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I-Pods are more than...

I-Pods are more than just an mp3 player.  Truly, with its revolutionary 1" hard drive it becomes a mobile data storage device.  Since, the new I-Pod technology includes the ability for color pictures, many people are turning them into handle photo albums.

But here's an innovative example of using an I-Pod in medical setting.  Radiologists are turning to I-Pods to display scan images. While resolution is not high enough for accurate reading, it has become an interesting tool for reaching out to patients and helping in their education of the results.

The special software called, " OsiriX" can be downloaded FREE from its home page.  How long can we wait for Motorola and Apple to team up on an I-Pod phone?

e-Prescriptions are making the rounds!

e-Prescriptions, using a handheld device to capture and electronically deliver medical information are hitting the mainstream at Boston hospitals.  Today, the Boston Globe reported that medical plans are now encouraging the use of the handhelds.  Some benefits include:

Health insurers are interested in paying for e-prescribing partly because the software checks whether the doctor has chosen the cheapest drug, and if not, suggests a lower-cost alternative, which could save insurers money on soaring drug costs.

Insurers also say e-prescribing will reduce the number of patients who get the wrong medicine or dose because the pharmacist can't read a doctor's handwriting.

In addition, doctors on-call can use the handheld to immediately check on a patients drug interaction as well as reduce errors in transcription and speed up the care and treatment of the patient.

Two companies are marketing the handheld, Zix Corp. (www.zixcorp.com) and DrFirst (www.drfirst.com).  Both companies offer a full-suite approach to the handheld tool, ie. medical records, appointment scheduling, billing etc.  The only advice: Just keep it dry!

HP Mobile Agent is Key Solution for Insurance Agents

Your worst nightmare is about to come true.  Imagine thousands of life insurance agents armed with handheld devices and capturing information about you for an on-the-spot life quote.  Or how about the enterprising agent that walks through vintage auto show and captures detail about the autos, owners and insurance needs and provides information on the spot.  Or a claims adjuster who immediately responds to auto damage claim and can issue a payment to a customer bank account.

End-of-day processing becomes real-time processing, enhancing customer satisfaction and reducing claims processing costs. Direct and independent agents can provide illustrations, execute underwriting rules, and capture electronic signatures using HP handhelds, tablet PCs, and digital pen and paper technologies.

Now, take it one step further and include predictive modeling on the quote process.  The big test will be teaching the agent how to gracefully tell the prospective account that they can't be written!

Insurance Agents Work!!

The much maligned insurance agent, believed to be living on a golf course somewhere near you, is actually working.  Agents are the lifeblood of the insurance sales and distribution system.  They own relationships and understand the intricacies of needed coverages.  And, they are also the primary cog in an insurers need to embrace technology.

The sales system is antiquated...relying on old underwriting ideas and using paper (yes, even carbon-paper) submissions that make a tedious task of data transferring, not too mention the error opportunities.  Agent enablement solutions typically combine portal server, content management, and business process management functionality with insurance application modules that can be configured to create agent-broker portals. Key areas of functionality from these technologies include:

• Collaboration tools
• Single view of multiple applications
• Ability to handle transactions
• Value network that enables internal, broker, agent and customer self-service
• Customer-facing functions such as marketing, sales and service via all touch points: in person, by phone, by mail, and over the Internet
• Strong integration with back-end systems
• Ability to develop and adapt business processes, interview, forms and content

Since these agent portals are connected to a carriers backroom functionality, the ability for immediate data mining/predictive modeling present enormous opportunities for "profitable growth".   Using the historical carrier or industry results, a carrier can nearly instantaneously evaluate and price a risk.  As with any data project...success always depends on the quality of the data.  Being gathered and delivered from the primary source can only enhance the sales/distribution system.  Will the extra time from the technology improvement lower the handicap?  Or, will it provide impetus for additional revenues?

This is the voice of Colossus, the voice of Guardian...We are one...this is the voice of unity.

Do you remember the Sci-Fi movie from the late 60's called, Colossus: The Forbin Project (just re-released on DVD)?  It is about a computer that is designed to protect the US from military strikes from the USSR.  Listen to voice of Colossus: it will send chills down your spine.  Colossus is designed with artificial intelligence and quickly merges with the computer from the USSR, called Guardian to become the fountain of knowledge for all mankind...albeit, without freedom. 

So now we hear that Google has planned to index the entire libraries of Harvard, Stanford , The Bodleian and parts of the New York Public Library.

Google's founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, have long vowed to make all of the world's information accessible to anyone with a Web browser. The agreements to be announced today will put them a few steps closer to that goal - at least in terms of the English-language portion of the world's information. Mr. Page said yesterday that the project traced to the roots of Google, which he and Mr. Brin founded in 1998 after taking a leave from a graduate computer science program at Stanford where they worked on a "digital libraries" project. "What we first discussed at Stanford is now becoming practical," Mr. Page said.

At Stanford, Google hopes to be able to scan 50,000 pages a day within the month, eventually doubling that rate, according to a person involved in the project.

The Google plan calls for making the library materials available as part of Google's regular Web service, which currently has an estimated eight billion Web pages in its database and tens of millions of users a day. As with the other information on its service, Google will sell advertising to generate revenue from its library material. (In it existing Google Print program, the company shares advertising revenue with the participating book publishers.)

Once this is completed, it may be possible to develop algorithms in predicitve modeling that, by bringing together all the written intelligence of the world, will push science ahead by light years in a matter of hours or days!  Now that is data mining at its best.  But will we live in a Colossus-like world where immediate access to information and its "predictions" will limit our freedoms?

Handhelds and Healthcare

Handhelds or PDA's come in all shapes and sizes; some with camera, telephones and mp3 players. But the true value with a handheld is to allow instantaneous transmission of data for enhanced decision making. Many healthcare practices are utilizing this workfow technology for recording billable information, accurate HCFA code entries as well as e-Prescriptions. In fact, The Center for Information Technology Leadership, Partners Hospital, Boston, estimates that widespread adoption of e-prescribing could eliminate more than 2 million adverse drug events each year, more than 130,000 of which would be life-threatening. Yet, just over 10% of presciptions filled today, are generated with this approach.

Return on Investment studies on Children's Specialized Hospital of New Jersey indicate an increase in $10 million revenue over the past two years, since each caregiver, equipped with this specialized Palm Pilot can see one more patient per day. In addition, savings have been realized from reduced bill submission from the ususal ten to fifteen to less than 5 days as well as revenue loss from late billing as all data is captured at once.

With this technology used in heathcare for admittedly routine operations, how could a handheld application be used in property/casualty? Could agents be armed with handhelds to canvas neighborhoods to provide on-the-spot home insurance quotations? Part of the answer lies in how you outfit the device. The handheld could identify the property with GPS, capture pre-determined photos of the risk and work "hand-in-hand" with the agent who could visually assess and transcribe the data back to the carriers servers. Once that data is streamed with municipal and credit information, an accurate risk quote could be left for the homeowner... likely within minutes and with all information accurately and precisely documented.

Applying Markowitz' Efficient Frontier

It is widely known in the use of Markowitz Efficient Frontier in portfolio "money" mangement' will provide the greatest return for a given amount of risk. It indicates the efficient use of bonds, cash, stocks and other assets in a given portfolio by measuring changes in standard deviation given a certain set of economic indicators.

When constrained by budgets, staffing and "politics", it would be helpful to have an "objective" measure of project value based upon Markowitz' risk/reward technique..particularly when it is widely know that nearly 40% of all IT projects fail to deliver their planned results.

By placing the cumulative business value (discounted cash flows) against available budgets, the curve measures the opportunity of the project(s). It can then be seen that to increase expenditures in a project may only provide limited return, thereby falling off of the efficient frontier. While there are many factors in IT decisions, this approach attempts to eliminate barriers for success and bring commitment to the projects...as all parties can "objectively" understand the IT projects impact on the business model.

Application Portfolio Management: Best Practices for Project Investment

Faced with dynamic data needs and analysis, competing demands for capital budgets for IT and limited staff expertise, it has become increasingly important to develop a methodology for deciding on which project to undertake and how to implement them. Gartner published a Research Note on one insurance companies approach to identifying the the true costs of an IT project.