Anthony Hess has been named Senior Vice President and General Manager of Science Applications International Corporation’s (SAIC) Health Solutions Business Unit. As General Manager, Hess will be in charge of management and development for the federal government, including the Department of Defense, Health and Human Services,  Veterans Affairs, and commercial health clients. Hess was President [...]

NJVC used their annual golf tournament to raise $14,000 for Laptops for the Wounded, a program that helps wounded soldiers use laptops to communicate with their friends and family back home. The golf tournament was held June 26 and its 150 participants included the president and CEO of Laptops for the Wounded, Phil Drouin, as [...]

Cisco and UnitedHealth Group are launching a national telehealth network to provide medical care to people in underserved areas. They hope that the initiative can not only improve quality of care in rural, urban and other underserved areas but also help offset the upcoming physician shortage. “Connected Care” will combine audio and visual technologies to [...]

The Senate Appropriations Committee has awarded the Veterans Administration (VA) with $3.31 billion for health information technology in the new budget plan for 2010. The 2010 budget is 30 percent higher than that of 2009. The committee has suggested that $800 million be allocated new programs, $939 million be spent on employee salaries and other [...]

Microsoft HealthVault has expanded to include the offerings of iGuard.org, an online program to track prescription medicine interactions. iGuard.org is a free, personal drug monitoring program. The Health 2.0 software sends email alerts for any drug interactions, side effects, or treatment duplication based on the prescription and over-the-counter medications that consumers enter in to the program. It [...]

Verizon Federal has named Kathleen Grillo the new senior vice president of federal regulatory affairs, at the Washington, D.C. office. Grillo will be taking over for Susanne Guyer, who just announced her retirement. Kathleen Grillo earned both  her  B.A. and J.D. at the University of Virginia. She went on to work as an associate at Williams & [...]

The Social Security Administration (SSA) has announced plans to create an electronic disability claims system through the National Health Information Network (NHIN). Since February, the SSA has worked with MedVirginia to automate the disability claims program which has sped up the decision time, as well as saving money and labor. “We would like to expand [...]

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding for health IT has encouraged Maine, Washington, Nebraska, and Michigan to develop or expand health information exchange (HIE) networks. In late July, Maine plans to launch a 2 year trial of HealthInfoNet, an electronic health record (EHR) network. The project will initially include fifteen hospitals, 3 clinics, [...]

Dr. David Blumenthal, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, has said, at the CONNECT users conference, that he wants to “harmonize” electronic health records within the National Health Information Network (NHIN). The initial draft of the “meaningful use” criteria also suggests that electronic health record users be apart of a health information exchange, which will [...]

Michael Reitermann was named CEO of Siemens Healthcare’s U.S. organization. He will be taking over for Dr. Heinrich Kolem who will become global head of Siemens Healthcare’s Angiography, Fluoroscopy and X-ray business unit. Reitermann has most recently served as the president of Nuclear Medicine and CEO of Siemens Molecular Imaging Business Unit. He has also [...]