Entries tagged with medicine - Channel 10

Mobile health update: Devices and solutions for healthcare professionals- part 2

Laura — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 16:16:00 GMT

Among the attributes of information technology solutions designed for healthcare professionals, mobility is high on the list. Doctors, nurses, and other clinicians are always on the move, and the IT solutions they use must move with them. Fortunately, there is now a wide selection of very capable devices and applications to meet the needs of highly mobile medical professionals.

In this special two-part video edition of House Calls for Healthcare Professionals, Dr. Crounse and his guests review some of the options. The first program takes a look at four popular mobile devices running Windows Mobile 6. The second program reviews a useful application from IQMax that provides mobile access to patient lists, lab reports, x-ray results, and more wherever that information is needed. Other useful functions include charge capture and real-time dictation of chart notes, discharge summaries, and documents using a smartphone.

Mobile health update: Devices and solutions for healthcare professionals-part 1

Laura — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 16:14:00 GMT

The Story on MedStory

bcrounse — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 21:15:00 GMT

One of the big announcements during HIMSS last February was Microsoft’s acquisition of a company specializing in medical search. That company is called MedStory. Recently, I caught up with MedStory founder and CEO, Dr. Alain Rappaport, M.D., Ph.D., for a conversation about his company and why he decided to join forces with Microsoft.

Prior to founding MedStory, Dr. Rappaport was the co-founder, president and chief scientist for Neuron Data, a world leader in artificial intelligence and other business-critical software components. That Dr. Rappaport’s roots are embedded in the science of artificial intelligence made all the more sense as we discussed his vision for MedStory.

Dr. Rappaport likened the healthcare industry today to that of American manufacturing in the 80’s. All of us old enough to remember will recall that the American automobile companies and other manufacturers were getting clobbered by much more nimble competitors overseas (particularly the Japanese) who started using computers and technology to optimize the supply chain and their manufacturing processes. American manufacturers have now narrowed the gap. Productivity has improved and they are turning out higher quality products, but we continue to pay a price for falling behind in the 80’s. According to Dr. Rappaport, American healthcare is now where manufacturing was in the 80’s, and the time for change is upon us.

Realizing that healthcare is an industry that is driven by information, Dr. Rappaport turned his attention to improving how both consumers and clinicians alike will find the information they need. It is not enough, he says, to provide links to information. Search engines must become intelligent enough to understand a user’s “intent”. “We need a web that knows versus one that just links”, said Dr. Rappaport. “We are moving the center of gravity of search to return an understanding of what the user wants. Our core objective is to provide meaningful information that is also actionable.”

Asked why he decided to team up with Microsoft, Dr. Rappaport said it was the opportunity to engage with customers and partners all around the world who are now coming forward to help us innovate and use this technology. “Even in parts of the world where populations are medically underserved, providing relevant and timely information, will make a difference”, he said.

I, for one, very much agree. I’m thrilled to have Dr. Rappaport and his distinguished colleagues join us on our mission to improve the quality and safety of patient care, and the satisfaction of those giving and receiving that care.

Bill Crounse, MD Worldwide HealthDirector Microsoft Corporation

American Idol for the rest of us

bcrounse — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 21:34:00 GMT

This morning, Rick Rashid, Senior VP for Microsoft Research kicked off our annual TechFest; an event here on the Redmond campus that celebrates the genius of Microsoft Research's worldwide labs by presenting more than 150 demos and 24 lectures. Think of it as a kind of exhibition of cutting-edge technologies from some of the best and brightest computer scientists and engineers from around the world all in one place. I always enjoy this event because it gives me a lot of insight to what's coming down the line and how it might be applied to my own industry, healthcare. One of the technologies Rick highlighted in his keynote this year was SenseCam, a little wearable device capable of digitizing audio, video and other data from every second of your life and storing it forever. When I first saw this technology more than a year ago, it got me to thinking about how it might impact future versions of the electronic or personal health record, or how this technology might be useful to patients with chronic disease. There are already promising results from small studies with people suffering from dementia and other cognitive disorders.

But there was something else Rick talked about this morning that has far more profound implications for our industry, and certainly for our country. He reported that only about 1 in 100 college freshman today are selecting computer science and engineering as a major, a trend that has been on a downward spiral for the last several years and has reached its lowest point ever. In my own travels I’ve been hearing colleagues, and deans of medical schools, bemoaning the quality and quantity of young people seeking careers in medicine today. Yet surprisingly both fields, IT and medicine, are forecasted to be leading industries for new job creation far into the future. Clearly, the number of jobs will far outstrip the supply of qualified candidates.

What's going on here? Somehow I think we are failing to instill a work ethic in our youth. Perhaps I can't blame them when all they see on television, magazines and the Net are glorifications of the rich and famous among us; movie icons, sports stars, rockers, rappers, instant celebrities and wanna-be's. Math and science are hard. It takes time to build a fortune the old fashioned way. Who wouldn't want to rake in millions for singing on the radio, blasting a home run, or acting on the silver screen? But you need only watch American Idol to confront the hard fact that the odds of that happening are solidly stacked against you. It's also interesting to note that even those American Idols generally got there by working very very hard, and often for many years in poverty and total obscurity, before hitting it big.

Yes, majoring in computer science is hard. Becoming a doctor is perhaps even harder. There are years of self sacrifice, delayed gratification, and countless hours studying and taking tests. But doing anything really worthwhile in life takes an equal amount of effort. That's why they call it "work". It's a message that seems to be getting lost on an entire generation of young people. And, it's a loss for which we will all pay dearly.

What do you think? Let us know.

Bill Crounse, MD Worldwide Health Director Microsoft

Brave New World: Make your own movie, tv, or radio show

bcrounse — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 23:16:00 GMT

Next week I'm off to New York for the International Freddie Awards. If you don't know about the Freddie Awards; it is a celebration to honor excellence in medical and scientific film, documentaries, television, videos, Web sites, DVDs and CD-ROMs. Now in its 32nd year, the International Health and Medical Media Awards, the Freddies, have become the equivalent of the Academy Award for Film or the Emmy for television. At the awards ceremony next Friday, it will be my distinct honor to present one of the evening's highest honors; a founder's award that is named after famous heart surgeon and researcher, Dr. Michael E. DeBakey.

Why am I hanging out with this crowd? I haven't shared with readers of my Blog that a substantial portion of my career has been dedicated to medical broadcasting. For more than 20 years, I anchored medical programming for Lifetime Medical Television, ABC News, Medical News Network, Discovery and other outlets. I also served as medical editor for the ABC and CBS television affiliates in Seattle, appearing nightly on the evening news. In fact, my career in television news and entertainment programming started long before I became a physician. I was actually anchoring the evening TV news (on weekends) before I was old enough to vote. Trust me that would never be allowed today.

Back in the day, I needed a multimillion dollar broadcasting studio to do my work, along with complex and costly recording and editing equipment, camera people, sound people, and more. Today, any one of you could produce, host, and broadcast to the world from your desktop or laptop or iPod (that wireless will come in handy on the Zune). My point is this. There has never been more opportunity or more accessibility for everyone to be heard and seen. Broadcasting has become commoditized. While that makes it much harder to earn a living, it makes it much easier to break into the business. And as the founders of YouTube and others have learned, there is gold in them there hills if you can find it. (By the way, have you checked out MSN Soapbox yet?) There is also an opportunity to change the world; to educate, inform, entertain, and enrich the lives of people. Sometimes I think, "If only I had been born a few decades later". The possibilities today seem infinite.

So please continue to write those Blogs, produce those podcasts, and post those videos. And every time you do, thank your lucky stars you live in an era when the communications universe is at your fingertips. If you are looking for a list of people to thank, besides the usual names that come to mind, check out the Computer History Museum.

Bill Crounse, MD Healthcare Industry Director Microsoft