The growth of managed care in the United States in the past decade can be measured by the number of health care information technology vendors offering managed care-oriented solutions.

More than 40 vendors responded to HMTs HotList surveys on managed care for the April 1996 issue and for this month's listing.

Products in this month's HotList offer a variety of capabilities for submitting, tracking and managing claims. These systems also offer important financial and clinical capabilities.

(For more information on these companies and their products, use the reader service card on page 67.)

To better understand how the alignment of IT capabilities and the exploitation of key technologies are essential to the success of managed care organizations, please turn to the Managing Managed Care column beginning on page 34.

If your company markets a health care technology product that is scheduled for HotList coverage, you can find the HotList survey form by going to the Health Management Technology home page: www.healthmgttech.com. If you do not have access to the home page, you can request a survey form by:

Fax: 770 618-0348 or

Email: tom_wall@intertec.com

Here are HotList topics for 1998.

* February, CPR/EMR

* March, Financial systems

* April, Wireless systems

* May, Laboratory systems

* June, Practice management systems

* July, Systems integration

* August, Pharmacy

* September, Materials management

* October, Document imaging

* November, Outcomes and quality measurement

* December, EDI, electronic commerce

Recent announcements of new health care information technology product and services.

3Com Corp., Santa Clara, Calif., announced the CoreBuilder 9000 switch which provides increased bandwidth capability and speeds of up to 56 million packets a second, according to the company. The CoreBuilder 9000 switch provides forwarding rates greater than 100 million packets per second and supports up to 112 OC-12 ATM ports or up to 126 Gigabit Ethernet ports, the company says.

Web: www.3com.com

Circle InfoCard #143

Aironet Wireless Communications Inc., Fairlawn, Ohio, introduced Aironet 3500 Series. The IEEE 802.11 compliant product line is an enhanced version of the Aironet 3000 Series of Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS) products and supports 1 or 2 Mbps data rates, according to the company. Aironet also is offering firmware upgrades to make existing 3000 Series products compatible with the new standard.

Web: www.aironet.com

Circle InfoCard #144

Analogic Corp., Peabody, Mass., announced the Computed Radiography Quality Assurance (SD-CRQA) View Station, a client-server package offering Internet, intranet, ActiveX and Web browser technology in the client and image management and storage server. The SD-CRQA Client allows users to view high-quality Fuji Computed Radiography image data from anywhere on a TCP/IP-compatible network, the company says.

The company also announced an upgrade to its SD100 Computed Radiography Gateway.

Circle InfoCard #145

HBOC, Atlanta, introduced Connect 2000, a network-based thin-client solution. The company also announced the availability of Pathways Healthcare Scheduling Release 7.0, HBOC's three-tier clientserver application for enterprisewide patient and resource scheduling. According to the company, the new release gives users access to scheduling information via an enterprisewide intranet, the ability to perform a customer search on an external database, and the option to use Microsoft SQL or Sybase for their database server.

Web: www.hboc.com

Circle InfoCard #146

Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP), Palo Alto, Calif., has made the following product announcements:

* HP's NetServer E45 systems will support Microsoft Small Business Server. Installation of Microsoft Small Business Server will be automated on an HP NetServer E45 system via HP Installation Assistant, part of the HP NetServer Navigator CD-ROM.

* HP has introduced the first phase of its commercial electronic-commerce (e-commerce) strategy with tine' HP Commerce Center, a Web site (www.interact vet hp.com/hpcc) that allows small businesses to purchase products online through the reseller channel.

* HP also announced that the HP TraceMaster, the company's flagship cardiology data-management solution, will be Web-enabled, offering clinicians a standards-based tool for accessing cardiology data.

Web: www.hp.com www.hp.com/go/medical

Circle InfoCard #147

Kodak, Rochester, N.Y., will release in the third quarter of 1998, the Kodak Digital Science 9000D dry laser printing system. The medical laser printer combines dry technology with high image quality.

Web: www.kodak.com /go/health

Circle InfoCard #148

Marquette Medical systems, Milwaukee, has made the following product announcements:

* Marquette has deployed the Windows NT platform in its QS Clinical Information Systems. The deployment of the NT Client in the QS System is the final step in a two-year effort to deploy QS on Windows NT, the company says.

* Marquette also announced the release of Wireless LAN, a mobile monitoring system that offers real-time networking connections and uses off-the-shelf components based on the IEEE 802.11 industry standard of wireless Ethernet, the company says. This offering is the result of a strategic alliance with Aironet Wireless Communications, Inc., Fairlawn, Ohio.

* Marquette also introduced its OR monitoring system which combines vital signs and anesthetic gas monitoring. The Eagle 3000/SAM system is specifically designed for surgi-centers, outpatient areas and smaller hospitals, according to the company.

Web: www.mei.com www.aironet.com

Circle InfoCard #149

Medical Information Technology Inc. (MEDITECH), Westwood, Mass., has announced the following product offerings:

* MEDITECH has released its spell-checking application, Stedmans Plus Spellchecker, for use with its word processing applications. According to the company, the spellchecker includes more than 432,000 medical, pharmaceutical and bioscience terms, plus a comprehensive English word list. The spell-checking application is available within the work processing function of all applications in MEDITECH's Client/Server Release, which operates on a Microsoft Windows NT platform.

* MEDITECH also announced an option for existing customers who wish to migrate to client-server technology. Customers may install a combination- of MEDITECH's Enterprise Medical Record (EMR) and Data Repository as a gateway into the Client/Server Release of MEDITECH's Health Care Information System (HCIS).

Web: www.meditech.com

Circle InfoCard #150

Medical Manager Corporation, Tampa, Fla., announced the release of Version 9.0 of The Medical Manager software. According to the company, the new version product systems include: medical records, provider credentialing, patient flow tracking, patient advisory, and case management.

Web:www.medicalmanager.com

Circle InfoCard #151

MicroTouch Systems Inc., Metheun, Mass., announced the availability of IBM's G Series monitor, integrated with capacitive touch technology, resulting from the expanded IBM and MicroTouch alliance.

Web: www.microtouch.con. www.us.pc.ibm.com/ options

Circle InfoCard #152

NEPS, Inc., Lake Forest, Ill., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Moore Corp. Limited, and Intercon Associates Inc., Rochester, N.Y., introduced DocNet, an Internet/LAN/ WAN-based system that provides management of mission-critical documents and forms; as well as accessibility of those documents to workgroup end users for distribution, fill and local printing, the company says.

Web: www.neps.com

Circle InfoCard #153

Planar Systems Inc., Beaverton, Ore., introduced its latest Clean Screen, a 166 MHz Pentium processor-based computer which is integrated with a 13.8 inch XGA (1024x768 resolution) display in a low profile case.

Web: www.planar.com

Circle InfoCard #154

Object Products Inc., San Francisco, announced that Liaisons in Negotiating Care (LINC), Los Angeles, a wholly-owned subsidiary, has released Case Manager AssistantClient/Server (CMA- C/S). The company says it is a case management system with advanced information tracking and management capabilities.

Circle InfoCard #155

Pennington Systems Inc., Princeton, N.J., has released XTRAN for Year 2000 impact analysis and reengineering of a wide variety of computer languages, including assemblers, C/C++, Fortran, COBOL, Pascal, PL/I, PL/M, and a number of proprietary languages. The company says XTRAN's rules language, called "meta-code, provides access to every detail of the code being processed, including statements, expressions, symbols, even comments. Rules can therefore be easily written to analyze code for Year 2000 impact, says the company.

Web: www.Pennington.com

Circle InfoCard #156

Pericom Software Inc., Hamilton, Square, N.J., has released its Teemworld suite of terminal emulation products. According to the company, the suit supports Java 1.1 and 10 new host platforms. Teemworld is an apples, written entirely in Java, that enables access of any hostbased legacy application to be deployed on any desktop client supporting Java, either through a Web browser or as an application with any Java Virtual Machine, the company says. Teemworld includes a full set of productivity tools including floating toolbar, button palettes, graphical keyboard remapping, attribute-to-color mapping, mouse integration and multiple session control. It also provides for local printing and copy-and-paste between different Java applications.

Web: www.pericom.co.uk

Circle InfoCard #157

Spacelabs Medical announced ED Chart, an addition to the Intesys line of clinical information system products. The new system documents patient information from triage to disposition and provides administrative tools for ED managers, according to the company. ED Chart automates several functions, the company says, such as the daily log (required by JCAHO) and discharge instructions.

Web: www.spacelabs.com

Circle InfoCard #158

SoftTech Solutions, Waterford, Mich., has release version 7.0 for workstations and 4.0 for servers of the On-Line! Detective for Sun. The Detective documents the troubleshooting, repair, and maintenance procedures for Sun workstations and servers, according to the company. The product provides thousands of hyper-links, pop-ups, full colored photographs, "Tech Tips" from the experts and a comprehensive database of Sun and third-party parts, the company says.

Web: www.stsolutions.com

Circle InfoCard #159

Venture SystemSource Inc., d/b/a SystemSource, Inc., Ridgeland, Miss., launched MediWeb, a JAVA-based common client presentation that provides a graphical front end for the user to implement with any Internet Web browser, the company says. The MediWeb Enterprise Edition consists of seven modules: Admissions, Transcriptions, Laboratory, Home Health, Physician Management, Pharmacy, and Imaging.

Web: www.sysource.com

Circle InfoCard #160

Partnerships

A listing of recent vendor agreements, mergers and alliances.

* Saba Medical Imaging Technology Corp., a developer of medical imaging applications, has formed an alliance with Data General Corp. and Informix Software. The three companies say that they will combine to create a digital environment which can support large scale object-oriented repositories for standard medical images within the client-server environment.

Web: www.sabamit.com www.dg.com/healthcare www.informix.com

* Factura Kiosks, a division of MicroTouch Systems, Inc., Methuen, Mass., has agreed to supply IBM, Armonk, N.Y., with FlexPoint Kiosks.

Web: www.microtouch.com

* HealthPoint G.P., Cary, N.C., a health care information systems and services company, has joined RDC Networks Inc., a wireless networking systems company, to provide wireless point-of-care solutions to the ambulatory medical information systems market. Web: www.healthpoint.com

* Dynamic Healthcare Technologies Inc., Maitland, Fla., signed a distribution agreement with AutoCyte Inc., Elon College, N.C. Dynamic will sell the AutoCyte Image Management System (AIMS) in conjunction with Dynamic's solution for anatomic pathology within the laboratory and anatomic pathology information systems market.

Web: www.dhy.com

* Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP), Andover, Mass., and Quinton Instrument Co. will combine the cardiography and cardiology information systems solutions from HP, Quinton and Zymed into a single distribution channel strategy in the U.S. HP also announced the formation of the HP Open Cardiology Initiative. Participants offer product and service expertise in diagnostic and interventional cardiac technologies. Initial members include Cambridge Heart, LINK Medical Computing, Medicomp, MicroMedical, Quinton Instrument Company and Zymed.

Web: www.hp.com/go/medical www.hp.com www.quinton.com www.zei.com

* NEPS, Lake Forest, Ill., a Moore company, announced it has been named by IBM Printing Systems Company, Boulder, Colo., as an authorized printer remarketer selected to resell IBM's InfoPrint solution. Also, NEPS and eDOCS Inc., Westlake Village, Calif., agreed to deliver the Internet bill presentment and payment system capabilities of eDOCS BillDirect to NEPS prospects and customers.

Web: www.neps.com www.printers.ibm.com www.edocs.com

* Cynget Storage Solutions Inc., San Jose, Calif., announced that the Infinidisc automated CD jukebox has been designed-in to Boffin Limited's turn-key CD-ROM server system for database storage, document management, information library, and Web-server, applications. Boffin integrates the Infinidisc jukebox in its rack-mounted server systems which include either an Intel Pentium or a Sun UltraSparc CPU, and up to seven on-line CD-ROM drives.

Web: www.cygnet.com

* The Electromedical Systems Division of Siemens Medical Systems and Seattle Systems Inc., Oakland, Calif., developer of cardiovascular data management systems, will develop a comprehensive information system connecting the computerized diagnostic and procedural subsystems within hospital care units to the central Hospital Information System.

* Scan-Optics Inc., Manchester, Conn., a document imaging systems company, has licensed its high-speed scanner technology to imaging Business Machines LLC (IBML), Birmingham, Ala., a provider of flexible document scanner solutions using color.

Web: www.canopucs.eom www.ibml.com

* Pervasive Software Inc., Austin, Texas, signed a partnership agreement with HBOC, Atlanta. HBOC will embed Pervasive's Btrieve database engines in a wide range of health care applications.

Web: www.pervasive-sw.com

* Infinium Software Inc., Hyannis, Mass., and Cognos, Burlington, Mass., announced that Infinium Financials for Microsoft Windows NT Server will be shipped with Cognos business intelligence tools, PowerPlay and Impromptu. Infinium also plans to include the tools with its human resources application for NT.

Web: www.infinium.com www.cognos.com

* InterQual, Marlborough, Mass., a developer of clinical decision support criteria, has announced that HBOC, Atlanta, will offer InterQual's Clinical Decision Support Criteria to customers of HBOC's client-server-based Pathways Managed Care product.

Web: www.interqual.com www.hboc.com

* HBOC announced that it is joining 18 other software companies in developing a program to certify the quality of information technology service provided by internal and external support organizations. The effort has been organized by SOFTBANK Service & Support Consultants, which will manage development of the Site Certification Program and eventually certify support organizations. Other sponsors of the program include: Hyperion Software Corporation, IDX Information Systems, Intuit, Inc., Lawson Software, Oracle Corporation, Rockwell Software, Inc., the Sabre Group, Silicon Graphics, Inc., Software AG Americas, Xerox Corporation, Sybase, Inc., CompuCom Systems, Lockheed Martin, FutureSoft, Landmark Graphics, QAD, Inc., SPSS, Inc., State of the Art, and Ultimate Software.

Web: www.hboc.com

* Datamedic Corp., Hauppauge, N.Y., announced a partnership with Meridian Occupational Healthcare Associates Inc. (Meridian), a Nashville, Tenn.-based specialty medical management company that provides employer-sponsored health care services. Meridian has signed a contract for an enterprise-wide license of Datamedic's PMstation for practice management and CHARTstation for clinical information management.

* BancTec In&, Dallas, and DocTec Inc., Macedon, N.Y., signed an agreement that expands BancTec's forms and image processing solutions to include outsourcing services to the health insurance and managed care marketplace. Under the agreement, BancTec will serve as the general contractor and DocTec as the subcontractor when customers are identified as having outsourcing needs.

* Sapiens International Corp., Research Triangle Park, N.C., has signed an agreement with IBM to integrate and resell IBM's MQSeries middleware and DB2 database with Sapiens ObjectPool and Sapiens Workstation. Web: www.sapiens.com. www.ibm.com

* Aironet, AMD, Digital Equipment Corp., Harris Semiconductor, Intermec Technologies Corp. and Lucent Technologies announced a comprehensive testing program that will assure interoperability between their IEEE802.11 compliant wireless local area network (LAN) product lines.

Web: www.aironet.com www.wavelan.com

Implementations & Purchases

Recent health care IT installations and purchases.

* AMS, Fairfax, Va. Via Christi Regional Medical Center, Wichita, Kan. Expanded its implementation AccountLink document management and workflow application at its 470-bed St. Joseph Campus.

Web: www.amsinc.com

* Care Management Science Corp., Philadelphia

Doylestown Hospital, Doylestown, Pa., a 450-bed hospital. Providence Medical Center, Kansas City, Mo., 209-bed facility. Purchased CaduCIS Manager, an Internet-based suite of outcomes profiling and benchmarking databases.

Web: www.cmscience.com

* HealthVISION Corp., Santa Rosa, Calif.

Sutter Health, Sacramento, Calif. Signed a contract enabling them to install CareVISION in all of its 26 acute care facilities.

* IBM, Armonk, N.Y.

Department of Defense, Bethesda, Md. Signed an estimated $250 million firm-fixed-price indefinite quantity contract. IBM will establish a Digital Imaging Network - Picture Archival and Communication System (DIN-PACS). DOD plans to install DIN-PACS at military hospitals and clinics around the world.

Web: www.ibm.com/government

* ImageMatrix Corporation, Denver

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, Durham, N.C. Selected ServiceMatrix, CaptureMatrix and Claim Matrix product suite to assist with claims inventory and processing.

Web: www.image-matrix.com/

* LanVision Systems Inc., Cincinnati

Sisters of Providence Health System - Southwest Washington Area. Signed a three-year agreement to purchase document imaging and workflow services through LanVisions Virtual Healthware Services division.

Childrens Medical Center, Dallas, a 322-bed facility. Signed a contract worth approximately $2.2 million for software, hardware and services including LanVisions ChartVision, On-Line Chart Completion and Enterprisewide Correspondence applications.

* Lawson Software, Minneapolis.

Physician Reliance Network, Inc., Dallas, a $500 million oncology group, purchased the LAWSON INSIGHT Healthcare Business Management System to support more than 1,500 employees at more than 115 locations. The contract is valued at more than $600,000.

Sutter Health, Sacramento, Calif. Signed a contract for an enterprisewide business management system, including LAWSON INSIGHT Financials, Human Resources and Procurement products, that will span its more than 100 businesses.

Franciscan Health Partnership, a $1 billion non-profit national integrated delivery network. Signed a $1.3 million contract to purchase a complete LAWSON INSIGHT Healthcare Business Management System.

LAWSON INSIGHT Healthcare Business Management Systems were purchased by:

Arcon HealthCare, Nashville, Tenn.; Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina, Durham, N.C.;

Comanche County Memorial, Lawton, Okla.;

Eastern Maine Healthcare, Bangor, Maine;

Gunderson Lutheran Hospital, LaCrosse, Wis.;

HCSC Inc., Allentown, Pa.;

HealthSystem Minnesota, St. Louis Park, Minn.;

Inova Health Care Services, Falls Church, Va.;

Main Street Dental Management Corporation, Fairfax, Va.;

Mercy Hospital and Medical Center, Chicago;

Meridian Neuro Care, LLC, Santa Ana, Calif.;

Mission St. Joseph's, Asheville, N.C.;

New York Blood Center, New York;

Premier Inc., North Carolina;

ProMedica Health System, Inc., Toledo, Ohio;

Raytel Medical Corporation, Forest Hills, N.Y.;

Sauk Prairie Memorial Hospital, Prairie Du Sac, Wis.;

Southern Ohio Medical Center. Portsmouth, Ohio; and,

Wake Medical Center, Raleigh, N.C.

Web: www.lawson.com

* MedicaLogic Inc., Beaverton, Ore.

Noran Neurological Clinic, PA, Minneapolis. Selected Logician, an electronic medical record (EMR) software, for its six clinics.

Web: www.medicalogic.com

* MicroMed Healthcare Information Systems Inc., Atlanta

NovaMed Eyecare Management, LLC, Chicago. Selected MicroMed's practice management solution for their outpatient integrated eyecare delivery network.

* NewOrder Media, Nashville, Tenn.

Gambro Healthcare Patient Services. Announced plans to implement the Training Navigator interactive learning system in more than 400 of its clinics nationwide.

Web: www.neworder.com www.ghps.com

* RIMS, Naperville, Ill.

Community Health Plans of Kansas, Lawrence, Kan. California Advantage, Inc., Oakland, Calif. Signed processing outsourcing agreements that give them remote access to RIMS' Managed Care Administration System software to administer their health benefits programs throughout the RIMS Data Center Services Program.

Web: www.rims.com

* Park City Group, Park City, Utah.

Women's Health Partnership, Carmel, Ind., which represents 25 OB/GYN physicians in eight clinics throughout Indiana, licensed seven of the company's software applications including ActionBase, ActionMail, ActionBoard, HRAction, ScoreTracker, ReadyReference and ActionForm.

Wilshire Foundation, San Louis Obispo, Calif., an organization specializing in homecare, skilled nursing services and long term care facilities, licensed six applications including ActionBase, Action Mail , ActionBoard, HRAction, ScoreTracker and ActionForm.

* TeleHealth Systems Inc., Green wood, Ind.

Memorial Hospital, Salem County, Pennsville, N.J., 152-bed primary care facility. Signed an agreement to install automated patient follow-up system in its Home Care operation.

* ThinkMed, Milwaukee

Oxford Health Plans Inc., Norwalk, Conn. Will use ThinkMed's software to manage medical and associated financial risk. Oxford will help develop and pilot new products while using current ThinkMed products.

* VIPS Healthcare Information Solutions (VIPS), Hackensack, N.J.

Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA). Purchased a perpetual national license for VIPS' Services, Tracking, Analysis and Reporting System (STARS) anti-fraud software. The license will help the anti-fraud efforts of HCFAs contractors -- the large commercial insurers and Blue Cross/Blue Shield plans responsible for processing Medicare claims. The agreement covers the STARS software license, installation, and ongoing maintenance. It does not cover the hardware required for implementation.

Web: www.vips com.