FDA Clears New Surgical Marker that Uses RFID to Protect Patients
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared for marketing an external surgical marker tag intended to minimize the likelihood of wrong-site, wrong-procedure, and wrong-patient surgeries. The device is the first such surgical marker to utilize radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to mark an anatomical site for surgery. It is intended to offer additional protection for patients who are undergoing surgery.

The product is the SurgiChip Tag Surgical Marker system, manufactured by SurgiChip Inc., of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. It consists of the tag, which is a "smart" label with an integrated passive transponder, along with a printer, an encoder, and a RFID reader.

Here's how it works:
The patient's name and surgical site are printed on the SurgiChip tag. The inside of the tag is encoded with the date of surgery, type of procedure, and name of surgeon. The tag is scanned with a desktop RFID reader for confirmation by the patient and is then placed in the patient's hospital file.

On the day of surgery, the tag is removed from the file and scanned again, and the encoded information is verified by the patient. The tag, which has an adhesive backing, is then placed on the patient's body near the surgical site.

In the operating room, the tag is again scanned and the encoded information is verified with the patient's chart. The tag is removed just before surgery and returned to the patient's hospital file.

FDA cleared the device for marketing based on a review of safety, effectiveness, and software validation information submitted by the manufacturer.

Source: www.surgichip.com

New Kodak Platform Features Scalable Suite of Healthcare IT Applications
At HIMSS, Kodak's Health Group showed for the first time its scalable suite of Carestream Solutions, which includes:

• Carestream Clinical Solutions: Comprises electronic medical record (EMR), computerized physician order entry (CPOE), enterprise-wide scheduling, care guides, nursing, decision support, and closed loop medication management.
  
  
• Carestream Foundation Solutions: Manages images and information, provides secure communications, and interfaces to departmental and other information management systems.
  
  
• Carestream Pharmacy Solutions: A fully integrated system that links physicians, pharmacists, and nurses, and supports pharmacy management, e-prescribing, dispensing and labeling, inventory management, medication administration, drug manufacturing, purchase order management, and sales and billing.

The open Carestream Architecture interfaces with a healthcare provider's existing systems for efficient collection and sharing of patient information and protection of current investments.

Kodak Carestream Information Management Solutions enable information lifecycle management (ILM) solutions to be delivered as a customer-owned or hosted option through a portfolio that includes Enterprise Information Management, Hosted Information Management, or Regional Information Management solutions. Kodak's portfolio equips IT personnel to efficiently manage the islands of information that exist throughout a healthcare system. Information and images stored anywhere in an organization can be intelligently accessed and managed according to each healthcare provider's customized clinical storage plans that automate ILM. This enterprise archiving foundation also allows information to be shared with hospital users and other authorized parties, such as health insurance companies.

Sending this patient-identifiable information to users requires layers of security to protect the privacy of patient records, as specified by HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) guidelines. Kodak Secure Email Service encrypts email messages and attachments, and provides authorized users with access to secure email messages anywhere in the world. Unlike other secure email systems, users do not have to download software to read secure messages.

In addition to its expertise in secure communications, Kodak's Professional Services organization can help customers apply workflow and change management methodologies to create enhanced speed and efficiency. These services employ proven methods used in Kodak's own commercialization and manufacturing operations. Built on Six Sigma methodologies, this approach is fundamental to helping customers gain maximum effectiveness.

Source: www.kodak.com

Health Information Network of Secure Virtual Patient Records Formed in Israel
Just weeks after the Bush administration challenged the U.S. medical establishment to computerize medical records, Israel's largest HMO, Clalit Health Services, and four of Israel's major medical centers formed a secure health information network serving the majority of the population of Israel.

The network, based on dbMotion's Virtual Patient Record technology, is the first system of its kind in the world. Healthcare providers at 18 hospitals and 1,000 clinics across Israel now have on-demand and real-time access to integrated medical records.

Clalit Health Services provides healthcare services to its 3.7 million members at 14 hospitals and 1,000 clinics at disparate geographical locations throughout Israel. The dbMotion Solution has been implemented at Clalit for the past four years, providing caregivers access to integrated patient records across its network of hospitals and clinics. Clalit has now joined forces with four major independent medical centers to form a true, cross-enterprise, health information network and lead the way toward a national health record in Israel. Its facilities are now connected to the Sheba and Rambam Medical Centers with the two Hadassa University Hospitals in Jerusalem joining the network in the coming months.

The dbMotion Solution creates secured Virtual Patient Records by logically connecting a group of care providers and organizations without centralizing their data. The solution puts integrated patient information at caregivers' fingertips, enabling clinical staff to make better care decisions, shorten care cycles, and improve the quality of care. It enables authorized medical staff to retrieve medical information on demand, subject to the appropriate access authorizations; and its deployment is achieved without the necessity of replacing existing information systems.

The government of Israel is in the advanced stages of initiating a national health record program that will make patients' medical records available to caregivers throughout the country. According to Zeev Vurembrand, CEO of Clalit, "Now that the dbMotion Solution is implemented in more than half of Israel's hospitals, it can constitute the basis for a National Health Record, thus saving millions of dollars in the development of additional systems."

Prof. Moshe Revach, managing director of Rambam Medical Center, added, "One of the greatest advantages of the dbMotion Solution is that clinical data collected during each organization's care cycle remains only within its own data systems. Patients' medical information can only be viewed by caregivers when it is in the best interest of their patients, on-demand and in real-time. It cannot be used for statistical and other purposes and is only delivered to the point of care after we are sure that our patients' medical information is completely protected according to the highest standards of patient privacy."

Last month, dbMotion announced the establishment of its North American subsidiary, dbMotion Inc., registered in Delaware.

Source: dbmotion.com

LMS Unveils a Clinical Information System with Integrated Dynamic Decision Support and Risk Management Tools for Obstetrics
LMS Medical Systems, Inc., based in Montréal, Québec, unveiled its new CALM Version 3.0 product suite at HIMSS in February. LMS is committed to the improvement of care; through its team of mathematicians, software developers, and OB specialists, LMS will continue to bring to market innovative solutions to address complexity and risk in the obstetrical arena.

As a reflection of this commitment, the CALM 3.0 product suite brings to market a new platform enabling:

• Modularity and scalability providing clinical and functional enhancements.
  
  
• Refreshed user interface enhancing ease of use.
  
  
• Data exchange capabilities with hospital-wide applications.

These enhancements enable LMS to combine improved surveillance, archival, and maternal-fetal charting with unique risk management tools enabling personalized labor evaluation, fetal monitoring, and retrospective assessment.

"Obstetrics remains an extremely complex area despite advancements in medical knowledge. Through clinical research, leading-edge technology, and innovation, LMS is committed to the improvement of care and patient safety for mothers and their infants. With this in mind, we are launching our CALM 3.0 platform, the foundation upon which we will be delivering clinical excellence and operational efficiencies to our customers," said Diane Côté, president and CEO of LMS.

Source: www.lmsmedical.com

Please send items for possible inclusion in Trends, to: Susan Carr Editor Patient Safety and Quality Healthcare susancarr@psqh.com Information for this section has been compiled from industry press releases.