Interactive autism network initiated

Kennedy Krieger Institute has started the Interactive autism network (IAN) and online autism registry, reports Wireless Healthcare.

The site is designed to drive autism research forward more quickly and efficiently, through the facilitation of collaborative work to find causes, treatments and the search for a possible cure to this disorder.

By the end of the year, IAN's goal is to have the largest pool of family-provided data on autism, enabling researchers to explore hypotheses and search for parallels among affected children in ways that have not been previously possible.

A research report has found that while technology cost and lack of a demonstrated return on investment is the biggest barrier to radio frequency identification (RFID) in the pharmaceutical industry, the lack of a frequency standard comes in a close second, reports PackWire.

"While many pharmaceutical companies are eager to begin their RFID pilot work, we're seeing a freeze on project funding until an item-level frequency standard is established," says report author Eric Newmark, senior research analyst at IDC company Health Industry Insights. "Evaluations are being hindered by corporate fear of investing in the wrong infrastructure."

Another concern that figured strongly in the Health Industry Insight survey was security and privacy. Even though tags will contain only a licence plate identifier, with more detailed information stored in a protected database, there are still security gaps, Newmark observes.

The Hospital de Sao Sebastiao in Santa Maria da Feira, Portugal, will implement electronic paperless medical environment, supported by Nortel Healthcare Solutions, reports FinanzTreff.

The IP solution includes new mobile communications capabilities and medical healthcare applications, such as picture archiving and communications systems for real-time patient-critical care.

"Our network will help us deliver optimum levels of care and allow us to explore new and innovative technologies to support a paperless environment," said Rui Gomes, IT manager, Hospital de Sao Sebastiao.