DeJarnette Research Systems Inc., a Towson, Md.-based provider of medical imaging interface technology, will highlight its new iNA SST and iNA Premium software-as-a-service (SaaS) products at the upcoming RSNA trade show, scheduled for Nov. 29 - Dec. 4 at McCormick Place in Chicago.

iNA is DeJarnette's Internet-based middleware gateway technology, which, according to the company, is designed to enable simple, robust, reliable and low-cost offsite medical document storage. For imaging enterprises with a need for simple, low-cost offsite DICOM storage, iNA SST is intended to allow reliable storage and retrieval of any DICOM object to and from the "storage cloud," the company reported. iNA Premium is designed to enable the construction of a vendor-neutral archive in the storage cloud, and provides for the storage of any DICOM or non-DICOM object in either local or offsite storage in a fashion that facilitates the deployment of premium applications such as data-sharing, image and report distribution, viewing, EMR integration and many others.

EDCO Group Inc. is providing a webinar designed to help organizations better understand an alternative way to accurately scan and index medical records.

The "Cost to Capture" webinar, scheduled for Nov. 24, is intended for revenue cycle managers, CFOs and HIM directors. The webinar will explain a technique for calculating the actual cost to capture existing paper documents and provide information on alternative processes that index documents into patient charts quicker and for 30 percent less than current costs.

The webinar is provided free of charge.  Participants can register at www.costtocapture.com.

In a separate announcement, EDCO Group reported that it recently awarded Patti Reisinger, HIM director at Community Medical Center in Missoula, Mont., with a one-year lease for a Prius Hybrid. Reisinger was chosen in a random drawing at the recent AHIMA Convention in Grapevine, Texas.

EDCO chose the Prius Hybrid prize to complement the company's initiative to "Solve the Hybrid Record Challenge" for hospitals and clinics. The message references the industry-wide struggle to manage documents "living in disparate paper and electronic environments," according to the company.

Riverside Radiology Associates, of Columbus, Ohio, has renewed its licensing contract for five years with Zotec Partners, a provider of medical billing, practice management and radiology information systems (RIS) software and services.

Riverside, a group of 70 sub-specialized radiologists providing diagnostic imaging and interventional radiology services throughout Ohio, has been licensing Zotec Partners' electronic billing center billing suite, RIS and decision-support module since 2005.

eWebHealth, a provider of electronic workflow applications for medical records, has made available its new, fully hosted .NET platform supporting its eWebHIM technology suite. This next generation supports interoperability with a range of hospital IT systems, and is designed to allow hospitals to more easily integrate health record technology with their clinical electronic health record strategies, according to the company.

The eWebHealth technology suite is delivered via a software-as-a-service model, for real-time, remote record access. The suite includes eWebCoding, eWebView, eWebCompletion and eWebSignature.

With open application program interfaces that can be published to third-party systems, the new platform is intended to allow for easy integration with complementary programs such as data repositories and content management systems, the company reported.

Howard University has announced that hundreds of diabetic patients at the Howard University Hospital's Diabetes Treatment Center have adopted an online personal health record (PHR) from NoMoreClipboard.com, and are actively using it to communicate with their doctors and manage their disease.

The center is one of the first health care providers in the Washington, D.C., area to integrate the hospital's electronic medical record with a patient-focused PHR to manage diabetes treatment online, according to the university.

The NoMoreClipboard.com PHR was made available to diabetic patients as part of an initiative launched earlier this year offering diabetes testing and treatment to underserved residents in the five Washington wards with the highest incidence of the disease.

Iowa Health System and Allscripts have partnered to offer ePrescribe Iowa, a free Web-based e-prescribing application to physicians throughout Iowa.

ePrescribe Iowa automates the process of writing prescriptions and transmitting them to pharmacies while alerting physicians to potentially dangerous drug-to-drug interactions, drug allergies, dosage errors and other problems that can occur when writing prescriptions on paper.

The stand-alone solution provided by Iowa Health System and Allscripts also provides physicians a way to transition from paper medical records to a full electronic health record.

Picis, a Wakefield, Mass.-based provider of information applications, has been awarded two Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) contracts by the Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) 10, also known as the VA Healthcare System of Ohio.

VISN has selected Picis Anesthesia Manager, PACU Manager and Critical Care Manager, part of the CareSuite family of high-acuity applications, to help clinicians better manage the clinical workflow and financial functions in anesthesia and post-anesthesia care units/recovery, as well as the intensive care unit (ICU) and remote ICU at five VA medical centers.

ActiveStrategy Inc., headquartered in Plymouth Meeting, Pa., has launched version 8.0 of its ActiveStrategy Enterprise (ASE) software application, which is designed to support and enable all areas of performance management within one enterprise application.

ASE version 8.0 adds new features and enhancements that include a new "Action Item" feature, plus new and enhanced functionality in several areas of the system such as measures, initiatives/projects and program groups for large sets of projects.

ASE version 8.0 is immediately available to new customers. Existing customers who host their own system are able to upgrade to ASE version 8.0 at any time, and customers who use ActiveStrategy Online, which is ActiveStrategy's software-as-a-service offering, are able to access the new version now, the company reported.

Engedi, a Richmond, Va.-based security applications provider, has introduced Key2 Control, a security platform that implements multi-party authorization to provide proactive protection from potentially incorrect or malicious actions.

When an authenticated and authorized individual requests to perform a function that is governed by Key2 Control multi-party authorization, the client sends a request to the 2Key server to "a second set of eyes" to review the desired action before it takes place, Engedi explained.

The second-party authorizer receives the information about the action the first person wants to perform. The request includes the identity of the individual wanting to perform the function, the function the individual wants to perform, parameters and other information. The authorizer can then approve or disapprove, or request a conference with the person. "Conference" will either send contact information or attempt to open communications with the person attempting to perform the function, according to the company.

Graham Regional Medical Center, a 42-bed, non-profit municipal hospital in Graham, Texas, has fully implemented the entire eWebHIM technology suite from eWebHealth, a Reading, Mass.-based provider of electronic workflow applications for medical records.

Graham is using eWebHIM to enhance its investment in Meditech's Magic EMR and transition from a hybrid paper and electronic medical record to a fully integrated, legal electronic health record.

The eWebHealth suite is delivered via a software-as-a-service model, for real-time, remote record access; rapid implementation and low cost of deployment, the company reported. The suite includes eWebCoding, eWebView, eWebCompletion and eWebSignature.

Humedica, a Boston-based clinical informatics company, has launched a clinical analytical platform designed to address the specific needs of inpatient and outpatient health care providers, pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms, medical device manufacturers, government agencies and financial services firms.

Currently being implemented in select hospitals and medical groups, Humedica's software-as-a-service application connects patient information across varied medical settings and time periods to generate a longitudinal and comprehensive view of patient care, according to the company.

Humedica has also entered into a partnership with Anceta, the health care informatics subsidiary of the American Medical Group Association. Anceta has selected Humedica to be its exclusive partner in the development of its nationwide collaborative data warehouse and clinical analytics platform.

Baptist Healthcare System, the largest not-for-profit health care system in Kentucky, recently became the first to simultaneously implement both the access and business management modules of the McKesson Corp. Horizon Enterprise Revenue Management application. The system, which became generally available Sept. 29, combines rule-based software and connectivity services to help organizations transform revenue management.

The access management module is designed to allow health care organizations to collect appropriate financial information on patient treatment to help meet regulatory requirements and collect full payment for services at the beginning of the patient interaction process. The business management module supports the creation of charges, distribution of claims and receipt of payments.

As an "open" technology, the revenue management application is designed to connect to both McKesson and non-McKesson clinical technology. These connections make it possible to manage financial processes across all care settings and enables continuous medical necessity checking; coordinated care planning and case management; and collaboration of orders and scheduling.

Sorna Corp. has introduced IN2PACS, a standalone software program designed to enable users to add standard images; scanned documents; and Adobe PDF, Microsoft Word, RTF and text documents into a patient's study in a picture archiving and communication system (PACS). The software provides drag-and-drop functionality of non-DICOM content, making it fast and easy to add this type of information, according to Sorna. Any DICOM workstation can view these new images, the company noted.

IN2PACS allows items to be added as a new study or as one or more series to one or more studies. The software allows inverting, re-ordering and deleting items prior to the DICOM conversion.

The software simplifies adding digital photos and documents such as requisition forms or physician notes to a patient's study, the company said.

Wacom has added Multi-Touch to its new family of Bamboo tablets, USB peripherals that deliver natural and intuitive input to desktop or laptop computer users, according to the company.

The Multi-Touch finger-based input application adds the ability to zoom, scroll, pan and rotate to the Bamboo tablets, which are compatible with Windows or Mac operating systems.

The new Bamboo family is comprised of three core products: Bamboo Touch, Bamboo Pen, and Bamboo Pen and Touch. Two additional tablets, Bamboo Craft and Bamboo Fun, are also available, each with its own features and benefits.

PeriGen Inc. has released its Influenza Prevention and Treatment Bundle to its North American client hospitals. PeriGen's protocol bundle is designed help clinicians follow recommended guidelines for screening, preventing and treating as well as accurately reporting cases of seasonal flu and H1N1 ("swine flu") to state and local officials.

PeriGen has designed influenza-related decision-support rules, which can be immediately incorporated into the Company's OB-specific, clinical decision-support system, PeriBirth. PeriGen's protocol bundle combines the current American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists' recommendations with Centers for Disease Control guidelines to help clinicians effectively evaluate and treat influenza in obstetric patients, according to the company.

The influenza protocol bundle is not one-size-fits-all, but can be suited to meet the needs of each hospital, PeriGen sstated. Information can be automatically organized and analyzed by PeriTrack, PeriGen's reporting and analytics tool, permitting hospital administrators to more accurately report instances of influenza in pregnant women to state and local health officials, the company noted.

CareTech Solutions, Inc., announced Aug. 24 that it has signed an agreement to provide Web services to Blessing Health System, based in Quincy, Ill.

CareTech Solutions will be implementing its CareWorks CMS content management system and its BoardNet communications application to support all entities under the Blessing Health System umbrella: Blessing Hospital, Illini Community Hospital, Blessing Physician Services, Blessing-Rieman College of Nursing, and the Blessing Foundation; as well as its medical specialty businesses -- Blessing Affiliates, Inc. and Denman Services, Inc.

"Blessing is committed to being the provider of choice in our region," said Maureen Kahn, RN, MHA, MSN, president/CEO, Blessing Hospital. "Today, people expect a comprehensive Web presence, yet customer-friendly Web experience from an industry leader. We believe partnering with CareTech Solutions will allow us to exceed the public's expectations in this area."

CareTech will utilize its CareWorks CMS product -- a module-based engine for building full-featured hospital Web sites -- to create customizable Web sites for Blessing Health System. Once complete, functionality on Blessing Health System's public-facing Web sites will include a physician finder, an online giving and donations and class-registration interface, an online forum, a chat room, e-greeting cards and more.

CareTech will implement its BoardNet application to support Blessing Health System's board of trustees. BoardNet is a secure, permission-based Web communications portal providing board members secure, Internet-based access to information supporting effective decision-making, including board meeting minutes, financial statements and more.

"Today's increasingly competitive, consumer-driven health care market demands that hospitals use their Web sites as tools to engage, win and retain patients, providing them the interactive tools they need and expect to make the best health care decisions," said Chris Catallo, director, Web products and services with CareTech Solutions.  "Blessing Health System understands this well, and we're delighted to support their efforts to transform patients' and prospects' online experiences."