HL7 Integration - Good News for Hospitals & Health Care IT Suppliers

HL7 stands for Health Level 7. It's a health care communication protocol that's in service in many countries worldwide. In the US, health care organizations also deal with regulatory standards known as HIPAA, which includes regulations for information exchange based on EDI (for the most part).

IT companies that supply health care applications now have the additional worry of having to comply with HL7. The only problem is that there are already many versions in use. Most versions are 2.1 up to and including 2.7 and the latest 3.0 version. But health care applications are written to support one specific version.

So what happens when a number of health care system providers all approach a hospital, and they're all complying with different versions of HL7?

That's where a code-free integration solution like iBOLT (which now has an optimized adaptor for HL7) can help by translating one version to another quickly and efficiently:

1. The Hospitals - With iBOLT they can better integrate the various health care applications they already have - to ensure optimal resource allocation for patients as they come through the door. (There are an enormous range of apps in a health care institution that need to be synchronized and integrated - from the logistics of bed provision to patient food supply, specialist medical system, laboratory testing systems, and more.)
2. The Health Care IT System Providers - If they've already OEM'd the iBOLT integration solution into their application they stand a better chance of winning the IT project - as they're application is already fully compatible with all other HL7 standards the hospital may be dealing with.

You can find out more by downloading the White Paper:'Improving HL7 Integration for Healthcare Providers'.

Here's a screen shot of iBOLT in action translating one version of HL7 data (Source - on the left side of the screen) to another version (Destination - on the right side of the screen).

The iBOLT system is fast, powerful and very intuitive. It offers the following capabilities for the HL7 environment:

• Translation from non-supported HL7 apps to supported HL7 apps
• From HL7 version 2.x to 2.y
• From whatever API to HL7
• From every HL7 version to an API
• From HL7 to Magic Software connectors (SAP, java, .NET, Portal etc) and vice versa..
• All HL7 supported apps are interchangeable - also with ERP, CRM systems etc..

For more resources go to:

iBOLT for HL7

Magic Software Solutions for Healthcare

Recession is an Opportunity to Grow Business using Smarter IT

Unlike many, I've never actually believed that this recession was just another minor 'bleep' on the never-ending spiral of growth. IT companies in particular continue to feel the heat, and because they are providing services that are vital for enabling business activity, their performance remains a strong weather vein in gauging the health of modern economies.

US economist Peter Schiff explains the overall situation lucidly. He was also one of the only voices to predict the current situation back 4 or even 5 years ago.

What does this mean for businesses then? According to Schiff, the solution is to encourage savings and production (not something that's happening either in the US or UK at the moment by the way). It's also a difficult task to achieve when taken together. And as a result, individual businesses are going to continue feeling the squeeze in the coming months and perhaps years unless they act wisely now.

But those that do act now, will survive to reap the profits later. The need for products and services will never go away. A recession is simply the market's way of correcting over-spending, unjustified investment and overconfidence (brings to mind the Enron story!), otherwise known as a 'bubble'. But it also sorts the wheat from the chaff. Only the smarter, stronger companies survive. But as we saw with the Dot Com clear-out, those companies will a real, competitive offering, not only have a better chance of surviving, but go on to thrive.

This means looking for smarter ways to ensure productivity - now. For IT this means changing corporate habits and adopting a new set of rules:

1. Use solutions that allow you to get more value and productivity from existing technologies (code-free integration tools are a good step in the right direction).
2. Acquire only solutions that are future-proof (metadata solutions will ensure easy adaptation to future technology platforms and new business requirements).
3. Look for ways to combine skill sets and technologies (such as adopting an end-to-end application platform to build RIA and SaaS rather than a Microsoft or Adobe front-end product that then requires you to buy back-end solutions and resources separately).
4. Ensure that business goals are the top priority in every corporate function, including IT (a metadata platform helps because it's simple enough for business decision makers to follow the IT process - and it enables faster and more effective application prototyping).
5. Remain open to different technologies - don't be fooled by some big-spend vendors who pour millions into making their technology look convincing - and look out for hidden costs that aren't mentioned in the sales pitch.

Rich Internet Apps - 5 Benefits for Manufacturing Companies (continued..)

From our last post we listed 5 ways in which Rich Internet Apps can improve ROI efficiencies for a manufacturing company.

But with the advantages come some challenges. Custom RIA development can be prohibitive to many manufacturers because the sophistication of the software requires two kinds of programmers:

1. RIA programmers for the client-side user interface and;
2. Traditional business logic programmers for the back-end server application.

Maintaining two development teams is not cheap on budgets or fast on project deadlines, hence the attraction of SaaS.

However, this issue can now be resolved with newer approaches to RIA development that pre-compile and pre-configure hard code into ready-made business application engines - or metadata engines.

If developing RIA in-house is the preferred path for manufacturers looking to create a competitive advantage in their business, then using the new breed of metadata-driven application platformsshould be aggressively considered.

Rich Internet Apps - 5 Benefits for Manufacturing Companies (Part 1)

Manufacturers looking to efficiently upgrade their IT capabilities and gain access to new business application functionality have 2 basic options:

1. Subscribe to a SaaS model (fast, easy to assimilate and implement, and very cost-effective).
2. Use custom software development (more expensive, not easily adaptable to new business demands, and not very applicable to organizations with a mobile workforce).

By custom creating a Rich Internet Application (RIA) you can actually solve most of the problems raised in point 2, providing manufacturers, and indeed any organization, with a viable and cost-effective alternative if they have come to the conclusion that they need something more than SaaS.

Manufacturers who have implemented custom RIA systems report a number of benefits. Here are 5 of the most important:

1. Mobile Access to Information. A number of manufacturing systems can potentially benefit from mobile access including CRM systems for sales teams, shop floor and inventory systems. Plant managers and supervisors are can access mission-critical information without being anchored to a static workstation.
2. Better Data Visualization. This can improve decision making, reduce product costs, better identify bottlenecks, help to anticipate shortages and improving lean manufacturing procedures.
3. Batch and Item Level Tracking. With RFID, barcode and other tracking systems, RIAs can provide instant visualization of work-in-process (WIP) and inventory information that's important in managing manufacturing processes.
4. Integration across Multiple Systems. RIAs can pull data from multiple data warehouses and systems, and present information on a single screen or reduced number of screens with visualization capabilities, as well as drill-down capability to view more detailed information.
5. Master Item Synchronization. Custom designed RIA applications accessing local data warehouses can be optimized for master item synchronization, potentially saving organizations millions.

All in all then, the benefits of custom-writing Rich Internet Applications present some excellent benefits for manufacturers. That is, until you start writing. Then you realize that a web app that combines the power and functionality of a desktop app comes at a price - system complexity.

In our next post, we'll discuss how developing and deploying Rich Internet Applications using a metadata-driven application platform can help you get around that complexity and achieve RIA faster and cost-effectively...

Building Business Apps - Hard Code vs. Metadata

I found this great video that could be used as a metaphor to describe how metadata works when building business applications.

Instead of writing thousands of lines of code, application platforms based upon metadata use a pre-compiled and pre-configured business application 'engine' that achieves far more rapid results - in the same way that MS Paint uses pre-compiled functions and logic to allows the artist in this video to paint an excellent mona lisa in under 3 hours (apparently).

Thanks to the very lovely Jude for this one!

Rich Internet Application Security - 2 Benefits of Browser Free

If you're a CIO, you've probably been asked to secure your internet applications against internet hacking at some point.

But that's becoming an increasingly tall order with security threats to internet based applications on the rise, with the strong growth being attributed to factors such as new viruses, malware and hacking attacks.

And it doesn't seem to matter which browser you use, whether it's Internet Explorer, FireFox (actually more vulnerable than IE, contrary to popular belief), Safari or others. Even the latest versions such as Internet Explorer 7, which claims a whole new set of security features probably won't be able to keep up with the robbers who always seem to be a step ahead of the cops.

According to security blogger Hon Lau: "In this day and age, the old advice of avoiding certain types of Web site and content on the Internet is no longer enough when even trusted sites have been known to be compromised in the past."

"Making sure your Web browser and other applications are fully patched, your Antivirus and Firewall software are running and up to date with the latest definitions sets and using a bit of street smarts should go a long way towards keeping you out of harm's way."

But all this security updating and maintenance is surely going to add up and put an additional strain on IT budgets. What if you could avoid the browser altogether, and yet still run a fully internet available business application?

Well, I only recently discovered that uniPaaS covers the security issue in two fantastic ways. Here's how:

1. Since the uniPaaS RIA Client is an independent applicationand not browser based, it's not subjected to the security issues and attacks that browsers suffer from! Also, the message format and protocol used to communicate between the Server and Client in uniPaaS are proprietary and secured.

This means that a uniPaaS application runs on the internet, feels like a desktop app in terms of performance, AND has the security of a desktop app as well!

2. I also found out something else: The uniPaaS Client does not directly access any back-end resources such as databases. Actually, it only communicates with the Magic Broker. This means that an enterprise company can isolate their users - preventing them from having direct access to the application database - and thus avoid potential employee data theft or corruption.

These are big issues with the global network security market predicted to reach about $9.5 billion by 2015.

uniPaaS could potentially change all that. Now I just have to get people to hear about it! Anyone have any ideas??

CIO Strategies for 2H 2009 - Get Closer to Business

It's clear that CIO's are facing tough challenges as we move into the second half of 2009. One thing that's clear is that CIOs will need to broaden their focus in order to maintain IT efficiencies in an environment of tight IT budgets.

What's interesting from Dave Aron's Gartner analysis is that 2 of the points he raised involve CIO's having to get closer to the 'business' side of their company's operations. He mentions in particular the following key words:

1. 'Strategy' - especially in economic downtimes it's important that strategy is clearly defined and articulated.
2. 'Relationships' - CIOs need to forge a better understanding of what makes business planners and CEOs tick - so they can better complement the needs of formal governance.

In previous posts we've discussed in depth the advantage of metadata-driven application platforms and their implications for more closely aligning CIOs and business.

In our white paper we define the metadata concept like this:

"A ‘metadata engine' is a ready-made business application engine containing pre-written technical and administrative functions and services. It enables you to bypass the intensive technical code-writing stage of application development and move quickly and efficiently to deployment."

So how does this metadata help answer points 1 and 2 above?

• It enables CIOs to focus more on business functionality and less on coding. This answers point 1 - 'strategy'
• It's simplicity allows business users to get more involved in the CIO's thought process. This answers point 2 - 'relationships'

Metadata driven application platforms also enable faster prototyping, more interactive development cycles (with more business feedback to ensure IT is meeting strategy), less code deficiencies, and a better exchange of information both within development teams and between development and business teams.

Building Business Applications in a Recession - (Continued)

So are we seeing green shoots or aren't we? Personally, I think it's a bit too early to say whether they're green shoots, mustard seeds or just mirages.. What we do know is that enterprise companies and software vendors are going to continue their cautious approach to IT spending for the time being.

And they face a unique dilemma: In an environment that combines recession and lower IT budgets, companies need to somehow find ways to be more competitive (ie. profitable) and yet spend less.

When building business applications, one of the common traps that software developers fall for are Client-side development tools that promise a highly-graphical 'rich' user interface. What they don't always realize is that a rich user interface doesn't automatically translate into a rich user experience. And it can end up costing quite a bit more.

In this vein then, here's our latest white paper.

Here, our Director of Product Marketing, Ofer Spiegel explains how to build a business application user interface (using uniPaaS) to deliver optimal user experience that boosts end-user satisfaction without breaking the bank.

If you're interested, he also writes a blogabout the subject and we explain how uniPaaS can help you re-use existing .NET resources when building your user interface here.

CIO Tips: Creating Conditions for IT Project Success

Nice blog posting and recorded discussion on the steps CIOs can take to create the conditions for IT project success.

Lo and behold, they mention that: "Significant among these isworking with other business leaders to ensure that IT executes according to the needs and priorities of business stakeholders. Although this seems an obvious point, continued high rates of project failure suggest it remains an area of serious deficiency in many organizations."

Sounds familiar somehow. This is now our most downloaded white paper - I believe mainly because it explains the concept behind metadata platforms and how it can help to align the objectives of business with the tools and skills of CIOs to ensure speedy and effective IT project delivery.