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Healthcare Reform legislation passed in the U.S. will shape the healthcare industry for many years to come. The impacts of the legislation have business and technology implications and Health payers need to make informed technology investments to prepare information systems for changes to the business model, and to prepare for the demand for information.

Below table outlines few examples of how Healthcare reform will impact Health Payers and role of  Health care IT as an enabler to reduce operating costs, provide a competitive edge to business and provide alternative channels for revenue generation.

 Traditionally, the culture of ‘conservatism’ and the ‘governance’ or ‘independence’ of Universities has created high cost of sales.  Each University has ended up building a unique architecture and level of experience and such complexity means services and processes have tended to be tailored/bespoke at every different institution and resulted in silo based approach often creating an over engineered environment that results into higher cost of ownership.

Now, more than ever before, the IT department in Higher Education sector is increasingly under pressure to explore how best to utilize the emerging trends in technology to lower costs and broaden student base.

Higher Education Sector – Typical IT Challenges

§  Current IT landscape at many universities comprise of set of large, disparate, complex applications built on product stacks procured from multiple vendors that lack strategic business alignment or allow easy exchange of information, knowledge and collaboration both within & outside.

§  Recent anti-terrorism legislations require Universities in many of the developed nations to be able to monitor international students who have obtained a Visa to attend an educational course.  IT systems in Universities are not currently geared up for Identity Federation to prevent duplication of such checks every time students change universities.

§  Given the proliferation of virtual learning environments and need for online learning options spanning across multiple time zones, there is increasing need for IT to provision for high availability systems to support 24 by 7 window. Also there is an ever-growing need to embrace newer technology channels that provide seamless and personalized experience for student and faculty interactions.

§  A percentage of students fail to complete their studies each year. This is a waste of money/time for the student, the University and/or the funding body. If it were possible to identify students who are showing signs of ‘dropping out’ then remedial steps might be taken which could keep the student on their course. In order to do these, there needs to be a framework that allows systems of different universities to easily exchange student records and student information.

§  Due to Funding cuts from federal sources (Government) there is a growing pressure on CIOs to provide an IT ecosystem that is efficient, effective and provide value for money. CIOs are also exploring greener alternatives to traditional data canters.

Usage of technology trends in Higher Education sector.

The current challenges faced by the Higher Education sector across necessitate standardizing of the processes around enterprise architecture, master data management and data governance. 

The Higher Education consortium needs to create of a common framework for Enterprise Architecture based on concept of shared services and by adapting to some of the recent technology trends to scale up their offerings and provide a more interoperable environment.

The key focus areas for the Higher Education IT evangelists in coming years will be

1.    Enterprise Architecture Assessment

It is very important for CIOs to align the IT infrastructure within their organization in a way that best promotes the business goals, while maximizing the benefit of IT dollars spent. An Enterprise Architecture Assessment is a very important starting point towards this process of IT & Business alignment. CIOs of Higher Education consortiums should target to conduct a holistic assessment of the enterprise architecture of the different universities within their domain to assess how well the current architecture is aligned with the needs and goals of the university and to determine the current maturity level. This will provide a good insight into gaps against industry recommended standards and help formulate a roadmap and vision of a future state architecture with an end goal of lowering total cost of operation year over year.

2.    Shared Services in Cloud

Cloud is a metaphor for provisioning of dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources as a service over the Internet. Investing in purchase-and-install software is falling by the wayside as institutions catch onto the value of using “cloud” applications that are housed (and accessed) online. Not only are these options more affordable and easier to implement, but they also include vast storage capacity that can be used for centralized data store to track student activity and conduct portfolio assessments across the student’s entire education career.

Universities should develop a framework of shared services in cloud to package student centric applications and information as a suite of interoperable and loosely coupled services, which promotes interoperability across multiple university domains.

3.    Mobility Solutions.

Proliferation of new generation tablet devices like Apple’s IPad is increasingly replacing laptops and personal computers. There’s no doubt that students have become more mobile in terms of the technology they’re using, and universities now need to keep up with that trend.  Universities will need to create alternative learning environments to web channels, in form of IPad/tablet apps or smartphone applications.

4.    Web 2.0 & Portal

Online learning is on the upswing and will be most popular means in coming years for student education. Universities need to integrate sophisticated versions of virtual learning environment in its infrastructure to help students learn without face-to-face interaction with the faculty.

Universities need to build a strategy on unifying content and infrastructure and delivering it through Portal like framework. Few strategic features that universities need to focus on integrating in their Portal framework are:

·      SSO & Identity Federation: help universities to identify a student with aim of providing personalized and seamless experience while moving across university domains.

·      Content Management: provides ability for course administrators and faculties to create and publish information easily into a central portal.

·      Ecommerce: help universities provide an online channel for providing a catalog of their services and courses for selection in real-time with options to remit tuitions & fees.

·      Collaboration tools: promote increased collaboration and provide personalized interaction between students and faculties.

·      BI & Analytics: track usage patterns and make informed business decision.

·      Unified Search: Enables federated search across multiple university systems.

Is it the end of an era and beginning of a new one?  On May 26, 2010 Apple overtook Microsoft as the number 1 tech company in terms of market capitalization capping one of the most stunning turnaround in history of tech biz.

Microsoft who  for past 2 decades has been the industry leader in technology segment in terms on valuation but has rapidly ceded ground to Apple since middle of his decade. It all started with Apple’s launch of IPods & ITunes followed by Intel based Macs followed by even more revolutionary IPhone and the final nail in the coffin is the IPad product.

Even more stunning is the comeback of Steve Jobs - Apple founder - who started the company then was kicked out and then rejoined back as CEO when Apple was on brink of extinction to emerge as the visionary behind Apple’s meteoric rise in recent times.

While Microsoft seems to have stagnated in status-quo, Apple seems to be progressing in leaps and bounds and everything Steve Jobs touches is turning into gold. The only serious competitor to Apple is now Google, the Search Giant and it will be interesting to see how next few years shape the tech world as these 2 giants Apple & Google battle each other for supremacy. Well consumers aren’t complaining - makes the tech world all the more exciting - so kudos to Apple!

I was pleasantly surprised to hear Dev D’s music track earlier this year. It is vastly different than whatever was churned out before in terms of Bollywood genre. The variety, the off-beat in-your-face lyrics & the sheer number of tracks & it’s diversity blew me off. The Emosanal Attyachar is a track you will either love or hate - but you cannot ignore either the music or the brazen lyrics. Hats off to Amit Trivedi for pulling this off.

Likewise saw the promos of Dhan-te-Nan track from the movie Kaminey (by Vishal Bharadwaaj) and this track is rocking. It’s not surprising given that the movie & music come form the illustrious stable of Vishal Bharadwaaj who had come up with the magical Omkara previously. I am looking forward to seeing this movie - I am sure it will be worth a dekko.

Both Vishal & Amit represent the changing face of Bollywood music and the cinema - I think Bollywood has focused a lot on candyfloss NRI drama movies - its time to move to more experimental genre.

The other day I walked into an Abercrombie store in Bay Area and, surprise surprise, they were playing the song Jai Ho from Slumdog M. I don’t think I have ever heard a bollywood number being belted out in an upscale boutique store in US - so it was a pleasant surprise. I personally think that A. R. Rehman (the music composer of this song) has churned out better numbers in his bollywood & tollywood career, however having got Oscar for this song certainly seems to have helped in getting the international “commercial” acclaim that he has lacked so far in his illustrious career.

Jai Ho to Rehman - hoping that this sets a trend of  bollywood numbers getting belted out in boutique stores across US.

I just completed reading Q&A, the book behind the movie Slumdog Millionaire. As I have read both the book and the movie so comparisons are inevitable. My first reaction was - wow the book is a hands down winner and much more engrossing than the movie. The refreshing part about the book is the non-linear narrative with each chapter weaving around the question that is asked in “Who wants to be a Billionaire” - thereby giving glimpses into the protagonist’s life history, albeit not in a linear sequence from childhood to adulthood.

Now to the movie- Slumdog Millionaire is not completely true to the book - it has added more bells and whistles & typical Bollywood cliches like siblings getting separated,  hero vs his immoral brother, doomed love story etc. -  in short the movie is a highly commericalized version but still it has enough to make it a good view.

But I must admit that I am amazed by hype and hooplah surrounding the movie and am really not sure if it would have got the same attention if directed by a Bollywood director instead of Danny Boyle even though the end product resembles a Bollywood movie rather than an Oscar type material. I am a bit disappointed that the book did not get as much hype as the movie.

I highly recommend the book as a MUST-READ for all avid book readers. The movie according to me is a good watch but definitely not as engrossing as the book.

Last week, I remained glued to my television set witnessing horrific news cast of terrorists going on a rampage in the City of Dreams, Mumbai. Being born and brought up in Mumbai (Bombay), I was completely shaken at the ease with which the terrorists bypassed the coastguards and local security and wreaked such a havoc. I felt a strong sense of rage and frustration stirring inside me at the ineptness and apathetic attitude of the local politicians, one of whom even sought to downplay the tragedy as a minor incident in a major city. It is indeed sad to see how our corrupt politicians have left the city so vulnerable and a soft target to terrorists.

Rightly so, the people of Mumbai, even though they are shaken, have stirred with anger and outrage over the incompetence and insensitivity of the buffoons that govern the city. No wonder heads are rolling. Enough has been said about the indomitable spirit of Mumbai, and Mumbaikars should not allow these self-centered politicians to use that as their proverbial punch line to escape accountability. Mumbaikars should continue their agitation against the government officials to demand better protection and security, on lines parallel to what is bestowed on useless VIP babus.

My heart goes out to all those innocent victims of the tragedy and a BIG salute to the Indian commandoes and police force that had the courage to fight the terrorists while our politicians were cowering behind in fear.  Another big salute to the brave staff of the Taj & Oberoi hotels who risked their lives trying to protect the guests. And finally a salute to the brave Mumbai citizens who instead of running away from terror site ran towards it to lend a helping hand.

India became only the fourth country in the world to reach the moon. Chandraayan, the Indian space shuttle, successfully unfurled and planted the Indian flag on the lunar surface at 8:31 pm India time on November 14th, 2008 marking a historic moment in India’s short space history. If you have any plans to visit the moon, don’t be surprised to see the Indian tricolor fluttering there in all its glory

Kudos to ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) on a job well done!

India reveres its sport heroes, puts them on pedestal even if the sports hero simply had 5 minutes of glory. Now let me backtrack a little bit, when I mean sports heroes only cricketers fall into this stereotype. Sadly many other deserving sports person in non-cricketing field have never got the pedestal or the spotlight that they deserve simply because cricketers occupy too much reel-space in Indian media and public.

For instance Vishwanathan Anand yesterday won the the world chess title for the third time - no mean achievement. But if you compare it with all the hero worship and hype & hooplah that surrounds a cricketer’s success, this is sorely missing in Vishy’s case.

Sure he has got some attention but definitely not on the scale that a leading cricketer would get if even if he scores a trivial century in a trivial cricket match.

Let us not take anything away from Vishy’s achievement, he has been the low profile unsung Indian sports superstar in India’s history. Kudos to him on his achievement and hope he too gets the hero worship and media attention on his return back to India.

The world order in tennis is restored - Roger Federer has finally won his first grand slam (US Open)  in his 4th attempt this year (2008).

Pundits and naysayers had already started making noise about Federer’s decline and many were saying it would be impossible for Federer to regain his glory days.  All this clamor seems to have made Federer even more determined than ever to prove the critics wrong and this emphatic win against Andy Murray should silence the critics for now.

I am sure nobody can deny that Federer has not only been the greatest player ever in tennis history but also one of the best behaved sports personality.

I have no doubt that Federer will eventually overtake Pete Sampras record of 14 grand slam wins - its a matter of how soon. If he can manage to avoid a certain Spaniard named Rafael Nadal in grand slam finals (like he did in US Open - thanks to Andy Murray), his journey towards the most grand slam wins should progress without hiccups.

Here’s a toast to Federer on his fantastic win in US Open and for his pursuit of most grand slam wins.