Health Care Information Exchange

Health information exchange describes the process of mobilizing health information through electronic means across various concerned organizations within a given hospital system, community or region. This process involves moving clinical information through different health care information systems while ensuring that the integrity and meaning of the information is maintained exactly as it was in its original state. The smooth and seamless exchange of clinical data and information is critical for delivering high quality health care information.Why it’s Important and How the Government is Promoting ItHealth information exchange describes the process of mobilizing health information through electronic means across various concerned organizations within a given hospital system, community or region. This process involves moving clinical information through different information systems while ensuring that the integrity and meaning of the information is maintained exactly as it was in its original state. The smooth and seamless exchange of clinical data and information is critical for delivering high quality care. Thus it also plays a major role in determining the effectiveness of organizations.Although the advantages of efficient sharing of health care information among concerned parties, including patients and physicians and other authorized members are understood and desired by most people who are involved in health care system, very few organizations have actually gone ahead and taken full advantage of the technological progress made in the area of health informatics and computer science. Health care information exchange involves various technology based systems like interoperability, business information systems, standards utilization, and harmonization. All of these need to be established on local, state and national level to provide a seamless network of information.According to David Blumenthal, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, if a standardized system of electronic health records can be put into widespread use it can lead to highly improved levels of efficiency and patient safety, and significantly better quality.An efficient information system has got several benefits to offer to all parties involved in the field of health care whether they are service providers or consumers. It allows health care professionals to conveniently access and retrieves relevant and complete medical data which helps them in providing patient-centered care that is more efficient, effective and timely. A well established health related information exchange system would also provide public health officials with a ready and in-depth database of public information which they can reliably use in analyzing health of the population effectively.

Is It Time to Look at Your Social Media Advertising Effectiveness?

Are you aware whether your social media advertising is working or not? As a business owner, you probably have various social media accounts to boost your brand awareness online.

But does having these accounts and gaining a few “likes and shares” here and there get you the results you want?

Here are 5 signs that it’s time to take your social media advertising to the next level.

1. You Get Few Likes or Comments

We’re talking about individual post likes, not page likes. When people engage with your posts, it’s an indicator they like what you’re publishing. And the reverse means your posts have little impact. So “follower count” is not a be-all-end-all metric; you can have a million followers but if they don’t like, share or comment on your posts, it doesn’t matter.

Look at the number of engagements generated by your average posts, including likes, shares, comments, and retweets.

2. Your Advertising Strategy Is on the Back Burner

Take a few minutes and think about your strategy. Do you have long-term goals? Do you have short-term goals? Is there a reason you’re using a certain platform? How are you planning to get more engagement?

If you don’t have solid answers to these questions, your marketing strategy is an afterthought or you don’t a marketing strategy at all. You’re just floating by, hoping for the best. Don’t do this! Write down what you want to achieve. Craft a list of many long-term goals and a few short-term goals. Find out which is the best platform for your brand and business. Have an outline of what you want to post before time and how you want those posts to improve engagement.

3. Most of Your Posts Are Self-Promotional

If you browse through your brand’s new feeds, what posts do you see? Are they entertaining, informative, or conversational posts? Or do most of them feature the products or services from your brand?

If most of your posts feature your products or services, then you’re losing your audience. People don’t like being advertised to all the time. Instead, take your social media marketing to the next level by being personal and connecting with your audience.

4. You Haven’t Checked Your Analytics in Months

Advertising is data driven. What has worked in the past? What hasn’t? Don’t repeat the same mistakes. Always check your social media analytics at least once a week.

5. Can You Remember the Last Time You Had a Conversation with a Follower?

Conversations will keep people coming to your page. It’s not enough to post a link to a blog and be done with it. If someone asks you a question, be there to answer it. And if they comment, you need to acknowledge them.

The acknowledgments and engagements will make your followers feel valued and appreciated. If you can’t remember the last time you had a conversation with a fan, you need to scale and improve your marketing strategy.

The Urgency in Deploying Network Security Appliance For Small Business Networks

Information is a business asset, like other valuable business assets, that must be protected against any threats. In medium to enterprise business networks, the management of the information security is a must. In small business networks, generally the organizations lack of competent security experts that should manage the information security. Therefore the choice of the deployment of small business network security appliance is a must for small organizations.In large enterprise networks, they have many layers of security protections including the endpoint security, the management of information security and policies which must be enforced to all business unit groups. Unlike large scale business or enterprise networks, in small organizations – generally they do not develop the management of information security in place. This is generally due to lack of IT security expertise which does not compare to the assets that must be protected. Any layers of security that should be deployed, depends on how critical your information assets is. Therefore, they mainly focus in securing the endpoint security.The entry point of the private network generally where all the internet threats are coming from, the intruders or the hackers as well as the malware will start to attack the vulnerabilities they found. Therefore, small business network security should concentrate in protecting the entry point by any types of secured firewall appliances. There are many security appliances available in the marketplace you can consider to use for your organization.The following are some of the small biz network security appliances you can consider to use for your small organizations. DSD-150 is designed for home or SOHO networks that use broadband internet connection.DSD-150 Security applianceD-Link DSD-150 internet security adapter is an all-in-one network security which is designed for home and small business networks. With this single device connected in the entry point of your broadband internet connection, you have a complete protection including network protection, firewall protection, virus protection, spyware protection, identity protection, pop-up blocker, SPAM blocker, and parental control – all in a palm-sized box.DSD-150 is suitable for home and SOHO network security which has 4 computers or more. Installation and configuration is easy, DSD-150 has 2 Ethernet ports, WAN port must be connected to the modem (RJ-45 LAN port), and the LAN port must be connected to the wireless router.CheckPoint Safe Office 500CheckPoint Safe Office 500 is a small business network security – a total internet security appliance for small to medium sized business networks. If your organization is lack of security personnel, don’t worry – trust the network security to this CheckPoint Safe Office 500 that can protect a network of up to 100 users from any types of network threats.Safe Office small business network security appliance delivers proven and integrated security, networking and connectivity features right out-of-the-box. Safe Office offers a simple, affordable and reliable solution to keep small business networks protected and connected.The following shows main features of the Safe Office security appliances:Web filtering, integrate best-of-breed Web filtering using an extensive database of categories and associated URLs. You can also create web access policy and also a custom web rules to block or allow access to specific websites and URLs
VPN and remote access, this feature is suitable for your traveler workforce to connect to the business network securely via public internet.
Network access control, ensuring that both LAN and WLAN users securely sign on before gaining physical access to the network.
Integrated a wireless access point to allow wireless network connection securely that supports the Super-G and Extended Range (XR) standard, enhancing the range and network speeds of the wireless access point.
Integrated ADSL modem (optional) to support download of up to 24 Mbps. This will simplify the initial deployment.Cisco ASA 5500 Series Adaptive Security AppliancesCisco ASA 5500 Series Adaptive Security Appliances is a powerful solution for small business network security as well as for medium sized business networks. Cisco ASA 5500 all-in-one solution for your business security which combines the proven technologies from Cisco PIX 500 Security Appliances, Cisco IPS 4200 Series, and Cisco VPN 3000 Series concentrator.Cisco ASA5500 is a built-in security solution which integrates the function of hi-grade firewall, IPSec VPN, and or intrusion prevention (IPS).Deploying small business network security is a must for small organizations for high performance network protection against any types of Internet threats. Endpoint security appliances such as CheckPoint Safe Office 500 or ASA 5500 series are perfect security solutions for small biz.By Ki Grinsing