Doctors Join to Promote Electronic Record Keeping - New York Times

Doctors Join to Promote Electronic Record Keeping - New York Times: "Doctors Join to Promote Electronic Record Keeping

Doctors Join to Promote Electronic Record Keeping

Stewart Cairns for The New York Times

Dr. Eugene Heslin receives computer training
from Lori Jesman.

By MILT
FREUDENHEIM

Published: September 19, 2005

He is a self-described techie, but that did not help Dr. Eugene P. Heslin
harness the wonders of electronic medical records. The technology seemed too
complicated and expensive for a small medical group like his six-doctor family
practice in rural upstate New York

"The large groups can afford the software," said Dr. Heslin, a
family physician in Saugerties. "For the onesies and twosies, small
groups like ours, there is no profit margin."

Now, though, in a collaboration with 500 like-minded doctors, as well as
hospitals, insurers and employers in two Hudson Valley counties, Dr. Heslin
and his partners are clearing barriers that have made modern information
technology inaccessible to the hundreds of thousands of small doctors' offices
around the nation.

A PDA in hand ...

A PDA in hand ...: "Satellites to the rescue
To address the challenge of maintaining communications in the areas ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, government agencies responding to the disaster have turned to satellite technology.
Herndon, Va.-based Segovia is one of the companies providing access to that technology, and it is among the first global satellite networks to support broadband IP communications, said Kirby Farrell, Segovia's co-founder and executive vice president of sales and marketing.
'The interesting thing here is that our network is built for the kind of situation where you need broadband [communications] where there's no infrastructure and, in some cases, no power,' he said.
Agencies have 35 sites running on Segovia's secure network of nine satellites. They include the Army Space Command; the Army Corps of Engineers; the National Guard; the Homeland Security Department, including Customs and Border Protection; and the Army's 10th Mountain Division.
Dibya Sarkar"

A PDA in hand ...

A PDA in hand ...: "A PDA in hand ...
Handheld devices, not radios, could be key to emergency communications
BY Dibya Sarkar
Published on Sep. 19, 2005


Four years ago, New York City's police and firefighters were unable to communicate with one another during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks because of incompatible radios. As a result, many of them died and interoperability became a national priority.

But more than two weeks ago, Hurricane Katrina's devastating effects on the Gulf Coast forced first responders and government officials to think about something else: How do you communicate in an area with no infrastructure or power?

"Interoperability isn't the main issue down there; it's operability," said Harlin McEwen, a former police chief in Ithaca, N.Y.