Showing posts with label Healthcare. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Healthcare. Show all posts

Monday, March 19, 2007

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital Selects Microsoft’s Azyxxi Solution for Its Enterprise Operations

Microsoft Corp. today announced that NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital has selected Azyxxi®, Microsoft’s unified health enterprise platform, to improve its cross-organizational access to clinical, administrative and financial data. NewYork-Presbyterian and Microsoft have already begun the planning necessary to implement this new solution. The announcement marks Microsoft’s first customer implementation of Azyxxi since the company acquired the technology last year.

NewYork-Presbyterian will benefit from Azyxxi’s ability to aggregate information throughout its existing, best-of-breed healthcare IT systems. Azyxxi was developed to address data storage issues and to search for specified information across cutting-edge and legacy systems, generating a reliable summary view of what healthcare professionals need to make the most informed decisions.

“NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital has long been a leader in the development and use of information technology in the healthcare setting,” said Aurelia Boyer, chief information officer at NewYork-Presbyterian. “We are excited to be joining with Microsoft to implement this innovative solution and to collaborate in its future development. Azyxxi’s ability to utilize information from across our systems in real time enhances our ability to quickly and seamlessly provide caregivers with all the information necessary for them to best treat our patients.”

Microsoft will support the implementation of the software in an agreement with NewYork-Presbyterian, which will serve as a development partner. The hospital will use the implementation to focus on applications that enable its clinicians to practice better medicine, that achieve truly integrated reporting across the enterprise, and that advance its organizational goal of being one of the nation’s top hospitals based on quality measures. The facility has more than 2,335 beds and 5,000 physicians, and serves a population of more than 6 million people in the New York City tri-state area.

“When the IT department of a leading institution like NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital adopts Azyxxi, it tells us we’re on track,” said Peter Neupert, corporate vice president for health strategy and leader of the Health Solutions Group at Microsoft. “NewYork-Presbyterian is one of the top health organizations in the world, which makes this relationship especially gratifying.”

About NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital — based in New York City — is the nation’s largest not-for-profit, non-sectarian hospital, with 2,335 beds. It provides state-of-the-art inpatient, ambulatory and preventive care in all areas of medicine at five major centers: NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of NewYork-Presbyterian, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Allen Pavilion and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Westchester Division. One of the largest and most comprehensive health-care institutions in the world, the Hospital is committed to excellence in patient care, research, education, and community service. It ranks sixth in U.S.News & World Report’s guide to “America’s Best Hospitals,” ranks first in New York magazine’s “Best Hospitals” survey, has the greatest number of physicians listed in New York magazine’s “Best Doctors” issue, and is included among Solucient’s top 15 major teaching hospitals. The Hospital has academic affiliations with two of the nation’s leading medical colleges: Joan and Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Monday, February 26, 2007

Microsoft Demonstrates Further Commitment to Healthcare Market With Planned Acquisition of Web Search Company

Microsoft Corp. today announced that it has agreed to acquire Medstory Inc., a privately held company based in Foster City, Calif., that develops intelligent Web search technology specifically for health information. The acquisition represents a strategic move for Microsoft in the consumer health search arena and signals a long-term commitment toward the development of a broader consumer health strategy. Medstory employees will join the Health Solutions Group, a recently formed division at Microsoft that will manage product development and delivery. Financial terms were not disclosed, as part of the agreement between the organizations.

“At Microsoft, we are focused on enabling people to make the best decisions,” said Peter Neupert, corporate vice president for health strategy and leader of the Health Solutions Group. “We were impressed with the ability of Medstory’s unique technology to organize and surface the most relevant online health content, which empowers consumers who are trying to find the right information about an important life event.”

According to an October 2006 study* by the Pew Internet & American Life Project,
8 million people in the United States go online for health information every day, and 53 percent of health-seekers said a recent search had an impact on how they take care of themselves or someone else. Yet 22 percent of respondents said they felt frustrated by a lack of information or an inability to find what they were looking for.

Unlike results from most search engines, Medstory’s results are based on intuitive search technology, which provides prequalified information to consumers and health professionals conducting health-related research. This unique approach provides users with intelligent guides to help refine and better target their searches. Users receive organized content that is more relevant to their search criteria and that enables better health-related decisions.

“Instead of trying to force people to think in terms of the way a computer searches, we’re enabling computers to more intuitively conduct searches in the way that people think,” said Dr. Alain Rappaport, M.D., Ph.D., CEO and founder of Medstory. When the acquisition closes, Rappaport will assume the role of general manager of health search in the Health Solutions Group. “With Microsoft’s global reach and experience, I look forward to this soon becoming a standard for online searches in health and medicine.”

About Medstory

Medstory’s mission is to enable users to search complex fields on the Web intelligently, starting with health and medicine. Medstory’s goal is to provide highly efficient search solutions for consumers and professionals. The company was founded by Dr. Alain Rappaport, who also co-founded Neuron Data (later Blaze Software), a leading global provider of artificial intelligence and Internet software. For more information, visit www.medstory.com