Tech-centric healthcare crucial

Privacy, access and identity are vital to the Obama administration's effort to modernise the nation's healthcare information infrastructure, a panel of policy and technology experts told healthcare industry leaders, public policy makers and policy-influencing organisations at a national press club briefing in Washington, DC last week, reports Yahoo Finance.

The event was co-hosted by the Smart Card Alliance Healthcare and Identity Councils and the Secure ID Coalition. A video of all of the presentations from the healthcare identity and privacy briefing is available online.

The topic is timely because healthcare IT is getting a nearly $19 billion boost from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The speakers agreed the sense of urgency and massive investment are good news, but that time pressure might also cause problems.

An expansion plan by healthcare technology company Cerner could lead to up to 40 new jobs by the end of this year, states RTE Business.

Cerner, which is listed on New York's Nasdaq stock market, already has a facility in Dublin which employs 14 people. It now plans to add a multilingual software technical support service for its European markets. IDA Ireland is working with the company on the expansion.

The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment said there was potential for further job growth as the new operation developed.

Aurora Information Technology (Aurora IT), a developer of medical Web site designs, has introduced the Rio Grande Dermatology Web site, according to Marketwire.

The site was created with Bitrix Site Manager content management system. Rio Grande Dermatology provides comprehensive dermatology care for the Albuquerque metropolitan area. Its services cover general and cosmetic dermatology, which includes screening for skin cancer, acne, rashes, infections, and so forth.

The Web site features news and patient care sections and offers in-depth information about the conditions treated and services provided.