NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. — The TriZetto Group, Inc. today announced the appointment of Jeffrey
Rideout, M.D., as senior vice president, care and cost management and as
chief medical officer. Dr. Rideout will lead the systematic expansion of
TriZetto’s cost and quality of care solutions sets, including
value-based benefits, value-based reimbursement and pharmacy utilization
management, to help the company’s payer customers drive greater value in
care for members and providers.
A 15-year veteran of the healthcare industry, Rideout offers TriZetto
extensive experience in care and disease management, in healthcare I.T.
and in managing healthcare-focused strategic investments. “Only rarely
is an organization both positioned and committed to driving meaningful
change in healthcare,” said Rideout. “TriZetto’s Integrated Healthcare
Management vision encompasses three areas for payers — administrative
costs, supply-driven costs and demand-driven costs. TriZetto has become
well recognized as having the leading administrative solutions that
increase efficiency for payers and their employer customers and members.
Our new Systematic Health Management effort focuses on the supply and
demand drivers to address clinical cost and quality challenges that
primarily manifest themselves in unwarranted variations in care, which
create significant waste.”
Rideout supplies a unique blend of experience to this important
position. As former chief medical officer for Blue Shield of California
and Cisco Systems, and as the head of quality management for Blue Cross
of California/WellPoint and UCSF Stanford Healthcare, Rideout brings
broad perspective on how to systematically optimize the coordination of
care for consumers in cooperation with their healthcare providers and
payers. Dr. Rideout’s additional experience in strategic investments,
partnerships, early-stage companies and consulting includes work with
RelayHealth (now a part of McKesson), Resolution Health (now a part of
WellPoint), Certify Data Systems, the HealthVest Fund, Tenet Ventures,
APM, and Booz, Allen and Hamilton.
Rideout holds an M.D. from the Harvard Medical School, an M.A. in
philosophy, politics and economics from Oxford University, a B.S. in
biology from Stanford University and is a former Rhodes Scholar. He is a
faculty member at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business where he
teaches a course on healthcare innovation, Stanford University and
University of California, San Francisco. Rideout is a fellow of the
American College of Physicians and board-certified by the American Board
of Internal Medicine. He also serves on the board of directors of
Medical Teams International, an international medical relief
organization that commissions more than 150 volunteer teams a year for
global disaster relief and health improvement.
Alpha’s ImageWorks™ 9000 will help Butler increase departmental
communication while reducing paper
HUNTINGDON VALLEY, Pa. — Alpha Systems, a premier provider of electronic data and document
management solutions, today announced that Butler Health System
(Butler), an innovative healthcare provider located in Pennsylvania, has
named Alpha Systems their vendor of choice for enterprise electronic
document management (EDM) software. This move is designed to improve
Butler’s communication across the enterprise while moving the healthcare
provider closer to a paperless environment.
Butler has agreed to take delivery of Alpha ImageWorks 9000, a
systemwide solution for EDM that includes patient registration;
patients’ medical and business office records; electronic signature,
which allows the electronic completion of charts and integration with
Butler’s clinical system; and quick, secure access to medical records by
authorized clinicians throughout Butler Health System.
Chuck Oleson, Chief Information Officer of Butler Health System,
commented, “We are pleased with Alpha Systems’ willingness to work with
us to meet our document management needs. In addition to the operational
efficiencies that will be enabled, Alpha Systems’ solution will be used
to provide patients with an electronic copy of their health information,
as required to satisfy Stage 1 of the ARRA Meaningful Use incentives.”
“We are pleased that Butler Health System has selected Alpha Systems to
help them execute their paperless strategy,” commented Brett Griffith,
president of Alpha Systems. “We look forward to providing the technology
and services to give Butler’s clinicians and administrative staff quick
and secure access to critical health information.”
Former Harvard analyst Nancy Hudecek announced as VP of Clinical
Excellence and Risk Management for innovative remote patient monitoring
developer
SAN ANTONIO — Nancy Hudecek, RN, BSN, MS, has joined AirStrip TechnologiesTM
as the Vice President of Clinical Excellence and Risk Management,
AirStrip officials announced today.
Hudecek has 25 years of clinical experience at renowned healthcare
institutions including the Harvard Medical Institutions and
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Hudecek spent a number of years
with the Harvard Risk Management Foundation (CRICO/RMF) helping the
nations leading medical institutions understand and take action to
reduce the cost and risk of adverse events through leadership, the
intelligent use of data, and process improvement.
At Harvard, CareGroup, and Private HealthCare Systems, Hudecek designed
and implemented systems and practices at major health systems nationwide
to ensure the safe and effective delivery of care to large, diverse, and
complex patient populations.
“I have worked with hundreds of hospitals and insurance programs
nationwide to target specific patient care issues, develop and implement
effective risk reduction strategies, and to measure the impact of these
initiatives,” Hudecek said. “AirStrip Technologies is at the forefront
of remote patient monitoring, and its innovative solutions are showing
the industry state-of-the-art methods to mitigate the risk of adverse
outcomes.”
HASSELT, Belgium — MabCure, Inc. (OTCBB:MBCI) (“MabCure”), a biotechnology company using
its proprietary technology to create highly specific monoclonal
antibodies (MAbs) for the early detection of cancer, today announced
that it has recently completed a private placement in the aggregate
amount of $1 million. The amount is comprised of a $500,000 cash
investment and the conversion of a $500,000 bridge loan that was made in
September 2009, into equity securities (together, the “Investment
Transactions”).
Under the terms of the Investment Transactions, MabCure will issue
2,000,000 units to the investors at a price of $0.50 per unit. Each unit
consists of: (i) one share of MabCure common stock; (ii) one two-year
non-transferable common stock purchase warrant exercisable at a price of
US$0.60 per share; and (iii) one two-year non-transferable common stock
purchase warrant exercisable at a price of US$0.70 per share.
The new investment capital will be used by MabCure to pursue its
clinical trials in Europe and Asia. Clinical trials to diagnose ovarian
cancer are already underway after MabCure signed a clinical research
agreement with the Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University in Bangkok,
Thailand. The study aims to evaluate MabCure’s panel of anti-ovarian
MAbs in diagnosing ovarian cancer in the blood and urine of patients
suspected of having the disease.
Dr. Amnon Gonenne, MabCure’s president and CEO commented, “We are very
pleased to close this private placement and to convert our bridge loan
into equity securities, particularly during challenging times for
raising private equity. The funds will provide us with the near-term
liquidity we need to sustain our clinical trials program and to grow the
business.”
About MabCure
NEW YORK — Island Capital Group LLC (“Island Capital”), a private real estate
oriented merchant banking firm controlled by Andrew L. Farkas, and
Centerline Holding Company (“Centerline”) announced today that through
its affiliate C-III Capital Partners (“C-III”), Island had acquired 100%
of Centerline’s institutional real estate debt fund management and
commercial mortgage loan servicing businesses. This transaction
immediately makes the newly created private company one of the largest
special servicers of CMBS in the United States, as it is presently the
named special servicer for approximately $110 billion of loans in 81
CMBS securitizations.
In connection with the acquisition, Island Capital along with Centerline
also announced that Island had completed a total restructuring of
Centerline’s financial structure and core business operations by
eliminating approximately $1.6 billion of debt, contingent liabilities
and preferred equity, providing a much needed injection of equity and
liquidity and permitting the company to emerge as one of the healthiest
and now most stable companies in its industry. Island Capital affiliates
provided in excess of $100 million of new cash equity in connection with
the acquisition and restructuring, and C-III will also own approximately
40% of Centerline, which will remain as a public company.
Subsidiaries of Anubis Advisors, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of
Island Capital, have been retained as the exclusive external managers
for C-III and Centerline. In such capacity, Anubis will provide
strategic planning, corporate management, restructuring, MA and other
financial services to both companies.
Island Capital’s strategy in acquiring the CMBS fund management and real
estate loan servicing businesses from Centerline is all but identical to
the strategy successfully deployed in connection with the creation and
building of Insignia Financial Group, Inc. Insignia, founded by Mr.
Farkas in 1990, consolidated much of the then distressed real estate
syndication industry, ultimately growing to become one of the largest
owners and operators of real estate in the world, including 350,000
units of multi-family residential housing and in excess of 250 million
square feet of office, retail and industrial space. Insignia’s growth
was a function of the aggregation, restructuring and management of
complex real estate oriented equity derivatives. Mr. Farkas, now
Chairman and CEO of Island Capital, said “The creation of C-III
represents the adaptation and implementation of the Insignia strategic
and operating model to the present environment. Back in 1990 we started
acquiring real estate oriented equity derivatives and building a
property and asset management business to service the assets controlled
by the derivatives. With C-III we are seeking to acquire real estate
oriented debt derivatives and to build special servicing and ancillary
businesses to manage those.”
C-III will operate as special servicer for CMBS through its wholly-owned
subsidiary Centerline Servicing (which will continue to operate under
that name during a transition period), which is currently the named
special servicer for approximately $110 billion of loan in 81 CMBS
securitizations. Other C-III subsidiaries also control real estate debt
investments that have a face value of approximately $3.1 billion. Under
Anubis’s management, C-III’s intention is to integrate a principal
capital deployment and MA strategy within its operations to acquire
incremental CMBS, CMBS fund managers and other servicing operations.
C-III also intends to pursue institutional third-party servicing
relationships and to expand into business lines complementary to those
in which it presently operates.
Advanced Collaboration Capabilities Allow Participants to See,
Control and Edit Shared Files and Documents in Real Time, Improving the
Effectiveness of Meetings
Delivers Highest Quality 1080p Video Conferencing and Collaboration –
Including over Best Effort Internet Connections
OTTAWA — Magor
Communications today announced Release 3 of the Magor
TeleCollaboration™ HDWorkPlace
family of telecollaboration systems. Designed to dramatically
improve the effectiveness of video-based meetings, the HDWorkplace
family seamlessly integrates advanced
data collaboration capabilities into a peer-to-peer, high definition
(HD) video conferencing experience. With instant drag-and-drop sharing
of computer desktops (any mix of PC, Mac, Linux, UNIX or Solaris
systems) through an intuitive graphical user interface (GUI), Magor’s
advanced collaboration capabilities allow permitted participants to see,
control and edit shared files and documents in real time. So, instead of
“talk now, do later”, users conduct working visual collaboration
sessions that allow them to make decisions, get work done and produce
results more quickly.
Release 3 introduces flexible
video compression processes that can adapt in real time to varying
network conditions and end-user behavior. By extending basic video
scaling principles with segmentation and adaptation, Release 3
effectively eliminates the potential negative impacts that video can
have on networks. This approach protects critical network traffic and
applications while delivering 1080p video and collaboration – including
over best effort IP packet network connections such as the Internet.
Setting the benchmark for Good Network Citizenship for enterprise
video conferencing solutions, Release 3 does all this without
overburdening the network or significantly increasing IT costs.
“Magor TeleCollaboration systems focus on the entire collaborative
experience – delivering immersive voice, high definition video and data
in a single, easy to use system,” said Dan
Rusheleau, EVP of Product Development for Magor. “By including data
collaboration as an integral part of the HD video conferencing system,
we help enhance decision making and improve productivity.”
EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) today introduced a family
of enhancement mode power transistors based on its proprietary gallium
nitride on Silicon technology.
Spanning a range of 40 Volts to 200 Volts, and 4 milliohms to 100
milliohms, these power transistors demonstrate significant performance
advantages over state-of-the-art silicon-based power MOSFETs. EPC’s
technology produces devices that are smaller than similar resistance
silicon devices and have many times superior switching performance.
Applications that benefit from this newly available performance are
DC-DC power supplies, point-of-load converters, Class-D audio
amplifiers, notebook and netbook computers, LED drive circuits, telecom
base stations and cell phones, to name just a few.
EPC’s enhancement mode (normally OFF) GaN technology was explicitly
developed to replace power MOSFETs. The products are produced in a
standard silicon CMOS foundry on 150mm (6 inch) silicon wafers. The use
of this low-cost infrastructure has allowed EPC to price the initial
product offerings aggressively in order to accelerate the conversion
from silicon power MOSFETs.
“EPC’s GaN on silicon power transistors represent the first major
breakthrough in power conversion technology since the development of the
commercial power MOSFET. We have developed a very cost effective and
reliable technology that is also very easy for anyone with power MOSFET
experience to use in a way that will significantly boost their power
management system performance,” said Alex Lidow, EPC’s co-founder and
Chief Executive Officer.
James Bulgers family are understandably the most vocal about wishing to have this information. Its natural that the victims of the ruinous crime will forever be tormented by every aspect of it, and being kept in the dark concerning the whereabouts and activities of the two killers, now 27-year-old men, must form part of that pain. Perhaps, they think, they might have already encountered Venables or Robert Thompson on the street without knowing it. How can they be sure they havent sat beside one of them at a football match or queued behind them in the supermarket? Perhaps the Bulgers unconsciously hunt in the sea of faces every time they are confronted with a crowd, or maybe that subconscious search among strangers is instead a longing to see the face of their own son, now forever lost. Who can be sure? But while their deepest motivation for wishing to be informed about Venables must remain mere guesswork on our part, the fact remains that they do not have the legal right to know. The reason for this is quite clear. Informing the victims family could lead to a breach of anonymity, intentional or unintentional, and the law has been tasked with keeping the new identity of the two murderers secret. So who else is demanding that this law be broken? Ah yes. The Sun newspaper. It wants us to sign a petition to put Venables back on the front pages where he belongs. Oh, and the Daily Mail. And Carol Vorderman, bizarrely, judging by her peculiar, shouty indignation on last weeks Question Time. But why? Well, we cant speak for Vorderman, as she was unable to give an intelligent reason why outing Venables would be a good thing for anyone involved, so the origins of her strident insistence will have to remain a mystery. But The Sun and Daily Mails agenda is at least crystal clear. It would sell more newspapers.
ALEX Salmond yesterday urged voters to “rage” against the Westminster machine at the coming General Election by looking beyond Labour and the Conservatives and backing SNP “national and local champions” to fight for jobs instead. Launching his partys election campaign in Edinburgh, the First Minister said picking between Gordon Brown or David Cameron was like choosing between “tweedledumb or tweedledee”. Both planned savage cuts based on a “metropolitan political consensus” which largely ignored Scotland and left families suffering. “I say this to the London parties – there is not going to be business as usual. At this election the people of Scotland will make their voice heard. And they wont be voting just for politicians. They will be electing local champions.” The SNP leader said it would be “good” to have a hung parliament after the election, giving the SNP and other smaller parties greater influence over policy and spending. “The London parties talk about cuts as though it was all about numbers on a balance sheet. But we know different. Behind those cuts will be real people, real services, real jobs. At this election, the choice is clear. We must do all we can to protect those people, those services and those jobs,” said Mr Salmond.
XProTeX , the company redefining traditional methods of sports protection, today announced the launch of its breakthrough line of batting gloves, designed to protect baseball and softball players from injury to their hands and wrists. Utilizing A.I.C. (Advanced Impact Composite), a patented material specifically developed for use in impact applications in sports, the gloves significantly decrease the risk of injuries to the hand and wrist area by reducing the impact of a 100 mph fastball down to the equivalent of a 40 mph ball. The first batting glove offering this level of protection, the XProTeX line is available for players of all ability levels, from youth and recreational leagues to Major League Baseball.
“Injuries among all types of athletes are on the rise, creating a real need for innovation in protective sports gear,” said Jack Kasarjian, CEO, XProTeX. “Specifically, hands and wrists are among the most vulnerable areas of the body and generally under-protected in all sports. XProTeX picks up where traditional batting gloves have left off by providing protection that enhances a players game without sacrificing performance.”
XProTeX is ushering in a new era of innovation, safety and protection to the sports of baseball and softball, with a goal of achieving a culture where sports participation includes education around injury awareness and prevention. Launched after 30 months of research, development and testing, the foundation of the XProTeX line of batting gloves is A.I.C. (Advanced Impact Composite), a patented material that provides a lightweight, flexible, and non-restrictive solution to body protection with increased impact resistance. XProTeXs A.I.C. also provides greater coverage of vulnerable body parts, which is key as athletes of all levels are currently under-protected in many vital areas, especially their hands and wrists.
“Being hit by a ball in the hand or wrist area has the potential to sideline a player with an injury for months or even entire seasons,” continued Kasarjian. “No athlete, from little league to major league, can afford to be injured and out of the game. Our goal is to better protect athletes; keeping them healthy and playing the sport they love.”
XProTeX chose to harness its A.I.C. technology for batting gloves as the first product in their line of advanced sports protection not only because the hands and wrists are currently under-protected in batting sports, but also because theyre one of the most complex parts of the body and one of the most susceptible to injury. Small bones, blood vessels, nerve endings and tendons lie just underneath the surface of the skin without much muscle or fat to cushion them from an impact.
SAN FRANCISCO — Fitch Ratings assigns an A rating to the following Pleasant Hill
Recreation Park District (the district) general obligation (GO) bonds:
–$20 million Pleasant Hill Recreation Park District (Contra Costa
County, California) GO bonds, Election of 2009, series A (2010).
The bonds are expected to sell competitively on March 17, 2010.
The San Jose Cycling Classic will be held May 15-20 throughout San Jose in conjuction with the upcoming Amgen Tour of California . The multi-pronged event will encompass professional, amateur and community cycling activities, including a first-ever ViaVelo, a recreational ride, a non-competitive timed ride, CEO Challenge, cycling instruction and a cycling film night. The week of amatuer and professional cycling events is expected to attract more than 5,000 cycling athletes, 20,000 spectators, participants and cycling-related exhibitors.
“Cycling is an important form of alternative transportation, and San Joses Green Vision puts San Jose on the path to being a cycling-friendly city,” San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed said. “The San Jose Cycling Classic lets cyclists everywhere know that San Jose and the greater South Bay region is a one of the best places in the world to cycle whether youre an amateur or a professional.”
The San Jose Cycling Classic will kick off with the Mattson Technology San Jose ViaVelo: Urban Free-wheelin Fun! Co-produced by the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition, this kick-off event for a week-long celebration of cycling activities beginning on Saturday, May 15 will include a family fun ride, a geo caching scavenger hunt, community booths, demonstrations, live music and other free activities. The Mattson Technology San Jose ViaVelo will transform San Fernando Street in Downtown San Jose into a car-free promenade to gather to bike, walk, dance, stroll, play games, just have a great time and enjoy a sunny May day in a care-free environment. Events such as this have been held all over the world, but have yet to hit San Jose streets until now.
The San Jose Cycling Classic continues with the Get Back on Your Bike! cycling instruction presentation, noon-1 p.m., Tues., May 18 at the San Jose Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, 150 E. San Fernando Street. Presented by John Brazil, head of San Joses Pedestrian Bicycle Program, this free lunchtime course provides important tips on using the bicycle for recreation and commuting.
On Wed., May 19, San Jose will welcome back The King of the Mountain Time Trial Ride , and a CEO Challenge powered by SunPower and co-presented by the Silicon Valley Leadership Group for the fourth year in a row. Held on Sierra Road in San Jose, the 3.7 mi. individually timed ride will be held on the same challenging course that the professional cyclists will tackle during the Amgen Tour of California later in the day. Beginning at the base of Sierra Road, participants will bike to the top where a VIP brunch will be served. While at the top, participants will also be able cheer on the professional cyclists as they ride their way through Stage 4 of the Amgen Tour of California , also taking place on Wed., May 19.
BADMINTON: Imogen Bankier of Scotland and her Edinburgh-born English partner, Robert Blair, knocked out the No 4 seeds Jiaming Tao and Yawen Zhang of China 21-17, 21-19, to reach todays mixed doubles final at the Yonex German Open in Mulheim van der Ruhr. They will meet Hong Kongs Yuhan Hadikusuma Wiramata and Ying Suet Tse. BOWLS: The reign of Scottish Cup champions Tweedbank ended at West Lothian, when they lost out by a single shot 85-84 to Coatbridge. Their quarter-final opponents will be West Lothian, who defeated Ardrossan 97-58 at Whiteinch.
LUNA Protein® Satiates Hunger for Women On-the-Go
BERKELEY, Calif. — LUNA®, the maker of the Whole Nutrition Bar for Women®, introduces LUNA®
Protein, the first high protein bar for women made with entirely natural
and organic ingredients. It is an indulgent treat that satiates hunger
and helps women more easily fit protein into their diet.
Protein is an essential part of women’s diets however it continues to be
an overlooked nutrient. In fact, according to a recent LUNA survey,
nearly 50 percent of women said they are not sure if they are getting
enough protein in their diets. Additional survey findings include:
At just under 200 calories, LUNA Protein® is a nourishing and delicious
snack that satisfies sweet cravings with a chocolate coating and nougat
texture—the closest consistency to a candy bar that LUNA has ever
offered. Additionally, it offers key vitamins and minerals essential to
women’s everyday needs, such as calcium, iron, folic acid and vitamin D.
BADMINTON: Imogen Bankier of Scotland and her Edinburgh-born English partner, Robert Blair, confirmed they are on their way back to a place in the worlds top 10 after they knocked out the No 4 seeds Jiaming Tao and Yawen Zhang of China 21-17, 21-19, to reach todays mixed doubles final at the Yonex German Open in Mulheim van der Ruhr. They will meet Hong Kongs Yuhan Hadikusuma Wiramata and Ying Suet Tse. BOWLS: The reign of Scottish Cup champions Tweedbank ended at West Lothian yesterday, when they lost out by a single shot 85-84 to Coatbridge. Their quarter-final opponents will be West Lothian, who defeated Ardrossan 97-58 at Whiteinch.
Enables Online Auto Insurance Company to Easily Deliver High-Quality
Video Content to Media Center
Esurance is dedicated to improving the way people shop for, buy, and
manage their auto insurance. Over the past 10 years, Esurance has sold
more than 1.6 million auto insurance policies, and insured more than 2.3
million drivers. In addition to hassle-free auto insurance, Esurance is
also known for its unique use of animation in its advertising, featuring
the iconic cartoon secret agent, Erin Esurance.
“We were looking to streamline the way customers view video on our
site,” said Lisa Ward, Director of Customer Experience at Esurance.
“Ooyalas platform enables us to provide customers with a robust
selection of their favorite Esurance commercials. We are pleased to be
working with Ooyala and look forward to growing the offerings of our
media center.”
“We are excited to work with Esurance to support their online video
initiatives,” said JR Becko, Director of Sales at Ooyala. “We look
forward to supporting the growth of Esurances media center with our
technology.”
Several thousand Southern California consumers have discovered the convenience of large-scale travel shows in recent weeks, flocking to shows sponsored by the Automobile Club of Southern California in Los Angeles, San Diego and Pomona. On Tuesday, March 9, the Auto Club will offer another travel show that is convenient to consumers no matter where they live — an online “virtual” travel show that will feature destination information, deals and the expertise of AAA Travel Agents.
Participating travel providers and attractions include Universal Orlandos The Wizarding World of Harry Potter; Trafalgar Tours ; Disney Vacations; Uniworld Boutique River Cruise Collection; Pleasant Holidays; and major cruise lines including Holland America and Royal Caribbean.
Several presentations are scheduled for live webcasting, enabling audience members to ask questions. Those webcasts will also be available for later playback.
In addition, AAA Travel Agents from several of the Auto Clubs 75 Southern California branch offices will be standing by live to answer questions and make reservations.
How individuals choose to react to difficult circumstances makes all the difference, Barbara Heise said during the campus devotional held in BYUs Marriott Center on Tuesday, March 2. Individuals are the masters of their own choices, she said.
They protect and serve our communities each and every day by fighting fires, crime, poverty, diseases, illiteracy and even terrorists; theyre the dedicated men and women of Americas service industries. Each and every one of these brave, hardworking Americans can receive a FREE Premium Edition tax filing, now through March 13th, 2010 with eSmart Taxs “Salute to Service” program.
eSmart, the fast and easy online tax preparation service powered by Liberty Tax, initiated the “Salute to Service” this year specifically to say “Thanks!” to service industry personnel across the nation. The program will offer eSmarts Premium Edition at no charge to soldiers, firefighters, police officers, nurses, teachers and other individuals employed in the service industries of Armed Forces, Fire Rescue, Law Enforcement, Heath Care and Education. The Premium Edition is eSmarts best e-filing service and a $47.90 value, offering free federal and state e-filing as well as free online technical support via a message center or live chat, expert tax advice from a Liberty Tax Service representative (on the phone or online), eSmarts Refund Maximizer tool, CPA audit assistance and the ability to run “What if?” scenarios during the tax filing process.
Now through March 13th, all the Americans who dedicate their lives to serving our country can file their taxes for free with eSmart Taxs “Salute to Service” program. Its just one small way Liberty Tax and eSmart Tax are saying “Thanks!” to all the soldiers on land and at sea, as well as firefighters, police officers, nurses and teachers across the United States.
About eSmart Tax
eSmart Tax is backed by the professional integrity of Liberty Tax Service and its network of over 23,000 certified tax professionals and more than 3,400 offices nationwide. Liberty Tax is a trusted leader in the tax preparation industry for more than 10 years, so e-filers can rest assured their tax returns are in good hands.
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FALLS CHURCH, Va. ATLANTA — Helping to streamline electronic documentation processes for
perioperative care, CSC (NYSE: CSC) and the Association of
periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN) announced today that Surgical
Information Systems (SIS), the perioperative IT specialist, will offer
the AORN SYNTEGRITYTM Standardized Perioperative Framework
(SPF) within its nationally recognized suite of perioperative management
solutions. Developed by CSC and AORN, SYNTEGRITYTM, in
conjunction with SIS solutions, provides the content and functionality
necessary to maintain regulatory and AORN best practice compliance.
Through the use of a standardized framework with PNDS (Perioperative
Nursing Data Set), hospitals will be able to participate in nationalized
benchmarking offered through AORN.
AORN SYNTEGRITYTM guidelines ensure that documentation is
aligned with AORN recommendations. Incorporating these guidelines
into the SIS clinical solution reduces or eliminates the need for
hospitals to create custom processes. “SIS extends the opportunity to
use the gold standard of benchmarking by offering the AORN SYNTEGRITYTM
framework as part of its market leading solution,” said Deward
Watts, president of CSC’s Healthcare Group. “Combining AORN SYNTEGRITYTM
framework with SIS solutions arms hospitals with an added means to
create efficiencies and find enhancements in the perioperative setting.”
SYNTEGRITYTM helps solution providers like SIS streamline the
capture of critical patient data for perioperative care in hospitals,
outpatient facilities and ambulatory surgery centers. The framework
enables health practitioners to quickly identify and document patient
care elements across the continuum of perioperative care, including
preadmission, preoperative, intraoperative and postoperative phases.
AORN SYNTEGRITYTM also includes data fields necessary for
reporting relevant operational, quality and regulatory information.
“SIS and the AORN SYNTEGRITYTM framework enable a higher
level of quality care that can go beyond meeting federal requirements
and provide a path to improved outcomes and accurate reporting, no
matter what future regulations may mandate. We are delighted to see that
SIS, already recognized by AHA and HFMA, has decided to offer AORN
SYNTEGRITYTM to its clients and prospects as part if its
solution,” said AORN executive director Linda Groah, RN, MSN, CNOR, FAAN.
AORN SYNTEGRITYTM incorporates AORN’s standardized nursing
vocabulary, the Perioperative Nursing Data Set (PNDS), and aligns with
clinical standards, accreditation specifications and regulatory
requirements to promote ongoing compliance and consistent patient care.
Data derived from AORN SYNTEGRITYTM documentation can be used
to support benchmarking activities and will enable perioperative care
practitioners to measure outcomes and evaluate the quality and
effectiveness of care.
KSBHA online renewals provide the following benefits:
The mission of the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts is to safeguard
the public through licensure, education and discipline of those who
practice the healing arts in Kansas.
ALMOST 30 talented hair and beauty students from New College Durham will compete in the regions biggest hairdressing competition next month. The students will compete in teams against nine other colleges, including City of Sunderland College and South Tyneside College, at the regional heat of the Association of Hairdressers and Therapists (AHT) competition.
Occupational therapists and occupational therapy assistants working in classrooms and early intervention settings are frequently involved in childrens literacy programs. Practitioners often work with children who have a range of challenges that interfere with literacy learning, such as fine motor problems that affect writing or the ability to manipulate a book. The integration of occupational therapy services into the classroom and other natural environments has created an increased number of opportunities for practitioners to interact with educators around childrens literacy needs. Practitioners and educators offer different backgrounds related to literacy; each has his or her particular expertise and, in best practice, can collaborate to promote positive student outcomes, family capacity for caregiving, and child development and growth. Knowledge of literacy development can give occupational therapy practitioners a sense of educational practices, allowing them to better assist educators, and ultimately resulting in the development of appropriate activities, materials, and adaptations.1 This article focuses on the process of emergent literacy, and the ways in which occupational therapy can support childrens learning. WHAT IS EMERGENT LITERACY? The term emergent literacy describes the process of exploratory reading and writing experiences of children before they learn to formally read and write.2 Emergent literacy is not about learning phonics, spelling words, or demonstrating comprehension-these are all conventional literacy skills. Instead, emergent literacy refers to the foundational experiences that prepare children for such conventional instruction once they enter elementary school. Emergent literacy starts at an early age, as infants, toddlers, and young children actively engage in a range of experiences with oral and written language. Embedded in rich social interactions, most young children see print, experiment with print, and watch others use print. They are exposed to a wide range of books and writing tools and are encouraged to explore them. Characteristic of other emerging skills, childrens early understandings and attempts are random, inconsistent, and fluctuate from day to day. Most adults have high expectations of children and without question facilitate ongoing literacy experiences. Emergent literacy is not readiness-based; instead, it is based on the belief that all children are ready for literacy from a very early age.
Teck Resources Limited (TSX: TCK.A and TCK.B, NYSE: TCK) (”Teck”) today announced that the sale of a one-third interest in the Waneta Dam to BC Hydro for C$825 million has closed today. Teck will apply the net proceeds of the transaction along with US$300 million of cash on hand to reduce the outstanding balance on its term loan to approximately US$800 million. Tecks cash balance following the debt repayment will be approximately C$900 million.
Tampa-based HomeBancorp, Inc. has named Jeffrey D. Saunders as its Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer. He is based in HomeBancorps Tampa headquarters, located at 101 E. Kennedy Boulevard, Suite 4100.
HomeBanc is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tampa-based HomeBancorp, Inc., with six retail offices in Lake Mary, Lakewood Ranch (Sarasota), Belleair Bluffs and in Tampa at Rocky Point, on Dale Mabry at I-275 and Westchase. HomeBanc also operates six loan-production offices in Tampa, Lake Mary, Brandon, Lakeland, Gainesville and Bonita Springs.
Volkswagen Canada announced today that it again increased sales for a second month by 63.9% for a total of 2,821 new vehicles (2009: 1,721).
Volkswagen credited its higher sales to its recently introduced new Golf Family, including the 2010 Canadian Car of the Year , the Golf GTI by the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC). Other Volkswagen models enjoyed rising sales during the month, including the Tiguan ( 78.5%), new Golf ( 348%), and Jetta Sedan ( 92.3%).
These higher sales continued the solid start in 2010 with the rise in the Volkswagen Brands share of the total Canadian light vehicle market to 2.81% (2009: 2.14%) as industry figures showed an increase of 24.9% against February 2009.
TDI Clean Diesel sales represented 26.4% of total Volkswagen deliveries in February 2010.
Volkswagen sales by model line for the month of February and Year-to-Date 2010:
NORTHLAKE, Ill. — Since debuting in 1996, Whittaker Woods Golf Club has been a mainstay of
the golf scene and a desirable site for special events in the vibrant
New Buffalo, Michigan resort area just 90 minutes from downtown Chicago.
Now Whittaker Woods’ ownership has selected Chicagoland-based
GolfVisions Management, Inc. to resourcefully operate the facility and
reinvigorate its tradition of excellence.
“We envision Whittaker Woods as the gateway to pure Michigan golf, in
the literal sense of its location and in the figurative sense of the
special, memorable experience we will offer all our guests,” says
GolfVisions Vice President Tim Miles, Jr.
An 18-hole championship course that plays 7,072 yards from the tips,
Whittaker Woods was designed by the late Ken Killian, the architect
behind Kemper Lakes.
“Whittaker Woods is one of the highlights of Ken Killian’s fantastic
career,” says Tim Miles, Sr., President of GolfVisions. “He used his
talents here to create this marvelous golf course that meanders through
woodlands and meadows, across streams and marshes. GolfVisions is proud
to have the opportunity to reestablish Whittaker Woods as the premier
golf course in southwest Michigan and northeast Indiana.”
Like many upscale tracks of the modern era, Whittaker Woods is
formidable enough to challenge the most avid golfers, yet features
multiple tee placements allowing golfers of all abilities to have fun.
Indeed, the course plays under 5,000 yards from the front tees and has
been lauded for offering “great, playable golf for everyone.”
MENS GOLF: There was no repeat of last years upset showing by Southern Utahs mens golf team at UC Riversides Braveheart Classic this year. Southern Utah shot 944 over the par 72, 7,003-yard Oak Valley Golf Club course to finish in 15th place at this years classic, one year after finishing second in the team standings with since- graduated Nate Page claiming the individual title. Arizonas Tarquin Mcmanus earned the individual title at 6-under par 210 to lead the Wildcats to the team championship at 6-under 858.
1 Popeyes predilection for spinach when he needed a strength boost wasnt artistic license. It contains muscle-enhancing compounds beta-ecdysterone, which can increase muscle size and strength, and octacosanol, which promotes strength. 2 One 3-ounce serving contains 20 calories, 2 grams of protein, 3 grams of carbs, 0 grams of fat and 2 grams of fiber. It also contains 160% of the RDA for vitamin A and 510% of the RDA for vitamin K. 3 Three cups contain 3 mg of iron. To maximize uptake, eat spinach with foods high in vitamin C. Add strawberries, oranges or grapefruit to a spinach salad, or make this dressing: Whisk 1/4 cup fresh-squeezed orange or grapefruit juice with 2 tablespoons olive oil. 4 Spinach is rich in the amino acid glutamine, which raises growth-hormone levels and levels of protein-synthesis-boosting leucine in muscle tissue, decreases muscle breakdown and helps maintain your immune system.
FOOD?? Q: Getting ready for bed is like preparing for battle. Catabolism is your bodys weapon, your muscles are the casualties and the war is over blood glucose. Your body wants to maintain it at all costs, so it attacks your muscle. Whats your best choice for ammunition, whey or casein protein?
Aside from playing a role in numerous bodily functions, magnesium has also been found to be critical for strength. Research from Brigham Young University (Provo, Utah) has found that it can reduce the risk of heart disease in men. We suggest zinc and magnesium aspartate (ZMA), which provides 450 mg of magnesium and 30 mg of zinc.
Innovative New Feature Offers Greater Security, Ease of Use
SAN ANTONIO — USAA,
a leading financial services provider for members of the military
community and their families, is giving its mobile users faster, more
secure mobile logon access to their banking, insurance and investment
accounts through its new quick logon and authentication security
software.
USAA has teamed up with Mountain View, Calif.-based VeriSign,
Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) to simplify account access for USAA
members while strengthening the logon security for its popular USAA
Mobile App.
Now, instead of a three-step process of username, password and PIN, USAA
members can access their accounts through a secure four-digit PIN,
making the mobile logon experience simpler and safer.
Qualified USAA members can download the updated application with quick
logon at the Apple® iTunes store or just update their current
USAA Mobile App. The quick logon service is expected to be available in
April for Android® phones. BlackBerry® users can
expect the enhanced USAA Mobile App soon thereafter.
Swinton Bikes is giving its backing to a bold new Think! campaign designed to save lives on the road.
Swinton Bikes, the UKs leading high street retailer of motorcycle insurance hopes the campaign will reduce the number of motorcyclist deaths in the UK. Despite only accounting for 1% of traffic, motorcyclists make up 19% of deaths on British roads.
The TV advert, which airs from Monday 1st March will show bikers with flashing neon signs attached to their bikes showing their name and personality traits. A voiceover at the end asks drivers to look out for bikers when they are out driving.
Research carried out by Think! suggests that drivers are more likely to spot a biker on the road if they personally know a biker.
Anthony Aronin, Head of Swinton Bikes said, “The over representation of motorcyclists deaths in road traffic accidents is shocking. We are fully behind this campaign and hope it can reduce the number of motorcyclist fatalities each year.”
Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited (TSX: FFH)(TSX: FFH.U) announces that it has declared a dividend of C$0.359375 per share on its Series C Preferred Shares and C$0.18870 per share on its Series E Preferred Shares. The dividends are payable on March 31, 2010 to shareholders of record on March 18, 2010. Applicable Canadian withholding tax will be applied to dividends payable to non-residents of Canada.
Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited is a financial services holding company which, through its subsidiaries, is engaged in property and casualty insurance and reinsurance and investment management.
LOS ANGELES — Plastic pipe from JM Eagle, the world’s largest plastic-pipe
manufacturer, is on its way to several ports in the continent of Africa
as part of the company’s effort to bring clean water for drinking and
irrigation to impoverished areas.
Donated and delivered by JM Eagle as part of an effort with the Earth
Institute, Columbia University, and Millennium Villages, the more than
277 miles of PVC pipe will serve more than 125,000 people in seven
countries in the sub-Saharan region.
“The drinking-water situation in Africa’s underdeveloped countries is
dire,” said JM Eagle President and CEO Walter Wang. “Our goal is to
reduce the rate of death and disease for the people and also help them
become more self-sufficient.”
One in five people in developing countries does not have access to safe
drinking water, and 2.2 million people die each year from water-borne
illness, 90 percent of them children under 5, according to world-charity
organizations.
The donation, on ships traveling to Africa now, follows a $1 million
shipment between 2007 and 2008 that brought much-needed clean water to
more than 13,000 people in 63 villages in Senegal.
Old-school lifters recognize ABB as the brand that introduced some of the first ready-to-drink performance beverages such as Carbo Force and Pure Pro. Both have been in demand since 1985, and over the years theyve been joined by many shakes, shots and stacks. The newest ABB innovation Speed Stack Pumped N.O.
GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colo. — HealthTrans, a leading provider of healthcare management solutions
announces the appointment of Andy Szczotka as Senior Vice President of
Clinical Services. Szczotka is responsible for the continuation and
advancement of HealthTrans’ leading clinical strategies and planning for
future corporate clinical programs and drug formulary development,
including pharmaceutical manufacturer relationships. He will provide
oversight of all clinical pharmacy programs for HealthTrans, including
quality and cost-effective savings initiatives, educational programs,
formulary development and manufacturer relationships.
“Andy’s industry experience, background and clinical expertise will be a
tremendous benefit to HealthTrans,” said Steve Groover, RPH, President,
HealthTrans. “We welcome Andy to our team and expect him to play a key
role in the advancement of HealthTrans as an industry leader.”
Szczotka brings more than 26 years of clinical pharmacy experience,
including over 17 years of managed care pharmacy experience. Szczotka
has served in clinical leadership roles, and has experience with
government pricing operations, rebates and contract operations, and has
assisted with business development and marketing strategies for the
managed care market. Szczotka earned a Doctorate of Pharmacy from the
University of the Pacific School of Pharmacy.
Given the rising pharmacy costs in workers’ compensation, a PBM
program is one of the most effective ways to ensure appropriate spending
on pharmacy and quality of care.
BLUE BELL, Pa. — Workers’ compensation insurers and third-party administrators (TPAs)
offer organizations something far greater than just necessary coverage
and/or service—they offer peace of mind for the wellness of employees.
Yet, with the pressure to improve bottom-line results, how can
organizations trim workers’ compensation costs while getting every bit
of that intangible peace of mind?
One of the surest ways to control, and perhaps reduce, your total
workers’ compensation cost is to make certain your insurance carrier or
TPA works with an effective, results-driven PBM, according to Tina
Preisig, Senior Vice President of Managed Care for PMA Companies and
author of the Company’s new white paper, “The 1-2-3 of an Effective PBM.”
“Workers’ compensation is a vital part of doing business for any
organization,” Preisig said. “Now may be the time to revisit your
program and find out whether or not your PBM is achieving as much as
possible for your injured workers and your organization’s bottom line.
While the peace of mind that comes with workers’ compensation is
intangible, a strong Pharmacy Benefits Management solution as a
component of the program can also bring tangible and measurable savings.”
Though a PBM program is seldom understood or fully leveraged to help
manage the rising pharmacy costs of workers’ compensation, the white
paper argues that an effective program can ensure appropriate spending
on pharmacy and quality of care–especially given the staggering data
regarding pharmacy costs in workers’ compensation:
Physicians Primary Care, like most one- and two-office healthcare practices, depends on prompt payment from insurance companies and patients to meet its operational needs. Amanda Stultz, Office Manager, clearly recalls the day that her clinic decided to look for a new clearinghouse partner.
“Our list of claim denials had reached 80 pages. A huge amount of our working capital was tied up with insurance companies, and we werent getting the cash flow we deserved. We knew if we were going to make things better, we had to find an experienced revenue management company with a more complete list of capabilities,” she said.
Physicians Primary Care, while located in Jeffersonville, Indiana, is part of the greater Louisville, Kentucky metro area. With two offices just minutes from the Ohio River, the practice offers specialties ranging from family medicine to advanced imaging, womens health and more. Its range of services means it works with a wide range of patients, insurance plans, payers, and payment options. Having a seasoned, end-to-end revenue cycle management provider is critical to its success.
Based on a recommendation from a value-added reseller, Stultz looked into ZirMed® and its comprehensive lineup of revenue services. “ZirMed is clearly a one-stop shop,” she recalled. “It offers everything from pre-verification to billing and payment plans. And it has relationships with thousands of payers across the U.S.”
ZirMed®, also headquartered in Louisville, takes revenue management far beyond the services provided by clearinghouses. It serves as a full management partner to healthcare providers of all sizes, providing greater payment efficiency, profitable value-added services, and timely, valuable claim information that allows the provider to improve its insurance claim reimbursement performance.
Swinton Bikes is giving its backing to a bold new Think! campaign designed to save lives on the road.
Swinton Bikes, the UKs leading high street retailer of motorcycle insurance hopes the campaign will reduce the number of motorcyclist deaths in the UK. Despite only accounting for 1% of traffic, motorcyclists make up 19% of deaths on British roads.
The TV advert, which airs from Monday 1st March will show bikers with flashing neon signs attached to their bikes showing their name and personality traits. A voiceover at the end asks drivers to look out for bikers when they are out driving.
Research carried out by Think! suggests that drivers are more likely to spot a biker on the road if they personally know a biker.
Anthony Aronin, Head of Swinton Bikes said, “The over representation of motorcyclists deaths in road traffic accidents is shocking. We are fully behind this campaign and hope it can reduce the number of motorcyclist fatalities each year.”
Saudi Arabia Insurance Report provides industry professionals and
strategists, corporate analysts, insurance associations, government
departments and regulatory bodies with independent forecasts and
competitive intelligence on Saudi Arabias insurance industry.
This report differs from its predecessors in several respects. In our
analysis of competitive conditions, we provide a much more comprehensive
ranking of insurance companies in the major segments from the point of
view of the organisation that is providing the data (in practice almost
always the national insurance regulator or trade association). The Saudi
Arabian insurance sector continues to be dominated by the three biggest
players Tawuniya, Medgulf and Bupa Arabia. Tawuniya grew massively in
2009, nearly doubling in size in terms of premiums, while the other two
lost some premium income during the year.
We also provide a breakdown of the insurance sector by line, from the
point of view of the regulator or trade association. The Saudi Arabian
market is dominated by health products, which is double the value of the
next most popular insurance, motor. They account for around 40% and 20%
of the insurance products marketplace, respectively. Writing in January
2010, we have been able to ensure that the report includes actual data
for 2008. We have generally been able to use data that has been
published over the course of 2009 to adjust our forecasts for the year
as a whole. We have also extended the forecasts to 2014. We forecast
total premiums in 2009 of SAR17,480mn. This is made up of non-life
premiums of SAR16,784mn and life premiums of SAR696mn. In 2014 the
corresponding figures are forecast at AR42,968mn, SAR41,645mn and
SAR1,323mn. In terms of the key drivers that underpin our forecasts, we
forecast that non-life penetration will rise from 1.07% in 2009 to 1.71%
in 2014, and life density from US$7.61 to US$12.97. BMIs Insurance
Business Environment Rating for Saudi Arabia is 53.2 out of 100.
Key Topics Covered:
Cantronic Systems Inc., (”Cantronic” or the “Company”) (TSX VENTURE: CTS), today announced that it has signed a letter of intent (the “LOI”) by which it proposes (the “Proposed Transaction”) to acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of privately-owned Actiontop Electronics (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd., a manufacturer of high-speed video surveillance cameras and related products (”Actiontop”).
“The Proposed Transaction is in keeping with our strategy to acquire companies with complimentary technologies to enhance our ability to deliver end-to-end security and surveillance systems,” said James Zahn, President and CEO of Cantronic. “Actiontops high performance products and technology have enabled it to attract OEM partners for international sales. In fact, Actiontop is already an OEM supplier to Cantronic. In China, we can expand Actiontops business by adding their products to our total security and surveillance solution and using the sales and distribution network of our China subsidiaries. The Actiontop acquisition would enhance our ability to capitalize on the large and growing market in China, driven by government goals for national video surveillance.”
Highlights of the Proposed Transaction include:
Pursuant to the terms of the LOI, Cantronic expects to pay a purchase price of RMB 25 million (approximately CAD $3.9 million as at March 1, 2010) consisting of 40% RMB denominated cash and 60% common shares of Cantronic. The purchase price may be subject to a post-closing adjustment. The majority of the cash component of the purchase price would be provided by an arms-length partner, which would assume approximately 30% of the share ownership of Actiontop. Shares issued in accordance with the Proposed Transaction would be subject to a one-year lock up period. Cantronic expects that it will fund its cash portion of payment with cash on hand. Actiontop has a profitable track record including several years of revenue and earnings and this transaction will be immediately accretive to Cantronic.
The LOI provides that the parties will proceed in good faith to enter into a definitive purchase and sale agreement by March 30, 2010. Any definitive agreement would be subject to amongst other things, final due diligence by Cantronic. Completion of the Proposed Transaction is subject to a number of conditions including, but not limited to, obtaining all required regulatory approvals. There can be no assurance that the LOI will result in a transaction.
NUREMBERG, Germany — Express Logic, Inc., the worldwide leader in royalty-free real-time
operating systems (RTOS), announced today that Express Logic’s ThreadX®
RTOS has been selected by Wincor-Nixdorf for their reverse vending
machines (RVMs). Wincor-Nixdorf’s reverse vending machines facilitate
consumer returns of recyclable containers through advanced technology.
By using pioneering camera-based recognition technology, these reverse
vending machines examine the shape and color of single bottles and cans,
weigh them at the same time (full container recognition), and control
the data logging and compacting mechanics all in a single,
network-friendly device. Through automatic posting of the receipts to
the POS system, retailers can ensure that an individual transaction
receipt issued by the reverse vending system is only paid or credited
once. This results in a significant reduction of inventory discrepancies.
Express Logic’s ThreadX RTOS controls the real-time operational needs of
the machine from bottle identification to final receipt. ThreadX is
designed for small-footprint, high-volume intelligent devices such as
RVMs. ThreadX provides full real-time multithreading operation,
including preemptive real-time scheduling, message-passing, interrupt
management, and memory management services common to most embedded
applications. ThreadX is designed to be easy to learn and use, helping
developers to achieve rapid time to market.
“Wincor Nixdorf, the world’s leading provider of high-end banking and
retail solutions, chose ThreadX for its robust in-field reputation in
many applications to control our innovative reverse vending solutions,”
commented Wincor Nixdorf. “ThreadX provides an optimal combination of
footprint, performance and functionality, which delivers excellent
support for real-time operations.”
Reverse vending machines significantly reduce the manual processing of
empties, increasing staff productivity. Notably, such systems are widely
accepted by consumers, who prefer to return their empty beverage
containers at a reverse vending system to avoid waiting in line.
“Express Logic is proud that ThreadX plays a key role in the ingenuity
of its customers’ products. We are thrilled to have assisted Wincor
Nixdorf in achieving such an efficient solution for the retail
industry,” said William E. Lamie, President of Express Logic. “Wincor
Nixdorf is yet another example of our increasing adoption by successful,
European cost- and environmentally-conscious developers.”
COVERING UP THE inconvenient facts of his resume, donning new identifies the way other men change suits, the hidden persuader at the center of AMCs Mad Men has a talent for duplicity that would seem to place him squarely in pop cultures rich canon of ad industry villains. But even with his fake name, appropriated past, perfect show family, and less than ethical approach to client management, Don Draper stands apart from the cynics, hoodwinks, hacks, and evil mesmerists who populate the pages of such anti-advertising tomes as The Hucksters, The Hidden Persuaders, and No Logo. At home in his dining room or at a fancy restaurant wooing clients, Draper may be a lying, boozing con man. But when hes in his office, dreaming up catch phrases to sell products, the specters of candor and authenticity possess him. “You are the product,” Draper tells a neophyte copywriter. “You, feeling something. Thats what sells” He doesnt just want to sell us the sizzle of girdles and popsicles; he wants to sell us their souls. Art Copy, a 2009 documentary about the advertising business, is built around interviews with eight of the industrys most celebrated practitioners. One of them, the legendary ad man George Lois, echoes Drapers passion. “I can get excited about selling a new kind of pin; growls Lois, a pugnacious blusterer whose campaigns for MTV and Tommy Hilfiger helped turn them into cultural mainstays. Contemplating a pins very pinness–identifying the precise qualities that make it useful to us and enhances our lives–is the path toward great advertising. The contrarian theme that advertising is at heart a medium for profound truth telling runs throughout Art Copy, which will be out on DVD this summer. The more common nonindustry view is of advertising as a fundamentally crooked enterprise that aims to brainwash us into buying products we dont really need to solve problems we dont actually have and attain ideals we dont genuinely aspire to. Art Copy departs from this stereotype in large part because its not a nonindustry depiction. While aimed at general audiences and directed by Doug Pray, whose past work includes documentaries on suffers, graffiti artists, turntablists, and the Seattle music scene, the movie was funded by The One Club, which describes itself as “the worlds foremost non-profit organization for the recognition and promotion of excellence in advertising”
iFinix Corp (PINKSHEETS: INIX), a provider of real-time financial information and services to active traders and to the securities industry, announced today that the company has acquired a controlling interest of 82% in Beckman Holdings in an all stock transaction.
The acquisition of Beckman Holdings by iFinix Corp. will impact the company on several levels. Beckman Holdings is the parent company of Island Forex, a currency trading firm with over 1000 active and inactive accounts. Richard Dank, President of iFinix Futures, will oversee the development of Island Forex, where Mr. Dank will apply the same set of skills that he has already used to build iFinix Futures.
The other subsidiary of Beckman Holdings, Underwood Holdings, will be used as the platform to establish iFinix Capital. This division will serve the equities market and will be headed up by Douglas Spadaro. Mr. Spadaro has held senior-level management positions in various equities and bond firms and is well qualified to spearhead such an undertaking.
Mr. Spadaro has been in negotiations with an established group of investors, traders and money managers to join iFinix Capital once it is established. This will provide an immediate base of revenues for iFinix Capital from which to build on.
iFinix Corporation Chairman, Douglas Spadaro, stated, “iFinix has now completed the foundation of the companys long-range strategic operating plan. I am very confident shareholders will be richly rewarded as the company continues to grow through our trading divisions and various software trading platforms.”
Currensee
Inc. , the first Forex trading social network that connects traders from
around the world based on real-time trades, today announced a relationship
with Thomson Reuters IFR Markets, the worlds most authoritative source of
real-time financial markets commentary and analysis.
As a result, Currensee members can now purchase exclusive widgets featuring
Thomson Reuters IFR Markets trade and market data from the Currensee
Marketplace, the trusted source for Forex-related products and services.
The widgets deliver professional-level trade data and analysis that is
typically only available through brokers or large institutions. They
include:
“We are excited to make these exclusive Forex widgets available to retail
traders,” said Currensee CEO Dave Lemont . “Our traders are always
looking for trusted sources for Forex-related products or services. We are
passionate about providing them with high-caliber resources, and our
relationship with the Thomson Reuters IFR Markets team gives our members
access to unique widgets featuring information from the worlds leading
provider of market data and analysis.”
Currensee brings trust and transparency to Forex trading collaboration by
enabling members of its trader network to see each others actual trading
strategies and performance to make more informed trade decisions. The new
Thomson Reuters IFR Markets widgets support this goal by helping traders
round out their trading skills and knowledge with reputable data, analysis
and information from expert sources all in one place.
IHI program building foundation for more quality-conscious providers Open School med students are initiating their own QI programs The goal of the school, she says, is “to advance health care improvement and safety competencies in the next generation. Its an attempt to address the fact that many academic organizations were teaching improvement and safety in a very limited capacity — some not at all — so we wanted to bring it directly to students.” The schools offerings, she explains, “vary from what feel like formal courses to case studies, video clips on YouTube, discussion boards, and journal articles.” Probably the development the IHI found most interesting, she continues, “is that while the program was initially targeted at students, weve also found a large number of faculty members showing interest. They view the content and integrate it with their course curriculum and share it with other faculty so the knowledge can be spread.”
About Cypress Bioscience
Cypress Bioscience, Inc. provides therapeutics and personalized medicine services, facilitating improved and individualized patient care. Cypress addresses the evolving needs of specialist physicians and their patients by identifying unmet medical needs in the areas of pain, rheumatology, and physical medicine and rehabilitation, including challenging disorders such as fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis. This approach to improving patient care creates a unique partnership with physicians. Current products include Savella® (milnacipran HCI) and the Avise PGSM and Avise MCVSM therapeutic monitoring, diagnostic and prognostic tests for rheumatoid arthritis.
TicketLiquidator, the leading provider of the
worlds most extensive ticket inventory of hard-to-find, low-priced
tickets , now offers Paul
McCartney tickets for his North American “Up and Coming” tour at great
prices!
The “Up and Coming” Tour will kick off at the Jobing.com Arena in Phoenix,
AZ in late March; notable dates include the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles,
CA on March 30 and 31 and Sun Life Stadium in Miami on April 3 with more
dates to be announced. The band is set to play unique venues and venues
that McCartney has never played before.
McCartney began his music career as a member of one of the most celebrated
rock bands of all time — The Beatles. Since their breakup in 1970, Paul
McCartney has released over twenty chart-topping albums through solo
projects and with the seventies rock band Wings with late wife Linda
McCartney. He has also collaborated with big name artists like Stevie
Wonder, the late Michael Jackson and Elvis Costello
(tickets) .
The upcoming US Paul McCartney Tour follows the 2009 “Summer Live” tour
with memorable performances at Coachella Festival
(tickets) in Indio, CA and opening shows for New Yorks Citi Field
Stadium with Billy Joel (tickets) .
Of the performance, Andy Greene of Rolling Stone Magazine stated “With an
exceptionally well-preserved voice, Macca plow[ed] through Beatles and
Wings hits, plus solo gems.” The new tour will include a two hour set
filled with a selection from his repertoire of The Beatles, his solo career
and Wings.
“Fans who missed out on Paul McCartneys epic performances last year have
another chance to see Macca live this year,” stated Alexandra Owens, Media
Relations, TicketLiquidator. “With more dates to be announced, the Paul
McCartney tour will be one of the hottest tickets of the year.”
Marian Lois Smith Stringham Marian was known for her beautiful flower gardens. Each summer she and Jack carefully and meticulously planted flowers, creating a haven of beauty for gatherings of family and friends. She loved family traditions, Sunday dinners and get-togethers, especially those shared at Bear Lake, Lake Powell, Jackson, Wyoming and Aspen, Colorado. She was a devoted member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day-Saints and served in many capacities, her favorite being serving in the Primary with the young children and as a hostess at the Church Office Building. She brought the spirit into many meetings with her lovely violin music and also found joy in sharing her talents creating floral arrangements each week for Sacrament and Relief Society meetings and for many special events both church and civic. Later, Marian found great happiness as she and her husband served in the California, San Diego, Mission.
IN SAN FRANCISCO, any gathering after 2 a.m. requires a permit if there is “live entertainment,” a category that is apparently broad enough to include spinning records. Now cops charged with breaking up these events have taken it upon themselves to expropriate laptops from renegade disc jockeys. According to accounts from local DJs, one officer makes it a habit to take every laptop he can find when raiding parties, even computers not visibly being used to play music. Jennifer Granick, a lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, says this practice undermines the “evidence in a crime” excuse for seizing the computers, many of which belong to people not charged with any crimes. One of the DJs, Justin Miller, tells a tragicomic tale of an aggressive plainclothes policeman who barged into a private Halloween party while she was in full down regalia and asked her if she had a laptop. She wasnt using it to play music, she says, hut that didnt stop him from grabbing the computer out of her hands when she took it from its bag in response to his request. Miller says she followed the cop out to his car as he put her property in his trunk, along with other laptops hed nabbed that night. Miller recalls the annoyed officer telling her hed do all he could to make sure that it took her months to get back the machine, which is her primary source of livelihood.
Last year, MLO published a summary of existing and pending state legislation on minimum training standards, licensure, and mandatory certification of blood-specimen collection personnel (”States fail to follow Californias lead in certifying phlebotomists,” July 2008, pp. 40-42). At the time, reports indicated that bills languished in the legislative bodies of Massachusetts and Missouri. No other bills in any state were pending. Because laboratory licensure is a topic of perennial interest to MLO readers, an update at this time seems to be in order. The Massachusetts bill was to create a board of registration of phlebotomists that would set forth licensure requirements, standards, fees, continuing education, and professional and ethical conduct for all healthcare professionals who draw blood specimens. In Massachusetts, HR312–known informally as the “Dracula Bill”–provides a Board of Registry for phlebotomists that:
Q Can you clarify the legal liability a hospital has if the courier from the facility picking up specimens at a non-hospital-owned physician practice is asked to process and package specimens prior to transporting them to the hospital lab for testing? What is the liability if the courier (also a registered phlebotomist) is asked to collect a specimen on a patient at the physicians office? Determining the potential legal consequences from a mistake first requires an assessment of what is at stake. In the case of processing, a specimen can be mislabeled–meaning the results could go to the wrong person. The patient with the problem may suffer a delay in diagnosis, and the patient who receives the wrong results may be needlessly distressed. Both can be the basis for a lawsuit if it can be proved that the mistake was the result of negligence. As for performing venipuncture, the liability is the same as if it were being done in the hospital. The most serious persistent complication of venipuncture is nerve damage, which can result from direct trauma or from nerve compression as a result of hematoma at the site of the draw. Either can result in persistent pain, numbness, or tingling in the affected area. Syncope, convulsions, and, very rarely, cardiac arhythmias can also occur. Minor complications such as local bruising are relatively common (10% to 12%). Serious complications occur with much less frequency (1% to 3%) but can present significant liability if not properly managed. The phlebotomist must be prepared to deal with potential complications, and the drawing area must be one that minimizes the risk of secondary injury, such as trauma from a fall resulting from syncope. The phlebotomist must also be sufficiently familiar with the layout of the area to access any supplies or medical equipment needed to quickly and easily manage complications.
Typenex® Medical, L.L.C., a leader in blood
recipient verification products, invites the blood banking community to
participate in the 2009
Transfusion Safety Champions Contest to showcase blood bankers,
phlebotomists and nurses answers to the question, “What does transfusion
safety mean to you?”
The contest, running from now through October 21, 2009, asks the blood banking community to
submit original videos, essays or artwork that revolve around a facility
and its unique culture of safety, in order to really communicate the
different facets of transfusion safety
all over America.
“This contest is designed to not only be a fun, easy way to communicate
with blood banking peers
across America, but also serve as a way to gain insight into best
practices that can be applied in another facility,” says Jessica Holmes,
Global Marketing Manager at Typenex Medical. “Typenex is very passionate
about enabling transfusion safety
for its customers through its product lines and this is a chance for the
entire [blood bank] community to share that passion and their creativity
with us and their peers.”
The 2009 Transfusion Safety
Champions Contest gives blood bankers and their facilities the
opportunity to share transfusion process feedback in the form of videos,
essays, and artwork telling Typenex and the blood banking community at
large what transfusion
safety means to them. Participants are encouraged to be passionate,
creative and informative. Contest will run from now until October 21, 2009
and two winners will be chosen based on creativity and quality of message
conveyed. Prizes will be awarded, up to $500 for the winners facility to
continue to enable their culture of safety.
This databook provides key data and information on the hot drinks market
in Singapore. This report is a comprehensive resource for market,
category and segment level data including value, volume, distribution
share and company brand share. This report also provides expenditure
and consumption data for the historic and forecast periods.
Scope:
The market for hot drinks in Singapore increased at a compound annual
growth rate of 3.8% between 2003 and 2008.
Rothbard vs. the Philosophers, by Murray Rothbard, edited by Roberta A. Modugno, Ludwig von Mises Institute, x68 pages, $14. IF MURRAY ROTHBARD–free-market economist, anarchist philosopher, American historian, and inveterate activist–had never lived, the modern libertarian movement would have nowhere near its current size and influence. He inspired and educated generations of influential intellectuals and activists, from Leonard Liggio to Roy Childs to Randy Barnett. He helped form and/or shape the mission of such institutions as the Institute for Humane Studies, the Cato Institute, the Libertarian Party, and the Ludwig yon Mises Institute (and wrote a regular column for reason for more than a decade). His initially unique combination of a Randian/ Aristotelian natural rights ethic, Austrian economics, anarcho-capitalism, fervent opposition to war, and a populist distrust of “power elites” both public and private have injected modern libertarianism with a distinct flavor distinguishing it from other brands of pro-market thought. It was a differentiation intensified by Rothbards bombthrowing polemical style. Put it this way: When the likes of F.A. Hayek and Milton Friedman died, the conservative flagship National Review could and did praise the Nobel Prize-winning economists unreservedly. But when Rothbard died in 1995, his old pal William Buckley pissed on his grave. Rothbard, Buckley wrote, spent his life “huffing and putting in the little cloister whose walls he labored so strenuously to contract, leaving him, in the end, not as the father of a swelling movement. but with about as many disciples as David Koresh had in his little redoubt in Waco. Yes, Murray Rothbard believed in freedom, and yes, David Koresh believed in God.” Things look a little different now when it comes to Rothbards influence, though its unlikely anyone at National Review will note it–except maybe in the context of yet another attack on Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas). The rise of Paul and his young and enthusiastic fan base, which Buckley could not have foreseen, contradicts the contention that Rothbards divisive radical intransigence doomed him to irrelevance. The Paul phenomena, the largest popular movement in the postwar period to be motivated by distinctly libertarian ideas about war, money, and the role of government, has been influenced far more heavily by Rothbard than by the beliefs or style of any other prominent libertarian intellectual. The Paul movement is the sort of mass anti-war, anti-state, anti-Fed agitation that Rothbard dreamed about his entire adult life.
MIDLOTHIAN, Va. — SouthPeak Interactive Corporation (OTC Bulletin Board: SOPK) today
announced that it has reached agreement with SunTrust Banks, Inc.
(SunTrust) to extend its revolving line of credit through November 30,
2010 and increase its credit facility to $8.0 million. The amendment to
SouthPeak’s previous agreement with SunTrust was executed on February
17, 2010.
Under its previous agreement with SunTrust, SouthPeak had a $7.5 million
revolving line of credit that matured on December 31, 2009, but was
extended on a month-to-month basis.
“The loan extension improves our flexibility in managing our capital
structure and provides added security for executing on our growth
strategy,” said Melanie Mroz, SouthPeak’s President and Chief Executive
Officer. “We believe that securing this additional access to capital and
improving the maturity terms puts us on track to address our independent
auditor’s going concern qualification outlined in our most recent 10-Q
filing.”
About SouthPeak Interactive Corporation
SouthPeak Interactive Corporation develops and publishes interactive
entertainment software for all current hardware platforms including:
PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, PSP® (PlayStation®Portable)
system, PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system, PSP®go system, Xbox
360® videogame and entertainment system, Wii™, Nintendo DS™, Nintendo
DSi™ and PC. SouthPeak’s games cover all major genres including
action/adventure, role playing, racing, puzzle strategy, fighting and
combat. SouthPeak’s products are sold in retail outlets in North
America, Europe, Australia and Asia. SouthPeak is headquartered in
Midlothian, Virginia, and has offices in Grapevine, Texas and Leicester,
England.
Banking Veteran Peter Pliska to Develop Strategy, Enhance Loan
Services
SAN FRANCISCO — New Resource Bank (OTCBB:NWBN) has appointed Peter M. Pliska Jr. senior
vice president in charge of the Asset-Based Lending Group. He is
responsible for managing the bank’s new asset-based lending program and
enhancing the bank’s ability to serve customers with loan opportunities.
Pliska has focused on asset-based lending (ABL) services for most of his
career, which spans more than four decades and includes senior positions
at a variety of institutions. During 25 years with Fleet Capital Corp.,
he served as senior vice president and regional vice president, and
co-managed the $500 million regional ABL office.
“Peter’s long and deep asset-based lending expertise fills a real need
for us,” said New Resource Bank President and CEO Vince Siciliano. “He
understands lending to young companies and those that need asset-based
financing, and will be able to lead our entire staff as we provide
services to the sustainable companies that are our core customer base
and help them grow.”
Most recently, Pliska was vice president/senior underwriting officer
with Merrill Lynch Global Bank Group, and he has held senior positions
at CIT Commercial Credit and CapitalSource. As senior vice president/ABL
Group division manager at the Bank of Walnut Creek, Pliska turned around
its Business Credit Division.
So, you want to own chickens? In City Chicks: Keeping Microflocks of Laying Hens as Garden Helpers, Compost Makers, Bio-recyclers and Local Food Suppliers (Good Earth), Patricia Foreman not only reiterates why this runaway urban underground movement is so great for the environment and your health, she also provides a detailed primer on how to get started. Foreman, who has kept poultry for more than 20 years, helps newbies learn how to purchase, care for and get the most from their flocks. Then theres the fun: Because they dont need to be walked, hens are easy to case for (and theyre mesmerizing, too). This entertaining how-to book might even turn a total “city chick” into a backyard egg producer.
FAST FOOD restaurants are reputed to be cut-rate, unhealthy outfits, while government-run schools are supposed to be public-spirited and socially responsible. But according to a USA Today investigation published in December, meat that would be rejected by McDonalds and Jack-in-the-Box is being served to American schoolchildren. School meat is tested less often than restaurant meat and for fewer contaminants. With ground beef, for example, fast food joints typically pull samples for testing from the line every 15 minutes and test composite samples every hour or two. The Agricultural Marketing Service, the wing of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that buys meat for schools, pulls samples just eight times a day, and it combines them into a single daily test.
If the ides of March mark the beginning of sniffle season for you, take heart. You can relieve allergy symptoms without a trip to the drugstore, says Jordan S. Josephson, M.D., a nasal and sinus specialist in New York City. RETHINK YOUR DIET Ditch foods you dont digest well (wheat, dairy and nuts are the most common). They send your immune system into “attack” mode, weakening its power to fight allergens. CLEANSE YOUR SINUSES One of the best ways to counteract congestion, an itchy nose and eyes and even fatigue is to irrigate your sinuses with a neti pot (an Indian vessel designed specifically for clearing the nasal passages). Make your own saline solution for the pot by mixing 1/4 teaspoon salt with 8 ounces of warm water, and use morning and night.
The interview marks the first time the FDA has spoken publicly on this topic since the two-day public hearings held last November, during which the FDA heard 77 presentations from pharmaceutical companies, communication agencies, consultants, research firms, search engine companies, trade organizations, and non-profit groups on the topic “Promotion of FDA-regulated medical products (including prescription drugs for humans and animals, prescription biologics, and medical devices) using the Internet and social media tools.” “We really do want comments,” states Dr. Kang. “Its really important to us. This is the chance for the public to really be actively involved because we are going to review all the data and comments. Were going to take them all into consideration and that is going to be the basis for next steps so I really encourage public involvement. This is a challenging issue but its also an exciting time. We as an Agency encourage people to actively be involved and participate in whatever way that they can.” According to Dr. Kang, the DDMAC official leading the efforts around guidance and policy issues specific to the Internet and social media at the FDA, the information presented at the Part 15 Public Hearing was a critical first step of the overall guidance process, a step which enables the public to participate and share their perspectives on the topic in the Federal Register notice. Dr. Kang emphasized the importance for organizations or groups to submit new data or continuing research whether its gathered through focus groups, online surveys, or even gathered from observing how people interact with fictional drug promotion on search engines and health portals.
— New Module Adds “Transcription in One Button Click” to MacSpeech
Dictate Legal Speech Recognition Solution for the Macintosh –
SAN FRANCISCO — Macworld 2010, Booth #972
MacSpeech, Inc. today announced MacSpeech Scribe Legal, an add-on
component that incorporates the worlds most advanced personal
transcription for the Macintosh with MacSpeech Dictate Legal, the legal
professionals speech recognition solution for the Macintosh.
Now, MacSpeech Dictate Legal users running Snow Leopard can transcribe
an audio file of a persons voice dictation into written text, with up
to 99% accuracy, in a single button click. MacSpeech Scribe Legal
accepts audio files in .wav, .aif, .aiff, .m4v, mp4, or .m4a formats.
ROBBIE KEANES first-half strike against Dundee United at Parkhead took Celtic to within seven points of Rangers at the top of the table and set up a tasty Old Firm encounter at Ibrox next Sunday. The Irishman, on loan from Tottenham, turned in a man-of-the- match performance, topped off in the 21st minute when he raced on to a throughball from Diomansy Kamara to slot the ball past Dusan Pernis. Rangers have a game in hand after their lunchtime game at St Johnstone was called off.
ROBBIE KEANES first-half strike against Dundee United at Parkhead took Celtic to within seven points of Rangers at the top of the table and set up a tasty Old Firm encounter at Ibrox next Sunday. The Irishman, on loan from Tottenham, turned in a man-of-the- match performance, topped off in the 21st minute when he raced on to a throughball from Diomansy Kamara to slot the ball past Dusan Pernis. Rangers have a game in hand after their lunchtime game at St Johnstone was called off.
PAUL CASEY served up an early Ryder Cup warning to the Americans yesterday in their own backyard. He marched forcefully into the semi-finals of the Accenture Match Play with a crushing 5 4 victory over Turnberry Open champion Stewart Cink. And that result exposed the current lack of depth in United States golf while Tiger Woods tries to repair his marriage and Phil Mickelson takes a family holiday. Cink, 36, was the last American survivor from the original 64- strong field at Dove Mountain, Arizona.
TIGER Woods wife Elin was stunned when the golfer made major last-minute changes to his televised apology. despite agreeing what he would say. She had been expecting him to announce at the carefully stage- managed press conference a return to the golf course within weeks. But after frantic eleventh hour discussions, the serial love- cheat, 34, and his advisers decided he would instead reveal he was returning to rehab to seek further help for his “sex addiction”. Friends said Elin, 30, feels “hurt and manipulated” and fears the U-turn is a ploy aimed at placating his sponsors.
Inside Obamas Brain, by Sasha Abramsky, Portfblio, 278 pages, $24.95 DECEMBER 2009 may go down as the single most consequential month in Barack Obamas presidency. Starting with his announcement of a troop escalation in Afghanistan, through a Nobel Peace Prize speech in which he touted the benefits of war, then an international climate change conference that broke down in disarray, topped by a convulsive national health care debate that nevertheless staggered toward the legislative finish line by Christmas, the president at every impactful step encountered something new in his meteoric young political career: sustained and even vicious criticism from his core fan base on the left. After the Afghan announcement, 60s New Left relic Tom Hayden declared in The Nation that “its time to strip the Obama sticker off my car” At Open Left, Paul Rosenberg characterized the presidents Oslo performance as a “War-is-Peace Prize speech “When the Copenhagen climate talks broke down (for more on which see “Climate Crackup/ page 28), anti-globalization author Naomi Klein concluded in The Guardian that the “failure belongs to Obama” And by the time the 2,457-page health care overhaul made it through the Senate, a whos who list of progressives–including former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean and netroots impresario Markos Moulitsas–were actively campaigning against it. Yet even with the noisy dissent on his left flank and record-setting disapproval ratings from the public at large, the president kept getting stuff done, not least of which appears to be the single largest entitlement expansion since the 1960s. The busy month of December also saw passage of an omnibus spending bill and subsequent Pentagon package that together helped jack up federal outlays by more than 10 percent over the previous year amid only scattered national discussion. The House of Representatives passed a massive financial regulation overhaul that would create a Consumer Financial Protection Agency, the national debt ceiling was raised once again, and the Obama has governed like the most stereotypical of old-school economic progressives. As ever, nonideology turns out to be ideological after all. Environmental Protection Agency took the potentially monumental step of regulating carbon (see “The EPAs Carbon Footprint,” page 36). For a guy who seems perpetually on the verge of losing his political mojo, Obama manages to accomplish quite a bit.
TIGER Woods wife Elin was stunned when the golfer made major last-minute changes to his televised apology. despite agreeing what he would say. She had been expecting him to announce at the carefully stage- managed press conference a return to the golf course within weeks. But after frantic eleventh hour discussions, the serial love- cheat, 34, and his advisers decided he would instead reveal he was returning to rehab to seek further help for his “sex addiction”. Friends said Elin, 30, feels “hurt and manipulated” and fears the U-turn is a ploy aimed at placating his sponsors.
SALT LAKE CITY – Thanks to a “refresh” grant from the David Bohnett Foundation, the University of Utahs Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Resource Center will be getting an upgrade. The Utah Pride Center also received one of Bohnetts grants, as did schools and facilities in more than two dozen states. Since 1999, the foundation has provided more than $35 million in funding, technology and technical support to innovative organizations and institutions, including a broad spectrum of arts, educational and civic programs, LGBT-related causes, voting rights and registration initiatives, research and public policies to reduce the toll of firearm violence, and animal research and rights.
If you had to choose, which state parks would you turn over to a private company or foundation? The Territorial Statehouse in Fillmore? Its preservation is important to state history. Brigham Young ordered it built in the 1850s to eventually become the states capitol building, but it was abandoned after only one legislative session. Its a part of the states heritage but, sitting as it does along a remote stretch of I- 15, it doesnt attract enough paying visitors to make a profit. Clearly, not all state parks are created alike. And yet, if state lawmakers act on a proposal to privatize some state parks, they should act carefully. These were set apart because they were identified as irreplaceable elements of the states fabric and heritage. Privatizing them wouldnt necessarily damage their beauty or jeopardize their future, but it would introduce a money-making motive that doesnt fit into the mission of a state park. And yet This Is the Place Heritage Park provides an impressive example of how such a privatization might work in some instances. The park was privatized in 1998. It is run by a foundation that receives a bit of state money, which it uses to leverage donations and other fees to make up the difference.
SANDY — Robert Jensen figures that sales of recreational vehicles will tell you a lot about the state of the economy: “We lead in and out of recession.” And the Sportsmens Vacation and RV Show at the South Towne Expo Center is whispering to him that families are spending and credit is flowing once more. Its not a flood, mind you. But the credit wells no longer dry, either. While the crowd size is about the same as last year, he said, “more people are actually buying.”
Leading minibus insurance broker, Staveley Head have offered advice for minibus drivers on check to ensure their vehicle is legal for the road.
If you drive a minibus, whether as a job or a volunteer, whether part-time or full-time, you as well as the owner of the vehicle are responsible for ensuring the vehicle is in a legal and roadworthy condition. The Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) roadside examiners were extended powers under the 2006 Road Safety Act to issue fixed penalties to offending drivers following random roadside inspections.
The minibus DRIVER is legally required to carry out a “walkaround check” prior to each and every journey. If stopped by a VOSA roadside inspector and a fault is found to be evident, the driver will incur a fixed penalty fine or even a court appearance for more serious offences. The inspection should include the following checks.
Make sure that windscreen wipers and washers, horn and all exterior lights are working correctly. Ensure that all mirrors and glass are clean and to not impair vision.
Test that the brakes and steering mechanism are not defective in any way, and determine that there are no fuel or oil leaks.
THE Government has scrapped plans to replace the sunken sailing vessel Asgard II and is instead to hand over the EUR3million insurance payout to Brian Lenihans Department of Finance. Former Defence Minister Willie ODea torpedoed the popular Sail Training Scheme despite the offer of a FREE tall ship. Now it is highly unlikely that any Irish sailing ships will take part in the Tall Ships Race which is due to be the biggest tourist event in Ireland when it visits Waterford during 2011. The Department of Defence considered refloating the Asgard II but the EUR2million cost was seen as prohibitive.
The Department for Work and Pensions is considering setting up a new Employers Liability Insurance Bureau, which will trace EL policies and, where they cannot be traced, provide an insurance fund of last resort. The Employers Liability Insurance Bill has now had its second reading in the House of Commons.
The proposal has caused concerns among insurers that the bureau may have a negative effect, as some employers may feel less obliged to make adequate health and safety provisions for their employees.
A spokesperson for leading insurance broker Flint Insurance commented: “We are concerned about the effect that a dedicated Employers Liability Insurance Bureau will have on the attitudes of some employers who may then decide not to take the health and safety of their employees seriously. However, setting up a tracing system could help thousands of employees receive the compensation they deserve.”
The ABI has stated its opposition to the scheme on these grounds, fearing that it could cause a “serious moral hazard.” There are also objections on the grounds of fairness; the fund is to be financed by the insurance industry, which would mean that reputable firms would have to pay for the failings of others. However, the ABI recognises the usefulness of a system for tracing insurers, pointing out that in fact it introduced such a code 10 years ago. The TUC has welcomed the principle of a system to assist those whose original insurers cannot be found, such as asbestos victims.
Flint Insurance are an independent broker specialising in a range of commercial insurance such as public liability insurance . Based in Harrow, Middlesex, they have now expanded their workforce to include an office in Sidcup, Kent. Flint have over 30 years experience of offering both personal and commercial cover across the UK, working with a panel of over 35 insurers to provide the most appropriate cover for their clients.
VELDHOVEN, The Netherlands — ASML Holding NV (ASML) (NASDAQ:ASML) (Amsterdam:ASML) today announces
its new FlexRay programmable illumination system is finding strong
acceptance by providing chip makers with virtually unlimited
illumination source tuning. Faster, more flexible source tuning is
essential for customers making full use of ASML’s powerful source and
mask optimization (SMO) software aimed at continued chip feature shrink,
initially in RD and later proliferation in production.
As chip designs shrink, more and more source-mask tuning is required to
maintain a workable process window, resulting in the need of many
complex pupil shapes. ASML’s FlexRay freeform illuminator makes it
easier and faster to create and implement those custom shapes in volume
manufacturing. FlexRay offers a higher-level of control and tighter
pupil specifications than previous solutions, enabling better
tool-to-tool matching and improved critical dimension uniformity (CDU),
or chip structure accuracy.
The first FlexRay unit was shipped to a Logic customer in December 2009
and is already in use for both development work and low volume
production. ASML has received orders for multiple units from leading
Logic, Memory and Foundry customers, and will begin shipping in volume
this quarter on TWINSCAN XT:1950i and NXT:1950i immersion systems.
ASML’s Tachyon SMO software, from its subsidiary Brion, is used to
develop new lithography processes and optimize existing processes at the
design, photomask and imaging levels. Tachyon SMO co-optimizes and
analyzes scanner source and mask design simultaneously, ensuring an
optimized process window. FlexRay and Tachyon SMO are two key,
complementary ingredients in ASML’s holistic lithography portfolio.
“Customers are looking to extend the use of immersion tools”, said Jan
Smits, senior vice president, TWINSCAN product group at ASML. “FlexRay
not only provides immediate benefit in terms of faster, more effective
RD, but also prepares fabs for the adoption of a more holistic approach
for continued shrink.”
Compliance rates low on egress, fire safety For the first time in several years, The Joint Commission standards and goals with the lowest compliance rates are not directly related to the delivery of health care. In its annual listing of the standards or goals with the highest rates of noncompliance for the first six months of 2009, The Joint Commission listed the following: Life Safety (LS) 02.01.20: The hospital maintains the integrity of the means of egress, 45% noncompliant; Record of Care, Treatment, and Services (RC) 02.03.07: Qualified staff receive and record verbal orders, 40% noncompliant;
Inside Obamas Brain, by Sasha Abramsky, Portfblio, 278 pages, $24.95 DECEMBER 2009 may go down as the single most consequential month in Barack Obamas presidency. Starting with his announcement of a troop escalation in Afghanistan, through a Nobel Peace Prize speech in which he touted the benefits of war, then an international climate change conference that broke down in disarray, topped by a convulsive national health care debate that nevertheless staggered toward the legislative finish line by Christmas, the president at every impactful step encountered something new in his meteoric young political career: sustained and even vicious criticism from his core fan base on the left. After the Afghan announcement, 60s New Left relic Tom Hayden declared in The Nation that “its time to strip the Obama sticker off my car” At Open Left, Paul Rosenberg characterized the presidents Oslo performance as a “War-is-Peace Prize speech “When the Copenhagen climate talks broke down (for more on which see “Climate Crackup/ page 28), anti-globalization author Naomi Klein concluded in The Guardian that the “failure belongs to Obama” And by the time the 2,457-page health care overhaul made it through the Senate, a whos who list of progressives–including former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean and netroots impresario Markos Moulitsas–were actively campaigning against it. Yet even with the noisy dissent on his left flank and record-setting disapproval ratings from the public at large, the president kept getting stuff done, not least of which appears to be the single largest entitlement expansion since the 1960s. The busy month of December also saw passage of an omnibus spending bill and subsequent Pentagon package that together helped jack up federal outlays by more than 10 percent over the previous year amid only scattered national discussion. The House of Representatives passed a massive financial regulation overhaul that would create a Consumer Financial Protection Agency, the national debt ceiling was raised once again, and the Obama has governed like the most stereotypical of old-school economic progressives. As ever, nonideology turns out to be ideological after all. Environmental Protection Agency took the potentially monumental step of regulating carbon (see “The EPAs Carbon Footprint,” page 36). For a guy who seems perpetually on the verge of losing his political mojo, Obama manages to accomplish quite a bit.
Video gets patients more involved in hand hygiene Patients, physicians report more questions asked The video, called “Hand Hygiene Saves Lives,” was tested in common areas and patient rooms at 17 Catholic Health Partners hospitals; the research was coordinated by the Premier Healthcare alliance. The video encourages patients, family, and visitors to play a role in their own care by helping health care professionals remember to clean their hands before and after touching patients. After the video was shown, patients were twice as likely to report reminding nurses to wash their hands, and doctors were twice as likely to report being asked by patients to wash their hands. In addition, after watching the video, the majority of patients:
NEW YORK — Fitch Ratings has affirmed 20 classes in two U.S. RMBS resecuritization
trusts (Re-REMICs), as a part of Fitchs continued surveillance. The
affected trusts represent a beneficial ownership interest in separate
trust funds, which include bonds that have been affirmed, placed on
Rating Watch Negative or downgraded.
The Re-REMIC transactions were originally rated in January 2009 and the
underlying transactions were primarily Alt-A (66.9%) and Prime (33.1%)
from the 2005-2007 vintages. Fitchs rating actions are as follows:
–Class 1A1 (17314UAA6) affirmed at AAA, Outlook Stable;
–Class 1A1A (17314UAC2) affirmed at AAA, Outlook Stable;
SALT LAKE CITY — A man accused of stealing laptop computers was tracked through his jail mug shot, according to charges filed this week in 3rd District Court. Last December, a man grabbed two laptop computers worth a total of $1,200 from the EZ Rent-to-Own store, 2974 W. 3500 South, the charges state. A store employee located the computers through software that tracks the equipment when connected to the Internet. Caster was charged with retail theft, a third-degree felony.
CHICAGO — Linda Todd has been appointed director of Business Development for CNA.
In this role, Todd will help shape and expand CNA’s market presence and
sales culture. She will be located in CNA’s Philadelphia branch, and
will support the business insurer’s branches in Reading and Pittsburgh.
Todd brings to her new role extensive insurance industry marketing and
sales experience including work with national and regional carriers such
as Liberty Mutual, Meadowbrook Insurance Group and Wausau Insurance
Companies.
For more information regarding CNA’s full range of commercial insurance
products and services for Pennsylvania, contact Todd at 215-448-3318.
OLDWICK, N.J. — A.M. Best Co. has affirmed the financial strength rating (FSR) of
A (Excellent) and issuer credit ratings (ICR) of “a” of CNA Surety
Corporation Group (CNA Surety) (Chicago, IL) and its members.
Concurrently, A.M. Best has affirmed the ICR of “bbb” of its immediate
parent, CNA Surety Corporation (headquartered in Chicago, IL)
(NYSE:SUR). The outlook for all ratings is stable. (See below for a
detailed listing of the companies and ratings.)
These ratings reflect CNA Surety’s solid risk-adjusted capitalization,
historically profitable operating results and leading market position in
the contract and miscellaneous surety bond markets. These positive
rating factors are derived from the group’s clearly defined target
markets, extensive distribution network, disciplined underwriting and
credit risk management and strong servicing capabilities. In addition,
CNA Surety maintains a well-diversified surety and fidelity book of
business with respect to products, geography and market segments,
enabling the group to leverage its broad-based expertise to develop and
expand its leadership position in the surety marketplace. CNA Surety
benefits from the financial flexibility of CNA Surety Corporation, which
has low financial leverage and strong coverage ratios, as well as its
majority owner, CNA Financial Corporation (NYSE:CNA).
Partially offsetting these positive rating factors is the variability in
CNA Surety’s operating results during the prior soft market cycle due to
adverse loss reserve development, severity and frequency of losses and
higher corporate defaults. A further negative impact during this period
was an increase in the retention levels and costs associated with more
restrictive reinsurance treaties. However, in recent years, the group’s
loss reserve development has been favorable (particularly in 2008 and
2009) and net reinsurance retention levels have decreased, reinsurance
costs have moderated, and terms and conditions have become less
restrictive.
While A.M. Best expects CNA Surety will continue to generate favorable
earnings over the near term, margins may be pressured by growing
competition and the negative impact of the current weak economy on
contractors as well as increasing corporate default rates.
The FSR of A (Excellent) and ICRs of “a” have been affirmed for CNA
Surety Corporation Group and its following members:
CHICAGO, Feb. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — CNA Surety Corporation (”CNA Surety” or the “Company”) (NYSE: SUR) today reported net income for the fourth quarter of 2009 of $49.3 million, or $1.11 per diluted share, compared to $29.1 million, or $0.66 per diluted share, for the same period in 2008. For the year ended December 31, 2009, net income was $117.9 million, or $2.65 per diluted share, compared to $110.4 million, or $2.49 per diluted share, for the same period in 2008. The 2009 periods benefited from higher levels of favorable loss reserve development. Favorable loss reserve development of $46.4 million in the current quarter, $54.3 million for the year. A combined ratio of 43.2% in the quarter, 71.8% for the year. Operating cash flow of $48.3 million in the quarter, $158.0 million for the year.
Mills to Drive Further North American Growth, Helping More U.S. Plastic
Surgeons Improve the Patient Consultation with Anatomically-Accurate 3D
Simulations
“We’re thrilled to have Jack on board,” said John Knapton, CEO. “His
proven sales success and management expertise make him a pivotal element
of our team, helping us succinctly match patient needs, surgeons’
objectives and Axis Three’s 3D solutions to maximum benefit,
transforming patient consultations.”
In his new role, Jack will lead Axis Three’s sales team as it continues
to expand in North America. With specific experience in direct customer
relationships, he will be responsible for ensuring extraordinary
customer relationships through the consultative selling of Axis Three’s
3D surgical simulation system to plastic and cosmetic surgeons
throughout North America. Prior to joining Axis Three, Jack served as
Director of Sales for The Americas at Princeton Industries, a division
of Roper Industries.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Premier
Purchasing Partners, LP, today announced new agreements for surgical
instrument and scope repair have been awarded to IMS of Birmingham, Ala;
Mobile Instrument Service Repair Inc. of Bellefontaine,�Ohio; Spectrum
Surgical Instruments Corp. of Stow, Ohio; and US Medical Systems of Fort
Mill, S.C.
Effective February 1, 2010, the agreements are available to acute care
and continuum of care members of the Premier
healthcare alliance.
About Premier Inc., 2006 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award
recipient
The Premier
healthcare alliance is more than 2,300 U.S. hospitals and
64,000-plus other healthcare sites working together to improve
healthcare quality and affordability. Owned by not-for-profit hospitals,
Premier maintains the nations most comprehensive repository of
clinical, financial and outcomes information and operates a leading
healthcare purchasing network. A world leader in helping deliver
measurable improvements in care, Premier works with the Centers for
Medicare Medicaid Services and the United Kingdoms National Health
Service North West to improve hospital performance. Headquartered in
Charlotte, N.C., Premier also has offices in San Diego, Philadelphia and
Washington. Follow Premier on Twitter.
Video gets patients more involved in hand hygiene Patients, physicians report more questions asked The video, called “Hand Hygiene Saves Lives,” was tested in common areas and patient rooms at 17 Catholic Health Partners hospitals; the research was coordinated by the Premier Healthcare alliance. The video encourages patients, family, and visitors to play a role in their own care by helping health care professionals remember to clean their hands before and after touching patients. After the video was shown, patients were twice as likely to report reminding nurses to wash their hands, and doctors were twice as likely to report being asked by patients to wash their hands. In addition, after watching the video, the majority of patients:
The Institute for Womens Policy Research conducts rigorous research and
disseminates its findings to address the needs of women, promote public
dialogue, and strengthen families, communities, and societies.
IWPR focuses on issues of poverty and welfare, employment and earnings,
work and family issues, health and safety, and womens civic and
political participation.
The Institute works with policymakers, scholars, and public interest
groups around the country to design, execute, and disseminate research
that illuminates economics and social policy issues affecting women and
families, and to build a network of individuals and organizations that
conduct and use women-oriented policy research. IWPR, an independent,
non-profit, research organization, also works in affiliation with the
graduate programs in public policy and womens studies at The George
Washington University.
IWPRs work is supported by foundation grants, government grants and
contracts, donations from individuals, and contributions from
organizations. Members and affiliates of IWPRs Information Network
receive reports and information on a regular basis. IWPR is a 501(c)(3)
tax-exempt organization.
NEW YORK — Fitch Ratings has affirmed 20 classes in two U.S. RMBS resecuritization
trusts (Re-REMICs), as a part of Fitchs continued surveillance. The
affected trusts represent a beneficial ownership interest in separate
trust funds, which include bonds that have been affirmed, placed on
Rating Watch Negative or downgraded.
The Re-REMIC transactions were originally rated in January 2009 and the
underlying transactions were primarily Alt-A (66.9%) and Prime (33.1%)
from the 2005-2007 vintages. Fitchs rating actions are as follows:
–Class 1A1 (17314UAA6) affirmed at AAA, Outlook Stable;
–Class 1A1A (17314UAC2) affirmed at AAA, Outlook Stable;
SPOKANE, Wash. — AmericanWest Bancorporation (NASDAQ: AWBC) today announced fourth
quarter and year-end 2009 financial results, which included the
following:
For the year ended December 31, 2009, the Company reported a net loss of
$71.1 million, or $4.13 per share, as compared with a net loss of $192.4
million, or $11.18 per share, for 2008. Excluding $18.9 million and
$109.0 million goodwill impairment charges during the years ended
December 31, 2009 and 2008, respectively, the net losses would have been
$52.3 million ($3.04 per share) and $83.4 million ($4.84 per share).
The tax-equivalent net interest margin for the fourth quarter of 2009 of
3.54% was flat to the previous quarter and up 15 basis points from the
same period in 2008, principally driven by a reduction in the average
cost of deposits.
Plateau
Systems , a leading provider of enterprise-class SaaS solutions for talent
management , today announced that registration is open for its February
23, 2010 Webinar titled “The
ROI of Software-As-A-Service” featuring Liz Herbert, a senior analyst
covering SaaS at Forrester
Research .
Over the past five years, organizations have increasingly recognized the
advantages and financial benefits of the software-as-a-service (SaaS)
deployment model. A cost-effective alternative to on-premise software due
to its lower up-front implementation costs, faster deployment and upgrade
cycles, and pay-as-you-go pricing, SaaS appears to be softwares silver
bullet, at least in the short term. However, as SaaS continues to move
into a broader range of applications and into larger, more strategic
deployments, organizations are seeking to quantify the overall benefits of
this model. Many are questioning the long-term economics of SaaS, trying
to determine if the rent-versus-own model necessarily has a cost crossover
point and which applications deliver greater ROI when delivered as SaaS.
In its recent “The ROI of Software-As-A-Service” research report, Forrester
examined client decisions across a range of SaaS use cases and found that
SaaS-based human resources applications, in particular, yielded significant
ROI, with payback in 12-24 months.
During this interactive Webinar, Liz Herbert will discuss key findings from
Forresters research, including key customer benefits and risk analysis for
determining ROI. Attend this free one hour webinar to learn how your
organization can achieve a higher ROI by using a SaaS Solution. Webinar
attendees will also receive a complimentary copy of Forresters “The ROI of
Software-As-A-Service” research.
WHO: Liz Herbert, Senior Analyst, Forrester Research
Plateau
Systems , a leading provider of enterprise-class SaaS solutions for talent
management , today announced that registration is open for its February
23, 2010 Webinar titled “The
ROI of Software-As-A-Service” featuring Liz Herbert, a senior analyst
covering SaaS at Forrester
Research .
Over the past five years, organizations have increasingly recognized the
advantages and financial benefits of the software-as-a-service (SaaS)
deployment model. A cost-effective alternative to on-premise software due
to its lower up-front implementation costs, faster deployment and upgrade
cycles, and pay-as-you-go pricing, SaaS appears to be softwares silver
bullet, at least in the short term. However, as SaaS continues to move
into a broader range of applications and into larger, more strategic
deployments, organizations are seeking to quantify the overall benefits of
this model. Many are questioning the long-term economics of SaaS, trying
to determine if the rent-versus-own model necessarily has a cost crossover
point and which applications deliver greater ROI when delivered as SaaS.
In its recent “The ROI of Software-As-A-Service” research report, Forrester
examined client decisions across a range of SaaS use cases and found that
SaaS-based human resources applications, in particular, yielded significant
ROI, with payback in 12-24 months.
During this interactive Webinar, Liz Herbert will discuss key findings from
Forresters research, including key customer benefits and risk analysis for
determining ROI. Attend this free one hour webinar to learn how your
organization can achieve a higher ROI by using a SaaS Solution. Webinar
attendees will also receive a complimentary copy of Forresters “The ROI of
Software-As-A-Service” research.
WHO: Liz Herbert, Senior Analyst, Forrester Research
Editors Note: There are three photos and a video associated with this Press Release.
Tweens, teens and thirty-something gamers beware – Grandma and Grandpa are the newest force to be reckoned with in the family Wii showdown.
The Wii video game system has increasingly found a home at seniors living residences and community centres across the country – creating new opportunities for residents to interact with each other, and allowing seniors to take on a younger generation at what was traditionally considered their domain.
Members of Edmonds Community Centre for 55 in Burnaby, British Columbia, were treated to some fun in the virtual sun as representatives from Nintendo and Nurse Next Door , Canadas fastest growing in-home senior care provider, encouraged seniors to try their skills with the Wii Sports Resort game. While playing together with each other and kids from a local youth centre, Edmonds members also had the opportunity to learn about and experience the Wii system.
Denise Kelly, Captain of Relationships Community Care from Nurse Next Doors Burnaby, BC franchise, has been incorporating Nintendo games as a regular past time amongst the senior population it services, and has found that seniors genuinely enjoy playing interactive games on Wii and reap far greater benefits.
ST. LOUIS — Through a partnership with Inquisit, Amerinet’s strategic education
partner, Alsius Corporation (recently acquired by ZOLL Medical
Corporation) was able to expand educational programming related to its
innovative products and increase attendance to its webinars by 940
percent.
“The goal is to educate,” said Dr. Xia Luo, director of clinical
education for ZOLL Medical Corporation, a pioneer in the development of
intravascular temperature management therapies for critically ill
patients in intensive care, emergency departments and surgical settings.
“Through educational webinars, we are able to assist physicians and
nurses in their mission to improve patient care.”
Prior to its association with Inquisit, Alsius had worked with a
different company to extend educational services, but had been
disappointed in attendance, particularly the low number of physicians
represented.
Supported by an educational grant from Alsius, Inquisit’s team
developed, marketed and presented three education sessions on
temperature management in patients. A total of 940 healthcare
professionals in all 50 states and 15 foreign countries participated –
an increase of 940 percent from the prior year. The sessions were
offered at no charge to participants and/or their facilities due to the
educational grant from the company. The programs are archived and
continue to provide needed education via Inquisit’s Learning-On-Demand.
“I really prefer Inquisit because of its association with Amerinet and
the access to the Amerinet network,” Dr. Luo said. “Inquisit provided a
lot of flexibility and options that fit our needs.”
ST. LOUIS — Through a partnership with Inquisit, Amerinet’s strategic education
partner, Alsius Corporation (recently acquired by ZOLL Medical
Corporation) was able to expand educational programming related to its
innovative products and increase attendance to its webinars by 940
percent.
“The goal is to educate,” said Dr. Xia Luo, director of clinical
education for ZOLL Medical Corporation, a pioneer in the development of
intravascular temperature management therapies for critically ill
patients in intensive care, emergency departments and surgical settings.
“Through educational webinars, we are able to assist physicians and
nurses in their mission to improve patient care.”
Prior to its association with Inquisit, Alsius had worked with a
different company to extend educational services, but had been
disappointed in attendance, particularly the low number of physicians
represented.
Supported by an educational grant from Alsius, Inquisit’s team
developed, marketed and presented three education sessions on
temperature management in patients. A total of 940 healthcare
professionals in all 50 states and 15 foreign countries participated –
an increase of 940 percent from the prior year. The sessions were
offered at no charge to participants and/or their facilities due to the
educational grant from the company. The programs are archived and
continue to provide needed education via Inquisit’s Learning-On-Demand.
“I really prefer Inquisit because of its association with Amerinet and
the access to the Amerinet network,” Dr. Luo said. “Inquisit provided a
lot of flexibility and options that fit our needs.”
N. BILLERICA, Mass. — Lantheus Medical Imaging, Inc. announced today the appointment of Robert
A. Spurr to the position of Vice President, Sales and Marketing. He
joins Lantheus with more than 20 years of industry experience at
Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Aventis Pharmaceuticals and most recently
Ortho-McNeil®, a pharmaceuticals division of Johnson and Johnson, where
he was Vice President Sales and Marketing, Institutional Franchise. The
company also announced that David Mann will assume the newly formed
position of Vice President, Operations and Professional Relations.
“Bob has a strong and distinguished track record in sales and marketing
and he is a welcome addition to the Lantheus management team,” said Don
Kiepert, President and CEO of Lantheus Medical Imaging. “His skills will
be useful as we drive sales of our echocardiography contrast agent
DEFINITY®, our recently launched MRA agent, ABLAVARTM, and
our other important diagnostic agents. In particular, Bob’s experience
in the managed care arena will enable us to better position our products
in the evolving healthcare environment so that we can continue to
provide cost-effective solutions for the diagnosis of disease for our
customers and the patients they serve.”
“Molecular imaging diagnostics are key to more efficient and effective
use of healthcare dollars, and Lantheus’ heritage of innovation and
leadership in the industry, combined with its strong product portfolio
and promising pipeline, presented me with a compelling opportunity to
apply my skills at a company dedicated to being part of the solution to
healthcare,” said Mr. Spurr.
Mr. Spurr was most recently Vice President Sales and Marketing,
Institutional Franchise, at Ortho-McNeil Inc. While there, he led the
hospital sales and marketing organization and successfully launched one
of their antibiotic products. Earlier at Ortho-McNeil, he was Vice
President, Strategic Business Group, North American Pharmaceuticals,
where he established a fully integrated managed care organization that
combined Janssen and Ortho-McNeil businesses and included responsibility
for supply chain, customer marketing, account management, pricing and
contracting. Prior to that, Mr. Spurr held positions of increasing
responsibility at Aventis Pharmaceuticals and Novartis Pharmaceuticals.
He received a B.S. degree from Keene State College and holds an M.B.A.
from Rutgers.
Acquisition to Accelerate Commercialization of Easy Check Breath
Glucose Test and iGlucose Communication Device
DELRAY BEACH, Fla. — PositiveID Corporation (”PositiveID” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ:PSID)
announced today that it has acquired intellectual property rights and
assets of Easy Check Medical Diagnostics, LLC, to expand its portfolio
of non-invasive glucose-level testing products and diabetes management
tools under development. Easy Check has two primary products under
development: the Easy Check breath glucose detection system and the
iGlucose™ wireless communication device.
The Easy Check breath glucose test, currently under development, is a
non-invasive glucose detection system that measures acetone levels in a
patient’s exhaled breath. The association between acetone levels in the
breath and glucose is well documented, but previous data on the
acetone/glucose correlation has been insufficient for reliable
statistics. Easy Check’s breath glucose detection system combines a
proprietary chemical mixture of natrium nitroprussid with breath
exhalate, which is intended to create a new molecular compound that can
be measured with its patent pending technology. The Company believes
that the use of a heavy molecule to generate a chemical reaction that
can be reliably measured may prove the close correlation between acetone
concentrations found in a patient’s exhaled breath and glucose found in
his or her blood. This could eliminate a patient’s need to prick his or
her finger multiple times per day to get a blood sugar reading.
Easy Check’s other product under development, its iGlucose
system, uses wireless SMS messaging to automatically communicate a
diabetic’s glucose readings to the iGlucose online database. iGlucose
is intended to provide next generation, real-time data to improve
diabetes management and help ensure patient compliance, data accuracy
and insurance reimbursement. In addition, PositiveID believes that the iGlucose
wireless communication device is the first to address the Medicare
requirement for durable medical equipment manufacturers and pharmacies
to maintain glucose level logs and records for the millions of
high-frequency diabetes patients.
Benjamin Atkin, the founder of Easy Check Medical Diagnostics, said, “I
am excited to become a part of PositiveID, an innovative healthcare
identification and technology company focused on developing solutions to
some of today’s most urgent healthcare needs. By joining forces with
PositiveID and leveraging their experience in bringing products to
market, we will be able to accelerate the path to commercialization for
our Easy Check breath glucose test and our iGlucose communication
device.”
Swinton Bikes, one of the UKs leading motorbike insurance brokers, has seen hundreds of enquiries for their electric motorbike insurance deals since their launch in May last year.
An increasingly popular and powerful option, the new generation of electric bikes are light, economic and fast. One of the latest models, the Zero S Supermoto, delivers zero to 50mph in just five seconds, weighs in at just 122.5 kg and with no clutch and no need to change gears offers bikers a smooth and seriously fun ride.
The bikes also offer environmentally conscious motor-cyclists a greener alternative to their traditional petrol machines. The most recent models deliver only an eighth of the carbon emissions per mile than their petrol powered equivalents and will be fully charged and ready to go after only a few hours hooked up to a standardised domestic power socket.
Anthony Aronin, head of Swinton Bikes said: “It has been very exciting to watch the new electric motorbike models develop, and we are pleased to be able to keep up with the cutting-edge technology by providing competitive cover for the latest electric bike models.
“Judging by the significant number of electric motorcycle insurance enquiries we are receiving every week, there is clearly an appetite for these new machines. Whilst remaining committed to finding our best deals for all bikers out there, we understand the importance of investing in environmentally friendly modes of transport and can offer anyone thinking of investing in this new technology a great quote on all levels of cover.”
This databook provides comprehensive and up-to-date information on
technology spending within the insurance industry in Benelux.
Scope
Policy administration led the insurance technology spending in Benelux,
accounting for 24.6%, with a spend of $696.6m in 2007. Claims processing
followed, with a spend of $475.6m, accounting for 16.8% of the total
insurance technology spend in 2007.
SAN FRANCISCO — Having recently been named the nation’s “Top Medical Spa” by DaySpa
Magazine, Epi Center MedSpa San Francisco is renown as a luxury retreat
in the heart of San Francisco’s Union Square. While the center is proud
to receive such prestigious acclaim, it takes even more pride in its
support of the local community.
“We value the community and celebrate philanthropy in the Bay Area by
supporting a wide range of charitable programs,” says Margaret
Mitchell, president and founder of Epi Center MedSpa. “While many
companies were cutting back on giving because of the economy, we
actually increased our charitable efforts in 2009. It made for a
rewarding year for the center and our staff and we believe 2010 will be
even more exciting.”
In 2009, Epi Center MedSpa supported over 24 community groups, hosted
events for 12 non-profit organizations and held six unique fundraising
events. Beneficiaries included organizations that support womens health
issues, HIV/AIDS, children and families, animals, arts and culture as
well as environmental causes. The center’s community partners include
agencies such as: Global
Green, Breast
Cancer Emergency Fund, Academy
of Friends, Edgewood
Center for Families Children, St.
Anthonys Foundation, Tenderloin
Neighborhood Development Corporation and the San
Francisco Ballet.
The center kicks off its 2010 community giving campaign with a
fundraising event on Feb. 16 benefitting Dress
for Success, an organization that promotes independence of
disadvantaged women by providing professional attire, a network of
support and the career development tools to help women thrive in work
and in life.
“Epi Center is the perfect partner for Dress for Success,” says Maria
Barrios Ehmer, community philanthropist who raises funds and
awareness for organizations including for Dress for Success. “While it’s
their mission to help people look their personal best, it’s our mission
to help underprivileged women in our community look professional, so
that they have the confidence to thrive in today’s workforce.”
Farm Bureau Financial Services Addresses Needs with Launch of Simple
Term Life Insurance Featuring Minimal Paperwork, Generally No Medical
Exam, Online Signup Option
WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — The recent financial crisis has brought new attention to the complexity
and confusion consumers often face when it comes to contracts and
investments. In fact, 50 percent of consumers find their insurance,
credit card and wireless phone contracts extremely or somewhat difficult
to understand.1
In terms of life insurance specifically, 67 percent of consumers would
have increased interest in purchasing a policy if jargon-free, plain
English explanations and disclosures were used.1
To help address this need and create a simpler and more comfortable
approach to life insurance, Farm Bureau Financial Services is launching
Simple Term life insurance, which can provide consumers with protection
for their financial obligations in a matter of minutes.
“In these complex times, we focus on making insurance simple,” said Rich
Kypta, executive vice president, Farm Bureau Life Insurance Company.
“Our Simple Term product helps consumers who realize how important it is
to prepare for the future with a process that’s streamlined and very
easy.”
28 January 2010 – Norwegian medical technology company Medi-Stim ASA (OSL: MEDI) said yesterday afternoon it got confirmation from its Japanese distributor that Medi-Stims new imaging product VeriQC has been approved for sale in the country. VeriQC is MediStims new generation of product for quality assurance in vascular and cardiac surgery. The system combines blood-flow measurement with new ultrasound-based imaging functionality. The tool can contribute with higher precision and quality during bypass, valve surgery, transplant surgery and congenital cardiac diseases. The product has also been cleared for sales in the European market. MediStim is seeking a marketing approval for the product from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The new equipment more than doubles Medi-Stims market potential because of new areas of use, but also because the value of the system increases essentially compared to VeriQ without imaging functionality.
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — SonavationTM,
Inc., the developer of the biometrics industry’s thinnest and most
durable fingerprint sensor, today announced a collaborative research
agreement with The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center
towards the development of novel ultrahigh frequency ultrasound
technology.
The new ultrasound technology may have application as a cancer
treatment, used alone or in combination with other cancer treatments.
Moreover, this new technology may prove useful to treat skin cancer,
certain dermatological conditions, and cosmetics. The collaboration will
use Sonavation’s advanced transducer technology implemented
in its patented SonicTouchTM biometric fingerprint sensor
solutions.
“We are very excited about the promise of this new ultrasound technology
and the potential application as a cancer treatment and also for
dermatological applications. We hope the collaborative research effort
between M. D. Anderson and Sonavation will result in validation of this
novel ultrasound technology,” said Tom L. Lee, Director of Active
Venture Development at M. D. Anderson. As part of the Office of
Technology Commercialization, M. D. Anderson’s Active Venture
Development Program focuses on identifying unmet clinical needs for
large market opportunities, and then finds novel technology that satisfy
that clinical need.
“M. D. Anderson’s reputation for excellence in cancer research,
treatment, education and prevention is longstanding,” said Reinhard
Warnking, President of Sonavation’s medical division. “This
collaborative research agreement with M. D. Anderson will open
opportunities leading to possible joint venture companies developing
products for cancer treatments.”
A SEX beast cabbie jailed for raping a female passenger was allowed to continue to operate his taxi despite an attempt by gardai to remove his licence. Father-of-two John Ryan was jailed for seven years last week for raping and sexually assaulting a young female passenger after driving her to an isolated spot. The married cab driver had pleaded not guilty to rape and sexual assault of the now 21-year-old woman on October 17, 2007 after picking her up near a Limerick nightclub. Now the President of the Irish Taxi Drivers Federation, John Ussher, is calling for serious charges against taxi drivers to be fast-tracked by the courts to ensure the safety of the public.
SALT LAKE CITY — From salt, blades, gas and man-hours, snow removal is an expensive undertaking for Utah municipalities. And it has an annual price tag thats tough to predict. The state, counties, cities and towns allocate millions in taxpayer dollars each year to a costly, albeit necessary, service that is at the will of Mother Nature. “On average, its $1 million per storm,” said Adan Carillo, Utah Department of Transportation spokesman. “The snowfall is something we always worry about.”
I remember sitting at a networking lunch for professionals working in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) 3 years ago. It was a large NICU conference in Las Vegas, and occupational therapists, physical therapists, speech therapists, nurses, physicians, and other professionals from around the country were in attendance. There were eight occupational therapists at my table and two additional tables of occupational, physical, and speech therapists next to us. Everyone was talking about their work in the NICU. Some occupational therapists did feeding and positioning, others assisted with developmental care and environmental modification, some completed range of motion (ROM) and light sensory stimulation, and one said she did “play therapy.” Everyone was very nice, obviously intelligent, and genuinely interested in each others work, but I walked away feeling not enlightened but perplexed. Occupational therapy in the NICU has few specific standards of practice (with the exception of AOTAs Knowledge and Skills Paper1) or universal treatment techniques. In fact, there are many variances in occupational therapy intervention from one NICU to another. Over 13 years, I have slowly developed a consistent program of care for occupational therapists in the NICU. I want to share the treatment techniques and ideas that have made occupational therapy in our Level 3 NICU hugely successful and valued by other members of the NICU team. One of the reasons for sharing this information is that there is a lack of large, well controlled randomized studies in NICU care by occupational therapy. The research on developmental interventions in the NICU is interdisciplinary and multimodal in nature, which limits the ability to identify the effectiveness of any single health care profession.2 However, there is substantial agreement and research about the benefits of developmental intervention in general.2 Studies conducted on the effects of sensory stimulation on premature infants differ on type, quantity, and total duration, as well as on how effects were measured, but general conclusions are generally positive.3 Although the intent of this article is to provide a basic structure for delivering occupational therapy in the NICU, all occupational therapists have the important responsibility of educating themselves on working in this environment, the medical and developmental risks preterm infants face, and the literature and research on developmental care.
With Oklahoma expected to have a shortage of 3,000 nurses by 2012, Jim Durbin is stepping into a challenging role. Durbin has been named executive director of the Oklahoma Health Care Workforce Center, the organization dedicated to increasing the number of health care professionals in the state. Nurses arent the only workers in short supply – state studies show that Oklahoma also will be short 500 lab technicians, 400 physical therapists, 300 surgical technologists and 200 occupational therapists two years from now. Reasons for the shortages are complicated and varied, Durbin said, but the OHCWC is rolling out several strategies in the next six months in an attempt to turn things around. The primary focus is nurses. The state isnt particularly deficient in nursing programs, but it is significantly low on teachers, Durbin said. Some nursing schools cant admit all qualified candidates because there are not enough teachers. Those students then move onto other lines of work or go out of state to pursue their nursing education, he said. For those who do get their nursing degrees, they can make more money working in a hospital than pursuing their masters degree and working in the classroom.
Video gets patients more involved in hand hygiene Patients, physicians report more questions asked The video, called “Hand Hygiene Saves Lives,” was tested in common areas and patient rooms at 17 Catholic Health Partners hospitals; the research was coordinated by the Premier Healthcare alliance. The video encourages patients, family, and visitors to play a role in their own care by helping health care professionals remember to clean their hands before and after touching patients. After the video was shown, patients were twice as likely to report reminding nurses to wash their hands, and doctors were twice as likely to report being asked by patients to wash their hands. In addition, after watching the video, the majority of patients:
Canada immigration has been impacted by the Haiti earthquake. Following the disaster the province of Quebec has widened the term family member to include brothers, sisters and adult children aged over 22. This means that relatives caught up in the disaster can now be sponsored for immigration to Canada and a Canadian visa.
The Haiti catastrophe has prompted the overnight growth of up to 3000 illegal Canada immigration consultants across Quebec.
The Canadian immigration authorities are acting to warn people of the perils of paying for advice from these supposed experts. The Haiti earthquake has seen hundreds of people desperate to obtain a Canada visa , and Canada immigration authorities are warning people that the advice they are being given that they can be sure of obtaining a Canadian visa for a price is simply a sales pitch. There are reports of people paying up to $15,000 to these consultants in the hope of staying in Canada, and that they are being advised to lie on their application forms.
Ghost agents have been successfully prosecuted, and last year saw Baldev Pandher convicted of fraud. Ruling in the case, the judge said;
“Immigration professionals who earn an honest living have a lot to be proud of and the fact that the courts have convicted Mr Pandher. sends a strong message to everyone – if you dupe unsophisticated immigrants out of their dream of coming to Canada, you will be punished.”
Devices Complement Company’s Industry-Leading Front-End Solutions
Portfolio and Demonstrate Broad Technology Capabilities
BARCELONA, Spain — Skyworks Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:SWKS), an innovator of high reliability
analog and mixed signal semiconductors enabling a broad range of end
markets, today announced that it has introduced a family of antenna
switch modules (ASMs) for 2/3/4G handset and data card platforms using
both gallium arsenide (GaAs) as well as silicon on insulator (SOI)
technologies. Skyworks products address the three primary switching
functions: main antenna, diversity, and band/mode.
These compact solutions deliver state-of-the-art technology to meet both
high performance and low-cost architectures, depending upon the
interface requirements. By delivering a comprehensive RF switch
portfolio based on both technologies, Skyworks is able to augment its
already broad portfolio of world-class switches currently used in the
company’s front-end modules.
“Skyworks is pleased to be supporting such a broad range of
next-generation wireless broadband and mobile handset applications with
our new family of antenna switch modules,” said Dr. Gene A. Tkachenko,
Skyworks’ senior director of engineering. “These solutions highlight the
breadth and depth of our technology as we look to best serve our
customers’ needs on multiple fronts and with highly integrated
architectures.”
MetraTech
Corp., the innovative charging, billing, settlement and customer care
product provider, today announced the results of a performance benchmark of
MetraTechs MetraNet® software running on Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and
Windows Server 2008 and deployed on HP ProLiant servers. The benchmark
simulated 60 million active corporate subscribers, with 5 accounts each,
consuming granular, high-volume service offerings. The results demonstrate
exceptional end-to-end transaction throughput, as follows:
The findings demonstrate that MetraTechs technology, already known for its
exceptional flexibility, scales to high volumes while managing continuous
and highly granular services. The conclusions of this end-to-end revenue
management benchmark demonstrate that the critical billing requirements of
industries with dynamically evolving business models including Cloud, Smart
Grid, Financial Services, Media Entertainment and Telco, can be fully
supported by the Microsoft server platform deployed on cost-effective HP
hardware.
“In the highly competitive Cloud, Telco, Energy and Financial Services
industries, businesses are challenged to cost-effectively monetize
high-volume services delivered via evolving and dynamic business models,”
said Scott Swartz, chief executive officer, MetraTech Corp. “MetraNet,
deployed using Microsoft software, provides a robust option for these
organizations.”
“Now, more than ever, service providers are operating under competitive
pressures and need to find new ways to offer value added services to their
subscribers more quickly. As a result, demand is increasing for flexible
billing platforms able to support a high volume of customers and a new
level of complexity demanded by todays changing business models,” said
Terry McGuigan, managing director, telecommunications industry,
Communications Sector at Microsoft Corp. “In this benchmark, MetraTech has
proven that its solution can support next-generation services and meet the
requirements of the most demanding telco billing environments.”
InnoPath Announces ActiveCare for Android
BARCELONA, Spain — InnoPath Software, the leader in over-the-air customer care, today
announced that its ActiveCare mobile service provider care solution now
supports leading Android devices including the Google Nexus One, the
Motorola Droid, the HTC Droid Eris, and others.
With ActiveCare, instead of immediately escalating support calls about
email, MMS or internet configuration, front line CSRs can now fix the
phone with a few simple clicks of the mouse. This approach shortens
calls and delights subscribers because their problems are fixed faster
and more reliably the first time. It also provides operators with a
single platform through which they can push updates to Android phones
from any of their handset vendor partners.
“We are putting the operator back in the driver’s seat. The Android
platform and phones are new and exciting, and both are still evolving.
As we have seen with the Nexus One, be it 3G issues or UI glitches and
bugs, these phones require updates as well as support from the moment
they are put in service. With ActiveCare the operator can meet this
challenge better, faster and more efficiently today,” explained John
Fazio, InnoPath President and CEO.
The increasing complexity of smartphones is creating a dilemma for
operators. InnoPath research indicates that these smartphones drive new
sales and help retain existing customers, but they cost up to 4x as much
to support as traditional featurephones. “Google’s original approach is
clearly not working,” says Fazio. “Operators need to be able to deliver
better, more cost effective support to their subscribers. It’s expected!”
Robert “Bob” Robert Christensen “Chris”, passed away Feb. 9, 2010 surrounded by his family. Born Jan. 15, 1931 to Kris and Mabel Christensen of Farmington, UT. Bob graduated from Davis High School and served four years in the USAF during the Korean war. He married the love of his life, Kay McCullough Aug. 15, 1956 in the Salt Lake Temple. He had a long career in the wholesale floral business working for Miller Floral and Universal, served as the president of the Jaycees, and coached little
PRINCETON-BY-THE-SEA — Heavy surf at Mavericks Beach has injured several spectators this morning during the Mavericks Surf Contest, causing at least two people to be transported to a hospital. A series of powerful waves also swept away the awards stand and the medical and surfers tents by around 9 a.m. The tide was expected to be at its highest around 10 a.m. Paramedics took a man in his 60s away with an ankle injury. He was bloodied, having been trampled by the crowd after he was knocked over by a surge of water. “I got knocked over by one of those dumb waves,” she said. “It also took my camera away. I tried to brace myself but it tripped me and another wave washed over me.”
Expense Reduction Consulting® Services are
Now Available through AdviCoaches
“ERC’s cost control programs and proprietary software have generated
significant savings for many business owners,” said Brian
Miller, COO and President of AdviCoach. “These programs strongly
complement the business strategies and solutions we offer our clients to
ensure more robust and faster cost savings.”
These cost cutting programs join the armory of services AdviCoaches
bring to entrepreneurs. Through a supportive partnership with business
owners, AdviCoaches work with clients to assess their business’
performance in critical areas, address gaps and overcome obstacles to
drive immediate results. “We work collaboratively with our clients to
make them aware of their blind spots and the possibilities in their
businesses. Through education and coaching, and the implementation of
rapid impact strategies, we can help increase profits and bring their
businesses to the next level of success,” Miller added.
Now the practices of AdviCoaches can also offer companies and
organizations measurable cost savings in various indirect expense
categories such as supplies, telecommunications, staffing, printing,
maintenance contracts and professional services.
WASHINGTON — Competitive intelligence industry leaders Gary Maag and David
Kalinowski, CEO and President, respectively, of Proactive Worldwide,
Inc., will show seminar participants at SCIP’s Annual 2010 Competitive
Intelligence Conference how to “effectively measure the return on
investment (ROI) for competitive intelligence.” This “don’t miss”
seminar will take place at SCIP’s silver anniversary annual conference
to be held at Washington’s Marriott Wardman Park Hotel from March 9 to
12.
Messrs. Maag and Kalinowski will lead an interactive workshop, “The
Holy Grail: A True Framework for Measures of Effectiveness (MOE) and ROI”
on Wednesday, March 10 at 8:30 a.m. The session effectively demonstrates
how targeted investment in competitive intelligence can reap major
rewards for organizations.
According to Mr. Maag, “Being able to blueprint a solid approach to
demonstrating ROI makes the critical difference in ensuring that
competitive intelligence remains a vital component of every successful
company.”
“This workshop provides a framework for measuring, benchmarking, and
proving that CI is a highly value-added function within a large, medium,
or even a small company,” Mr. Maag continued. “There is no question that
competitive intelligence can make a critical difference in keeping every
company out in front of its competition.”
Both executives note that “We developed a very flexible and
user-oriented way of evaluating competitive intelligence value through
the intelligence cycle.” Mr. Kalinowski added, “Based on over 40 years
of collective experience and client feedback, we know what CI
professionals must do to demonstrate value to their senior management.”
UniFirst, a leading
supplier of uniforms, work apparel, and related business products to
companies throughout North America, strives to maintain a tightly knit,
family-like culture with its 10,000 Team Partner employees. But, like so
many large companies, UniFirst has been challenged by the high expense and
costly downtime related to corporate training programs and associated
travel. Thats why UniFirst turned to Polycom, Inc. (NASDAQ: PLCM)
telepresence solutions to enable productive, face-to-face meetings and
training sessions without the high costs associated with travel.
After only a few months of use, UniFirst is already on-track to meet its
primary goal of significantly reducing travel expenses and achieving a 100
percent ROI in the first year of implementing its new video network. “Not
only is video conferencing enabling us to significantly reduce travel
costs, but its also giving us the opportunity to offer more personalized
training to more people, more often,” said Kelley OLeary, UniFirst manager
of Performance and Training Support.
UniFirst serves more than 225,000 customer locations throughout North
America via its 202 facilities. Effective employee training has
historically required costly, travel-heavy programs to maintain work
consistency coast-to-coast. But, a top-down productivity initiative from
UniFirst CEO Ronald D. Croatti resulted in the deployment of an extensive
high-definition Polycom video collaboration network to connect all UniFirst
operations. Initially designed to reduce travel costs, which the company is
already realizing, UniFirst is now also making significant productivity
gains in many other aspects of its operations.
“We began as a family company, where everyone was on a first-name basis.
And, in fact, thats one of the things that differentiates us in this
industry,” explained OLeary. “Today, were a billion-dollar company with
employees spread throughout North America. Our new video conferencing
network is now helping us maintain and nurture that small-company culture
by bringing people closer together in real time.”
Among the key reasons UniFirst partnered with Polycom was the extensive
training application expertise offered by the companys Industry Solutions
Team. The deployment of a training-focused video conferencing network meant
that UniFirsts in-person training materials and techniques had to be
fine-tuned for video delivery. With Polycoms support, UniFirst was able to
move forward with confidence, knowing that personalized, onsite instruction
to help facilitate the transition was always at hand.
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