–       The United States Postal Service is delaying until 1/26/2014 implementation of the Full-Service Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMb), which impacts companies who produce variable data direct mail.

 

–       EFI announced it won a Monarch ERP solution contract from Thomson-Shore, a book manufacturer in Dexter, MI.

 

–       InfoTrends published study of usage of Web-to-Print solutions:

  • now used by 40% of U.S. based print shops
  • used by 25% of European print shops
  • MFS Investment Management saved $350,000 within the first few months of implementing a W2P solution for its 401K sales proposal kits, even though its fulfillment volume rose by 58%
  • Tiffin University dropped its printing and postage costs by 50%, when it switched its student inquiry packets from 9”x12” folders with preprinted inserts, to highly personalized booklets.
  • The University of Nevada-Las Vegas, used to take weeks to produce fundraising materials, but new W2P system shortened

 

–       FlexPrint, a managed print dealership headquartered in Mesa, AZ, announced it was named to the Inc. Magazine’s “Build 100” list, which honors companies that have expanded their employment in each of the past 5 years.

 

–       Samsung of South Korea announced it has opened a research & development facility in Vancouver, Canada.

  • “With a skilled Canadian talent base to draw from, the team will help Samsung continue to lead the industry both at  home and abroad by driving product innovation.”

 

–       In a cost cutting move, Toshiba announced it will close down an LCD manufacturing plant in Dailan, China, putting 900 workers out of work.

 

–       Toshiba announced it will divert some of its research and development budget to launch new “smart appliances” for the kitchen.  Possible products include:

  • refrigerators with camera that texts pictures to show what’s for dinner
  • voice controlled washing machine
  • devices that talk to each other via the cloud to reduce energy usage

 

–       Toshiba announced it will open a solar panel division to market products to homeowners in Germany.

 

–       Ricoh announced it will again be the official office equipment provider for the Philadelphia Eagles football team.

 

–       Ricoh announced it sold a Pro C901 production color system to Wellington Press of London, England.

 

–       Ricoh’s general manager, Yasuyuki Nomizu, announced it signed contract with Wind River Inc. of Alameda, CA to develop print controllers for future Ricoh-made MFPs.

 

–       Hewlett Packard announced it sold an Indigo production color system to the West Bromwich Albion soccer team to produce personalized season ticket renewal mailers.

 

–       Hewlett Packard announced it hired Donna Grothjan (formerly VP at Juniper Networks) as its new VP of worldwide distribution, reporting for Senior VP, Sue Barsmian.

 

–       HP announced the “Pronq” project:

  • Pronk is word meaning “jumping up into the air or moving forward by leaps and bounds”
  • new site to sell software directly to customers

 

–       In a cost cutting move, HP announced it will let go of 1,124 employees from three of its offices in England.

 

–       More info from HP on its last quarter’s financials:

  • total revenue down 7% to $112.3 billion for its full fiscal year
  • commercial PC sales up 4%
  • enterprise group sales up 2%
  • printer/MFP division revenue down from $24.5 billion to $23.8 billion for the year
    • “revenue from graphic equipment reached a record level as sales of Indigo digital presses grew at a double digit rate” stated Cathie Lesjak, CFO
    • “Our printing business delivered an excellent 4th quarter with continued strong profitability.  We outperformed the market for the 2nd successive quarter, getting 4% of total unit market share over the prior year.” stated CEO, Meg Whitman
    • consumer model shipments up 4% (primarily inkjets), revenue up 7%
    • commercial model shipments up 9%, revenue up 5%
    • supplies revenue down 4.1% to $3.9 billion
    • operating profit margin for division is 17.7%

 

–       Mike Lynch, former CEO of Autonomy Software, which HP acquired for $11 billion, announced he is investing in Taggar Software, a startup company that makes augmented reality solutions.

 

–       Document Capture Technologies of Santa Clara, CA launched SimpleScan:

  • allows documents to be sent from a computer, tablet or smartphone with an Internet connection
  • turns a smartphone or desktop scanner into a virtual fax machine that transmits digitized documents to any fax number
  • connection ready for cloud services including; Box, Certify, Dropbox, Evernote, Expensify and Google Drive

 

–       3D Systems launched ProJet 4500, the first and only continuous-tone, full color, plastic 3D printer available on the market.  Pricing not announced.

 

–       MarketsandMarkets announced that its research shows that the 3D printer market will be worth $8.41 billion by the year 2020.

 

–       Officials of “drupa”, the world’s largest trade show of production print technologies, announced that it will include the 3D printer products in future events.

 

–       Ponemon Institute released results of latest data security survey:

  • 58% of IT staff does NOT see cyber attacks as significant threat to their business
  • security-related business disruptions have cost SMBs a combined average of $1.6 million over the past 12 months
  • 33% admitted they are not certain whether they suffered a cyber attack in past 12 months
  • 42% have experienced an attack in that period
  • 31% admitted that no one function in their organization is responsible for setting IT security priorities
  • 44% admitted that IT security is not a priority

 

–       Black Friday sales research from IBM shows:

  • online sales up 20%
  • average order value of $135.27, up 2.2%
  • shopping from mobile devices up 34% to 21.8% of online saless
  • smartphones drove 24.9% of all online traffic
    • average of $115.62 per order
  • tablets drove 14.2% of traffic
    • average of $132.75 per order
  • Apple iOS accounted for 18.1% of online order
  • Android devices accounted for only 3.5% of orders

 

–       The American College of Physicians announced that research shows that using a smartphone while driving reduces the amount of brain activity devoted to driving by 37%.

 

–       InfoTrends released results of wide format study:

  • 39% of buyers looking to acquire wide format printers are commercial printers
  • share of buyers expecting to increase wide format graphics purchasing in next 12 months was 6.5 higher than the share expecting to decrease it
  • projects the retail value of wide format printing to grow at a CAGR of 7.9%, reaching $23.6 billion by 2016

 

–       Kwik Kopy, a large franchise of print-for-pay shops, announced that its co-founder, Mary Phillips Hadfield, passed away at age 83.

  • her husband, and co-founder, Bud Hadfield, passed away in 2011
  • she was a graduate of Baylor University

 

–       The Federal Court has ordered Tuan Nguyen and Thuan Nguyen to pay a fine of $50,000 each after their company, Artorios Ink, went bankrupt after being caught misleading businesses that were coerced into contract to acquire printer cartridges.

 

–       Apple announced that Santa Clara County sheriff’s deputies arrested Glenn Cartwright for the theft of copper pipes and copper wiring from the construction site of the new Apple headquarters building.  He was treated for a bit from the police dog used to find him.

 

–       Analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co, downgraded shares of Canon from “Overweight” to “Underweight”.  Its stock value also downgraded by:

  • Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
  • BNP Paribas
  • Zacks Investors Service

 

–       Xerox announced it will lay off 168 employees at its call center in Cary, North Carolina.

–       Xerox announced it planned on raising $500 million from selling bonds, after its credit rating was boosted by Standard & Poors.

 

–       Xerox announced it sold 8250 Production Color Printers to:

  • DMM Inc. of Maine
  • MAR Graphics of Illinois

 

–       Xerox announced it sold a 1000 Digital Color Press to Christ Computers of Chennai, India to produce variable data output.

 

–       Xerox shipping the new WorkCentre 5890, which is advertised as a light production b/w MFP.  Details:

  • based on same laser engine used in 65ppm workgroup MFP
  • based engine weight is just over 200lbs.
  • actually made by Fuji
  • color LCD touchscreen
  • top speed of 90ppm
  • maximum monthly duty cycle of only 400K/month
  • first print out time of 2.9 seconds
  • 5.9 second first copy out time with ADF
  • document feeder holds up to 200 originals
    • top speed of 100opm
    • scans both sides of original at same time
  • comes standard with 100 sheet bypass, two 500 sheet universal drawers and 3,600 sheet letter size deck
    • optional 4000 sheet letter size deck
    • optional 2000 sheet universal size paper deck
    • optional 50 envelope tray for tray 2
  • finishing options include:
    • 50 sheet stapling finisher
    • booklet maker
    • hole punch
    • zfold
    • cover inserter
  • 600x600dpi as copier, 1200x1200dpi as printer
  • optional fax board
  • built-in print controller
    • 160GB hard drive comes standard with overwrite and encryption
    • optional McAfee data security kit
    • 2GB RAM
    • 1GHZ dual core processor
    • 10/100/1000BaseT & USB ports standard
    • optional WiFi kit
    • PCL and PostScript print drivers standard
    • XPS print driver is option
    • mobile print is option
    • scan to network/email/folder/SMB/FTP/TWAIN standard
    • OCR standard for scan to searchable PDF

 

–       Employees of firms owned by Kia Silverbrook, founder of Memjet color inkjet printer/MFPs, are suing for back pay, according to Australian newspaper, where he owns two companies.

 

–       Memjet launched the C6030 MFP, featuring:

  • marketed to copier dealers in the U.S. by Parts Now, a distributor headquartered in Madison, WI
  • uses page wide color inkjet printhead
  • top speed of 60ppm when printing
  • top resolution of 1600x800dpi
  • as a color copier, speed is 20ppm at 300x300dpi
  • desktop A4 design
  • maximum duty cycle of 4000 pages/month
  • single paper drawer holds up to 250 sheets, up to 70gsm
    • bypass holds up to 20 sheets, up to 70gsm
  • document feeder holds up to 50 originals
    • does NOT scan both sides of original
  • auto duplex standard
  • edge to edge printing
  • built-in print controller
    • host based printing only (no PCL or PS print drivers available)
    • scan to email/file standard
    • USB and 10/100BaseT ports standard

 

–       Rommel Asuncion, a former worker at California’s Department of Child Support Services, pled guilty to stealing $363,192 worth of printer cartridges from this former employer, and sold them over the Internet.

 

–       LumeJet Inc. of England announced a new production color device, called the LumeJet S200 offering:

  • does not use toner or ink
  • uses silver halide technology, which is special paper with ink embedded, that it activated with light produced in the printer
    • is subtractive color system, meaning that photographic media works by subtracting colors from white light
    • paper has 3 layers; red, green & blue
    • layers are a gelatin mix, containing dye-sensitized silver halide, that reacts to RGB wavelengths
    • after paper is exposed, it is processed in developer
    • light is produced from a built-in array of 288 LEDs
      • 96 are Red, 96 are Green and 96 are Blue
      • uses fiber optic taper bundle
      • uses a relay lens system to expose a swath of 6mm wide at a time
      • the S200 has two light heads, for 12mm wide
  • true continuous toner color output
  • RGB color space, thus providing more colors than CMYK
  • able to match metallic and Pantone colors
  • archive quality, light safe prints
  • able to produce 1 point sized text
  • “considered better than 4000dpi quality”
  • maximum sheet size of 1000mmx305mm from rolls of paper
  • “In samples seen at Drupa, the LumeJet quality was astounding”; stated Gareth Ward, editor of Print Business.

 

 

–       Nielsen Inc. announced that new study shows:

  • households exposed to ads printed in magazines spent 3-36% more than those consumers who did not see ads

 

–       Newsweek magazine, which stopped print versions, and only offered online subscriptions last year, announced that it will start printing the magazine again, due to subscription losses.

 

–       Dell announced it will relaunch its managed print services program, and call it “Dell Print Services.”

 

–       2 million logins and passwords from users of Facebook, Google and Twitter were found on a Netherlands-based server, part of a large botnet using software nicknamed “Pony”.

 

–       Ponemon Institute released results of research on data centers:

  • cost of downtime increased 41%
  • “the results underscore the importance of minimizing risk of downtime that can potentially cost thousands of dollars per minute”
  • 49% of costs are indirect
  • 40% of costs are direct
  • 11% of costs are opportunities lost
  • most expensive costs were in order; business disruption, lost revenue and lost end user productivity

 

–       Lexmark’s lawsuit against Static Controls will now be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.  Lexmark is attempting to stop Static Controls from making chips that can be placed in Lexmark print cartridges by refillers that extend the life of the cartridge, and provide end users with a low cost alternative to buying new cartridges from Lexmark.

 

–       Fuji, which makes most MFPs sold by Xerox, and sells the products under its own name in Asia, announced it is launching a new ad campaign, entitled; “Print Color”, starring Tony Leung, a famous movie star in China, to boost sales of its Apeos brand of color MFPs.

 

–       Researchandmarkets announced results of study of document management solution market:

  • market is predicted to grow at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 13.98% from now until 2016

 

–       Pantone/X-Rite announced that the color of the year for 2014 will be “Radiant Orchid”, a shade of purple or Pantone# 18-3224.

 

–       Canon launched the new Oce’ VarioPrint 6000+ series of b/w production systems:

  • replaces the 6000 series
  • includes the new 6160+, 6200+, 6250+ and 6320+
  • all feature Gemini Instant Duplex Technology to image both sides of paper in a single pass
  • top speed of 306ipm
  • print controller based on MS Windows 7 platform
    • advertised as up to 30% faster than previous models
    • display production schedules for up to 8 hours
  • maximum duty cycle of 10 million/month
  • maximum paper capacity of 24,000 sheets
  • optional roll feed for capacity of 75,000 sheets

 

–       Canon announced that its study shows that an accounts payable department using a document capture and document management system can process invoices for as little as $2.20 per invoice, which is 88% lower than the average AP department without solutions.

  • with solutions, can process an invoice 4.5 times faster

 

–       Canon announced it won a managed print services contract from the University of Miami in Florida.

 

 

 

–       AllScripts announced it will open new office in India that will house 400 employees.

 

–       Wolters Kluwer announced it won contract to help Banner Health, headquartered in Arizona, to convert to ICD-10.

 

–       MedAssets claims that it helped the Texas Purchasing Coalition (healthcare purchasing group) achieve $60 million in cost reductions.

 

–       MedAssets announced it won contract from Marin General Hospital of California.

 

–       Nachimson Advisors published results of research in regards to the costs associated with healthcare organizations moving from ICD-9 coding system to the new and mandated ICD-10 system:

  • average of $83,000 for small practice
  • $285,000 for mid size firm
  • $2.7 million cost for a large IDN
  • only 24% of ICD-9 codes have a direct correlation with ICD-10
  • 15-20% of a patient’s visit is spent on physician documentation on ICD-9, which grows by 4% with ICD-10

 

–       Lockheed Martin donated a $4 million telehealth suite system to UCLA Health System of Los Angeles, CA, to assist with treating wounded military personnel.

 

–       Epic announced it won contract from PeaceHealth Medical Group of Longview, Washington.

 

–       Epic announced it won a $90 million EHR contract from Tampa General Hospital of Florida.

 

–       Cerner announced it won contract from the New York Methodist Hospital.

 

–       Cerner announced it won contract to install its Millenium EHR in 50 locations of Adventist Health in the state of Washington.

 

–       SRS announced it won an EHR contract from San Diego Orthopaedic Associates Medical Group of California.

 

–       The ONC’s Health IT Policy Committee voted to urge the federal Department of Health & Human Services to pare back a HIPAA rule that let patients get reports from healthcare organizations detailing all individuals who access the patient’s PHI.  This is known as the “accounting of disclosure” rule.

 

–       The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) is proposing that the new Meaningful Use timelines for Stage 2 be extended through 2016.

 

–       The Leapfrog Group published its annual list of the highest quality hospitals.  Examples of winners are:

  • Banner Del E. Webb Medical Center of Arizona
  • East Morgan County Hospital of Colorado (in the Rural category)
  • Phoenix Children’s Hospital of Arizona (in the Children’s category)

 

–       The Florida Board of Medicine announced a new rule that requires paper medical records now be sold for $1.00 per page, no matter how many pages.

 

–       Large IDN explains why it still needs a document management system, even though it implemented an Epic EHR, in an article in Healthcare Technology magazine:

  • “You absolutely need a document management solution, and you need a physician governance around where the clinical documents live within that solution”; stated Dr. Robert Wise, CMIO (chief medical information officer)
  • Cleveland Clinic of Ohio (4,450 beds) chose to invest in Hyland OnBase ECM (enterprise content management) solution
  • “We realized, after implementing Epic, that an EMR doesn’t completely eliminate the need for paper forms.  Current technologies just aren’t there yet.”
  • “Paper-lite is the best you can hope for, even with an EMR.”
  • “We also realized that native EMRs are not fully capable of handling unstructured data such as images from ophthalmology, EKGs, and sleep study data.”
  • “Our physician found themselves with this great new EMR, but they were still spending time searching for files outside of the EMR.”
  • “We needed to be able to manage the paper and other unstructured data and put it in locations that made the most sense for easy physician retrieval.”
  • “They (Epic) have not yet developed their own.”

 

–       Hyland Software announced it won OnBase ECM contract from Cheyenne Regional Medical Center of Wyoming to integrate with its Epic EHR.

 

–       Encinosa & Bae published results of research of cost saving potential of Stage 1 Meaningful Use requirements of EHRs:

  • adoption of 5 medication management components reduced rate of ADEs (adverse drug events) by 61%
    • reduced by 10% when adopting only components
  • $4790 in hospital cost savings per averted ADE
  • adopting IT with the 5 MU medication management components would recoup 70% of the IT capital investment due to averted ADEs
  • median cost of operating the IT is an additional $13,266 per bed per year
  • including both IT capital and IT operating costs, the cost savings form averted ADEs would recoup 22% of all IT costs

 

–       Kyocera (aka Kyoto Ceramic Company) announced it will manufacture Silicon Nitride spinal interbody ceramic devices in Vancouver, Canada to be sold by Amedica Corp.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

–       The VA’s Inspector General published a report detailing more problems:

  • doctors are not routinely documenting prescription renewals in the EHR
  • not completing a narcotic instruction note template for patients
  • 53% of patient files reflected no documentation that a qualified clinician assessed the patient’s pain management regimen
  • 59% of patients had no narcotic instruction notes
  • 33% of patients did not have a documented urine drug test to detect overuse of medication
  • clinics use paper prescription request forms, then shred them before being scanned into EHR file

 

–       HIPAA/Data Security Breach info:

  • Kaiser Foundation Hospital Orange County-Anaheim Medical Center notified an unspecified number of patients that their PHI was exposed when a USB memory flash drive was misplaced or stolen.
  • The University of Pittsburgh alerted 1,300 patients that their PHI was exposed after it was accessed by an unauthorized employee.
  • The Florida Digestive Health Specialists clinic has notified 4,400 patients that their PHI was exposed after an employee was caught taking pictures of their files, and then attempting to print them out at a local Walmart.
  • The Arizona State Department of Public Safety announced that an unspecified number of people had their PHI exposed when a box full of paper records from Child Protective Services was found in an alley in Phoenix.
  • JPMorgan Chase & Co. warned 465,000 people that their personal info may have been accessed during a recent cyber attack.
  • Standard Chartered Bank of Singapore reported that personal info on 647 private banking clients was accessed when a hacker accessed a server managed by Xerox.

 

–       The New York Times newspaper published story about pricing for same healthcare services across different areas of the U.S.:

  • average cost of treating a cut finder in an ER ranges from $790 in New England to $1377 in the Pacific.
  • also details incomes of executives in non-profit health systems, including 28 Sutter Medical Center of California officials who each make more than $1 million per year

 

–       The Office of Inspector General from the Department of Health & Human Services published a report stating that HIPAA is not being fully enforced.  The report demands:

  • conduct more periodic audits
  • maintain documentation to support key decisions
  • complete privacy impact assessments
  • complete risk analyses
  • complete system security plans
  • implement more controls

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