Recent News: CIO Technology Workshop Focuses on Building Care Communities

Source: www.meditech.com

On June 21 and 22, over 250 CIOs attended MEDITECH's annual CIO Technology Workshop. The workshop featured two full days of presentations built around the theme of Building Care Communities, and provided attendees with insight into some ways their organizations can use I.T. to unite care providers throughout the care continuum and begin laying the groundwork for interoperability.

CIOs had the opportunity to hear from their peers about some of the initiatives our customers are taking to unite care providers in an effort to deliver higher quality care. In addition, speakers from various divisions here at MEDITECH shared some of the products and initiatives we are working on to help better position our customers to meet their interoperability goals. We share with you here some highlights...

• In their annual Development update, Sr. Vice President of Development Bob Gale and Development Director Mike Malone gave an overview of the many enhancements which have been made to both the MAGIC and Client/Server platforms over the past year and highlighted some upcoming application enhancements. One message that came through loud and clear to customers was that "MAGIC is here to stay."

• Development Director Mike Belkner offered an update on the systems-level enhancements that have been made to both MAGIC and Client/Server and provided an overview of some initiatives currently in progress. Belkner also addressed the topics of clustering -- which MEDITECH is strictly in the research stage of right now -- and the virtualization of file servers. With regard to virtualization, Belkner noted that while MEDITECH is not likely to "certify" virtualization, we will support our customers who choose to go the virtualization route however we can, but also added that we can't guarantee what impact virtualization will have on performance speed of the MEDITECH applications.

• Finally, a main highlight of the workshop was the introduction of MEDITECH's new Client/Server 6.0 technology. Chris Anschuetz, vice president, system technology, gave an overview of the nuts and bolts of 6.0 -- what it is, why we developed it, the benefits it brings to our customers, and when it will be available. Vice President Marketing Hoda Sayed-Friel then outlined the migration strategies available to MAGIC customers who may eventually want to move to Client/Server. Sayed-Friel again reiterated that MAGIC is here to stay, but noted that customers who do wish to migrate to Client/Server may do so at their own pace. Finally, Development Director Michelle O'Connor discussed the conversion details associated with migrating from MAGIC to Client/Server 6.0.