Sequoia Software in conjunction with
Microsoft will introduce an Extensible Mark-up Language (XML) transaction
server for health care.
Being introduced at the Health Information Management Systems Society
(HIMSS) conference in Orlando on February 25, it will be the first use of
XML in a major application for the health care industry.
Anil Sethi, Sequoia’s chief technology officer, commented: “This is not
just an XML application. It works behind virtually all applications so that
very different, widely distributed systems can actually work together to do
business. In health care that means often vital patient records can be at a
doctor’s fingertips in seconds. And that means lives saved and lower costs.”
Sequoia plans to demonstrate the system by linking to applications of
several different hardware and software manufacturers on the floor of the
show. The purpose of this, says the vendor, is to show that the transaction
server is ready for commercial use. It is being embedded into other
products by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), and Microsoft is
collaborating in next week’s launch.
John Carpenter, Microsoft’s World Wide Health Industry Manager, said: “This
is an important development that will allow people in different health care
roles–doctors, pharmacists, vendors, buyers, and administrators–to
communicate.”
XML is a meta language that allows more programming tags than HTML and
describes information more precisely. At the instigation of the U.S.
Commerce Department, Sequoia is currently developing a national Master
Patient Index (MPI) based on the XML standard.
