Acute Care Management System

Nurses are the anchor for the entirety of a healthcare organization.

From executing physician orders and administrating medication to educating
patients and ensuring safety, nurses do it all. Yet nurses are often pulled
away from patients, bogged down with administrative tasks and paperwork.
Add to that a workforce shortage and a more complete picture of nurses
daily lives begins to emerge with longer shifts and more patients. Inherently
inefficient paper-based charts and records make an already challenging
situation even more complicated for nurses and the patients in their care.
To combat these nursing challenges, Cerner offers CareNet. This smart
set of solutions offers healthcare organizations:

A powerful safety net that reduces errors and erases memory-based

care
Evidence-based, decision support tools
Seamless, open communication for the entire care team
Closed-loop processes with electronic medication administration at the
point of care
Automatic verification of the five rights
Greater efficiency via technology that promote a paperless
environment, regulatory compliance and national quality designations
Time saved without redundant documentation
Increased job satisfaction and retention

Vistaar Healthcare Operations Management Solution Goes Mobile

Vistaar Healthcare Solutions' new release of its ACOMS (Acute Care
Operations Management System) software for healthcare providers now
operates on wireless devices such as smart phones. ACOMSmobile presents a
new "on-the-go" resource for clinicians and administrators to continuously
streamline operations while in meetings, at conferences or during their
rounds.
The ACOMS software solution displays real-time capacity and demand
for staff, systems, equipment and supplies -- allowing managers to quickly
spot potential problems and dynamically rebalance resources. Results include
improved patient care and safety, operational efficiency and financial
performance. ACOMSmobile now puts this information in the hands of
clinicians, support staff, supervisors and nurse managers wherever they are,
allowing them to maximize time spent in hands-on patient care while
receiving up-to-the-minute workflow instructions and maintaining a constant
command of the larger operational picture.
"The ability to provide real-time, point of care insight into care nit
capacity issues will be invaluable in managing escalating demand
requirements," said Linda Reed, Chief Information Officer of Atlantic Health
System, which has been using the ACOMS solution since 2003. "ACOMS

mobile will not only supply dynamic operational transparency, it will provide
all care givers with the operational knowledge and coaching required to
manage increasing demand situations before they become crises."
"Clinicians and support personnel now have visibility to real-time
performance of a hospital, region, or system and can manage resources and
assets dynamically to best serve patient needs," said Bill Lenihan, CEO of
Vistaar Healthcare Solutions. "In conjunction with our core ACOMS service,
ACOMSmobile enables healthcare providers to achieve superior levels of
clinical, operational and financial performance. This latest software release
demonstrates Vistaar Healthcare Solutions' continued dedication to cuttingedge software solutions for the healthcare industry."
DNA sequencer
A DNA sequencer
sequencingprocess.

is

an

instrument

used

to

automate

the

DNA

DNA sequencers have become more important due to large geromics

projects and the need to increase productivity.
Modern automated DNA sequencing instruments (called DNA
sequencers) are able to sequence as many as 384 fluoresecently labeled
samples in a batch (run) and perform as many as 24 runs a day. These
perform only the size separation and peak reading; the actual sequencing
reaction(s), cleanup and resuspension in a suitable buffer must be performed
separately.
The magnitude of the fluorescent signal is related to the number of
strands of DNA that are in the reaction. If the initial amount of DNA is small,
the signals will be weak. However, the properties of PCR allow one to increase
the signal by increasing the number of cycles in the PCR program.
A simple DNA sequencer will have one or more lasers that emit at a
wavelength that is absorbed by the fluorescent dye that has been attached to
the DNA strand of interest. It will then have one or more optical detectors
that can detect at the wavelength that the dye fluoresces at. The presence or
absence of a strand of DNA is then detected by monitoring the output of the
detector. Since shorter strands of DNA move through the gel matrix faster
they are detected sooner and there is then a direct correlation between
length of DNA strand and time at the detector. This relationship is then used
to determine the actual DNA sequence.
The Unsung Hero in the Race to Sequence the Human Genome Automated DNA Sequencer
While the scientific world celebrated the announcement of the near
completion of the mapping of the human genome, one of the key contributors
to this achievement remains in relative obscurity - automation.

It is taken for granted nowadays that automation is an important tool

in genomics research. Nevertheless, the extent to which Celera employed
automation in its drive to complete its mapping project sets a new standard.
The Technology of DNA Sequencing
DNA is sequenced by breaking it up into manageable fragments of
typically no more than 100,000 bases in length, and sequencing each
fragment by means of gel electrophoresis.
One of the best known sequencing techniques, dubbed the Sanger
method after its developer, is based on amplifying the target DNA fragment
in four different PCR reactions. In each one, one of the four fundamental
bases making up DNA, namely adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G) and
thymine (T), is provided in two special forms. In one form, the base is carries
either a radioactive or fluorescent tag. In the other, the base terminates the
DNA strand at the point it is incorporated.
Consequently, the end product of each PCR reaction is a large number of
different clones of the target DNA fragment, ranging from partial to complete
clones. Each end product carries a different base tag, and a different
termination base.
Human Genome Mapping
Much has been made of Celera's shotgun approach of blasting the
double helix into smaller fragments, sequencing them, and using a
supercomputer to arrange the sequenced DNA fragments into the original
order. Less has been mentioned about the automated sequencer which made
it possible for the human genome to be mapped in an astonishingly short
time.
Back in the late 1980's, the head of Celera, Craig Venter, then a recent
graduate working for NIH, was introduced to an automated sequencer by
Michael Hunkapiller, one of the machine's inventors.
When Hunkapiller and his colleagues revealed a faster and more
automated machine, namely the Prism 3700, to Venter, the latter was then
emboldened to claim in 1998 that he could complete the mapping of the
human genome faster than the public effort.
The Prism 3700 is now a standard product from PE Biosystems. At the
peak of its sequencing efforts, Celera was using close to 400 of these
machines in parallel.
Genetically Modified Organism (GMO)
A genetically modified organism (GMO) is an organism whose
genetic material has been altered using techniques in genetics generally

known as recombinant DNA technology. Recombinant DNA technology is the

ability to combine DNA molecules from different sources into one molecule in
vitro. Thus, the expression of certain traits, the phenotype of the organism, or
the proteins it produces, can be altered through the modification of its genes.
The term generally does not cover organisms whose genetic makeup
has been altered by conventional cross breeding or by "mutagenesis"
breeding, as these methods predate the discovery of the recombinant DNA
techniques. Technically, however, such techniques are by definition genetic
modification.

History
The general principle of producing a GMO is to add genetic material
into an organism's genome to generate new traits. The origins of this genetic
engineering were a series of scientific advances from the discovery of DNA to
the production, in 1973, of the first recombinant bacteria, i.e., E .coli
expressing a frog gene.[1] This led to concerns in the scientific community
about the possible risks from genetic engineering and led to biologists
meeting at the Asilomar Conference in Pacific Grove, California. The
recommendations laid out from this conference were that government
oversight of recombinant DNA research should be established until the
technology was deemed safe.[2][3] Herbert Boyer then founded the first
company to use recombinant DNA technology, Genentech, and in 1978 the
company announced that it had produced a strain of E. coli that could
produce the human protein insulin.[4]
In 1986, field tests of a bacterium genetically engineered to protect
plants from frost damage (ice-minus bacteria) at a small biotechnology
company called Advanced Genetic Sciences of Oakland, California, were
repeatedly delayed by opponents of biotechnology. Also in 1986, a proposed
field test of a microbe genetically engineered for a pest resistance protein by
Monsanto was dropped.[1]
Uses of GMOs
Examples of GMOs are highly diverse, and include transgenic
(=genetically modified by recombinant DNA methods) animals such as mice,
several fish species, transgenic plants, or various microbes, such as fungi and
bacteria. The generation and use of GMOs has many reasons, chief among
them are their use in research that addresses fundamental or applied
questions in biology or medicine, for the production of pharmaceuticals and
industrial enzymes, and for direct, and often controversial, applications aimed
at improvement of human health (e.g., gene therapy) or agriculture (e.g.,
golden rice). The term "genetically modified organism" does not always
imply, but can include, targeted insertions of genes from one into another
species. For example, a gene from a jellyfish, encoding a fluorescent protein

called GFP, can be physically linked and thus co-expressed with mammalian
genes to identify the location of the protein encoded by the GFP-tagged gene
in the mammalian cell. These and other methods are useful and sometimes
indispensable tools for biologists in many areas of research, including those
that study the mechanisms of human and other diseases or fundamental
biological processes in eukaryotic or prokaryotic cells.