This is a BIG move by Microsoft and the system they have purchased seems to be the right way to go rather than try to replace the 'silos' of information that exist within the health care industry.
"Dr. Craig F. Feied, a principal designer of the software, describes Azyxxi as mainly a “data exploration engine” that typically works with existing clinical systems rather than replacing them."
"Analysts and health care experts who have seen the software work in the Washington hospitals say it is impressive technology. Many hospitals and clinics, they say, have various kinds of patient information in electronic form, but the different computer systems and software programs cannot share the data. That is the principal problem the Azyxxi system addresses, analysts say."
"At Washington Hospital Center, the system has done its job, Dr. Feied said. In 1995, before the system was introduced, the emergency ward handled 37,000 patients a year, waits stretched up to nine hours, and there seemed to be an urgent need for more doctors and rooms, he recalled. Today, the emergency department handles nearly 80,000 patients a year and 70 percent of them get a diagnosis, are treated or are admitted in three hours or less. The staff has increased only 5 percent, and few rooms were added.
The problem, Dr. Feied said, was mostly that patients were waiting in rooms because doctors could not quickly find the patient records, treatment history and other information to treat them.
“We weren’t doctor-poor or bed-poor,” he said. “We were information-poor.”"
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