Microsoft and the Microsoft Healthcare Users Group Announce Call for Entries for Industry Solution Awards for Healthcare

REDMOND, Wash., June 28, 1999 — Microsoft Corp. and Microsoft® Healthcare Users Group (MS-HUG) Inc. today announced a call for entries for the third annual Industry Solution Awards for Healthcare (ISAH). These awards are designed by Microsoft and MS-HUG to recognize the health-care solution developers that best use Microsoft technology, specifically the Microsoft Windows NT® Server network operating system and the Microsoft BackOffice® family of products, to provide tangible business benefits to health-care organizations. Independent software vendors (ISVs) will be tested on a range of measurable business-benefit scenarios and asked to demonstrate their customer application’s features and functionality.

Industry Solution Awards for Healthcare Categories

Software vendors will compete in nine categories specific to health care:

  • Acute Care – Administrative/Financial Systems

  • Acute Care – Clinical/Patient Information Systems

  • Ambulatory Care – Administrative/Financial Systems

  • Ambulatory Care – Clinical/Patient Information Systems

  • Managed Care/Payor – Administrative/Financial Systems

  • Managed Care/Payor – Clinical/Patient Information Systems

  • Emerging Technologies

  • Other – Administrative/Financial Systems

  • Other – Clinical/Patient Information Systems

Entries must have been developed using Microsoft BackOffice products. ISVs may enter one solution per category in as many categories as they like . The contest organizers reserve the right to change categories at any time during the contest.

Category Descriptions

Entries will be accepted in the following ISAH categories:

  • Acute Care includes hospitals and other health-care organizations that provide acute care or critical care.

  • Ambulatory Care includes group practices, individual practitioners and clinics.

  • Managed Care/Payor includes payor systems, insurance companies and health maintenance organizations.

  • Emerging Technologies includes health-care applications that incorporate the Windows® CE operating system.

  • Administrative/Financial Systems includes appointment scheduling; admission, discharge and transfer; registration; staffing and scheduling; medical staff credentialing; practice management; patient billing; insurance claims processing; accounts receivable; accounts payable; costing; contract management; and materials management.

  • Clinical/Patient Information Systems includes physician support; nursing support; patient care information systems; results reporting; and access to medical research data, and shared information between hospitals and physicians. The Clinical/Patient Information Systems category also includes medical records and charting; care plans; transcription; patient histories; Web sites for posting medical images and voice notes; Internet consultations between physicians; record security; online preoperative evaluation through post-operative recovery; and ICU.

  • Other includes home health care, long-term care, dental and miscellaneous other health-care organizations.

ISAH Awards Schedule

Official entry kits for the contest are available on the Microsoft health-care industry Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/industry/health/ . Software vendors that want to enter the contest can also request an entry kit by sending an e-mail message to [email protected], calling (800) 838-2258 or faxing a request to (206) 505-7865.

All entries must be submitted by 5 p.m. Pacific time, July 12, 1999. On Aug. 11, three finalists in each of the nine categories will be selected by a prestigious jury panel of industry experts and announced by news release and on the Microsoft and MS-HUG Web sites. These finalists will then be invited to demonstrate their solutions for the judges at the fifth annual Windows on Healthcare Conference at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego,
Sept. 13-16, 1999. The winners are planned to be announced at an awards ceremony during the conference on Sept. 14, 1999.

About MS-HUG

With headquarters in Ann Arbor, Mich., the independent, nonprofit Microsoft Healthcare Users Group is the leading health-care industry forum for exchanging ideas, promoting learning and sharing solutions for information systems using Microsoft technologies. MS-HUG works to provide industry leadership, drive appropriate standards and develop associated requirements in support of health-care solutions. The diverse membership of MS-HUG is unified by a shared interest in implementing vendor- and user-developed software based on Microsoft technology to improve quality and efficiency in health care.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and

personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.

Microsoft, Windows NT, BackOffice and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.

Other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/ on Microsoft’s corporate information pages.

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