MaSSSoftech

Recently, the University became part of iTunes U, a program used to provide educational and informational content that is usually limited to students, joining more than 200 colleges and universities in the iTunes U program.


Ivon Foster, assistant to the provost for special projects, said in an e-mailed statement, “iTunes U is the educational side of the iTunes Store, which provides a way for academic entities, such as universities, museums and libraries, to share educational content at no cost to the public and or to its members.”


He said UA officials decided to get on board with iTunes earlier this year to promote success within the University. Foster said it would help to “showcase the talent within the University.”


“This program is meant to expand the knowledge of the University within the community, therefore the information is available to everyone at no cost,” Foster said. “This is one of Apple's policies. In fact, Apple hosts UA's content at no cost to the University.”


Rachel Shuttleworth, lead coordinator for iTunes U at the UA’s Office of Information Technology, said the information is available in either video or audio format and can occasionally be downloaded in a PDF format. The content may be viewed through iTunes or downloaded to the student’s computers.


The information on iTunes U is mostly outside classroom information. If instructors want their information on the iTunes U site, they must apply for it through a campus liaison.


“We are in the first phase of iTunes U at The University of Alabama: the public phase,” Foster said.


Now, the main concern is the general interest of the public, Foster said. The future of iTunes U will be carefully coordinated along with campus stakeholders.


In this initial phase of the iTunes U program, students are encouraged not to post things on iTunes U unless they have contacted a campus liaison. According to Foster, “all requests to post content are reviewed by the appropriate campus liaison and the iTunes U team.” Since all information on the site is available to the public and supported by the University, it is essential that UA keeps a close eye on the content being uploaded to iTunes U.


As far as using iTunes as a method of teaching, Shuttleworth commented that many professors are working hard to incorporate different programs in their teaching, including iTunes U.


“It is always exciting to see how technology tools like iTunes and podcasting are used in the classes,” Shuttleworth said.


Shuttleworth said giving students a new way to access knowledge is one part of the increasing amount of technology available to them.


“The University of Alabama on iTunes U is not intended to replace any of UA's instructional technology tools, such as eLearning,” Shuttleworth said.


In addition, Shuttleworth said the main goal of iTunes U is to share information obtained by the University of Alabama with as many people as possible within the school and the community.


Students who wish to access this information need to download the free iTunes application at apple.com/itunes/download.

Washington -- The Obama administration will make available nearly $1.2 billion in federal grants to create a large network of regional health information technology centers and state-based entities to support physicians and hospitals as they acquire and implement electronic health records systems that meet federal standards.

Physicians and hospitals need to have an EHR system in place that meets "meaningful use" standards if they hope to be eligible for the billions in Medicare and Medicaid bonuses available starting in 2011 through the economic stimulus package adopted earlier this year. The grants announced Aug. 20 by the Dept. of Health and Human Services and Vice President Joe Biden are designed to provide a supportive framework to help entities meet those standards, which will be proposed before the end of the year.
David Blumenthal, MD, the national health information technology coordinator, said the new money is intended to help create a national, private and secure EHR system.

"The grants are designed to help doctors and hospitals acquire electronic health records and use them in meaningful ways to improve the health of patients and reduce waste and inefficiency," he said. "They will also help states lead the way in creating the infrastructure for health information exchange, which enables information to follow patients within and across communities, wherever the information is needed to help doctors and patients make the best decisions about medical care."
Helping small practices

Under the first of the two new grant programs, nearly $600 million will be used to establish approximately 70 health IT regional extension centers. The entities will offer technical assistance, guidance and information on best practices to help physicians and hospitals more quickly become meaningful EHR users.

The regional centers will focus on helping primary care clinicians, with a particular emphasis on individual and small-group practices. Clinicians in such practices deliver the majority of primary care services but have the lowest rates of EHR adoption, and the least access to resources to help implement and use such systems, according to HHS.
"Expanding the use of electronic health records is fundamental to reforming our health care system," said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. "Electronic health records can help reduce medical errors, make health care more efficient and improve the quality of medical care for all Americans."

The performance of each regional center will be evaluated every two years by an HHS-appointed panel of experts. EHR industry observers are encouraged by the centers, which they say will help physicians and hospitals select certified paperless records systems that offer the best value for their needs.

"That guidance definitely needs to be there, because most providers are struggling with what they need to do, and how to do it," said Bruce Taffel, MD, vice president and chief medical officer for SharedHealth, a vendor of health information products and solutions based in Chattanooga, Tenn. "I think these extension centers will be a helpful piece of this."

The regional extension center grants will be awarded on a rolling basis, with the first awards issued in fiscal 2010, HHS said.
Focus on interoperability

The second grant program will provide more than $560 million to states starting next fiscal year through cooperative agreements to create a widespread and sustainable health information exchange.

Legal, financial and technical support is necessary to enable secure exchange of sensitive patient data across health care systems, according to HHS. The program will help fund efforts at the state level to implement directories and technical services to enable interoperability within and across states. Some health IT experts say such assistance is vital in helping physician practices become meaningful users.
"I think this has tremendous potential to help improve the health IT infrastructure of the country," said Marc Probst, chief information officer with Intermountain Healthcare, a nonprofit system of hospitals and clinics based in Salt Lake City.

"A large concern is clearly the ability for people who don't have technical expertise to implement these systems," said Probst, who also is a member of the Health Information Technology Policy Committee, an advisory board established this year that makes recommendations to Dr. Blumenthal and his staff. "In just about every interview I've had with doctors, physician groups and even hospital chains, the ability to exchange data between systems was high on everyone's list."

Probst said he's very concerned about physician groups and hospitals who may not have the resources to implement an EHR that meets meaningful use standards, though he believes the policy committee's recommendations approved by Dr. Blumenthal earlier in August will be very close to what the Obama administration proposes in regulation later this year.

Dr. Blumenthal said more announcements will be made within months regarding additional grant programs to assist with EHR implementation.

Declaring its mission has been accomplished, the National Alliance for Health Information Technology is ceasing operation as of Sept. 30.

NAHIT was founded in 2002 by industry leaders from several sectors of the health care industry and had heavy membership from hospital systems and associations, and vendors. Its goal was to build a common ground for the implementation of health information technology -- which, it says, has happened.
The alliance, in recent years also has had financial problems and organizational changes, to the point its chief operating officer was its last remaining employee.

NAHIT is now calling on other organizations to help practices and hospitals implement technology in order to improve care, safety and efficiency.

In a statement released Aug. 17, the organization said the industry was much different seven years ago when there was "little to no momentum to harness technology to transform the industry." Now, "HIT has moved front and center in efforts to reinvent and reinvigorate the U.S. health system," said Jane Horowitz, NAHIT's chief operating officer.

The group specifically called on the American Hospital Assn. and the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives to continue their work of advancing health IT by providing resources to their members. Both organizations are founding members of NAHIT. Neither had any immediate comment on the alliance's disbanding.

During its tenure, NAHIT helped formed the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology, the only certifying body currently recognized by the federal government. It also helped develop a definition of interoperability that is now being used in proposed legislation focused on the meaningful use of electronic health records.

The group was also hired by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology to create key health IT definitions, which were finalized in 2008. Terms included electronic health record, electronic medical record, personal health record, health information exchange and regional health information organization. As part of the process, the group created a new term, health information organization, to describe an organization overseeing the transmission of electronic information.

NAHIT also led efforts to gain industry consensus on the use of bar codes for identifying medication, which helped shape the Food and Drug Administration's regulations.

One area in which the group was not successful was in its efforts to create a unique patient identifier system. The 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act mandated UPI systems but security concerns have stalled those efforts. The American Medical Association has actively advocated a repeal of the law requiring UPIs.

LEGAL

• Abigail Isaacs joined the D.C. branch of Tully Rinckey PLLC as office manager. Miss Isaacs has more than 10 years of experience in office management. She earned a bachelor's degree in geography and history education from the College of the Bahamas and a master's of business administration with a focus in law firm management from Marymount University.

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

• Advantus Strategies LLC named John Paul Woodley Jr. consulting director of the Richmond business-to-government consulting firm. He will focus on expanding Advantus' federal practice in the District. Mr. Woodley recently left the Department of Defense, where he supervised the Army Corps of Engineers as assistant secretary of the Army for civil works. He has also served as assistant deputy undersecretary of defense, Virginia secretary of natural resources and deputy attorney general of Virginia for government operations.

HIGH TECHNOLOGY & TELECOMMUNICATIONS

• Dr. Helga E. Rippen joined Westat Inc. of Rockville as vice president and chief health information officer. She will head Westat's Center for Health Information Technology. Joining Dr. Rippen at the center is health IT expert Dr. Scott W. Finley, who will serve as senior physician informaticist. Most recently, Dr. Rippen served as vice president of health information technology at Hospital Corp. of America, where she led development of an electronic health record initiative.

Dr. Finley is a member of the faculty of the Division of Health Sciences Informatics at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

• 1105 Government Information Group, a division of 1105 Media Inc., announced that Jennifer Weiss is joining the Falls Church company as vice president and group publisher. She will be responsible for print and online activities for a variety of publications including Defense Systems, Federal Computer Week and Government Computer News. Miss Weiss comes to 1105 after seven years at SourceMedia Inc., formerly Thomson Media Inc.

• Natural Insight, developer of a fast and flexible solution for managing distributed work forces, appointed Steve Brown as the Sterling, Va., company's vice president of sales and business development. Mr. Brown will focus on expanding the company's footprint in the retail industry. He joins Natural Insight after an 11-year tenure at MicroStrategy Inc. and its Angel.com subsidiary, a provider of technologies for on-demand call centers and interactive voice response systems.

• Access Systems Inc., an information technology solutions provider, announced the additions of Jeff Sacks, David Balleweg and Shawn Bethea.

Mr. Sacks will serve as the company's chief technology officer and will be responsible for the overall future technology vision for the firm. He most recently served as vice president of technology at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in Columbus, Ohio.

As vice president of strategic programs, Mr. Balleweg will focus primarily on defense initiatives. Mr. Balleweg brings more than 25 years of business development experience to Access.

Mr. Bethea will serve as vice president of strategic programs responsible for developing opportunities, primarily within civilian accounts. Mr. Bethea has more than 24 years of information technology experience, most recently as partner and vice president of MicroTech of Vienna.

Arlington, VA, August 30, 2009 --(PR.com)-- Blue River Information Technology, a globally recognized leader in Data Center Enterprise Architecture, IT Consulting & Training Services, today announced their first awarded Multiple Award General Services Administration (GSA) Schedule Contract #GS-35F-0624V for Information Technology Professional Services.

This competitively awarded, Multi Service GSA Contract in accordance with SIN 132-51 IT Professional Services, offers unlimited IT related services & products, as well as, full management/maintenance services to all Federal Agencies. A few of the Labor Categories included are: Just a few of Blue River’s Labor Categories include Program Management, Engineering, Systems Analysis, Quality Assurance & Web Design. Blue River was also recently awarded additional categories in Training & Curriculum Development, as well.

Just weeks after headlining the expansion of their existing headquarters in Arlington, VA, with a new, fully functional, data storage laboratory; the new GSA contract promises additional opportunity in servicing their new & existing Government vehicles.

Blue River began its operations, only a year ago, and has already succeeded in establishing a huge influence among the DOD, Federal & State agencies, as well as, an impeccable reputation among the contracting community. Partnering with the most sought-after, technology leaders, has given this promising & enterprising small business, the leading edge above its competitors.

“We are highly anticipating this new contract to provide our customers with a complete range of opportunity & overall mission success in the procurement process,” said Blue River’s co-founder & CEO, David McLaughlin.

With expanded offices in San Diego, Munich, Germany, Hampton Roads, VA & New Bern, NC, Blue River offers GSA “best-practices & services” as value added integrators.

The time has come to declare that the beginning of the end for the traditional approach to Information Technology. The party is over.

The End of IT 1.0 As We Know It – has begun. To borrow a phrase from my previous IBM colleagues who wrote, “The End of TV As We Know It” with which I became familiar while working on IP Television (IPTV).

You may wonder whether it’s too early to make the call given the lack of interoperability standards, security concerns, and common definition of cloud computing. Well, the IPTV space shares many of the same similarities – emerging technology, emerging standards, emerging adoption, varying definitions, and yet the call was made in that space.

Cloud computing is a shot across the bow for the giants of the IT industry. They are on notice. Certainly, some will make the transition, slowly, at the speed which the overall market develops or slower, as they have no incentive to drive the market and rapidly cannibalize their existing businesses for a less lucrative business model even if it is more cost effective, flexible, and efficient for most of their clients.

Just think of the companies that provide hardware, software, services, consulting and systems integration. Now consider the cloud computing paradigm.

* No packaged software to order, install, configure, test, implement, manage, support, and maintain on client premise.
* No hardware to order, install, configure, test, implement, manage, support, and maintain on client premise.
* No hardware and software / systems integration on client premise.

Now look at the companies that provide these services today, EMC, HP, IBM, Oracle, SAP, Accenture, Infosys, and others. Are these giants ready to quickly accelerate the cannibalization of their own product and services offerings? Will they transition from mega projects to micro projects? How will many of these companies who rely upon an on-premise installed base make the transition to the much lower revenue model that cloud computing represents?

To be fair, most of the high tech leaders already have cloud computing groups, and many of the technologies that underpin cloud computing capabilities comes from these very companies. Certainly, they face many challenges ahead as the industry further transitions to this computing paradigm.
One can easily see the giants of IT playing with other large non-IT industry leaders which will leverage cloud computing through an on premise model, and provide many custom services for those clients.

Besides, for many years to come there will still be a need for large (non-cloud) IT projects and large, financially stable companies to undertake those, that’s why it’s not the end of the end, or the middle of the end, but the beginning of the end for some companies, as not all will survive the transition.

Not to worry though, traditional IT will still be around for many years to come, even if the days of traditional IT are numbered.

THE country’s largest mobile operator, Econet on Friday launched the 3G technology that will allow subscribers to access internet on their mobile phones in a boost for the country’s information and technology sector that has undergone years of under investments.


Econet subscribers will now have access to the internet on their mobile phones, one of a range of services 3G technology will make possible in the near future.


General Packet Radio System (GPRS) will enable subscribers with compatible handsets to send and receive emails on the move.


GPRS can also be used by banks and shops to support payment devices for credit cards.
While the roll-out of GPRS is itself very exciting, the real excitement will be on the launch of a range of new generation services under 3G, Douglas Mboweni, Econet CEO said.


He says for business users, the most important application “will not only be what you can do with your cellphone but what you can now do with your computer or laptop”.


“A computer can be linked directly to the 3G network using a data card, which will be available at Econet service centres,” he said.


This eliminates the need for a dial-up line or expensive satellite dishes.


The bandwidth speeds on the 3G system as well as the capacity is unprecedented, according to Mboweni.
He said the mobile operator has installed an earth station just to uplink the 3G system.


“This is probably the most advanced cellular technology in the world," said Mboweni.


Zimbabwe has 2.5 fixed lines per 100 inhabitants, 6.5 mobile lines per 100 and less than 9.5 internet users per 100 meaning that the country is ranked below all the Sadc countries except the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the Global Information Technology Report 2008-2009.


But Information Communication Technology Minister Nelson Chamisa believes the sector is on its upward trend spurred on by massive roll out programmes by operators.


All the three mobile operators - Econet, Net One and Telecel - have announced massive roll out programmes to increase the subscriber base.