April 2011

With a little cash, health IT on the way

The new federal center set up to launch U.S. health care into the digital age has already certified more than 600 new health information technology products and is ready to start helping providers set these systems up, said Farzad Mostashari, the new head of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.

He said at a Bipartisan Policy Center panel discussion that his office has opened 62 regional "extension centers," which aim to help providers understand and set-up health IT programs. The center, set up under the Health and Human Services Department, has started curricula at 82 community colleges around the country to focus on health IT. And most notably, Mostashari said, the agency has established competition in the marketplace, certifying more than 600 products from nearly 400 vendors that the federal government will accept for providers to get bonus payments. Providers can receive up to $44,000 in incentive payments from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services over five years, but they must start using electronic health records next year to be eligible for all the cash. After 2015, providers will take a cut in their Medicare reimbursements if they are not using health IT up to government standards.

Report: Feds Could Save $14.4 Billion Moving to the Cloud

The federal government could save $14.4 billion in year one by migrating to cloud computing, according to a private industry report released this month. But those savings likely are far from being realized.

The “Federal Cloud Weather Report” commissioned by VMware revealed while 64 percent of the federal CIOs surveyed expect cloud computing will reduce costs and improve services, 79 percent of federal agency CIOs still aren't using the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) “Cloud First” policy. The policy, which was announced in Dec. 2010, requires agencies to choose an existing cloud solution, if applicable, before building a new IT program. Additional direction was given in February with OMB’s Federal Cloud Strategy, which mandates agencies moving one service to the cloud within a year and two more services to the cloud in 18 months.

Nearly 100 Million Households Online By '16, Mobile Ads To Grow 60%

Paving the way for more online activity, 99.4 million U.S. households will be online by the end of 2016 -- of which 97.9 million will have broadband services -- according to a new forecast from Interpublic Group's Magna Global.

As of the end of the fourth quarter of 2010, about 84.7 million homes -- or 71.5% of the total -- were online, while 90% of these homes accessed the Web using broadband services. Magna now predicts that 61.9 million U.S. homes -- or 50% of the total -- will subscribe to DVR services by the end of 2016, which would be up from 39.2 million -- 33.5% -- at the end of last year. By 2016, Magna expects that Video On Demand -- which it now defines as all Over-the-Top services -- will reach 70.1 million households, or about 57% of all TV-viewing households). This compares with 52.5 million VOD households -- 45% -- at the end of the fourth quarter of 2010.

Researchers: electronic health record data valuable in genetics studies

Electronic health records can be a valuable source of relevant clinical data for genomic studies, according to researchers from a consortium of US healthcare organizations.

The goal of the research, according to the report's 15 authors, was to determine whether data from EHRs could do a good enough job in identifying the phenotypes -- outward manifestations -- of certain diseases that it could then be used in genomic studies that look for links between health conditions and genetic markers. The researchers analyzed EMR data from five care sites -- Group Health, Seattle; the Marshfield (Wis.) Clinic; the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn.; Northwestern University, Chicago; and Vanderbilt University, Nashville. The phenotypes to be identified were five conditions or diseases: dementia, cataracts, peripheral arterial disease, type 2 diabetes and cardiac conduction defects. Three of the sites used home-grown EHR systems; two used commercial off-the-shelf systems. The EHR systems captured patient records in both structured data and free-text forms.

Why Fox, Paramount, Disney Are Holding Out on the YouTube Deal

A divide has opened among Hollywood’s major studios over whether to join YouTube’s initiative to rent movies on demand – which is holding up the launch of the service. Fox and Paramount have both confirmed that their intention is to “not move forward with any deal at this time” with the largest video site in the world. Disney has not made its intentions clear but is also believed to be holding out on striking a deal with YouTube. Meanwhile, Warner Brothers, Sony and Universal all have just concluded deals to license content to YouTube for rental at launch.

Sony Update on PlayStation Network and Qriocity Outages

Sony is working to resolve the current outage of PlayStation Network and Qriocity services and revealed a compromise of personal information as a result of an illegal intrusion on its systems. Sony says it has a clear path to have the PlayStation Network and Qriocity systems back online, and expect to restore some services within a week. The info the hacker got access to includes user names, addresses, email addresses, birthdates, PlayStation Network/Qriocity password and login, and handle/PSN online IDs. The hacker may also have gotten access to profile data, including purchase history and billing address, password security answers may have been obtained, and credit card data.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) fired off a letter to Sony to note he is “troubled by the failure” of the company to “immediately notify affected customers of the breach and to extend adequate financial data security protections.”

NAB Study Draws Heavy Criticism from Wireless Groups

After countering various points in the National Broadcasters Association's spectrum study released April 26, CTIA and the Consumer Electronics Association in a joint response concluded: "The NAB 'study' ignores the most obvious and telling question -- if wireless providers could solve their spectrum needs cheaply or don't have spectrum needs at all, why would they want to pay billions of dollars for such an unnecessary asset? Anyone who has studied not only projections, but also actual use of mobile networks knows that our wireless networks desperately need more capacity - wireless companies are seeking more spectrum for their networks because their customers demand it."

"While NAB might choose to ignore the realities of today's consumer demands, American wireless consumers are staring down a spectrum shortage," said Mobile Future chairman Jonathan Spalter. "As the FCC, 112 leading economists and wireless technology experts have all explained in great detail, a spectrum crunch is looming and the most efficient way to meet growing consumer demand and deliver cutting-edge, innovative services to consumers is to move forward with incentive auctions to get more wireless spectrum to the marketplace as soon as possible."

Wireless Communications Association International President Fred Campbell joined the chorus: "While NAB might choose to ignore the realities of today's consumer demands, American wireless consumers are staring down a spectrum shortage. As the FCC, 112 leading economists and wireless technology experts have all explained in great detail, a spectrum crunch is looming and the most efficient way to meet growing consumer demand and deliver cutting-edge, innovative services to consumers is to move forward with incentive auctions to get more wireless spectrum to the marketplace as soon as possible."

Teamsters president endorses AT&T merger

James Hoffa, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, endorsed the merger of AT&T and T-Mobile this week, adding another show of labor support for the blockbuster deal. Hoffa said he hopes it would strengthen the labor movement. AT&T's workers unionize but T-Mobile's largely do not. Hoffa said that the merger "means that hundreds of T-Mobile workers will work for a management team that maintains full neutrality toward union membership."

State of the Internet: Fiber, Fast Cities and Faster Broadband

The last three months of 2010 were good for broadband, thanks to growing demand for high-speed connections and growing popularity of fiber-based networks in Asia and Europe, according to the State of the Internet Report put together by Akamai Technologies.

According to Akamai data, the global broadband adoption at the end of 2010 was about 61 percent with nine of the top 10 countries having ended 2010 with broadband adoption levels of 90 percent or higher. Given that Akamai has a fairly large and global footprint, the Akamai data is a good proxy for overall trends.

In the US, three of every four connections to Akamai are at speeds above 2 Mbps.
In the US, during the fourth quarter of 2010, the average measured connection speed was 5.1 Mbps, up about 9.2 percent from the fourth quarter of 2009.
The US had an average peak connection speed of 20.3 Mbps during the fourth quarter of 2010.
Delaware is the fastest state in the union with an average speed of 7.2 Mbps; 97 percent of connections to Akamai at speeds above 2 Mbps.
The growing popularity of fiber-based networks and availability of higher speed cable connections meant three East Coast communities -- Staten Island, Jersey City and Boston Metro -- became members of the top 10 US broadband cities club.

Looking deeper into Google’s plans for KCK

In Kansas City (KS), Google aims to do what the cable industry has been unable or unwilling to do: Internet download speeds from 10 to 100 times above what most Americans consider broadband. Uploads at the same speed — or 200 to 300 times quicker than the broadband norm. At current broadband rates of 6 megabits a second, a high-definition movie downloads in 90 minutes. At 1 gigabit per second — what Google will bring to Kansas City — it’s closer to 90 seconds. A 10-song album moves in less than two seconds.

Rather than conjuring up algorithms to steer you through the Internet Google has come to Kansas to tackle the rough-hewed world of utility poles and trenches. Wyandotte County government leaders say they negotiated the deal with Google in hopes of drawing high-tech business and jobs. Google, meantime, has been explicit in saying it does not plan to hire locally and will run the service remotely. Although Google demurs on many of the details for now, interviews with the company and analysts are beginning to color in the fiber-optic picture.

Benton

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