A special report on managing information: Data, data everywhere | The Economist
The world contains an unimaginably vast amount of digital information which is getting ever vaster ever more rapidly. This makes it possible to do many things that previously could not be done: spot business trends, prevent diseases, combat crime and so on. Managed well, the data can be used to unlock new sources of economic value, provide fresh insights into science and hold governments to account.
Following is a guest post from IBMer Lonne Jaffe:
At the HIMSS 2010 conference in
Atlanta this week, the topic of improving collaboration in the
healthcare industry will be front and center. At IBM, we believe
software that can enable hospitals, physicians, patients, health
insurance companies and others to share information, work together and
collaborate more effectively is critical to decreasing healthcare costs
and improving the quality of care.
For example, Boston Medical Center and caregivers across the Boston HealthNet are using collaboration software from IBM and IBM Business Partner Carefx in a new eReferral system, enabling primary care physicians to share information with specialists both before the referral and after the specialist visit. Previously, as is the case in many health systems, referrals were tracked by generating paper and faxes, often getting lost in the process. The result? The time to get an appointment with a specialist has declined from 90 days to less than 10 days in many cases.
Another way to improve collaboration is to get a more comprehensive view of the patient. IBM announced today it has finalized the acquisition of Initiate Systems, a software vendor that has played a key role in improving data integrity and collaboration across the healthcare industry. The software can sort through billions of patient records at a time, determining each unique individual from another with a similar name, so doctors can get an accurate and complete view of every patient. More than 1,700 healthcare organizations and some 40 health information exchanges (HIEs) across the world use the technology to uniquely identify patient records at all points of registration and care across various systems and different organizations.
This acquisition also brings to IBM technology for collaboration between physicians and hospitals, facilitating the flow of important information such as referrals and lab results. It is also another example of what we consider smarter healthcare – helping healthcare organizations everywhere capture, share, analyze and act on information in a connected, coordinated and systematic way.
SeeClickFix empowers residents to actively care for
and improve their neighborhoods. 
Welcome to the SeeClickFix Challenge: Feb 8-21 on the Smarter Cities Scan
Smarter Cities asked if this great new service wanted to use our platform to share user suggestions and success stories on its citizen-powered service. So here’s the SCF challenge: over the next two weeks share your SeeClickFix story.
How can communities and towns put SCF to new uses. Got a question? Use the Ask feature and you shall be answered. Got something fixed via SCF? Post a story. Fixed something? Do tell.
Already have a Tumblr site? Tag your post “scfchallenge” and we can reblog your contribution straight into the collaboration.
About SeeClickFix. SCF enables anyone to:
in silico modeling creates images of liver inflammation and cancer that are similar to what might be seen under the microscope.
At the University of Pittsburgh’s McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, researchers are using IBM technology to open up new dimensions in biological modeling. With the help of an IBM Shared University Research (SUR) Award and an IBM supercomputer, Pitt is using leading-edge in silico biological research, which uses computer simulations to explore biological pathways and test therapeutic interventions, tissue engineering, cell therapies and artificial organs and biodevices. The results of such research could significantly reduce the cost of new drug development and shorten the treatment evaluation process – getting treatments to the market faster and cheaper. These modeling techniques are similar to those used to generate the fantasy creatures of other worlds in movies, such as “Lord of the Rings” and the “Star Trek” series. So instead of creating an imaginary character to fill out a battle scene, Pitt scientists are applying computational techniques to simulate, for example, inflamed liver cells morphing into cancer. That allows them to see not only how tumors develop, but how drugs or other interventions could affect disease progression.
For example, the Pitt research team has simulated liver tissue to study how a chronic hepatitis infection can lead to liver cancer, lung tissues to study viral infection and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and skin to study how patients with spinal cord injuries develop pressure ulcers. This type of advanced modeling can help researchers better understand basic biological processes and allows them to screen drugs and determine their impact on the body to uncover the best interventions for a broad range of diseases.
For more info, read an interview with Dr. Yoram Vodovotz in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Photo credit: University of Pittsburgh Center for Inflammation and Regenerative Modeling
AsthmaMD iPhone App Helps Asthma Sufferers, Gathers Aggregate Research Data
Each day 11 people die of asthma in the U.S., and it accounts for one-quarter of all emergency room visits. Since 1980 the asthma death rate overall has increased by 50%. A new iPhone app called AsthmaMD, which was created by am Pejham (a doctor and researcher) and Salim Madjd, aims to help some of those sufferers. The application let’s them keep a diary of attacks, helping them keep records of the severity of attacks, medications used, etc.
New Device Prints Human Tissue
Invetech has delivered what it calls the “world’s first production model 3D bio-printer” to Organovo, developers of the proprietary NovoGen bioprinting technology. Organovo will in turn supply the devices to institutions investigating human tissue repair and organ replacement.
Keith Murphy, CEO of Organovo, based in San Diego, said the units represent a breakthrough because they provide for the first time a flexible technology platform for organizations working on many different types of tissue construction and organ replacement.
“Scientists and engineers can use the 3D bio printers to enable placing cells of almost any type into a desired pattern in 3D,” said Murphy. “Researchers can place liver cells on a preformed scaffold, support kidney cells with a co-printed scaffold, or form adjacent layers of epithelial and stromal soft tissue that grow into a mature tooth. Ultimately the idea would be for surgeons to have tissue on demand for various uses, and the best way to do that is get a number of bio-printers into the hands of researchers and give them the ability to make three dimensional tissues on demand.”
» via Live Science
IBM tips microfluidic device for immunodiagnostics - Small Times
Scientists from IBM Research in Zurich, Switzerland, have created a diagnostic test using a silicon chip to more quickly diagnose diseases. Their collaborative work with the U. Hospital of Base, published in the December issue of Lab on a Chip, uses capillary forces — the process whereby liquid rises in narrow tubes, or drawn into tiny openings — to analyze tiny samples of serum or blood to find disease markers, t
Remarks (as prepared) by Samuel J. Palmisano, IBM Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
Cough into your mobile phone for instant diagnosis
Your mobile phone may soon be able to diagnose respiratory illnesses in seconds when you cough into it.
IBM Opens Advanced Analytics Center in Washington, D.C.
IBM announced the opening of the sixth in a network of analytics solution centers - this one dedicated to helping federal agencies and other public sector organizations extract actionable insights from their data.
The new IBM Analytics Solution Center in Washington, D.C., will draw on the expertise of more than 400 IBM professionals. These will include IBM researchers, experts in advanced software platforms, and consultants with deep industry knowledge in areas such as transportation, social services, public safety, customs and border management, revenue management, defense, logistics, healthcare and education
![IBM Launches Healthcare Research Center — InformationWeek
Dallas facility will focus on how field data from hospitals and clinics
can be mined to produce better patient outcomes.
IBM has opened a research center dedicated to developing tools that
will allow healthcare professionals to more efficiently use data in
medical decision making.
The company’s Health Analytics Solution Center, based in
Dallas, will employ more than 100 experts in healthcare analytics,
technical architectures, and other, related specialties.
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IBM Launches Healthcare Research Center — InformationWeek
Dallas facility will focus on how field data from hospitals and clinics can be mined to produce better patient outcomes.IBM has opened a research center dedicated to developing tools that will allow healthcare professionals to more efficiently use data in medical decision making.
The company’s Health Analytics Solution Center, based in Dallas, will employ more than 100 experts in healthcare analytics, technical architectures, and other, related specialties.
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GOOD Transparency on World Health | VizWorld.com
GOOD magazine has a great new infographic (”Transparency”) online visualizing various statistics about Health in various nations. Every country in the world approaches health care differently, but the end goal is the same: Keep citizens as healthy as possible at the lowest cost … This is a look at 12 countries around the world that examines how far the money they spend on health care goes toward affecting the health of their citizens. It’s a great graphic showing life expancy, various mortality numbers (per 100k population), and cost per capita on healthcare. It’s a great way of understanding why President Obama is looking to Canada and Australia for ideas on US Health Care Reform. However, much data is still missing, particularly on how much money is spent on cutting-edge, experimental, or research treatments.
