Trend Spotting
Catherine Russo Cobb • catcobb@mac.com catcobb@mac.com
Mark Hulse, R.N., a 12-year health
care IT veteran, recently joined
Tampa’s H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center
and Research Institute (www.moffitt.org) as vice president and chief information
officer. He was formerly VP
and CIO for North Shore Medical
Center in Boston, spent 11 years at
the Massachusetts General Hospital in
Boston as well as eight years with Stanford University Medical Center
in California.
With the health care reform debate raging, we thought it timely to
chat with Hulse about industry trends in health care informatics.
Hulse says a major trend centers on the “Health Information
Technology for Economic and Clinical Health” (HITECH) provisions of
the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Signed into law
in February, the ARRA allows for investment of more than $19-billion
nationally in health care IT.
To be eligible for stimulus incentives beginning in 2011, hospitals
and physician practices must adopt a certified Electronic Health Record
(EHR) and demonstrate “meaningful use” based on metrics.
“Hospitals and physicians who fail to adopt an EHR by 2015 will be
subject to Medicare payment reductions in addition to losing the initial
financial incentives,” he says.
The health information exchange components of HITECH will set
standards for the exchange of health care data electronically.
“Patients rarely receive all of their medical care from a single provider,
and yet knowing a patient’s history, current medications, allergies
and other information is critical to providing safe and effective care.
Even when a hospital has implemented an electronic medical record,
the data are typically stored in a proprietary format and cannot be easily
shared with other providers and institutions,” Hulse says.
The Office of the National Coordinator of Health IT is charged with
making policy recommendations on how the stimulus dollars will be
invested.
Says Hulse: “This will have a profound impact on the adoption of
Electronic Health Records, or EHRs, and related technologies in hospitals
and physician practices across the U.S.”
Technically Secure
What recession? That’s what the folks at Sarasota-based Rapid Security Solutions are asking, saying that their sales – approaching $1-million – grew roughly 75 percent from June 2008 to June 2009.
“Security in general is recession-proof as is recession-proof as everyone needs some
level of protection and peace of mind,” says
co-founder Shannon Lodgson. “It has been proven that theft,
crime and vandalism significantly increase in a depressed economy
and people are more mindful of their security needs.”
Founded in 2007 by Logsdon and Steve Paley, the two entrepreneurs
say that today’s building security systems require integration
of the latest technologies.
“Implementing network and web-based
technology in the systems enables us to
provide client solutions that are cost effective
and easy to use,” says Paley. Most of the company’s business, he
says, is from commercial clients like Goodwill Manasota, Duke
Realty Corporation, Securitas, Method Factory, Disney, Synovus
Bank and Sarasota Dental Excellence.
RSS (www.rsecurity.net) employs 10 people, including a team
dedicated to exploring new security technologies. That’s up
from two employees in early
2008, and Paley expects his
staff to double by the end of
2010. The company’s goal is
to expand throughout Florida,
then the Southeast.
Search Engine Scores
The founder of a small startup in Bradenton says she and her
colleagues have created a new type of search engine technology
that “may enhance” major search engines in the coming years.
Maura Stouffer, co-founder of SEOENG® LLC, says her firm’s
technology provides users an analysis of any website from a
search engine’s perspective. In other words, it reveals website
data which is vital for effective search engine optimization.
Founded in 2006, the company has a patent pending for its
“navigable website analysis engine.”
“Our Search Engine Optimization Engine®,” says Stouffer, “provides a new type of interface where
users are able to view penalties assessed
against a website that are preventing the
web pages from ranking high on search
engine results.”
Stouffer, president, contends SEOENG®
(http://search.seoeng.com) goes beyond
standard visitor and user-trending data
to provide users with access to secretive
search-engine ranking and scoring algorithms.
The data, she says, enables website
owners, webmasters, and search-engine
optimization experts alike to fine-tune any
website to rank higher.
“Search engine visibility is highly sought
after because it provides websites with
a continuous stream of targeted customers and visitors. If a
website ranks high … it saves a significant amount of money of
advertising for costly pay-per-click campaigns,” says Stouffer.
A Cornell University graduate, Stouffer declines to give any
financial information on the privately held company,
but says that SEOENG® employs fewer than 10 persons.
The company currently offers one free product
(a web-page analysis) and sells four others.
Tech FYI
Tampa’s Peak 10 Inc. (www.peak10.com) announced
the upgrade of its advanced, fully
managed backup platform with the addition of
CommVault Simpana software … Sarasota-based
Osprey Biotechnics Inc. (www.ospreybiotechnics.com) introduced bulk production of new Bacilox
XL “hungry bacteria” which the company says
allows specialty chemical formulators and manufacturers
to formulate green cleaning and maintenance
products at a reduced cost … Verizon
Wireless (www.verizonwireless.com) says it has invested more than
$200-million in network enhancements across Florida since 2008 to
ensure coverage during severe weather, such as tropical storms and
hurricanes.
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