by Felicien | Aug 13, 2018 | Education
What Are The 10 Top Laptops of 2018?
One does not just walk into a store and purchase the first laptop he sees these days; they’re a pretty big investment! Everyone wants to get all the great features they have in mind with their purchase. Laptops have become somewhat of an extension of who we are. They say a lot about us. Everyone knows the stereotype of the young male Mac Book user.
Today’s laptop industry is jam-packed with impressive models, and if you’re of the notion that laptops make the world go ‘round, you’d do well to spend some time on your research before committing to just one. If it sounds like we’re talking about a committed relationship like between two people, we’re not! Your relationship with your laptop is much more important!
Brands like Apple, Dell, and Lenovo are at the top of their game, and with so many other great options to choose from, laptop shoppers certainly have their work cut out for them. We’ve rounded up the best of the year, measuring everything from portability to design and, of course, performance.
Here are our picks for the 10 most worthy laptops of 2018.
Number One: Dell Latitude 7390 2-in-1
Dell’s Latitude models have always given the industry’s top laptops a run for their money. The Latitude 7390 2-in-1 is more of the same, only slightly better with the addition of a few new features, such as Microsoft’s Precision Touchpad. In addition to features like Windows Hello facial recognition, and other security upgrades, a major perk of the new model is its portability. Weighing in at just three pounds, it’s easy to tote around, especially with its 2-in-1 convertibility. It also comes complete with a backlit keyboard with deep keys for comfortable typing.
Number Two: Apple MacBook Pro
Mac users are loyal and with good reason. The Apple MacBook Pro, for instance, is one of the best money can buy, and worth every penny if performance ranks high in your list of must-have qualities for a laptop. The newest version boasts plenty of updates to keep things interesting, including a Touch Bar and capabilities for 32 GB of RAM, a significant bump from the previous max of 16 GB. Inside you’ll find an eighth-gen Intel Core professor for plenty of power and a third-generation butterfly keyboard. All-in-all, the MacBook Pro is a hearty contender for best laptop of the year.
Number Three: LG Gram
LG’s new update to its well-received Gram notebook has a lot of things going for it. There is the portability factor for one, as it packs a mighty punch in a relatively small package, weighing in at just 2.1 pounds. This laptop is also durable, as it’s made from metal alloy, and has met military-grade requirements for drop protection. Inside, you’ll find a hearty 72WHr battery good for a whopping 22.5 hours of usage, plus an Intel Core processor from the eight-gen U series. Other features include a fingerprint reader and multiple ports, including HDMI and microSD.
Number Four: Dell XPS 13
The XPS 13 is Dell’s first full redesign in about three years, and it’s nothing short of awesome. In addition to major improvements on things like power, durability, and portability, this laptop also has style. Stain resistant, UV resistant woven glass fiber adorns the XPS13, and inside you’ll find an Intel eighth-gen Core processor. Included is a high-performing battery good for up to 20 hours of usage. There’s truly not much you won’t be able to do with this by your side.
Number Five: Lenovo Yoga 920 (14)
Lenovo’s Yoga 920 laptop is superior to others in its class for several reasons. The 920 boasts cool features like long-range voice-activated support, an optional pen with pinpoint accuracy, and a brilliant 4K display ideal for entertainment. Incredible responsiveness, Windows Ink, and access to Windows Cortana (the electronic assistant) leaves little room for worry if you’re always on the go.
Number Six: HP EliteBook x360 1030
HP’s third-generation EliteBook x360 1030 is impressive in both design and performance. This notebook was reduced in size for convenience, and it’s loaded with other features that strive for the same. It’s lightweight at 2.76 pounds and comes equipped with a powerful eighth-gen Intel processor, along with 18 hours of battery life. It also offers the option of LTE connectivity so you can get things done even without Wi-Fi.
Number Seven: Asus ZenBook Flip S UX370
The ZenBook Flip S UX370 is not your ordinary 2-in-1 laptop. It’s ultra-thin and lightweight, with powerful components that can tackle most things with ease. Within you’ll find a new Kaby Lake R eighth-gen processor, more than enough RAM and a variety of other features bound to delight users, including a fingerprint magnet. If power is what you want, Asus brought the goods.
Number Eight: Lenovo IdeaPad Miix 520
The 2-in-1 laptop/tablet hybrid is growing in popularity, and IdeaPad’s Miix 520 is one of the best of the bunch. Not only is it affordable, but it’s got power by way of its eighth-generation Core i5 CPU, which is still more powerful than some with Core i7 capabilities. And while its battery life could use some improvement, overall, the IdeaPad Miix 520 is a suitable choice for those seeking a 2-in-1 with major potential.
Number Nine: Huawei MateBook X Pro
Huawei is a lesser known brand in the laptop world, but that doesn’t make the MateBook X Pro any less spectacular. This 13.9-inch model is equipped with an eighth-generation Intel Core i5 – i7, and carries with it an excellent battery life. A rich display and sleek design overall render the MateBook X Pro one of our favorites, and with a moderate price point, it’s within reach for many.
Number Ten: HP EliteBook 1050
The EliteBook 1050 is the first 15-inch in the Elite 1000 series, and it takes complete advantage of its size. Its display can reach up to 650 nits of brightness, and it also comes with an integrated privacy screen. It’s up to par on performance, with Intel’s eighth-generation H series processor, and a capacity for 32 GB of RAM. Its battery life is nothing to scoff at either. The EliteBook is good for 16 hours on a single charge, rounding out the benefits of this notable laptop.
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by Felicien | Aug 13, 2018 | Education
New Survey Reveals What Drives EHR System Replacement and How Clinics Are Using Existing Systems
Thinking about replacing your EHR System? 30 percent of physicians surveyed say they’re no longer happy with their old EHR system. What is the #1 complaint? Read on.
In April, Black Book Market Research released the results of a survey they conducted that received responses from nearly 19,000 EHR (electronic health record) users. This was a 6-month client satisfaction survey which provided some fascinating insights into the use and expectations regarding EHR systems and included practices ranging in size from solo to large (15+ clinicians).
Plans to Replace EHR System
One of the most interesting revelations from the survey results was that 30% of practices that have 12 or more clinicians on staff expect to replace their current EHR system by 2021. This is a significant change from previous years, where smaller and solo practices were usually the main ones interested in replacing existing EHR systems because of high levels of dissatisfaction. In previous years, smaller clinics were mainly dissatisfied with the basic features of the EHR they were using.
Drivers Behind Replacement
There were several prominent drivers behind this intention of larger practices to replace their current system, according to Black Book’s report:
More available customization and integration
Increased functionality
Practice management
Revenue cycle management
ICD10 coding products
The primary driver behind EHR system replacement for most surveyed was a desire for additional customization options. Many physicians feel that their current EHR system doesn’t allow them to modify the system so it better meets their specific needs.
The survey also revealed that, among larger practices, there are three tools that are the most heavily used:
Data Repository
Order Entry
Results Review
No doubt the issues with functionality driving the selection of a replacement system are impacted by the functionality of these three tools in particular.
Highly Sought Features
Among those desiring to replace their current EHR system, Black Book Market Research reported that 93% are also highly interested in cloud-based mobile solutions. Among those solutions, the highest level of interest involved on-demand data that would provide useful insights into the following critical areas: financial performance, compliance tracking, and contractual quality goals. However, two other major features that ranked highly are virtual visit support and telehealth, at 87%, followed by speech recognition tools, at 82%. These numbers indicate that physicians are ready to move forward with the latest technology in order to heighten their abilities to provide a better range of quality services.
Habits of Small Practices
Smaller practices, defined as those with six or fewer clinicians on staff, are not making full use of the features available with their EHR systems. It is primarily more advanced tools that they are neglecting, and these tools include things such as electronic data sharing, secure messaging, clinical decision support, and patient engagement. While their EHR system may come with these features, they are not benefiting from them.
Smaller practices are more focused on basic functionality, and they are more likely to remain loyal to a particular EHR if the system provides the primary tools they need and those tools work well for them. Medium to large practices, on the other hand, look for much more in an EHR system and are currently more likely to be ready to try a new system.
Comparing the Tool Usage of Solo, Medium, and Large Clinics
Larger practices, with 15 or more clinicians on staff, make extensive use of electronic messaging, clinical decision support, and patient engagement tools, with 80% or more of respondents indicating that they use these tools very frequently. Among the medium size practices with 2 to 14 clinicians that participated in the survey, only 28% to 38% used the same tools frequently. Small or solo clinics used these tools even less, instead of using the record sharing tools the most. But even then, only 13% of participants said they used that tool frequently.
Practices of Users
In a related study, Black Book discovered that 91% of patients under 50 years old prefer to make use of digital tools related to managing their healthcare. The use of smartphones and computers is a popular method for them. This could begin to cause problems for smaller practices that are reluctant to make use of some of the advanced features to support digital access to health information. Larger clinics seem to be on track to meet the expectations of this demographic, however, with the priority, they are giving to systems that provide tools for virtual visits and telehealth.
Conclusion
The fact that many larger clinics plan to replace their current EHR system by 2021 is a departure from the norm, where it is usually smaller clinics that are looking for a better system. Larger practices may be ready to embrace artificial intelligence and machine learning in order to provide a better range of healthcare services to their patience. Those planning to replace their EHR system are also seeking cloud-based mobile solutions, along with tools that provide insight into finances, compliance, and contractual quality goals. The larger the clinic, the more likely they are to use tools such as electronic messaging and patient engagement. Finally, larger clinic practices match well with the expectations of patients under 50, who prefer to manage their healthcare via digital tools. This indicates that physicians and patients are realizing a need to utilize innovative solutions to administer better healthcare services.
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by Felicien | Aug 10, 2018 | Education
Using Rules To Organize Your Outlook 2016 Inbox
The purpose of Rules in Microsoft Outlook is to help you organize your email and receive updates if items are changed. Rules can save you time, keep on top of high priority tasks, and reduce the clutter of your Outlook inbox – if you know how to use the Rules Wizard correctly.
Basics of Outlook Email Rules
To set up a Rule, you first select the condition(s) that the email must meet (e.g., certain words in the subject line or from a particular sender), then indicate what you want to have happen when an email meets those conditions (e.g., place in a certain folder or provide an alert). It helps if you think about how you process your email. For example, you get various emails about a certain project, so you place those in a folder for that project. The condition would be that the subject line contains that project name in it, and the action would be moving it to a certain folder.
Creating a Simple Rule
Let’s create a simple rule that takes all emails with a subject line that contains the word “Proposal” and moves them to a folder in the “Smith Account.” Begin by right-clicking on a message in your Inbox. In the list that appears, select Rules>Create Rules. This will open up the Create Rules dialog box.
The Create Rules dialog box is fairly straightforward to use. The first section of the dialog box deals with the rule conditions. Check the Box beside Under Subject Contains, then type Proposal in the text box next to it. That indicates the rule is to apply to all emails whose subject contains the word Proposal. Then, moving down further in the dialog box, check the box next to Move the Item to Folder. A list of available folders pops up. Select the Smith Account folder (note you can create a new folder if needed by clicking on the New button), and click Ok. Smith Account will now appear next to the words Move Item to Folder. Next, click on OK to create this rule.
Another dialog box pops up to let you know the rule has been created. Notice there is a checkbox that says Run this rule now on messages already in the current folder. If you check that box and click OK, this allows the rule to immediately be put to use on existing emails. Otherwise, it will wait until new email messages come in.
For email rules, conditions can include sender, text that appears in the subject line, or who the email was sent to. When an email meets the conditions, then you can choose what happens next.
Available options for what happens in a simple email rule like the one we just created include the following:
Display in the New Item Alert Window
Play a Selected Sound
Move the Item to a Folder
Using Rule Templates
You can access templates for Rules by going to File>Manage Rules and Alerts>New Rule. Here the Rules Wizard gives you access to templates organized under three categories: Stay Organized, Stay Up to Date, and Start from a blank rule.
Under Stay Organized, there are templates for the following:
Move messages from someone to a folder
Move messages with specific words in the subject to a folder
Move messages sent to a public group to a folder
Flag messages from someone for follow-up
Move items from a specific RSS Feed to a folder
Under Stay Up to Date, here are your options:
Display mail from someone in the New Items Alert Window
Play a sound when I get messages from someone
Send an alert to my mobile device when I get messages from someone
Let’s run through a quick example using a Rules template. We will create a rule that flags messages from a certain person for follow-up. Note that this can be applied to an email from people or from public groups. Begin by going to File>Manage Rules and Alerts>New Rule. This will start the Rules Wizard. Under Step 1, go to Stay Organized, select Flag messages from someone for follow-up.
At the bottom of the Rules Wizard, you will see Step 2. Here, you will edit the rule description to meet your needs. Anything underlined in blue can be edited. In the case of a move messages rule, you should see something like this under Step 2:
Apply this rule after the message arrives
from people or public groups and
flag message for follow up at this time
If you click on people or public groups, then you will be provided with a list of people or public groups to choose from. Clicking on follow up at this time will open up flagging options. These include what type of flag to apply (e.g., Follow Up, For You Information, Forward, etc.) and when it needs to be completed (e.g, Today, Tomorrow, This Week, Next Week, No Date, Complete). Once you’ve edited the rule description to meet your needs, click on Next.
This takes you to some additional options for refining the rule, such as requiring that certain words be in the subject or that the email comes through a specific account. Clicking on Next allows you to add exceptions to the rules, such as making an exception for emails sent from a public group or that you have been CC’ed on.
Clicking Next again allows you to name your rule and choose from a few more rule options that are presented next to checkboxes. These rule options are as follows:
Run this rule now on messages already in Inbox
Turn on this rule
Create this rule on all accounts (this only appears if you have multiple accounts)
Once you’ve made the modifications you need, click on Finish. Outlook will provide you with a message to let you know if the rule is only run when Outlook is open. Click on OK, and everything will be set up.
Conclusion
Taking the time to think through how you process email helps you gain control of your Outlook 2016 inbox. Remember that the rules can be as simple or complex as you want them to be. If you don’t know where to start, then use one of the Rule Templates. Templates simplify the Outlook Rules Wizard process so you can get familiar with how it works.
by Felicien | Aug 10, 2018 | Education
In a recent Forbes article, former VP of Strategic Communications at SAP, former Chief Communications Officer at Oracle, and current founder and president of Evans Strategic Communications LLC, Bob Evans, weighed in on the cloud wars between Amazon and Microsoft.
Evans broke down the 10 key elements of Microsoft’s progress and strategy in the words of Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and CFO Amy Hood taken from their comments during Microsoft’s July 19 earnings call for its fiscal 2018 Q4.
According to Evans: Why Can’t Amazon Match Microsoft In The Cloud?
Azure’s Ability to Scale Correctly on Demand is Added to its Plate
According to CFO Amy Hood, Microsoft doubled the number of $10-million-plus Azure agreements and closed a larger-than-expected amount of multimillion-dollar commercial cloud agreements.
Beating the company’s expectations, Hood also reported that commercial unearned revenue was $29 billion, up 23%.
Fiscal fourth-quarter commercial-cloud revenue rose 53% to $6.9 billion and Azure revenue grew 89%.
Azure’s Potential to Be the Go-to Computer
Microsoft CEO, Nadella reports that his prediction of Microsoft’s ability to interweave the cloud and the edge is allowing Microsoft to offer them, “ideal platform for customers’ digital transformations.”
In an effort to force Amazon, IBM, and others to catch-up with Microsoft’s advancements, Nadella said they are, “the only hyper-scale cloud that extends to the edge across identity, data, application platform, security, and management.” He added, “We are investing aggressively to build Azure as the world’s computer.”
Azure’s Capacity to Handle Mission-Critical Workloads
Nadella reported a continued growth of Microsoft handling Tier 1 workloads for many companies.
Citing Microsoft’s IaaS growth, Nadella believes they are going to continue to see businesses using both Azure and Azure stack as they move their workloads to the cloud. He believes businesses will concurrently discover that this is the perfect time to transform their legacy apps and move toward more advanced technology.
Microsoft’s Friendly Path to the Cloud
Hood touted Microsoft’s commitment of continuing to focus on creating customer value as a reason why they are still seeing a growth in their on-premises server business.
Hood said they persist at making the Microsoft platform a friendly way that their customers can move from on-premise to the cloud.
Microsoft’s Friendly Path to the Cloud Through Microsoft 365
Microsoft 365 gives business customers the freedom to take their existing familiarity with Microsoft Office and begin moving into higher-level cloud services.
Since Microsoft 365 is a multibillion-dollar business, it has the reach to give their customers a path to the cloud that otherwise might cause them to be apprehensive about approaching it.
Microsoft’s Competitive Advantage
Microsoft states that their vision for both centralized cloud computing and edge computing is to keep them together as much as possible. They don’t want to have two separate camps; one for edge computing and another for cloud computing.
Nadella said: “…our real competitive advantage and differentiation is, we have one programming model, one identity model, security, management, etc, so those modern developers, as well as IT, can use the computer available from Azure Sphere to Azure.”
Microsoft’s Best-Kept Secret
Azure Hybrid Benefit, a licensing model which gives businesses the ability to transfer money already committed to on-premises versions of Windows Server Standard and Datacenter Editions to the Azure cloud is what Nadella calls Microsoft’s “best keep secret.”
Nadella said Microsoft has not been good at promoting the Azure Hybrid Benefit, and he anticipates substantial progress to take place with this program in the future.
Microsoft’s Dynamics 365 Aggressive Position
Microsoft’s suite of Dynamics 365 SaaS applications has a price advantage and the value advantage for customers in what Microsoft considers to be a profoundly patchy market.
Microsoft envisions fully exploiting its place as an enterprise-cloud provider for both large and midsized businesses that can lead its customers through the digital-transformation journey.
Microsoft’s S&P Leverage
Microsoft admits that cloud revenue is growing more than CapEx is growing, but CFO Amy Hood said she believes that the rate of CapEx growth will moderate. According to Hood, they are adding regions and seeing a lot of global demand and improving margins.
As Microsoft’s margins increase, their ability to continue investing many billions of dollars across their extensive range of enterprise-cloud services will expand as well.
Microsoft’s LinkedIn Acquisition
Microsoft’s surprising $26-billion acquisition of LinkedIn has been remarkably successful. With a revenue growth of 37% in the last quarter, that is their “fifth consecutive quarter of revenue acceleration,” said Nadella.
Improving LinkedIn’s quality of video feed, messaging, and growth in mobile usage, made LinkedIn the go-to platform to connect business professionals worldwide.
Although Microsoft is not unbeatable, their ability to provide just one source that gives IT cloud providers the capability of designing the best-imagined cloud experience for their customers gives them a leg-up on Amazon and all other competition. The fact that businesses can use the full suite of well-known Microsoft products in the cloud and combine their own cloud products and services under only one billing arrangement gives them the decisive advantage.
by Felicien | Aug 10, 2018 | Education
Third-Party Vendor Breach and Subsequent Delays in Reporting Now Result in Major Problems for an Orlando Healthcare Provider
A recent breach left the protected health information (PHI) of more than 19,000 patients in Orlando, Florida completely exposed online for two months before it was detected. What is more concerning, however, is why it took the group of clinics involved five months to report the breach to the Department of Health and Human Services, and six months to alert the affected patients.
How the Breach Happened
The Orlando Orthopaedic Center in Florida hired a 3rd party vendor to handle their transcriptions, as do many clinics and health centers. When the vendor was updating their software during December 2017, they made a serious mistake that misconfigured access to one of their databases. That configuration issue left their server open to the public and accessible over the internet. Anyone who desired could access the patient data stored on that server, and they could do so without any authorization needed. It was two months before the mistake was discovered.
Impact of the Breach
This breach left 19,101 patient records seriously exposed, which was not only a major HIPAA violation but a situation that could easily result in identity theft. Once the breach was recognized, investigators discovered that a great deal of information had inadvertently been made publicly available. This included names, insurance details, dates of birth, medical treatments, employers, and, in a limited number of cases, social security numbers. Fortunately, no financial information (debit card numbers, credit card numbers, bank account numbers, or other financial records) were exposed during the breach.
All patients that received treatment from any Orlando Orthopaedic clinic prior to January 2018 would have been affected by the breach. Investigators were not able to determine if anyone had gained access to what should have been PHI, and none of the affected individuals have, as of yet, reported identity theft or misuse of their PHI. However, the investigators were still unable to rule out the possibility of information theft or unauthorized access to patient information.
The aftermath of the Breach
Orlando Orthopaedic did not find out about the breach until February 2018, two months after it occurred. However, it would be almost six months before the affected patients were notified by mail. The clinics involved have yet to provide a reason for the delay in notification.
As a result of the security breach, Orlando Orthopaedic Center employees are receiving cybersecurity training even though they were not directly responsible for the problem. In addition, the affected clinics are taking additional security measures to ensure that PHI stored both on their own servers, as well as accessible through endpoints, are all secured.
The transcription vendor responsible for the breach has offered all the affected patients one year of free credit monitoring and identity theft protection and restoration services. The vendor has also made changes to their security to ensure that information on their servers remains protected from prying eyes.
In addition, all patients involved have been advised to closely monitor their insurance Explanation of Benefits statements, as well as their other accounts for any signs that their PHI is being used fraudulently. In the event that a patient sees unusual activity, they should notify their insurance provider immediately.
Who Is Responsible?
Even if a 3rd party vendor or business partner is responsible for causing the breach, the healthcare provider is still held responsible. In this case, Orlando Orthopaedic is the responsible party even though it was the security of the vendor that was lax, a situation over which they had no direct control. This reinforces the fact that healthcare providers must be thorough in vetting potential vendors.
Concerns about Delays
As already mentioned, it took Orlando Orthopaedic six months to notify their patients of the PHI breach and five months to notify the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights (OCR). The OCR should have been notified 60 days after discovery of the breach, according to HIPAA guidelines, not five months. The same deadline applies to notifying patients.
No doubt a fine is to be expected. Presence Health delayed reporting a breach to the affected patients and OCR 40 days past the 60-day deadline. Their fine amounted to $475,000 and was the first case of a HIPAA breach fine for the untimely reporting of a breach of unsecured PHI
Conclusion
Even if the breach of PHI is caused by the carelessness of a business partner (including 3rd party vendors), the healthcare clinic is still the entity held responsible. There is a 60-day deadline for notifying OCR and the affected patients, and failure to meet this deadline will most likely result in a punitive fine. Failure to notify the patients right away can damage the reputation of the healthcare provider. Even offers of credit monitoring and iidentitytheft restoration cannot undo the negative effects of the breach.
