Remote island gets telemedical care

Project Tristan, a scheme to give the world`s most remote, inhabited island access to advanced telemedical care, was announced, reports IDM.net.

Tristan da Cunha is 2 680 kilometres west of South Africa, only accessible by a one week boat trip. It is home to 270 British citizens.

'Project Tristan` combines medical equipment, satellite communications and electronic health recording technology that can be controlled remotely. The purpose of this is to allow specialists from anywhere in the world to assist the island`s one doctor with on-site diagnosis and provide advice.

Medsphere Systems, a commercial provider of open source electronic health record systems and services, announced the appointment of Edmund Billings, MD, as chief medical officer (CMO), says Ad-Hoc-News.

Over a diverse career, Billings has co-founded three healthcare IT companies, including one dedicated to open source initiatives; served as CMO for two others; consulted on numerous healthcare IT projects for major corporations; and spent nearly a decade as a practicing physician with Kaiser Permanente.

"Edmund has a unique combination of skills that go beyond the medical knowledge and clinical experience required of a chief medical officer, to also encompass extensive information technology and open source work," said Michael J Doyle, Medsphere president and CEO.

Cardinal Health announced an alliance with Sentry Data Systems to deliver Web-based technology that helps eligible healthcare facilities implement, manage and meet the stringent compliance requirements of the federal 340B Drug Pricing Programme, states CNN Money.

The 340B Drug Pricing Programme offers drug discounts to help eligible hospitals and other federally qualified healthcare facilities provide care for the nation`s underinsured and uninsured patients.

Through an alliance with Sentry Data Systems, Cardinal Health now offers Sentinel RCM and Sentrex, the healthcare industry`s only 340B solutions that are delivered via a software as a service model, which provides the benefits of commercially licensed, internally operated software without the associated complexity and high initial cost.