Entries tagged with himss - Channel 10

Telemedicine, e-mail and messaging

bcrounse — Wed, 16 May 2007 02:52:00 GMT

I wanted to draw your attention to a just released interview I did with Digital Healthcare and Productivity. In it, I talk about one of the most worrisome trends I see in US healthcare; how far we are falling behind the rest of the world in the use of information technology in the industry, including the provision of health and medical services via the web.

It's ironic that this interview was released while I'm attending the first-ever Asia-Pacific HIMSS conference in Singapore. Last evening, I met with several clinicians who were telling me how tele-medicine and e-mail are being embraced by clinicians and patients all across this country, especially for primary care. As you may know, Singapore has a very progressive public-private healthcare system that serves the population extremely well at a cost to the GNP that is only one third of what we spend in the US.

As I travel the world, not only am I seeing more progressive use of information technology in healthcare compared to the US, I'm just plain seeing lots of technology everywhere that we don't have. Even the taxi cabs here are marvels of IT on wheels. Want to charge your cab ride using a credit card? No problem. Want a GPS-enabled turn by turn tour of the town? Got it. Want the cab's computer to calculate your fare and then explain it to you in your native language? Done! Oh, I did I tell you about the cell phones people use here that are years more advanced than anything you'll see in the US, or that my hotel room has a 42-inch fully digital, high definition LCD TV with more than 100 channels? I think you get the idea.

Better wake up America before it's too late! An electronic health record for most American's within ten years (now just seven years since that proclamation was made)? They already have that in Singapore. And tomorrow? Well, let's just say officials here and elsewhere around the world see a very big market for delivering healthcare to Americans who are either willing to travel for it, or better yet, want to receive a least a portion of their care on-line.

Bill Crounse, MD Worldwide Health Director Microsoft Corporation

National e-Prescribing Patient Safety Initiative, HIMSS, and more

bcrounse — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 21:37:00 GMT

Last week while visiting New York City, I sat down for an interview with Peter Cervieri at ScribeMedia. Peter and I first met last December at the Consumer Health World conference in Washington, D.C. Peter had invited me to visit him at ScribeMedia's Manhattan headquarters the next time I was in the city, and so I did. I toured ScribeStudios and then Peter and I chatted for 30 minutes or so about some of our initiatives at Microsoft. We also videotaped the interview so Peter could share it with his "viewers". We talked about the National e-Prescribing Patient Safety Initiatiive (NEPSI) sponsored by a consortium of leading technology companies including Microsoft, payor organizations and academic medical centers across the nation. NEPSI makes an easy-to-use and secure web services e-prescribing solution from Microsoft partner Allscripts available free of charge to every physician in America. Adoption of e-prescribing by all physicians is essential to help reduce medication errors that according to a report from the Institute of Medicine injure more than 700,000 Americans each year.

We also talked about a range of other topics related to healthcare IT and Microsoft's role in the industry. I hope you enjoy the show.

Next Saturday, I'm off to HIMSS in New Orleans where I hope to see a lot of you. If you are in the neighborhood of the Microsoft booth on Monday or Tuesday, I hope you'll drop by and say hello. I hope you'll also be around for Steve Ballmer's keynote on Monday morning. I think you'll be inspired by his message and our vision for higher quality, safer, more effective and satisfying health and healthcare made possible by technology.

Bill Crounse, MD Worldwide Health Director Microsoft

Microsoft in the Healthcare Industry - Consumer Health World video interview

bcrounse — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 18:53:00 GMT

I'm back in the office after a two week Holiday break. 2007 is upon us, and I look forward to a very exciting year with the introduction of Windows Vista, Office 2007, and some of the first new solutions from our Health Solutions Group here at Microsoft.

Just before vacation, I attended Consumer Health World in Washington, D.C., where I had the opportunity to serve on a couple of panel discussions with other colleagues from global technology companies as well as some distinguished healthcare industry leaders.

In the conference exhibit hall I met up with longtime friend and colleague, Dr. Mike Magee. Dr. Magee is a prolific writer and blogger who hosts the popular Health Politics site sponsored by Pfizer's Medical Humanities Initiative. Dr. Magee asked me to sit down for a video interview to share some thoughts about healthcare information technology and Microsoft's role in the industry. We also touched on a variety of other topics including the future of blogging, consumerism in healthcare, what's new at Microsoft, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and more. You can link to the streaming video here.

The next two months will be busy with Microsoft healthcare executive forum events in Minneapolis, Austin, Kansas City, and New York. I will also be keynoting at the Dallas Health Industry Council annual meeting, and the Healthcare Price and Quality Transparency Conference in Las Vegas. Then of course comes one of this year's biggest events, HIMSS 2007 and MSHUG in New Orleans. Microsoft's Steve Ballmer will be on the podium this year at HIMSS. I hope to see you there.

Happy New Year!

Bill Crounse, MD Healthcare Industry Director Microsoft