Microsoft has been in the news quite a bit lately, some of it good and some of it bad. The software giant has done everything from creating an incredible computing environment to building one of the most successful online gaming environments in history. And like most mega-companies they’ve collected their fair share of lovers and haters. With that said, it’s beginning to look like the haters are starting to out number the lovers.
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Author: Jerry Fahrni
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Microsoft: the good and the bad
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CPOE – Giving it some thought
Computerized Provider – or Physician if you like – Order Entry (CPOE) is an older technology that has been in the spotlight for the better part of the past year thanks to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and key components of meaningful use. Because of the “stimulus†offered by ARRA many hospitals across the United States will be gearing up to implement CPOE, ready or not. Currently less than 20% of the hospitals in the United States are using CPOE, and only a small fraction of those are using it for all orders throughout their facility (AJHP. 2008; 65:2244-64).
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Combination RFID – Bar code reader from Motorola
Looks like Motorola is upping the ante a bit in the portable scanner game. They recently introduced a combination bar code scanner and RFID reader for use at the point of care. It’s not pretty, and the name could use a little marketing help, but it offers some interesting functionality. A combination scanning devices like this could be just what the healthcare industry needs as we continue to move forward with BPOC / BCMA and start investigating the expanded role of RFID tags in patient safety.
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“What’d I miss?” – Week of May 17, 2010
As usual there were a lot of things that happened during the week, and not all of it was pharmacy or technology related. Here’s a quick look at some of the stuff I found interesting.
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Cool Technology for Pharmacy – QR Codes
Last night I was reading through some tweets and ran across this one from @ahier. Of course this led me to the referenced article on Microsoft Tags. It was a very interesting article, but for reasons I can’t explain I started thinking about a conversation I had with some people at the unSUMMIT regarding the use of QR Codes. And like all people with a short attention span I fired up Google and started searching for information on QR Codes. Fascinating stuff.
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What’s the value of a healthcare conference?
First things first, a little back ground is in order. Most people probably don’t realize that hospital pharmacists aren’t allowed out much. This is especially true when it comes to sending pharmacists to conferences. It’s expensive and often creates a hole in the work schedule. In my experience the general rule of thumb is that hospitals will pay for a pharmacist to attend one out of state conference every other year. The nearly universal exception has been when a pharmacist is presenting a poster or giving a formal presentation, and then most facilities are willing to spring for the pharmacist to attend.
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Motion Computing updates their tablet PC lineup
I received an email from Motion Computing today informing me that the company has updated their C5 and F5 line of tablet PCs; now know as the Motion C5v MCA and F5v Mobile Field Tool.Upgrades include availability of the Intel Core i7 or Core i5 vPro Processors along with new levels of power and security. The big ticket items that caught my attention were the reported 50% performance improvement, hot-swappable batteries with 30% longer life, availability of a solid-state hard drive and the use of Gorilla glass as the standard display. C’mon, anything with “Gorilla†attached to it has to be cool.
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Tougher mobile technology – laptops and tablet PCs
I’m a relatively inexperienced traveler. I’ve only flown approximately tens times in my entire life, and most of those have been in the past 18 months. It’s been great, however I always find it difficult to decide what mobile devices to carry with me. I always carry my DROID and iPhone, but can never seem to pick between laptop, tablet PC or both. Yes I’ve thought about the iPad, but I really need a physical keyboard and more robust applications for what I do. My needs may change in the future, but for now that’s my take on the issue.
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More thoughts on standardization
I’ve mentioned this before several times on this blog, but feel like I have to say it yet again; we need to start standardizing certain things about health information technology. The lack of standardization reared its ugly head at me again last week when our Pyxis med stations kept dropping medications off of patient’s active profiles. It appeared to always be the same drug, IV ketorolac. It took me a while to figure out the problem, but it turns out that Pyxis and our pharmacy system don’t agree on certain basic elements of time. Go figure.
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