Health It

Chunghwa Telecom Co, the largest fixed line operator in Taiwan is thinking about the tapping into the healthcare industry by means of its multimedia-on-demand platform. The company is scheduling to join with iD SoftCapital Group, a venture capitalist under Acer Inc to raise the industry in healthcare. Since the full details of collaboration is not mentioned but still the project will work with 500 MOD interactive kiosks. The number of kiosks will boost 18,000 for long terms with medical and healthcare content to come from domestic medical associations. Chunghwa Telecom started its MOD service in 2004. It had acquired 120,000 users for the service and now they are planning to expand approximately 250,000. They are launching an ‘asthma mobile service’ targeted on asthma patients, who are 8 per cent of the population. The new service enables patients to check air quality and temperature changes on mobile phones and provides medical data analysis on asthma conditions cooperated with Chang Gung Memorial Hospital. The Micro-Star International Co, the leading motherboard and graphics card maker, developing medical electronics products. Via: TaipeiTimes

Old patients who are living at home make fewer visits in hospitals, for those patients health industry is coming at home only. According to the report given by Parks Associates, the technology is making advance for home health industry. According to the report, the market of digital home was $450 million in 2005. It will become $2.1 billion by 2010. It will happen by wellness monitoring services and online doctor consultations. The digital glucose readers, blood pressure monitors, scales, motion sensors, even pillboxes will transmit the patient information to remote care givers. Even some technologies take care of daily needs of patients. These types of services would reach up to 64 million patients by 2010 in US. Via: eWeek

IBM founded the World Community Grid at the end of year 2004 for nonprofit research projects. The company announced that one of its major research projects are focusing on human protecome folding which ahs been launched into its second phase. The Institute for Systems Biology, begin the project and now New York University’s Department of Biology and Computer Science are refining the software representation of the protein structure. The aim of first phase to understand protein function, and now the aim of second phase is to improve the resolution of the prediction for a select subset of human proteins and to explore the limits of protein structure prediction. The project is focusing on human-secreted proteins which are involved in cancer that are important for signaling between cells and often key markers for diagnosis. Via: Eweek

Individual state and local departments developed the information systems for state and local public health department. The RWJF dubbed the new program named ‘Common Ground’ is looking for the implementation of IT in public health departments. The Transforming Public Health Information Systems, Common Ground will describe the following public health activities: � Emergency preparedness � Restaurant inspections � Vaccinations � Nutrition education This information system must support and develop the technical requirements better to serve the public. $15 million program is intended to build upon previously funded RWJF. The RWJF will provide approximately 30 grants to state and local health departments. Via: eWeek

Affibody AB joins with GE Healthcare under research agreement :

ffibody AB announced that the company has made entry in new research agreement with GE Healthcare, a division of the General Electric Company. According to agreement, now Affibody will provide Affibody molecules for three diseases defined by GE Healthcare. Affibody molecules have high target specificity and acceptability of protein approaches is suitable for candidates for in-vivo applications. It is used to diagnosis early of disease and allow physicians to optimize the therapy. According to the agreement GE Healthcare has option to take any license required for developing and commercializing imaging agents resulting from this collaboration. Affibody retains all rights for use of the selected Affibody® molecules outside the scope of in vivo diagnostic and Acne Medications .

New high speed medical data network help save lives : 

As of now, we have seen cops pull up criminal records or rap sheets in their vehicle computer systems. In a similar fashion, ambulances can now search and check out the patient’s medical records en route to the hospital. Thanks to the NEC WiMax system. This Fast Life Insurance saving system is still in the final stages of development and is about to be displayed at the WiMax Forum. This is a part of M-Taiwan project. WiMax will now be able to achieve about 6 Mbps per second. Apparently, this will be the only existing high speed data network as of now that will work in high speed ambulances. How will this service be used? Well, the service helps in pulling up electronic copies of x ray plates and other medical records. This data is imperative for saving the patient’s life. The NEC WiMax R & D center will open by the end of 2007 in collaboration with the Taiwanese government. Once the system is fully completed, it will be mostly used in Taiwan. I hope the Taiwanese government will release the valuable resources at a minimal cost to the world on humanitarian grounds. Although, I seriously doubt it. The WiMax product demo was recently hosted in the Taiwanese city of Hualien. The city of Hualien will use this system for the tourism and medical reasons. NEC also announced the development of liquid crystal display of amorphous silicon color film transistors. The LCD display modules will be used for medical applications. Wow! When I am talking about the LCD displays and WiMax M-Taiwan project, I feel I am traveling to the future. The bottom line is: the WiMax medical system will save some lives.

A subsidiary of CDC Corporation, CDC Software, announced that the leading pharmaceutical company in China, Kunming Jida Pharmaceutical has selected Ross ERP application. They have selected this application due to focuss on life sciences, deep application functionality and ability to deliver a return on investment. Kunming Jida Pharmaceutical manufactures pharmaceutical products which includes following based products: � Anti-infectious � Gastro-intestinal � Musculo-skeletal � Cerebro-cardiovascular � Anti-depressant and psychiatric disorder drugs � Counter drugs � Health care products Jida has selected the Ross ERP application due to its ability to address the critical needs of life science companies including Acambis, BioConvergence, IsoTis, and Mission Pharmacal. It makes and package products through recipe/formula based processes. The company is planning to implement the full Ross ERP application by end of this year. Via: GEN

The leading provider of advanced Contract Lifecycle Management solutions, I-many Inc announced that Health Net has chosen I-many Contract Manager and I-many Compliance Manager for managing the wide array of hospital and physician contracts. The solution will automatically enable Health Netto to the entire contract management lifecycle. The Health Net is providing Medicare, Medicaid and TRICARE programs to approximately 6.3 million individuals in 27 states and the district of Columbia. It is also providing mental health benefits to approximately 7.3 million individuals in all 50 states. The company is also managing the health care products and offering the health care product coordination for administrative services of medical groups and self funded programs. Via: finanzen

Now the online health management system is coming on home. It will become the ‘new house call’. Approximately four-fifth of wired hospitals offers personal health records. According to one survey, 64% wired hospitals provide online help to patients to loose weight, stop smoking. 32% hospitals check test results online and 22% physician make virtually visit. These most wired hospitals like to order medicines electronically and to store and retrieve medical information, including clinical images, electronically. These hospitals spend more time in evaluating their projects before and after implementation. According to one survey, 7% hospitals have less numbers of patients as compare to other hospitals in 2005. In 2005, the results were valid at the 99 percent confidence level, compared to the 90 percent level in 2006. Via: eweek

Microsoft is launching a number of healthcare products. The company is rolling out plans for Windows Live Health care services. At the same time, Google is also offering health related products. Google Co-Op, is working for Goggle health care products. According to Microsoft, the company has appointed Peter Neupert as its health czar in 2005. Previously he was responsible for Microsoft’s OS/2 strategy. Now he has taken charge of health ecosystem to help for health issues. According to Microsoft’s health strategy program, the company is offering ‘Windows Live Healthcare’ to appeal both consumers and business. The company will fund these services with ads. Via: eWeek