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I started this blog by saving that ‘House’ was one of my favorite TV shows. One of the reasons is the Tech Wife and I spend a fair amount of time with doctors. There is nothing too serious going on, but lets just say that I did not win the genetics lottery and the Tech Wife is a bit less coordinated than she would like to be. We are big fans of health insurance as we really do get our moneys worth.
Last week, Bill Lundell, one of ESG’s crack research gurus, sent along a note to the company regarding Google’s foray into the medical records storage business. The news announcement even had a customer, a Cleveland, OH healthcare provider, quoted (like Google needs credibility or a customer when it announces something). With Google’s service, health care records and images can be stored on the internet so that they can be easily accessed. The privacy groups weighed in saying that there is no way this can be safe and there must be some sort of HIPAA infraction.
Google is the only healthcare records service that was announced. Today, Iron Mountain and HP showed off their medical archiving services for providers that don't want to save stuff locally. Note to most patients: there is a good chance part of your medical history is stored at some Iron Mountain warehouse. The new service aims to make the records more available for hospitals and ultimately for the patient being cared for.
The following list takes a patient’s perspective, rather than an analyst one, at the look of these (types of) announcements.
I don’t care what privacy people say, you can store my medical records anywhere you want as long as the doctor I am currently seeing has access to them. Quick access is preferred. I don’t have the statistic but there are far too many deaths in the United States caused by misinformation including a doctor not knowing what medication a patient is allergic too. If I can't talk for some reason, the doctor better be able to find out what to give me and what not to give me. Privacy risk versus death? You pick. I once went to a very well known hospital in Boston where I was seen by the attending physician (50+ years old) and the fellow (30ish). The attending couldn’t log on to the hospital's systems to read my blood results because the ‘Caps Lock’ were on. The fellow sent my prescription to a pharmacy on her PDA after she used the medical encyclopedia on the PDA to check for any allergic reactions between the drug and my existing medications. My point is that as soon this woman becomes an attending physician along with her colleagues of a similar age, hospitals will have to go digital because a majority of the employees will actually know how to use all the gadgets. Its about time Iron Mountain Digital did something in an industry where its paper records management business has a big presence. They are viewed as a trusted partner in healthcare like GE Medical, Siemens, Cerner and McKesson. Hospitals will follow their lead. Now, Iron Mountain and a hospital can move into the digital medical records world together. It's about time that Google actually did something that is meaningful to people's well being. Sure, they made the internet more useable, but if they can make it easy for me to transfer medical records when I move from one place to another, that’s a real accomplishment. I literally had to buy extra boxes to move my medical records from Boston to Palo Alto, CA. I hope this is just the start for Google in some of these more ‘non You Tube-ish’ efforts. Don't get me wrong, I like the videos, but I like things that make my life easier much better. This is an analyst and personal perspective. ByCast is a company that I have seen over the years that makes healthcare information management pretty easy. In fact, HP's Medical Archive Solution is based on its technology. ByCast makes storing DICOM files and images easy on any storage device. I have multiple images of my body taken every year and it really annoys me when my doctors can't read them on a PC. There are a few other vendors that do some of this stuff as well and I will take any meeting with them. Why? Because they make my life as a patient easier.
My wife and I do not get out much mostly because we are lazy. However, when we do head out, we always have a hedge in place. We listen for trigger phrases from our friends that let us know we can leave. 'I haven't slept well in a few nights', 'We have barely seen each other in the past month', and 'I can't believe it's (pick a time) already!' - are a few of our favorites. Once someone speaks the trigger phrase, we are out of there. It doesn't matter who says it, when they say it, or why they say it. It gives us an out and we are usually more than happy to take it. When dealing with vendors, there are three big trigger phrases that you can use as an exit strategy. These little triggers, along with your excuse to leave the meeting / the lunch / the cocktail reception, are this week's list.
- Vendor: 'We have no competition.' Every company and every product has some form of competition. I could give you a list to prove my point, but let's use Microsoft Office. Sun has its Star Office. There are also Linux applications. Hardly anyone buys this stuff, but competition exists. When you hear this: "I need to step out to grab my invisible ink pen to sign your purchase order because you obviously don't need to sell me anymore, what else could I possibly buy?"
- Vendor: 'We are a disruptive technology.' If I had a nickel every time I heard this from a new or emerging vendor, the tech wife would be blogging and I would be watching All in the Family reruns. No one knows if their technology is disruptive (per Clayton Christensen's definition) until after the technology is in the marketplace and widely adopted and has displaced an alternative technology (there are other criteria and I suggest everyone read the Innovator's Dilemma). Your response: "I just got paged, it's rodeo day at my kid's / grandkid's school and I am playing the clown. Time for me to suit up so I need to disrupt this conversation right now."
- Vendor: 'We price to value.' Come on. Who doesn't price to value? Everyone knows what they are getting when they eat at McDonald's versus Morton's (or another fufu steak joint). Every vendor prices to make money as they are capitalists. Buyers understand this, some are more expensive because they invest more in R&D or have higher selling expenses. Your response: "We buy to value, do you accept coupons or have a frequent flier program?"
Vendor meetings are necessary and should focus on productive outcomes. These phrases are not necessary and just waste time. Feel free to listen if you want to, but now you have an escape route. Use as necessary.
After Microsoft announced its intent to acquire FAST Search & Transfer, I got several messages asking why ESG didn’t post ‘our take’ on the deal. I like the transaction because Microsoft doesn't have any enterprise search solutions and FAST was going to have a hard time growing and innovating on its own, and most importantly, FAST’s customers would be in the hands of someone who cares about the search business. But, the real reason I didn’t write anything is because I had a feeling that Microsoft wasn’t done spending its pile of cash. Everyone had speculated about the Yahoo opportunity, but Microsoft has Google (and only Google) on its radar screen. The FAST deal was akin to telling your arch rival to be at the playground after school and insulting his mother after the ‘meeting’ is arranged . The Yahoo bid means that Microsoft is going to show up at the playground with a bunch of friends, the kid’s sister on its arm, and boxing gloves. I am excited to see how all this activity plays out, and my list this week is dedicated to all things Microsoft and the markets that they make.
I like to wager every now and then so I say 2 to 1 that Microsoft closes the Yahoo deal this time next year. Then, we will see heavyweight fight between Microsoft and Google resulting in great for innovation as startups who will vie for acquisition by one of the two. I am already seeing great search innovation in the enterprise markets that customers should look for from the likes of Attivio and x1. Could this be a bigger year for Microsoft as a company? Longhorn (or whatever they are calling it right now) is coming out. The company recently launched its server virtualization solution going after VMware. Mark Bowker, who covered server virtualization, tells me that 69% of users will try Microsoft’s virtualization solutions and I cannot argue with cecause its Microsoft, its part of the operating system, and because people need a second source to VMware, and if that second source is free…I will stop there. There are a ton of companies that build solutions around Microsoft applications. Two such companies are Teneros (e-mail data protection) and Jatheon (e-mail archiving). Teneros boasts well over 100 customers that use its appliance to keep Exchange up and running. The best part is that Teneros monitors and manages the appliance remotely so its customers don’t have to worry about it. Now, don’t we wish Exchange was like that? Jatheon is also in the appliance businessl making an e-mail archive solution that helps customers address compliance and electronic discovery challenges. Keep in mind that 80% of electronic discovery requests involve e-mail and that includes small and large businesses because lawyers and regulators chase anyone who has money. There are plenty more of these examples, but I was feeling sympathetic to appliance companies today due to my fondness of microwave and toaster oven-enabled meals. Speaking of e-mail archiving and Microsoft - Dell just made a great move buying MessageOne which offers e-mail archiving and disaster recovery services. This resembles Microsoft buying Frontbridge Technologies a few years ago. I am a big fan of e-mail archiving, but some folks just do not have the IT resources to deploy a Mimosa, EMC Legato, Commvault, Autonomy Zantaz, or Symantec Enterprise Vault. MessageOne’s Software as a Service was well received and I think that Dell, presuming they continue to resource the business, will make it easy for customers to buy with their bundling. With all of these solutions, why do 34% of organizations get rid of messages after 90 days? Our research suggests that roughly 10% of Exchange users have upgraded to the 2007. I know many of you are waiting for Longhorn, but I think it’s worthwhile. The simple fact you can get voicemails via e-mail means that you don’t have to feel bad about sending responses like..’I got your voicemail and I thought it would easier to reply via e-mail because (make up a really good excuse here for not actually wanting to talk to someone)….and please send me note if you have any questions……..’
My apologies for not keeping up this week, but I am traveling as a result of LegalTech (see last entry). I will be back next week with more details on the event. For now, here is Tech Wife’s (I think Tech Gal was too generic, and kudos again to Bill Simmons of ESPN for starting the ‘let the spouse blog even though she doesn’t care about the topic’ trend) first blog...
Tech Wife
Let me first say the name ‘tech wife’ is a misnomer because I do not know anything about technology, and quite frankly, it is one of the reasons I married Brian. Who needs tech support when you have a husband that gets his kicks off this stuff for a living? My initial list centers on the lack of basic airport technology.
Flight Status Messages: Having checked my flight status on the web before I left for the airport, I knew my flight was delayed an hour so I adjusted my schedule accordingly. You can imagine my panic when I actually get to the airport and the flight status board says my flight is on time. I now panic and try not to trample the small children ahead of me as I run through security to the gate. When I get to the gate, the digital scrolling sign at the gate (similar to the ticker at the bottom of ESPN or E! or CNN, etc) that distracts you from what you are really watching) says that the flight is delayed!! What’s the deal? You are telling me that we can figure out how to use pyrotechnics inside a dome for the Superbowl, but there is no one working on how to synchronize all of the various flight status notification systems?
Boarding the cattle herd airline (Southwest): There is now a letter and a number on my boarding pass. Let me let you in on a little secret; when the boarding for A1-30 happens, you can have number thirty and get on the plane first! I have seen this injustice first hand and I wonder why there isn’t a machine they put the tickets through that sounds an alarm ‘You Cut the Line’. It would be a good use of technology as the person would be thoroughly embarrassed and he or she would have the ‘walk of shame’ to the back of the line and hopefully would have to check bags because all the carry on space is full.
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