnect Enterprise Clinical Platform InMedica Jeff Surges Jim Schreiner Merge Healthcare Incorporated Merge Honeycomb Archive Merge PACS Merge's iConnect Enterprise Clinical Platform MRGE NASDAQ:MRGE Penny McElroy s iConnect Access

Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center Selects ClearDATA for HIPAA Compliant Cloud Hosting Services

Phoenix, AZ, February 18, 2012 – – ClearDATA Networks, Inc., the leading healthcare cloud computing platform and service provider, today announced that Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center, a 782-bed medical training institution, comprised of a 316-bed acute care hospital and a 466-bed adult and pediatric skilled nursing long-term care facility, has selected the ClearDATA HealthDATA™ Cloud Computing Platform as its hosting and offsite backup solution. Kingsbrook decided to begin migrating its IT infrastructure to ClearDATA’s HIPAA compliant cloud in order to reduce capital expenses on hardware, lower IT costs, and minimize the risk of lost data due to hardware failures or natural disasters.

“Providing optimum health services to the community is the top priority for Kingsbrook, and utilizing an efficient technology strategy through cloud computing allows us to achieve that goal in a more productive and cost effective manner,” states Daniel Morreale, CIO of Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center. “We selected ClearDATA as our cloud hosting services provider because of its exclusive healthcare focus and expertise, high standards for HIPAA compliance and security, and excellent reputation in the industry.”

“ClearDATA is honored and excited to provide healthcare cloud computing services to the nationally recognized Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center,” said Darin Brannan, President and CEO of ClearDATA Networks, Inc. “Kingsbrook sets and achieves the highest standards for healthcare organizations in the areas of medical practice, community service, and also technological innovation and implementation.”

About Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center

Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center, celebrating its 85^th year, is a 782-bed teaching Medical Center, dedicated to meeting the health needs of one of Brooklyn’s most culturally diverse communities. Clinical Centers of Excellence include; The Kingsbrook Rehabilitation Institute, offering acute and sub-acute Rehabilitation Medicine/The Institute is home to Brooklyn’s only designated Traumatic Brain Injury Center, The Bone & Joint Center including specialists in joint replacement, sports injuries and foot/ankle conditions and The Neurosurgical Specialty Center, offering a comprehensive team approach to those with a brain injury, tumors, stroke, aneurysms and certain spine conditions. Kingsbrook is accredited by The Joint Commission and is a member of the Greater New York Hospital Association and the Healthcare Association of New York State. For more information on Kingsbrook, visit www.kingsbrook.org.

About ClearDATA

ClearDATA Networks, Inc. is the market leader for healthcare cloud computing and information security services for healthcare providers, software vendors and VARs, and 100% dedicated to the healthcare field. ClearDATA’s HealthDATA™ Suite of Cloud Computing Solutions enable providers to fully automate, protect, and securely manage healthcare medical records, applications, IT infrastructure and digital storage. The company provides HITECH HIPAA-compliant cloud hosting of infrastructure with managed services, offsite backup and disaster recovery, medical image backup and VNA, healthcare information security and world-class support. For more information, call 602-635-4000, email: sales@)cleardata.net or visit: http://www.cleardata.net.

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February 18, 2013 I Written By John

Filed Under: Cloud Computing Healthcare Healthcare IT

Tags:ClearDATA HealthDATA Cloud Computing Platform ClearDATA Networks Colin Christie Daniel Morreale Darin Branna Healthcare Cloud Computing Platform and Service Provider HIPAA HIPAA Compliant Cloud HITECH HIPAA-compliant cloud hosting Inc Information Security Services Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center

Prince George’s County Health Department Implements Integrated EHR and PHR System

Largo, Md. – January 23, 2013 – Prince George’s County Health Department is deploying a new electronic health record (EHR) system and Personal Health Records (PHRs) to further its goals of improved efficiencies in patient care and management.

The Largo, Maryland-based public health department is implementing WebChart EHR from Medical Informatics Engineering, Inc. (MIE) and an integrated PHR from NoMoreClipboard across all 25 of its clinics in three divisions — women’s health, epidemiology and mental health. The first phase of the project was deployed in December 2012 with additional functionality being added in early 2013.

“We have always taken a progressive approach to healthcare,” said Ernest Carter, MD at Prince George’s County Health Department. “Our goal is to use health information technology as a way to improve efficiencies across the entire department which in turn, will lead to reduced costs and improved quality of care for all patients.”

Prince George’s County’s EHR system will be used for appointment scheduling, registration and medical record documentation. The health department also plans to integrate the WebChart solution with Personal Health Records from NoMoreClipboard that will enable patients to collect and store their complete health history, and allow them to communicate electronically with their physicians.

“The PHR from NoMoreClipboard is an automatic extension of the EHR,” said Barbara Banks-Wiggins, IT Project Manager at Prince George’s County Health Department. “Not only will it help patients better manage their healthcare, but it will give physicians a comprehensive view of all patient data available to improve the gaps that often exist between hospital-based and office-based care.”

The Prince George’s County Health Department is working with ZaneNet Connect on this project. ZaneNet Connect is a Maryland-certified management service organization that helps healthcare providers select and implement health IT solutions and connect to Maryland’s health information exchange.

Over 30 physicians, serving 12,855 patients, will have access to the EHR / PHR solution.

About Medical Informatics Engineering (MIE)

MIE offers a Minimally Invasive™ suite of HIT products that are easy to use, flexible and cost effective. MIE solutions are in use today by more than 2,500 clinics throughout the U.S. and by corporate clients such as Disney, Dow, Chevron, Xerox, Lilly, HCA, Humana and many others in 19 countries around the world in eight languages. MIE also provides advanced solutions for chronic disease management, personal health records and advanced wellness modules through its NoMoreClipboard subsidiary. For more information, visit http://www.mieweb.com

About NoMoreClipboard
NoMoreClipboard, a wholly owned subsidiary of Medical Informatics Engineering (MIE), is a web-based, Personal Health Record management system designed to consolidate medical information in one convenient and secure location for easy retrieval and updates. NMC enables consumers to share personal or family member medical information with medical professionals electronically, reducing the need for repetitive medical paperwork. For more information, visit www.NoMoreClipboard.com

About ZaneNet Connect

ZaneNet Connect is the first woman-owned small business selected as a Maryland MSO, and was awarded full accreditation from the Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission (EHNAC), which recognizes excellence in health data processing and transactions and ensures compliance with industry-established standards andHIPAA regulations. ZaneNet Connect is uniquely positioned to help primary care providers adopt electronic health records (EHRs), connect to Maryland’s health information exchange (HIE), and achieve meaningful use that qualifies practices for Medicare and Medicaid incentives.