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BOSTON - Vendors' pricing models are lacking. Better tools are needed to sift through piles of data.Trying before buying is key
Those were sentiments expressed by a range of technology buyers from healthcare and pharmaceutical companies on a panel hosted by Ernst &Young at last week's Bio-ITWorld conference.
At CareGroup Health System, IT priorities center around safety, reliability and security said John Halamka, CIO of the network of five Bostonarea hospitals. On the safety front, Halarnka is focused on shoring up medication-dispensing processes "from the doctor's brain to the patient's vein," he said.That means implementing bar codes for medication and other automation efforts to ensure the right dosage of medication is dispensed to the intended patient at the proper time.
CareGroup's reliability efforts are aimed at reducing downtime - an issue Halamka battled in late 2002 when one of the CareGroup hospitals suffered network slowdowns and interruptions for more than three days. Halamka's current expectations are to exceed 99.9% availability although...