ICW News Feed

MEDICA 2008 - 40th World Forum for Medicine

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 08:39:00 +0000

Every year in November, companies from the medical industry exhibit at the Medica, together with the parallel event COMPAMED, in Düsseldorf their latest ideas and developments for better patient care.
In addition to everything the exhibitors have to offer, the attractive features that have made MEDICA such a success include theme parks and forums, but also the German-language MEDICA Congress and the German Hospital Conference (Deutscher Krankenhaustag), the main event of the year for the decision making levels of hospital management.
This MEDICA success story has been borne aloft on the trend towards complete IT integration in medical health care.
Further information about MEDICA 2008 can be found here: www.medica.de

ICW at MEDICA

Visit us at MEDICA 2008: at booth E48, in hall 15.
We will be presenting our solutions used in practice: including the LifeSensor personal health record, ICW Professional Suite networking solutions, and all ICW offerings that interlink with one another.

Make an appointment with us!

We would be more than happy to personally lead you through the exhibition and to answer specific questions you may have: Send us an e-mail, call us, or consult our contact form.
We would be happy to hear from you!

Press Releases: MEDICA: Networked into the Future - Together for Success

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 09:44:00 +0000

ICW solutions network private medical practices, hospitals, pharmacies, health insurers and patients with each other and ensure vital medical information is available when needed. ICW CEO Peter Reuschel explains: "The more care patients need, the more important it is for the productivity and quality of care that everyone involved can communicate with one another quickly and easily. The precondition for that is the best possible networking we provide with our technologies and partners. The principle at the heart of our philosophy is, to network existing systems rather than replacing them with new ones."

ICW Healthcare Connector for Secure Networking

For highly secure networking between medical service providers, ICW is presenting at the MEDICA for the first time its ICW Healthcare Connector, developed jointly with secunet Security Networks AG (secunet) based on SINA. The newly developed connector needs no active cooling thanks to its Intel Celeron M processor, which means it is completely quiet. The Healthcare Connector is based on the SINA technology from secunet, which has been serving to provide highly secure connections over public networks: For example, numerous government agencies use it for their data traffic at home and abroad. The attractively designed ICW Healthcare Connector based on SINA is the second connector to become available following on the ICW Healthcare Connector based on Cisco AXP, which has already been installed at over 500 locations.

Telemonitoring

At the MEDICA ICW will be introducing its new Care and Disease Manager for Telemonitoring (CDM-TM) for the first time as a stand-alone solution. CDM-TM enables persons with chronic diseases to get the best possible care management in their accustomed domestic setting, helping to eliminate unnecessary hospitalization. Patients simply measure their own disease-relevant vital signs such as blood pressure or weight using easily-operated devices. The measurement data is forwarded automatically to a Telemedical Center for analysis by medical experts. When a deterioration of the patient's condition can be foreseen an intervention can occur without delay. In Germany, CDM-TM is already in use for the Partnership for the Heart project conducted by the Charité university medical center in Berlin and for the CARDIO Integral contract program of AOK PLUS in Saxony.

Storing Measurements in the LifeSensor Personal Health Record

Monitoring vital data over extended periods of time can give effective early warning of disease and better results from preventative care. ICW will be demonstrating how any LifeSensor user can quickly and easily document and analyze measurements online, using measuring devices from Biocomfort and Beurer as examples. The devices are connected to a computer at home using a small software tool, LifeSensor Connect, which manages the flow of data between the devices and the personal health record. In the personal health record, measurements can be followed over extended time periods, graphically displayed and analyzed, so progress and trends can easily be seen. A user's doctors can also have access to the collected data when the user permits.

Optimized Discharge Management with eHealth

Hospital patients usually just want to get back to their own four walls as soon as possible. But often, patients must remain in the hospital because some vital sign needs periodic monitoring. This is where eDischarge, an eHealth-based solution for discharge management, comes into the picture: Patients that do not absolutely need to remain hospitalized can request a LifeSensor personal health record and one or more measuring devices. The measurements they take at home can be monitored by hospital doctors over the health record. That means, the patient can be recalled at any time for additional treatment if anything suspicious occurs. eDischarge is being offered in four incremental versions: From a light version that needs nothing more than an Internet connection all the way up to a workflow-oriented integrative solution with complete connectivity to ICW Professional Exchange Server and Care and Disease Manager Telemonitoring.

We will gladly provide image material about the eHealth solutions upon request.

Download Press Release about MEDICA 2008

Press Releases: Abraxas to Implement ICW Master Patient Index in St. Gallen

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 09:17:00 +0000

The contract consortium of hospitals in St. Gallen has assigned Abraxas responsibility as general contractor for the installation of an MPI based on IHE PIX integration profiles at the Cantonal Hospital in St. Gallen, in the Rheintal Werdenberg Sarganserland hospital region, in Linth, in the hospital region Fürstenland Toggenberg, and in the geriatric clinic (Bürgerspital). This solution enables all patients stored in the IT systems of participating hospitals to be clearly identified. The cantonal eHealth Strategy foresees that exchange of structured data between in-patient facilities in the canton of St. Gallen will be enabled by 2010. With the implementation of the system, the canton provides all of the necessary preconditions for integrating additional facilities while being optimally prepared to exchange data also across cantonal boundaries.

For its offered solution, Abraxas is building on competent partners: BINT GmbH, the business integration specialist from Winterthur, will be actively involved in its implementation. The solution is based on the Master Patient Index, a component of Professional Suite by InterComponentWare AG (ICW), an international eHealth specialist. This solution had already been chosen earlier this summer by Hirslanden, Switzerland's leading private hospital group. ICW's networking solution does not require the existing IT systems used in the hospitals to be replaced, because the exchange of data is based on established standards such as HL7 and IHE profiles. The MPI is extremely capable: In tests involving 100 million datasets and up to one thousand simultaneous queries, its response time was consistently under one second. That makes the solution practicable also for larger patient populations up to and including its use as a building block for a national Swiss eHealth strategy.

Download Press Release about ICW MPI Implementation in Canton St. Gallen

Press Releases: medatiXX offers ICW Connector to GPs in BW

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 13:44:00 +0000

The ICW Connector complies with the "Recommendations on Medical Confidentiality, Data Protection and Data Processing" of the German Medical Association and the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians of May 2008. This ensures that physicians using the connector comply with their obligation to protect highly sensitive patient data. Therefore, the contract partners HÄVG, Medi and AOK Baden-Württemberg recommend using a Connector as the best solution to safely and comfortably participate in the program while being ready for the future.

Installation and configuration of the ICW Connector in medical practices is conducted by especially trained experts from medatiXX.

Download Press Release about medatiXX offer

Press Releases: Personalia: Klaus Kunath New ICW CIO and Head of Corporate Services

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 08:21:00 +0000

Klaus Kunath is responsible for the ICW departments IT, Application Service Providing, Quality Management, the Test and Assembly Center, Service and Support Management, and Fleet & Facilities Management. In his new function he will continue to grow ICW's competency in eHealth solutions while supporting the efficient execution of its many customer projects.

Klaus Kunath has had many years of experience in IT. He has worked as a strategic consultant and held board and executive positions.

Download Press Release about Personalia Klaus Kunath

Press Releases: Personalia: Dr. Matthias Laux Takes Over as Head of ICW Product Line Basis Technology

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 15:05:00 +0000

As the head of the Basis Technology Product Line, Dr. Laux is responsible for product improvements to and for a stronger partner focus on the ICW eHealth Framework, which provides the basis for ICW's eHealth solutions as well as for many new developments by ICW's corporate partners. His central interest will be focusing on rolling over ICW's eHealth Framework into the Open eHealth Foundation created in May, 2008, so that this high-performance development platform can be used and further developed within a worldwide community.

Dr. Laux began his career at ICW in 2007 as Lead Product Manager in the Basis Technology product line. In this position he oversaw the growth of the ICW eHealth Framework into a stand-alone product. Dr. Laux has had long experience in the IT sector, which he gained as an engineer and in leadership positions with IBM and Sun Microsystems, among others. He studied Aerospace Engineering at the University in Stuttgart, where he also obtained his doctorate.

Download Press Release about Personalia Dr. Matthias Laux

Press Releases: Personalia: Dr. Frank Warda leaves ICW Management Board

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 08:28:00 +0000

Dr. Warda has served on the management board of ICW since 2006, during which time he was primarily responsible of the further development of physician and hospital networking solutions, and for ICW’s Medical Competence Center. He also oversaw the German subsidiary InterComponentWare Deutschland AG & Co. KG. Now, Dr. Warda has asked the supervisory board to dissolve his managerial board contract.

ICW regrets Dr. Warda’s decision and thanks him for his successful work. The company wishes him all the best for his personal and professional future. ICW’s CEO Peter Reuschel will take over Dr. Warda’s responsibilities for an interim period.

Download Press Release about Personalia Dr. Frank Warda

Press Releases: ICW, Stock Informatik and Swiss Prevention Center

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 14:03:00 +0000

The Swiss market for employer health management is expanding and is to some extent fragmented. Now, ICW, Stock Informatik and the Swiss Prevention Center are bundling their competencies to begin offering a comprehensive package of services for employer health management in the 4th Quarter that combines the business consulting and coaching competency of the Swiss Prevention Center with the know-how and technologies of ICW and Stock Informatik.

At the eHealthCare Congress in Nottwil on the 24th and 25th of September, the cooperative partners will be presenting their combined product for the first time: At Stand 32, visitors will be able to receive a voucher for a free personal health check-up. The check-up measures the body-mass index (BMI), blood pressure and blood oxygen content, as well as respiratory function. The test results will be entered automatically into ISIS prävent and used to produce a personal report that can be filed in the LifeSensor personal health record. These data will then be available for use in later check-ups or can be provided to other attending physicians. Visitors also have the option of receiving a LifeSensor personal health record that they can test for six months free of charge.

The Swiss Prevention Centers shows enterprises feasible ways to improve the health-related behavior of their employees. Holistic health check-ups (medicine, laboratory, nutrition, fitness, life balance, selfness) are specially designed for employees in management and key functions. The Swiss Prevention Center works with its customers to promote the philosophy that health is an investment in the future.

ICW is an international eHealth specialist. In Switzerland, it offers its LifeSensor personal health record, which enables anyone to store copies of health-relevant information easily and independently with regard to time and location. Only the owner of the record has access to this personal information. Record owners can however provide this information to others if needed - doctors, pharmacists, hospitals or other health care providers.

Stock Informatik is a specialized provider of preventative occupational medicine software solutions and is the leading German system house in this area. With its ISIS prävent, Stock Informatik is offering a management and documentation solution for health check-ups as a part of employer health care management. ICW and Stock Informatik have already been cooperating closely in Germany: Stock Informatik was the first ICW Certified Integration Partner to integrate the LifeSensor personal health record into its portfolio.

Download press release about Cooperation of ICW, Stock Informatik and Swiss Prevention Center

Press Releases: gematik certifies ICW connector for ProOnline-VSDD

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 12:57:00 +0000

Now that gematik has given its approval, the ICW Healthcare Connector can be used everywhere the electronic health card is being tested as part of the "Practical Test of Interoperability and Feasibility of Online Customer Data Validation and Update in the Field" (ProOnline-VSDD), a research and development program sponsored by the German Ministry of Health. This make it possible for the first time to test one of the telematic infrastructure's key features, the so-called client master data service in the field. Insured individuals use their client master data to prove entitlement to services under the Contract Physician Care program. They provide service providers with a basis for settlement with the state associations of public health insurance physicians and statutory health insurers. For holders of private health insurance policies, client master data serve to identify the scope of their insurance coverage and support existing billing systems. The ICW Healthcare Connector can also be centrally managed and updated by connecting with other value-added services online. This eliminates the need for expensive and intrusive on-site maintenance.

Online capability for components of the telematic infrastructure is a necessary precondition that must be met before the electronic health card can come into widespread use. The full value of the electronic health card will only then be fully realized once services such as ePrescription, emergency data or access to personal health records are fully implemented. Online capability is a major precondition for the next step towards a networked health care system.

The ICW Healthcare Connector is a cooperative development of ICW and Cisco based on Cisco's proven Integrated Services Router (ISR) technology. The Connector establishes a highly secure connection from the local IT systems in medical practices and pharmacies to the central telematic infrastructure.

Download press release about ICW connector for ProOnline-VSDD

Press Releases: EZ-CAP, InterComponentWare Form Strategic Partnership

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 14:39:00 +0000

The companies have complementary solutions that provide IPAs and health plans with clinical and administrative patient data in a dashboard view, accessed via a secure web browser. Having an electronic patient record available at the point of care improves the quality of care delivery and lowers costs by providing actionable and comprehensive information to providers in a single view.

A key feature of the solution is the ability to leverage an organization’s existing infrastructure. Darryl Low, president of MZIHC comments, “Our partnership with ICW allows us to offer a viable solution to the problem of connectivity for system-wide network communications that allows the creation of consolidated electronic patient records, simplifying administrative and medical processes for physicians.”

A defining characteristic of ICW’s solution is its flexibility in aggregating data from EZ‑CAP along with other data sources such as pharmacies, laboratories, hospitals, and physicians offices, and providing core information in the form of an electronic patient record.

Jeremy Coote, CEO of InterComponentWare Inc., notes, “Connectivity and the ability to deliver true interoperability are critical factors in the success of this partnership. By combining the EZ‑CAP platform and ICW solutions, we can deliver relevant data to all stakeholders in the care continuum, when and where it is needed. Moreover, our customers will have an extendable platform, ready for the integration of value-added applications.”

ICW has recently implemented its interoperable solution at an existing EZ‑CAP customer in southern California.

Download press release about EZ-CAP and ICW