Healia...A different kind of search

I came across a cool health search engine called Healia® - your search for health.

One of the real cool things about Healia is the ability to filter searches. Type in a search term and Healia will give you the opportunity to filter the results by criteria such as male or female, age or some other time of attribute.

Give it a try yourself. Healia® - your search for health

Healthcare RFID Potential

The use of RFID in the healthcare environment is not a new concept. There are many players both large and small trying to gain marketshare in this space.

I have been doing some research in this space and have found out that many companies are just focusing on asset tracking (boring!). Although important, it is not where most healthcare organizations should be spending their precious dollars at this point.

Hospitals need to provide a higher quality of care for patients, RFID has the potential to meet this key need in several areas (critical care, OB, & Psych). I speak from direct experience on the need to ensure patient safety.

Why are companies not focusing on this? Well they just don't understand the healthcare market. Typically they are run by someone with experience in Logistics.

I am still looking for the right company that wants to truly add value to healthcare via RFID and make some serious cash. If you do what is right...The money will follow.

I will post more about this in the future.

Healthcare RFID

I came across Wavemark the other day while I was browsing the net. I believe they have a lot of potential in the Healthcare RFID space. Although another company focused on asset tracking

What does Wavemark do? They provide the infrastructure to enable healthcare facilities to track inventory.

Do I like Wavemark? NO. The main reason, they do not have an understanding of the healthcare market!

After working in Healthcare for the past 15 years, I have seen thousands of wasted hours and money related to the management of medical devices and equipment. I could talk for hours about the inefficiencies I have witnessed. But this is just a small part of the equation. Saving money on assets is important, but it does not benefit the patient and the quality of care directly. I would even say that it barely benefits the patient indirectly! This company should focus on RFID uses that help ensure a better quality of care and improved patient safety.

I believe Wavemark will do ok in the asset tracking business, but they just don't get it.

I am bored dude!

There is not much going on in healthcare IT. Is something about to happen? Will NextGen finally be acquired by someone? I have a feeling, but will not post anything now.

I have been bored lately, so I have been spending some quality time browsing the web. Dude Help keeps me real busy. Especially, the Games section & the Investing section.

Have you heard of Sermo?

I came across this company the other day, thought it was interesting enough to write something about it.

What is Sermo? Well, I cannot be 100% certain, but from what I can see they are creating an online community for physicians to share information, clinical information.

What does it really mean? It means they basically compensate physicians to provide a documented clinical information in the form of an observation. They will then store these observations in some type of structured database, then disseminate the information back into the larger Physician community.

I assume they plan to sell this information as a service back to physicians and healthcare organizations. Probably some type of searchable online database. I am not really sure as the company has been in stealth mode. However, I have noticed several posts on Craigslist for physicians to provide sermo with clinical observations for $50. Take a look for yourself (http://www.craigslist.org/sfc/hea/160179629.html).

Is this a viable business model? Possibly, but this will depend on how they market and position this database. Not to mention how easy and relevant the information will be.

As I mentioned in a previous post, this is similar to how >digg.com operates. I could talk for hours of how I think sites like digg.com, will have a significant impact on the delivery of healthcare information. If anyone is interested in starting a venture in this area, send me a note, I will like to speak with someone interested in making a change.

Misys Healthcare Systems Analyst and Investor Seminar

Go to Misys to watch the Misys Healthcare Systems Analyst and Investor Seminar Webcast. Click on the webcast icon.

Sorry I do not provide any analysis, just a link.

Google in Healthcare?

That's right, the word on the street is that Google is making a push into health related internet services. To my knowledge, Google hasn't announced anything and exactly what this means is purely speculative at this point, but there are several tips that indicate they are definitely up to something.

Firstly, a recent article in Tuesday, March 21 edition of the Wall Street Journal mentioned that a high profile Google geek (Adam Bosworth) is in charge of the mysterious "Google Health" division and even has business cards that read "Architect, Google Health". I checked out Adam's weblog and he has not posted anything new since November 2005! My guess is that Google has put a muzzle order on him and/or he is too busy figuring out what to do with "Google Health".

Secondly, It is no secret that Microsoft and Yahoo have been attempting to get into the Healthcare arena for quit some time now, without a big splash (my opinion). So naturally, it would appear that Google should be thinking about healthcare or should I say will be thinking about healthcare. Heck why not, the healthcare industry is dazed and confused, what better place to make money (which Google is damn good at!).

Now, I realize people are already using Google today to search for health related information, so essentially Google is involved in Healthcare whether they like it or not, but is that enough? I have heard that Google may index and organize health related information into a "vertical search"to make things easier to find. However, I wonder if this would truly add any value to healthcare or just generate another targeted audience where Google can generate ad revenue?

I cannot answer that question, but I would hardly call it a "big splash" and a bit boring if that is all they did. Google has the geeks and the capital to do something a bit more revolutionary.

In my opinion, Google should make a sweet deal and acquire Digg.com, then use this technology to disseminate valuable health related information.
For those of you who are not aware of Digg.com, It is a website that combines social bookmarking, blogging, RSS, and non-hierarchical editorial control. With digg, users submit stories for review, but rather than allow an editor to decide which stories go on the homepage, the users do.

Today, Digg.com is primarily focused on technology related information, however with a few controls, this could be the perfect medium for health related information. It would be significantly more useful than a vertical search. I could envision physicians, nurses & patients creating, sharing and digging highly valuable information in harmony.

Now of course this would just be a stepping stone in using newer technologies to change healthcare, but I think it would be an important step.

Whatever the direction Google takes I am sure it will create a lot of buzz. So Adam (Mr. Bosworth) if you are reading this, do something different! Make something happen dude!