~OT~....re: WirelessMD...<<They have developed a wireless technology for Drs. to communicate with hospitals via two-way pagers, Palm Pilots and Dell Notebooks and PCs using Dell servers. The Drs. could place discharge and prescription orders, make referrals, get consults learn about new drugs, etc............. all on wireless technology. The Doctors love it!>>
Drew: It sounds like a great company....Last year I almost went to work for a firm called ePhysician. They are rolling out an offering in the same arena. The big backer of this firm is Benchmark Capital -- they are behind high flyers like Ariba, eBay, CacheFlow, Kana, and Juniper. Check out the new company's website at ephysician.com
IMO, they should go public sometime in 2000.....you should hear more about them soon. Here is a recent press release that ePhysician put out...
<<ePhysician Reports Rapid Adoption of its Internet-Based, Handheld Technology and Expansion to 1000s of Healthcare Professionals
At Chase H&Q Conference, ePhysician CEO Stuart Weisman, M.D., Explains Why More Than 25,000 Physicians Have Voluntarily Registered to Become Users
San Francisco, Calif.-January 10, 2000-
(18th Annual Chase H&Q Healthcare Conference)
ePhysicianTM Founder, President and CEO Stuart Weisman, M.D., will report today that healthcare professionals are rapidly adopting ePhysician, an Internet-based, handheld solution made for physicians by physiciansTM to enhance the practice of medicine.
After a successful beta trial in summer 1999, more than 50 physician reference sites in several U.S. states installed ePhysician in December and wrote more than 6,000 electronic prescriptions, which were filled by more than 200 pharmacies. More than 25,000 healthcare professionals have voluntarily registered with the company to become ePhysician users when it is launched this quarter, and approximately 300 new physicians register daily on ePhysician's Web site. In the next few weeks, several hundred additional healthcare professionals will become "ePhysicians" with support from a broad array of industry partners. The company has signed letters of intent with pharmaceutical firms, pharmacies, laboratories, pharmacy benefit managers, healthcare IT providers, and academic institutions to sponsor widespread deployment of ePhysician.
Using Internet-enabled, palm-size computers, ePhysician allows healthcare professionals to screen patient data, prescribe medications and order laboratory tests at the point of care. ePhysician delivers critical information and transaction capabilities to physicians when and where they need them, whether in the exam room, on rounds, on the road or at home. Currently, less than one percent of the three billion annual drug orders written in the United States are electronic prescriptions-in spite of research demonstrating that adverse drug events (injuries due to drug complications or serious medication errors, which cost $2 billion each year) decline more than 50 percent when physicians prescribe electronically.
"Physicians have been slow to leverage new technology because they have not been given realistic systems for everyday practice," Weisman said. "ePhysician is a simple, cost-effective solution that provides indispensable information whenever it's needed at the point of care. Many physicians, pharmacists and patients are already seeing the health and economic benefits of ePhysician prescriptions, and we are excited about extending this technology to thousands more healthcare professionals."
About ePhysician
ePhysician was founded by a practicing physician in July 1998, to leverage the ease-of-use of handheld technology with the connectivity of the Internet. ePhysician's solutions are made for physicians by physicians to improve clinical decision-making by providing indispensable information at the point of care. The company's physician-centric strategy, combined with key healthcare industry partnerships, is driving rapid adoption of ePhysician to enhance the practice of medicine. Based in Mountain View, Calif., ePhysician is funded by Benchmark Capital and Sierra Ventures.>>
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IMO, the applications for wireless technologies will explode in the next few years.
Best Regards,
Scott |
