Agfa Inc. will install, service and network a fully-integrated PACS (picture archiving and communication system) in 33 healthcare facilities across Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick, creating the largest PACS project in Canada.

Agfa also introduced IMPAX® for Orthopedics, its Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) solution designed for orthopedic surgeons. The system enables orthopedic surgeons, working from the convenience of a dedicated workstation in their office or hospital department, to prepare for surgery and measure radiographic outcomes with unmatched power and flexibility.

News from the CHIPP wagon [Health Canada's Canada Health Infostructure Partnerships Program]

The Government of Canada is contributing up to $1 million to the Yukon Telehealth Network. This project will deliver telehealth services and programs such as tele-mental health, tele-learning and X-ray emergency support to six remote northern communities.

CHIPP is also contributing up to $2 million to electronic health projects in the Hamilton area. The funds will support up to $1 million for the Centre for Minimal Access Surgery (CMAS), a tele-robotics surgery project led by Hamilton's St. Joseph's Healthcare. In addition, up to $1 million will support COMPETE II, a diabetes case management system led by McMaster University.

Also announced - a contribution of $900,000 to the primary care telemedicine and distance nursing network in Abitibi-Témiscamingue. This will help create an information network system allowing live consultations between a physician located in an urban community, and a nurse and patient at a rural health centre.
All within in a very large geographical area (20,000 km2).

Global Healthcare Exchange, (GHX), Canada and Omnicell of Palo Alto, California have agreed to integrate Omnicell's Internet procurement application for the healthcare industry, OmniBuyer, with Global Healthcare Exchange's medical-surgical and non-medical supply network in Canada. OmniBuyer users in Canada will now be able to purchase supplies via the Internet from GHX's comprehensive industrystandard AllSourceT catalogue.

GHX also announced that regional hospital groups joining the network include: the members of the Shared Logistics Services in British Columbia, Toronto area-based Rouge Valley Health System (Centenary and Ajax & Pickering hospitals), Healthcare Materials Management Services (HMMS) based in London, and La Corporation D'Approvisionnement Santé Services Sociaux De L'Estrie (CASSSE) in the Eastern Townships of Quebec. For more information visit www.ghx.com.

The New HP from the inside out
One of our most important objectives in planning a corporate merger is to develop clear product roadmaps that take advantage of the significant and complementary strengths of both companies. Customers need to know which offerings will be available on the market. And customers want to know from day one.

HP and Compaq began work on the roadmaps shortly after the merger was announced. They had to make some difficult decisions about which products to keep and which to retire from a strong portfolio. At the same time, significant customer investments in HP and Compaq technology had to be protected.

We're pleased to offer our readers a look from the inside by publishing on our website two memoranda from HP explaining their product merger strategies. For more information please go to www.longwoods.com/newhp.html or find more about this large merger at their brand new web site: https://thenew.hp.com/country/ca/eng/welcome.html

From our U.S. Correspondent
Prevent Medical Records Snooping...
Intermountain To Give Employees Access To Their Own Audit Trails
Addressing one of the most pervasive problems in hospital medical record security, Intermountain Health Care, Salt Lake City, Utah, plans to allow employees to see the audit trails of views of their own medical records.

Studies show that employees viewing each other's records is one of the most common patient privacy breaches.

"It will be a huge deterrent," said CIO Paul Clayton, PhD, and it will ease the overwhelming workload of audit trail review. "I go from having two auditors to having 5,000," he said.

Unless the final HIPAA Security Rule deviates radically from the proposed rule, many organizations with electronic medical record systems must implement automated audit systems to comply. For many, audit trails are a hurdle because vendors are not yet offering them, Dr. Clayton said.

Intermountain developed its own, measuring legitimacy of patient record accesses by these criteria:

• Does the person who looked up the record have a known relationship with the patient? Is the person, for example, the primary care provider (PCP)?
  
• Does the person who looked up the record have a known relationship with a known provider? Is he/she, for example, the PCP's partner?
  
• Does the person's role in patient care give him or her a legitimate interest in the information? For example, a radiology technician should not be looking at non-radiology information.
  
• Has the patient whose record was sought been active in the hospital's system in the past five years? If not, the only person who should be looking at the record is the PCP, someone who covers for the PCP, or someone who works for the PCP.
  
• Is the access geographically appropriate? A nurse on one floor probably shouldn't be looking up records on a patient on another floor.

Intermountain developed a Web-based viewer for looking up results in its 3M clinical data repository, which stores enterprise-wide patient information. The viewer doesn't affect computer response time, and uses only $3-$6 worth of storage capacity per year, he said. Access is currently confined to a few top managers, who use it for investigating security breaches and tracking utilization of Intermountain's computer systems. It will be extended to employees after Intermountain has enough staff to deal with their calls, he said.

But any automated system has practical limitations. In many cases, auditors have no way of knowing whether an access was legitimate. For example, an ER nurse may look at a record for a legitimate reason or she may look at it because she is the patient's curious next door neighbor. "I don't know who your neighbor is," he said.

Dr. Clayton said that, in a perfect world, he would also give audit trails to patients, who could use them to monitor who has seen their medical records.

Dr. Clayton was chairman of the committee that wrote "For the Record: Protecting Electronic Health Information," the National Academy of Sciences' report that is quoted in the HIPAA Privacy Rule.

Source: Inside Healthcare Computing, the independent biweekly newsletter providing inside intelligence on healthcare information systems, vendors, and new technology.
https://www.insidehealth.com/info.html

Best of Breed 1
Cisco Systems has been selected as one of three national award winners for the 2001-2002 National Awards for Learning Technologies in the Workplace. Designed to recognize achievement in employee learning through effective use of communications technologies, The National Awards for Learning Technologies in the Workplace is supported by the Office of Learning Technologies, Human Resources Development Canada and coordinated by The
Conference Board of Canada.
To learn more go to: https://www.cisco.com/ca/events/elearning.shtml.

Cisco Systems Canada has donated $120,000 to help fund the expansion of
NORTH Network, Canada's most successful telehealth project, into an additional 33 communities throughout Northern Ontario. The telehealth initiative, which recently received $2 million in public funding from the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines, provides specialist consultations as well as continuing medical education and patient education to rural areas via two-way video conferencing.

Best of Breed 2
ARAMARK was ranked the No. 1 company in "Diversified Outsourcing Services" in FORTUNE Magazine's new ranking of "America's Most Admired Companies." ARAMARK received its highest ratings ever in virtually every attribute measured - including "quality of management," "financial soundness," "quality of products/services," "long-term investment value," "innovativeness," and "social responsibility." Of all the attributes measured this year, the company received its highest rating for "quality of management." To conduct the ranking, FORTUNE commissioned the Hay Group consultancy to study the 10 largest companies (by revenues) in 58 industries. They then asked 10,000 executives, directors, and securities analysts to rate the companies in their own industries based on a criteria of eight categories. More information on these companies at: https://www.aramark.ca and https://www. haygroup.com

McKesson Corporation has agreed to acquire A.L.I. Technologies Inc. of Vancouver, British Columbia, by means of a cash tender offer for CN$43.50 per share or approximately CN$530 million (approximately US$340 million). A.L.I. provides enterprise medical imaging solutions, including PACS (picture archiving
and communications systems), which are designed to streamline access to diagnostic information, automate clinical workflow and eliminate the need for film. The acquisition is expected to close this summer and is subject to regulatory approval and other customary conditions. A.L.I. reported sales of CN$56 million for the 12 months ended March 31, 2002. The company has more than 500 ultrasound and PACS system installations at healthcare organizations in the United States and Canada. McKesson will now expand its Horizon Clinicals offering to include data, documents, voice and medical images. Clinicals is McKesson's next generation, integrated suite of solutions for physicians and other clinicians in multiple care settings. For more company information go to: https://www.mckesson.com and https://www. alitech.com.

THiiNC Logistics Inc., is a private business partner of University Health Network (UHN) which provides operational management for HLI Shared Healthcare Supply Services, a subsidiary of UHN. HLI services the supply chain requirements of the hospitals. TECSYS Inc. now joins this collaborative network of business partners with its enterprise suite of supply chain management software to streamline their order fulfillment process and manage their supply chain. Whewww.

Learn more here: https://www.tecsys.com; https://www.thiinc.com; https://www.uhn.ca.

Philips Medical Systems is breaking new boundaries with its Integris 3D-RA (rotational angiography) interventional tool - compatible with the complete Integris Allura I.I. based series. Integris Allura is designed for 3D imaging; it offers an incredible speed of the 3D reconstruction, a first reconstruction of 120 images in less than 75 seconds. Clinical partners involved in the development of the Integris Allura 3D-RA interventional tool
include: Foundation A. De Rothschild (Paris, France), St Antonius Hospital (Nieuwegein, the Netherlands), Emory University Hospital (Atlanta, USA), Lahey Clinic (Boston, USA), and Miami Cardiac and Vascular Institute (Miami, USA).

The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) and Philips Medical Systems, announced the Philips Medical Systems - AACN Outcomes for Clinical Excellence research grant. The new grant will support research by a critical care nurse in the care of acute and critically ill patients. The new grant will support studies focusing on improved outcomes and/or system efficiencies in the care of acute and critically ill patients of any age. Proposals must relate directly to at least one of the following AACN research priorities:

• Effective and appropriate use of technology to achieve optimal patient assessment, management and/or outcomes
  
• Creating a healing, humane environment for healthcare
  
• Processes and systems that foster the optimal contribution of acute and critical care nurses
  
• Effective approaches to symptom management
  
• Prevention and management of complications.

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