When we engage with a client for service design, one of the things we always do is scan their industry, as well as other industries, for any technology that might be a good fit for their particular solution. Too often, companies are inclined to believe that their problem is so unique that only a custom application will do. But by spending some time on deep research, this “re-purposing” ultimately saves our clients tremendous amounts of time and money. One of the areas we have learned to tap into is the U.S. government. With the right search methods, you can uncover a treasure trove of data, software, and intellectual capital that is available for the asking.

An article in today’s Wall Street Journal shows how software, already funded by the U.S. taxpayers, could be the lynch pin to solve one of the most dysfunctional aspects of the U.S. health care crisis. The potential solution lies in a software system that was designed to manage the medical records for Veteran’s Administration hospitals across the country. The software, dubbed VistA (Veteran’s Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture) has been created with several billion dollars of taxpayer funds over the past two decades. The system is now used in over 1,400 VA facilities and the source code is now in the public domain.

According to the paper, “Paperless technologies have revolutionized banking and retailing. But even after a decade-long effort to modernize health care, fewer than 2% of the nation’s 5,000 non-VA hospitals have what could be considered a comparable full-fledged system, according to a recent survey in the New England Journal of Medicine. Hospitals say they haven’t been able to afford the cost of the systems, which range from $20 million to $100 million, and the current economic crisis isn’t helping.”
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This Thursday we are on our way to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in support of our client, AnySource Media . They have what we believe to be a “game-changer” in the world of consumer electronics – they have developed a seamless platform for Internet-connected TV. In Las Vegas they (and their initial partners Funai, CinemaNow and ST MicroElectronics) will be demonstrating their Internet Video Navigator solution in their exhibit spaces. Essentially, they have developed the software that gets embedded into the silicon chips inside new HDTVs which enables you to plug your broadband connection directly into your TV, just as you would with any other media input. Using nothing but your standard remote, you use a simple up/down/left/right interface to navigate through virtually any “channel” of video from the Internet.

We are working with the team at AnySource Media to maximize the customer experience as well as to design a myriad of value-added services that this platform makes possible. AnySource Media is not only developing the embedded technology, but also pulling together the content providers (watch for their announcements soon) as well as the advertising platform that incorporates a wide variety of ad formats. There are a number of “connected TV” announcements this week at CES, but AnySource Media’s open approach is the only one that parallels the most successful business models on the Web today. (In fact, it’s very much like Apple’s wildly successful App Store).

If you are out in Las Vegas, get in touch!