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Friday, November 17, 2006
Laundry Time
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
So what happens when a washer and dryer hook up on the Internet?
Yes, it’s back. Laundry Time, the oft-ridiculed study to see if hooking up a washer and dryer to a home network will save homeowners time, has revealed initial results that found, perhaps not surprisingly, users find great benefit in the technology.
Folks who tested the technology, including a Roswell family, said they liked having messages about the status of their dirty laundry pop up on their TV screens, but didn’t much care for getting the information on their cellphones.
Oh, and they liked being able to turn on a fluff cycle without having to get off the couch.
The Internet Home Alliance is behind the research. The group, which includes such companies as Whirlpool, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Panasonic and Procter & Gamble.
All kidding aside, home automation is going to be an increasingly big deal in the technology space. What kinds of household tasks would you like technology to take care of for you?
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Privacy and Electronic Medical Records
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is calling on the newly Democratic Congress to pass legislation encouraging the adoption of electronic medical records, a concern near and dear to several Alpharetta-area companies.
Gingrich, in Alpharetta last week to visit a medical practice that uses electronic records, said there are “only details” to sort out before passing the legislation, but one of those details is a big one: privacy.
Democrats may be unlikely to jump on an initiative backed by President Bush and which many groups, including privacy advocates and some physicians groups, say fails to adequately protect patient information.
Bush has called for the universal adoption of personal health records that patients and providers can access from anywhere in the country.
Advocates such as Gingrich point to cost savings, a lower risk of medical errors and increased patient participation in care decisions. At North Fulton Family Medicine, where Gingrich spoke last week, Dr. Thomas Bat said electronic records save him and his colleagues time and money that they can better spend on patient care.
But privacy advocates worry about provisions that would allow use of medical information in health-care studies and questions about the security of information after so many data breaches, such as those that bedeviled Alpharetta’s own ChoicePoint last year.
What can technology companies do to make sure electronic medical records are safe from prying eyes?
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