Greetings,

With the spring season in full swing, things at InSight are really starting to bloom. We kicked off the year with the rollout of our redesigned Web site to enrich collaboration within the InSight community, and from there, we have only gained momentum.

Those who have visited the Web site within the past week may have noticed a new addition, the launch of our InSight Search Application, powered by Google Search Appliance. To learn about some of the new functions associated with this tool, please read InSight Launches Web site Search Tool in this issue of NewsLink. As this is a new function, updates will follow so be on the lookout for future notifications.

The first Webcast in our CIO Forum Webcast Series also began this month. This program runs now through September where it will culminate at the CIO Forum during the InSight 2008 Annual Conference. If your position is C-level or equal to and you have questions about the CIO Forum and the Webcast Series, or you want to forward this information to your supervisor, please send an e-mail to ciopeers@insight-net.org.

The thought of the CIO Forum brings another event to mind. The InSight 2008 Annual Conference is coming soon.

To read the President’s Message in its entirety, click here.

InSight recently launched InSight Search Application, Version 1.2 of the Google Search Appliance, on www.insight-net.org. This InSight Google search has replaced all existing searches. On the specific search page you can elect an advanced search option that allows you to limit the search to a specific area, such as the discussion forums instead of the entire site. The search bar is available on the top right hand corner of every page on the InSight Web site. The scope of searches includes Web content on the current site and discussion forums. The appliance supports standard document types that allow the tool to read Microsoft Word documents and Adobe PDFs entered in discussion forums.

As of now, the InSight Search Application does not access the Document Repository. InSight is researching the capabilities of adding this additional feature to later version releases of the tool.

Experience the Vision, Voice and Value of InSight. Mark your calendars for the InSight 2008 Annual Conference, September 24-27, at the Gaylord Texan in Grapevine, Texas.

Early Bird and Hotel Registration
Early bird and hotel registration will open at the beginning of June. Early bird registration will then close on July 21, so make sure you take advantage of this limited window to reserve your spot at the InSight 2008 Annual Conference.

Visit www.insight-net.org regularly and watch your inbox for further information to be released. Don’t miss your chance to attend.

This is a reminder to participate in your SIG monthly calls. All InSight members are encouraged to participate in these monthly meetings. Please view the SIG Conference Call Schedule and Information for a list of SIGs and call times. You will need to log in to www.insight-net.org in order to access the document. If you have any questions, please send an e-mail to npalluzzi@insight-net.org.

To meet the growing demands for safer patient care in the OR, McKesson Corporation has acquired Rosebud Solutions, LLC, a provider of software solutions that track and manage instruments, endoscopes and tissue implants for surgical services, as well as medical crash carts and mobile equipment.

The Rosebud Solutions portfolio will work with McKesson's surgical and materials management solutions to create efficient and responsible workflow processes that help hospitals improve patient care, reduce surgical delays and costs and save staff time. Customers can electronically manage, track and reduce costly waste for thousands of expensive surgical trays and instruments that are used in several locations throughout the hospital. The solutions also help hospitals manage regulatory requirements for safe tissue and implant management.

Less than 30 percent of hospitals are automatically tracking surgical trays from assembly, sterilization and patient use to decontamination. For those that have automated tracking, the benefits are powerful. For example, a Top 10 teaching hospital on the West Coast has used Rosebud Solutions to save at least $1 million over the past four years by reducing or eliminating surgical instrument replacements. Another leading teaching institution in the Midwest increased net reimbursement for patient charges of equipment use by $2.5 million annually. And at a community hospital in the South the sterile processing department has maintained the same headcount over four years to manage a caseload that has doubled in volume during the same time frame. Read the press release for more details.

To help increase the accuracy and safety of medication prescribing for high-risk, complex patients, McKesson is rolling out its new Advanced Dosing functionality for the Horizon Expert Orders™ clinical decision support (CDS) and computerized provider order entry (CPOE) system.

For the very young, the very old and the very sick in particular, physicians must consider a myriad of complex factors when calculating dosing requirements for their patients. Studies have shown that in pediatrics, the most common type of medication error is a dosing error at the ordering stage. And a study published in April in the journal Pediatrics found that there are about 11 adverse drug events for every 100 hospitalized children.

"We are constantly evaluating strategies that will help to eliminate medication errors, particularly in patients with complex dosing requirements," said Jeff Ferranti, M.D., M.S., director of Pediatric Informatics and Computerized Patient Safety Initiatives at Duke University Hospital, one of the sites implementing this system. "We believe this Advanced Dosing solution has the potential to be of particular relevance in pediatric and neonatal units where specialized approaches to weight and age-based dosing are required and small miscalculations can cause significant problems."

Advanced Dosing delivers patient-specific recommendations coupled with sophisticated dose calculators and rounding algorithms tightly tailored to the indication for the medication, including criteria such as the patient's age, dosing weight, body surface area, renal function and diagnosis. Read the press release for details.

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