Consumer Confidence

American consumer confidence has ticked up to its highest since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008. The Reuters/University of Michigan index rose to 61.9 in April, from 57.3 in March, to be at its highest since 70.3 last September.

The U.S. has 304 million consumers and they have more than one million retail outlets at which to shop (not to mention mail order and web-based businesses). Retail is a $4 trillion a year industry.

NAB 2009 Event

The event "where content comes to life" is in Las Vegas from April 20 to 23, 2009. ExportAction has a list of exhibitors with profiles available on request. Visit our web site and email us.

Federal Government to spend $135 million on technology

Tech Data is holding its annual TechEDG Government and Education Conference at which resellers, vendors, industry experts and Tech Data’s government and education services team will discuss trends and share strategies for capitalizing on an estimated $135 billion in technology spending in the government and education markets for 2009.

Construction sentiment

The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo housing market index of sentiment rose to 14 in April from 9 in March, emerging from single digits for the first time in six months. It was the largest one-month gain since May 2003.

One-to-Watch: Easy Price Pro is estimating software for the building industry. The main pricing system was started in 1990 by a builder who couldn't find an easy way of producing estimates. Now more than 3,000 copies of the software are in use. http://www.easypricepro.com

Still Using Fax?

The Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) Medical Center, which receives 50,000 faxed pages per month and sends another 10,000, recently found that faxing was rapidly becoming both a cost issue and a logistical nightmare. Many industries like healthcare still rely heavily on faxing to transmit sensitive information. Because of requirements for security and privacy in HIPAA, email is considered too vulnerable to interception without having a costly and complex secure messaging system in place, thereby putting patient privacy at risk. Faxes are considered more secure since they cannot be pulled out of cyberspace. MUSC chose MyFax to initially serve the inbound fax needs of 700 users. Today when faxes come in, they are tagged with medical record numbers, if required, critical patient information is pulled in from the medical records system. The faxes are then routed automatically to the right department by software that scans the cover sheets and determines where they should go, regardless of the fax number it was sent to originally. Paper consumption has been reduced by a total of nearly 60,000 sheets per month, which works out to nearly three quarters of a million sheets of paper per year. The organization is also saving the energy needed to power all the old fax machines. (Sujit Kar, IT manager for business development and marketing services at MUSC.)

One-to-Watch: NewField IT is an independent software and services company that helps organisations significantly reduce their print and document storage costs. It achieves this by accurately auditing the current costs, transforming paper related processes to an optimised state, and finally managing the new estate through the use of an innovative toolset. http://www.newfieldit.com

95 Express - $62.9 million

TransCore provides integration and radio frequency identification (RFID) technology for the deployment of high occupancy tolling or HOT lanes on I-95 in Miami-Dade County, Florida’s first variably priced toll facility. The project known as “95 Express” received $62.9 million in funding from the U. S. Department of Transportation as part of the Urban Partnership Agreement to fight grid lock. I-95 between Miami and Fort Lauderdale is one of the most heavily traveled highways in the nation. South of the Golden Glades Interchange, I-95 carries over 290,000 vehicles per day, with traffic volumes expected to exceed 360,000 vehicles per day by year 2030. It was cost prohibitive to widen the corridor, so congestion management strategies were explored to increase capacity on the existing infrastructure. (Bill Kesselring, deputy director for Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise.)

High performance computing

Clemson University Computational Center for Mobility Systems (CU-CCMS) has selected Voltaire Grid Director InfiniBand switches and 10 Gigabit Ethernet gateways for a high performance computing system based on products from Sun Microsystems. CU-CCMS is a new world-class computational center dedicated to the automotive and transportation industries located at the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR). Computational simulations that previously required many weeks of processor time should be completed within hours, saving time and costs. In one study with an automotive supplier, CU-CCMS researchers reduced turnaround time for new product simulation by over 80 percent. In another case, prototype development that would have required 12 weeks was replaced with a simulation that requires less than 3 weeks — a 75 percent reduction in the time required from concept to results. (James H. Leylek, Ph.D, CU-CCMS executive director.)

One-to-Watch: Replify virtualized products accelerate applications over wide area and mobile connections without the need for costly hardware. http://www.replify.com

Speech Intelligence

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has entered into an agreement to install Nexidia’s Enterprise Speech Intelligence (ESI) software. The CFTC will use Nexidia ESI for reviewing audio content produced in its investigations of trading activities. The CFTC’s mission is to protect market users and the public from fraud, manipulation, and abusive trading practices related to the sale of commodity and financial futures and options, and to foster open, competitive, and financially sound futures and option markets. In fulfilling its mission, the CFTC routinely requests and receives large volumes of audio recordings. Transcription of hundreds or thousands of hours of content requires weeks or months of processing, while human listening is labor-intensive and inaccurate. The ability to process and review audio recordings quickly and efficiently was at the heart of the agency’s decision to install ESI.

DoD Finance and Accounting - $92 million

The General Services Administration (GSA) has awarded the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) Desktop Management Initiative (DMI) II task order to Unisys. DMI II is a cost plus award fee task order that provides a full suite of managed desktop and help desk services for more than 14,000 DFAS desktop and laptop computers. The task order is valued at an estimated $92 million if all options are exercised. Established in 1991, DFAS is the accounting arm of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and the largest accounting and finance agency in the world – processing nearly $2 billion in payments daily. DFAS processes salaries and pensions for 5.3 million active and retired military members and their dependents; disburses payments to DoD contractors; and processes all expenses related to DoD business travel.

Risk mitigation and compliance at Wachovia

Wachovia Dealer Services, a Wells Fargo Company, has joined the AppOne platform. AppOne provides risk mitigation, compliance and automotive-related finance technology to lenders and independent auto dealers throughout the continental United States. Wachovia Dealer Services, the fifth-largest auto finance company in the nation, will purchase automotive retail installment contracts from AppOne’s growing network of independent auto dealers nationwide.

One-to-Watch: Naultilus' unique holography revolutionizes overt and covert solutions for brand and print security. http://www.nautilussecurity.com

Check imaging and item processing

Fulton Financial Corporation, a $16.2 billion regional financial holding company, has selected Metavante Corporation’s Direct Branch and VisionIP as its new enterprise-wide check imaging and item processing solution. (Charlotte Anderson, senior vice president, Fulton Financial.)

Authentication at Devon Bank

Devon Bank has implemented US Biometrics’ multi-factor authentication products in its new Wheeling branch. Devon Bank’s Wheeling branch is a leading example of green design. The project expects to achieve a Gold LEED certification, and is the first bank branch in the state of Illinois to be LEED registered. Devon Bank has deployed the logical and physical control system, including hardware, software and services, with the goal of increasing security and adding convenience to everyday tasks for its employees. Not only is it making employee access to entryways, networks and software easier and faster, but it has also increased customer identity security and securely addressed risk assessment procedures required by regulators. (Dan Loundy, Vice President, Devon Bank.)

ExportAction estimates there are more than 7,000 commercial banks and 2,000 savings banks in the U.S. - not including credit unions.

Customer care

Convergys has won a contract to provide end-to-end customer care for the credit card customers of “a global Fortune Top 10 financial services company” with over 200 million customer accounts. The three-year contract is valued at over $195 million.

Surveillance and data capture at Delta Community Credit Union

Delta Community Credit Union has implemented the Nextiva NetDVR II and MicroDVR II solutions from Verint Video Intelligence Solutions. The deployments – which deliver surveillance and data capture capabilities to Delta Community Credit Union’s entire branch of ATM and teller operations – build upon the organization’s use of the Verint Nextiva portfolio and are part of its core focus on providing members with safe and secure banking. (Gail Ruppersburg, physical security specialist of properties and facilities, Delta Community Credit Union.)

One-toWatch: Lanxoma, security software developed by Unity Solutions, restricts access to the root level of computer operating systems, grants limited time access permission to authorized users and records all activity while the authorized user is logged-on - so being a deterrent to the "insider threat." http://lanxoma.com

IRS electronic payment solutions

Official Payments Corporation, has been awarded a multi-year contract by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to provide electronic payment solutions for personal and business taxes. Since 1999, when Official Payments began processing federal tax payments for the IRS, the company has processed over $9.0 billion in federal taxes. Official Payments was selected by the IRS to pilot federal electronic tax payments and is the only company that has provided these services continuously since 1999. Payments may be made securely with an American Express, Discover Network, MasterCard card or Visa card.

Credit and debit card processing

Elavon has signed with Tappan Street Restaurant Group’s Taco Mac. The agreement provides credit and debit card processing for all 24 Taco Mac locations throughout metro-Atlanta and Chattanooga. “We’ve been around since 1979,” said Bob Campbell, president of Tappan Street Restaurant Group, Taco Mac’s parent company. “When we first opened our doors, credit card acceptance was a novelty.”

County financial management

San Patricio County, Texas has signed with Tyler Technologies for its financial management solution. The contract includes software licenses, corresponding professional services, maintenance and support. (David Wendel, San Patricio County auditor.)

Energy saving $175,000

The County of Santa Clara has completed a major retrofit of County buildings to save energy using Cypress Envirosystems’ Wireless Pneumatic Thermostat (WPT) system. Most commercial buildings ten years or older have pneumatic thermostats that require manual adjustment. The County operates eleven million square feet of existing facilities, with an annual energy cost of $15 million. “The wireless thermostat installation took only eight days and was one of the easiest, fastest and most cost effective energy efficiency improvements we have ever made in our buildings,” said Jeff Draper, Manager of Building Operations. “We installed 350 wireless thermostats for a total project cost of $175,000.” (Supervisor Liz Kniss, President of the County of Santa Clara Board of Supervisors.)

One-to-Watch: Vesternet, the number one source for anything ZigBee. http://www.zigbee.eu

County wireless links

The County of Buncombe, N.C., has deployed four BridgeWave AR80 point-to-point wireless links, providing backup to the existing county fiber-based network. The BridgeWave links offer full-rate gigabit Ethernet backhaul capacity with the strongest data encryption commercially available. Buncombe County’s IT department supports 1,800 employees working in 20 locations scattered across 660 square miles. Major public safety facilities, including the police station, fire department and emergency medical dispatch, are connected via fiber-optic links. The county sought a reliable wireless solution to back up existing fiber lines, with ample bandwidth to support the county’s VOIP 911 call center. (Bryan Dillingham, network communications manager for Buncombe County.)

One-to-Watch: Brainboxes is a world leader in design, manufacture and support of serial solutions with products selected time after time for commercial, industrial and mission critical applications. http://www.brainboxes.com

Health and safety - $18 million

AECOM Technology, a provider of professional technical and management support services,has won a three-year, $18-million contract to provide environmental, health and safety management services for the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYCDEP). AECOM will perform the work as part of a joint venture with American Safety Consultants/Allied North America. The project is a continuation of the joint venture’s EH&S oversight services for all NYCDEP projects throughout New York City and parts of upstate New York until 2012. The contract is part of NYCDEP’s $16-billion capital construction program.

Distance-learning program

CNM has upgraded its multi-campus network and distance-learning program with data networking technology designed by Qwest. The solution gives CNM the reach and bandwidth to successfully integrate technology into distance-learning programs and reach remote students. CNM has one of the largest distance-learning programmes in the US. (Joe Gieri, executive director, Information Technology Services, CNM.)

One-to-Watch: CanDo is a leading solutions provider for interactive 3D content. The company's easy to use, real-time interactive 3D system allows for unprecedented levels of visualization of new physical products and locations. http://www.candointeractive.com

Network traffic, content and applications

Plattsburgh City Schools of New York has chosen DeepNines’ iTrust solution to control and manage its network traffic, content and applications. Plattsburgh City Schools was looking for a solution that would provide them with granular control of the content and applications on their network. When evaluating solutions, their requirements included relevant URL filtering categories, detailed network information/statistics and visibility into network traffic. (Kevin Ryan, senior network and systems technician of the Northeast Regional Information Center.)

EMR training

Lehigh Valley Health Network, a major health system in eastern Pennsylvania, has signed with Greencastle to develop a customized training process to enhance its current process as it implements electronic medical record (EMR) systems at its ambulatory practices. (Lori Yackanicz, director of clinical applications and EMR at Lehigh Valley.)

Consent forms in LA

Dialog Medical has won a contract for its iMedConsent application with the County of Los Angeles. Through this agreement, the iMedConsent application will be installed at the newly-opened 600-bed LAC+USC Medical Center, an academic medical center serving the central region of Los Angeles County. iMedConsent includes procedure-specific consent forms for more than 2,100 medical and surgical procedures. (J. Peter Gruen, MD, Associate Professor, Department of Neurological Surgery, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California.)

Picture archiving and communications

IASIS Healthcare LLC, a 16-hospital system, plans to help improve patient care and physician satisfaction with the deployment of a new picture archiving and communications system (PACS) from McKesson. IASIS serves approximately 2,700 beds across six regions throughout the United States. (Sandra McRee, president and chief operating officer at IASIS.)

Revenue recovery

Chamberlin Edmonds has been selected by Culpeper Regional Hospital, a 70-bed not-for profit hospital, to help obtain reimbursement for self-pay, indigent and disability cases. Serving as patient advocates, Chamberlin Edmonds eligibility specialists will work side-by-side with Culpeper staff on a daily basis to recover revenue, and provide professional expertise on federal disability and other government programs. (Sam Morgan, CFO of Culpeper Regional Hospital.)

Project and Portfolio Management

GE Healthcare PET Radiopharmacy, a provider of transformational medical technologies and professional consulting services, has chosen AtTask’s project and portfolio management (PPM) solution, to enable visibility and collaboration among project teams working on GE installations in several different countries across the globe. (Marcia Taylor, PET Radiopharmacy Program Leader, Edison Engineering Development Program.)

Trading infrastructure platform

Oddo & Cie has deployed the MarketPrizm trading infrastructure platform, an ASP-based algorithmic trading infrastructure that assists brokerage firms. The configuration delivered to Oddo & Cie’s provides inbound market data for the firm’s selected markets while Quod Financial delivers direct market access and Smart Order Routing (SOR) functionality. (Tarak Achiche, Chief Operating Officer for Oddo & Cie.)

ExportAction is proud to offer its clients a "Wall Street" office address.

Imaging solutions at Brannen Bank

Florida-based Brannen Bank has implemented its suite of imaging solutions to achieve a complete, end-to-end imaging system, capitalizing on the benefits provided by VSoft’s Check 21. With VSoft’s solutions, Brannen Bank moves from a paper-based system to a completely electronic process. Brannen Bank produces electronic cash letters for exchange directly with the Federal Reserve Bank eliminating the need to encode and courier outbound checks. The bank also accepts returned items as images, removing the time-consuming process of handling day two processing. (Alfred Romagnolo, executive vice president of Brannen Banks Services, the processing arm for Brannen Bank.)

Complete banking solution

Simsbury Bank has decided to upgrade its technology to Open Solutions’ latest core release, The Complete Banking Solution: DNA. (Howard Zern, Chief Retail Banking, Operations and Technology Officer for Simsbury Bank.)

Correspondence and insurance policy production

The Thunderhead platform has been selected by the property and casualty insurance companies of Unitrin, Inc. to power customer correspondence and insurance policy production. The property and casualty insurance group of Unitrin, Inc. is made up of Kemper and Unitrin Specialty, which sell personal lines and commercial auto insurance through a network of independent agents, and Unitrin Direct, which sells personal auto and homeowners insurance directly to consumers. The group represents 72% of Unitrin’s $2.4 billion of annual insurance premiums. (Brice Garcia, Director of Policy Systems for Unitrin Services Group.)

One-to-Watch: Software and services from RiverDocs converts PDF and Word documents designed for print into structured, accessible HTML quickly and simply to offer significant cost and time savings in document conversion. http://riverdocs.com

Network access control

The Doctors Company, America’s leading physician-owned medical malpractice insurer, has deployed the CounterACT family of appliances for network access control and threat prevention in its eHealth network. Implemented across company sites, CounterACT protects The Doctors Company’s mobile workforce against malware, viruses and the danger of data theft. (Johnny Lane, Network/Security Engineer at The Doctors Company.)

Claims management

Acclamation Insurance Management Services (AIMS) a regional Third Party Administrator (TPA) that provides TPA services for Workers’ Compensation, General Liability, Auto and Property lines has selected DAVID Corporation’s NavRisk as their claims management and collaborative portal software solutions. (Dominic Russo, President of AIMS.)

Boeing emplyee training

The Boeing Company has selected Boost eLearning Google Search Training to save Boeing employees time and improve search results when using Google to search the Internet or the Boeing intranet.

One-to-Watch: CADSmart software enables users to easily and automatically asses the skills of existing and prospective members of a Computer Aided Design (CAD) team: ensuring the right people are hired and training is given where it is needed. http://www.cadsmart.net

Daily’s Convenience Stores

Daily’s Convenience Stores, a subsidiary of Tri Star, has selected KSS PriceNet and PriceNet Web to provide day-to-day fuel price management and optimization at 104 sites. The company purchased PriceNet in order to respond quickly to changing oil prices and help its sites maintain profitability despite energy market fluctuations. (Steve Hostetter, Tri Star CEO.)

True cost to own a Honda

To provide consumers the necessary information to make the smartest decision when purchasing a vehicle, Honda is teaming up with Edmunds.com to deliver “True Cost to Own a Honda” data to consumers. The multi-platform campaign strategy encourages consumers to compare Honda models to the most cross-shopped competition while calculating the long-term costs of vehicle ownership versus the price tag of a vehicle. The campaign features TV, online and radio. (Christan Miller, manager, Honda Regional Marketing, American Honda Motor Co., Inc.)

One-to-Watch: Rodgers & Prause, an independent, boutique design agency home to a collective of specialist creative and technical talent; masterminding, prototyping and delivering cutting edge digital campaigns and interactive experiences for brands and advertising agencies around the world. http://www.rehabstudio.com

One-to-Watch: Comworks is a leading provider of technology training media. The company enables business to migrate training processes to web or PC based technologies, delivering improved effectiveness, increased training flexibility and cost savings. http://www.comworks.co.uk

Call Center - 200 licenses

Blue Vase Marketing and affiliates have signed agreements for up to 200 hosted concurrent client licenses of Concenex’s Montage, the company’s unified customer interaction and communications solution for use in the new Blue Vase facility near Boston, MA. (Blue Vase CIO, Chris Meusel.)

Service desk operations at Sony

Famous for the computer wizardry behind many Hollywood films, Sony Pictures Entertainment also has escalating demands for business support, Sony Pictures’ IT organization has selected BMC Software to consolidate service desk operations across the company. (Michelle Veo, executive director of enterprise systems at Sony Pictures.)

One-to-Watch: The Six Week Golf Lesson is an innovative online tutorial presenting a sequence of six lessons coaching and explaining the elements required for you to accomplish your golf swing. "I would wholeheartedly recommend the 6 Week Golf Lesson to anyone wishing to take up golf, or improve their swing. This is a revolutionary teaching product which is easy to understand, but will teach pupils everything they need to know to form a good golf swing." - Michael Bannon, head golf professional at Bangor Golf Club, and the coach of Rory McIlroy, Northern Ireland's golfing sensation. http://www.6weekgolflesson.co.uk

Courts and Justice - $2.8 million

An agreement valued at $2.8 million to migrate all Forsyth County, Georgia, courts to Tyler’s integrated Courts & Justice software solution has been signed. The contract includes software licenses, professional services, maintenance and support. The County’s Superior, State, Magistrate, Juvenile and Probate courts will implement Tyler’s Case Manager, Financial Manager, Prosecutor, Supervision and Jury applications to enhance court administration. The Forsyth County Clerk of Courts, District Attorney, Solicitor, Indigent Defense, Pre-Trial and Court Administration will all upgrade to Tyler’s solution. (Forsyth County Chief Financial Officer, Bill Thomas.)

Network access control

Albany County, New York has standardized on the CounterACT family of network access control (NAC) appliances in its local government network for realtime visibility and control over all network devices. (Perry Blanchard, network security engineer at Albany County.)

One-to-Watch: At home, the Spysure PC product helps protect children from paedophiles and blocks adult content. In the office it monitors and views employees' activities and tells you what is happening online. http://www.spysure.com

Law enforcement

American Traffic Solutions, Inc. (ATS) became the red-light camera program vendor for Woodbridge Township, New Jersey following its approval by the New Jersey Department of Transportation to participate in the state’s five-year red-light running automated enforcement pilot program. (Woodbridge Township Mayor John E. McCormac.)

Department of Veterans Affairs

Aquilent has been selected to support the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) with the development of a Microsoft SharePoint-based web portal for VA’s contracting community. The portal, the Acquisition Resource Center (ARC), is based on the Epic suite of products and builds on Aquilent’s 5 years of support of VA’s Electronic Contact Management System (eCMS). As the largest civilian agency, and with one of the largest acquisition budgets in the Federal government, the VA has an extraordinary task in the contracting and procurement arena.

General Services Administration (GSA) - $50 billion

EDS has been selected by the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) to provide information technology (IT) solutions for all federal government agencies under the GSA Alliant contract. The Alliant government-wide acquisition contract has a five-year base period followed by a five-year option period and serves as a centralized source to buy integrated IT products and services. EDS is one of 59 companies that may compete for task orders under the $50 billion Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity contract.

FCS ACE - $4.35 million

Alion Science and Technology has been awarded a task order valued at $4.35 million to support the U.S. Army Future Combat Systems (FCS) Advanced Collaborative Environment (ACE). FCS is being developed to give the Army a technological edge and make it more effective in today’s demanding environments. The FCS ACE is a secure Web environment in which government and industry participants can collaborate and access product, technical and program management information. Alion will enable the development, operation and maintenance of the FCS ACE. This work includes enterprise architecture analysis and development, business process management and requirements definition.

All Services Exchange Catalog and Online Store

PFSweb, Inc., an international business process outsourcing provider of end-to-end web commerce solutions has secured an agreement with Army & Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) to provide a comprehensive global fulfillment solution that supports the All Services Exchange Catalog and Online Store. AAFES is a multi-channel retailer, offering products to authorized Exchange customers via retail stores, catalog and online. AAFES authorized customers include active duty and retired military personnel and their dependents. Over 18 million items are available through the Exchange Online Store and Exchange Online mall at aafes.com. The contract has been estimated by AAFES to generate approximately $15.3 million in service fees to PFSweb, based on expected activities over the life of the contract.

One-to-Watch: Backbone's legal status in China, combined with Chinese and English speaking staff, is developing the company into an increasingly important gateway both into and out of the burgeoning Chinese economy for corporate clients. http://www.backboneitgroup.com

Security in Mexico

Electronic Sensor Technology, a provider of innovative homeland security, environmental and healthcare solutions, has received an order for 35 units of zNose Model 4500 to be delivered to Mexico through EST’s distributor, Global Security Solutions/Camouflage, for their use in homeland security applications.

$450 million venture fund

Psilos Group, a venture- capital firm focused on healthcare technology and services, plans to raise a $450 million fund, its largest ever. The fund would be the fourth for Psilos, which has raised $557 million since 1999 and invested in about 40 companies. Its investments include ActiveHealth Management, which Aetna Inc. bought for $400 million in 2005, and Definity Health Inc., sold to UnitedHealth Group Inc. for $300 million in 2004. Last year, at least 18 firms raised funds of $500 million or more. About 17 percent of doctors have adopted electronic medical records, and four percent have fully-functional electronic systems that help doctors make decisions about patient care, according to study by Harvard University’s academics last year. The stimulus bill passed in February allocated almost $20 billion to help doctors adopt technology.

HITECH Act - $19 billion

Congress incorporated the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act into the President’s economic stimulus bill. The new law provides $19 billion to standardize and secure the creation, access, and sharing of electronic health information, a vital component of health care reform. The law also includes financial incentives for health care providers to use electronic health records (EHR). The new law provides stricter enforcement of security requirements than the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). This will also help boost public confidence in how health records are used, disclosed, and protected.

Healthcare survey results

Results from Healthland’s recent customer survey focused on the economy and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. Respondents of the Healthland survey reported several financial implications related to the United State’s economic downturn including:

82 percent facing greater uncollectable balances for private pay patients
77 percent deferring capital expenditures
74 percent stating an increase in allocation for bad debts
59 percent experiencing decreased clinic volumes
39 percent dealing with staff reductions
35 percent challenged with increased hiring freezes
30 percent seeing decreased emergency room volumes

Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, $19.2 billion has been allocated to fund health information technology projects – $17.2 billion in Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments for “meaningful use” of electronic health records (EHR) systems starting in 2011, with the remaining $2 billion used to help organizations get a “jump start” on healthcare IT adoption. However, the ARRA remains confusing and ambiguous to many small community and rural hospitals. In fact, the Healthland survey reports:

44 percent of participants still need to figure out how to get IT funding under the ARRA
37 percent believe funding is coming, but they will never see it
28 percent say they have no idea how to qualify for ARRA funding

According to a recent survey published in the New England Journal of Medicine, only nine percent of U.S. hospitals have electronic health records. Healthland’s data and experience in the market reveal that the number is even lower for small hospitals, estimated to be closer to three to five percent.

Department of Health and Human Services contract

The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has renewed an enterprisewide contract with SAS, the leader in business analytics, to help protect the health of all Americans and provide important human services. The agreement, covers business and analytics software, services and training. HHS uses SAS software in mission-critical solutions by several agencies, including Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health, Food and Drug Administration, and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. SAS is used in numerous applications for disease surveillance, food and drug safety, Medicare fraud and abuse, and other enterprise performance management initiatives throughout HHS.

Network of networks

Open source software from Sun Microsystems is enabling the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to build a secure, open technology platform to connect federal government agencies and health information exchanges in a “network of networks”--the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN)--built over the Internet. The goal of NHIN is to support the secure exchange of interoperable health information within the federal government and with the tribal, state, local and private sectors to enable increased efficiency, better patient care and improved population health.

One-to-Watch: dooloop, a provider of Bonded DSL solutions to improve network performance and reduce operating costs. http://www.dooloop.com

Device connectivity

nSpire Health, a medical device manufacturer, has chosen MergeCOM-3 HL7 technology to enable connectivity for nSpire’s line of respiratory diagnostic devices. Merge will provide development services and its new software development toolkit specifically to deliver health standards-based interoperability for the new nSpire HDpft product line. (Michael Sims, CEO of nSpire Health.)

One-to-Watch: CMSense from Cain Medical provides a simple solution to acquiring data from bedside medical devices such as patient monitors, ventilators and infusion pumps. Clinical applications can be given the ability to be compatible with a wide range of devices, rapidly and with the confidence to support any hospital applications. http://www.cainmedical.com

RFID asset tracking

AeroScout, Inc. has implemented its Asset Management solution at the internationally renowned Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC). The Wi-Fi RFID asset tracking and management solution increases the utilization of critical medical equipment, facilitates cleaning, maintenance and repair processes, and helps ensure prompt equipment availability for patient care. The medical center had hundreds of new “smart” infusion pumps on order and wanted to track them in real-time for improved inventory control and equipment utilization. Typically, to locate pumps, staff would have to physically roam the facility to find available items, which could take hours. The initial phase of the project, completed in January 2009, tracks approximately 500 of the new infusion pumps across multiple departments. (Ken Lee, RN, manager, Biomedical Engineering at DHMC.)

One-to-Watch: Founded in 1995, CoreRFID is experienced in the technologies that support, track, trace, audit and control applications. http://www.corerfid.com

Authentication software

Giesecke & Devrient (G&D), working with EXTENSION, Inc. and TrustBearer Labs, has developed a smart card-based solution that lets health care providers manage the security requirements outlined in the President’s economic stimulus bill. EXTENSION, Inc. has integrated the G&D Patient Health card and TrustBearer Access authentication software to create EXTENSION Health Connect. This solution is being deployed at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. (Paul Contino, Vice President of Information Technology at Mount Sinai Medical Center.)

Asset Management and Temperature Monitoring

Yale-New Haven Hospital has selected an Asset Management and Temperature Monitoring solutions to improve staff efficiency and patient care. Yale-New Haven will use the AeroScout solutions to more efficiently manage and track approximately 1,000 medical assets such as infusion pumps, and to monitor the temperatures of refrigerated items. The solution leverages Yale-New Haven’s existing Cisco Unified Wireless Network, enabling campus-wide asset tracking and condition monitoring at a low total cost of ownership. Relying on the skills of approximately 2,200 university-based and community physicians, the healthcare organization provides services for more than 503,000 outpatient and emergency visits and 50,000 discharges each year. (Carlos G. Lourenco, director of materials management at Yale-New Haven Hospital.)

One-to-Watch: Kelsius automates temperature monitoring of refrigerators and cold rooms, simplifying task management and providing cost effective compliancy reporting for users in the healthcare industries. http://www.kelsius.com

Gigabit wireless links

Holy Name Hospital is to deploy multiple gigabit wireless links to extend connectivity to campus buildings for flawless data transmission. Holy Name Hospital selected BridgeWave’s AR80 radios for uninterrupted gigabit connectivity, even during inclement weather. Holy Name Hospital needed to bring two essential buildings onto the Hospital’s LAN, and had previously deployed different low frequency unlicensed wireless technologies. The 2.4 GHz links and subsequently, 5.8 GHz links, provided connectivity, however over time, the reliability of the links deteriorated due to other unlicensed applications being utilized. The IT team was constantly forced to attend to their 2.4 GHz radios and subsequently 5.8 GHz radios, as both frequencies failed to offer the reliability needed for critical hospital network services. This unreliability resulted in sapped employee productivity and an elevated number of calls to the IT desk. A leased OC-3 line was offered, but the ongoing $5,000 monthly cost made it too expensive, while a standard T-1 line would not provide sufficient bandwidth. (Frank Marano, systems infrastructure director, department of information technology at Holy Name Hospital.)

Healthcare: clinical portal

El Centro Regional Medical Center (ECRMC) has launched MEDSEEK’s eConnect™ clinical portal to expand clinical productivity, efficacy and delivery of quality patient care. Additionally, the MEDSEEK portal platform provides the health system with the foundation for a future regional health information organization (RHIO) to further extend secure clinical data exchange. The eConnect clinical portal enables the 165-bed general acute care facility to provide secure access to a single view of patient data, including history and physicals, images, laboratory results, medication lists, transcription and radiology reports—from anywhere and at anytime—to approximately 160 physicians. (John Gaede, ECRMC’s director of information systems.)

Computer assisted coding

Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, part of the Saint Barnabas Health Care System, has gone live with AIM’s EMscribeT computer assisted coding (CAC) solution to increase the efficiency of its outpatient records and automate data abstraction for streamlined billing and coding. EMscribe is a CAC technology that scans the entire patient record for appropriate ICD9-CM diagnostic and procedure codes and CPT codes using innovative language processing technology. (Tom Gregorio, vice president and CIO at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center.)

Practice management and billing

Hudson Headwaters Health Network, a not-for-profit, community-based network of health centers and health programs serving the Lake George/Adirondack and Glens Falls Region of New York has successfully implemented athenahealth’s centrally-hosted practice management and billing service, athenaCollector. Hudson Headwaters facilities are located in 12 communities and employ over 130 medical providers. (John Rugge, M.D., CEO of Hudson Headwaters.)

HealthNet

HealthNet, the largest Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) in Indiana, has chosen eClinicalWorks unified electronic medical records (EMR) and practice management (PM) solution for its more than 110 providers and resident physicians in eight locations. HealthNet will also use eClinicalWorks Enterprise Business Optimizer (eBO) for enhanced reporting capabilities and eClinicalMessenger, a messaging service that utilizes Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP). (Dr. Donald Trainor, Chief Medical Officer of HealthNet.)

Metro Health saves 1,000 hours a day

Metropolitan Health Corporation (Metro Health) is saving more than 1,000 hours of employee time per day from the implementation of the InterSystems Ensemble rapid integration and development platform. The hospital is also achieving a ten percent increase in recoverable surgery charges, increasing recoverable glucose charges by 30 percent and saving $15,000 annually in paper and printing costs from the Ensemble implementation. (Gary VanderHeiden, Metro Health IT Manager.)

Laboratory information systems.

University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) has signed a strategic agreement enabling UPMC to expand utilization and deployment of the Sunquest laboratory information solutions (LIS). As part of the agreement, UPMC will extend the Sunquest system, already in 15 of its 20 hospitals, to additional sites. (Jim Venturella, chief information officer of UPMC’s Hospital and Community Services Division.)

Product Traceability

Sun World, a vertically-integrated agribusiness company, has selected the HarvestMark solution from YottaMark for its traceability platform. Sun World will begin to deploy on-demand traceability using the HarvestMark solution for both the case and consumer unit-levels across much of its product line, including table grapes, tree fruit, seedless watermelons, citrus and colored peppers. The program will comply with the Produce Traceability Initiative (PTI) to deliver trace back and rich product information on-demand at harvestmark.com, bringing new food safety and quality tools to buyers, and connecting the consumer with the farmer and the harvest. (Sun World President and Chief Executive Officer Al Vangelos.)

One-to-Watch: Founded in 1995, CoreRFID is experienced in the technologies that support, track, trace, audit and control applications. http://www.corerfid.com.

20th Century Fox media assets

20th Century Fox is to use Interra Systems’ automated content verification product BatonTM product in its workflow. BatonTM was selected for automating the file based content verification process for incoming and outgoing material in its encoding center in Los Angeles, CA. Content quality verification is an important part of the workflow and the results are reported through the BatonTM API to the media asset management framework.

One-to-Watch: Awakin is a fast growing provider of tourism, heritage and educational mobile digital content. The company offers audio-visual trails and downloadable podcasts, playable through multimedia devices or delivered via a hand-held device. http://www.awakin.com

RCIED - $3m

Emrise has received an additional order in excess of $3 million for radio frequency (RF) devices used in radio-controlled improvised explosive device (RCIED) jamming systems for the U.S. military. RCIED jamming systems are designed to prevent the detonation of improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Often called roadside bombs, IEDs wound or kill thousands of people in military conflicts and terrorist attacks around the world.

Night Vision Goggles - $121m

ITT Corporation has received a $121 million order from the U.S. Army Research, Development & Engineering Command Acquisition Center for the AN/PVS-14, ITT’s most popular night vision goggle.

Satellite-based systems - $6m

Globecomm Services has been awarded a contract by a global services contractor in support of the missions of various U.S. Government Agencies valued at up to $6 million. Globecomm will provide satellite based Internet and voice services to support various locations. The contract term covers 2009 and is valued at approximately $2 million, with two customer option years valued at approximately $4 million.

Radar - $99.3 million

Telephonics Corporation’s Radar Systems Division has received a $99.3 million order from Lockheed Martin for the purchase of AN/APS-147 Multi Mode Radar System and subsystem spares. The radar includes a fully integrated Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) interrogator system. The integrated system is deployed on U.S. Navy MH-60R multi-mission helicopters whose principal mission is to protect the fleet from submarines and surface vessels.

A Fishy Story

The Portland Fish Exchange has put into operation America’s first online, all-display, fresh seafood auction system based on Progress technology. Using Progress, DC Systems, is helping reel in about 90 percent of the ten to fifteen million pounds of fish (i.e., Cod, Pollock, and Flounder) harvested in Maine annually by automating the Portland Fish Exchange’s inventory management by using bar-code scanning. Portland Fish Exchange, owned by the city of Portland in Maine, has deployed DC Systems' seafood inventory system, SeaTrak, which automates inventory management by bar-coding every fish container and provides real-time views into their daily auction. An additional application, the DC Systems Auctioneer, links to SeaTrak and provides the capability to execute Internet-based auctions. (Bert Jongerden, General Manager of the Portland Fish Exchange.)