Tis the Season: Digital Camera Purchasing

This is the time of year when I field a lot of questions about point-and-shoot digital cameras for gifts or for capturing pictures of kids and grandkids during the holidays. Luckily, a very highly respected digital camera review site, DPReview.com, is coming out with a series of reviews of cameras within various classes. Each class review will select the best cameras in their respective classes.

Their first review is of the budget camera class and includes cameras under $150. According to the review, the two best cameras in the group are (with Amazon links) the Sony DSCW120 at approx. $130 and the Panasonic LZ8 at approx $117.

Remember, this first review is of budget cameras so the winners will provide good quality photos yet may or may not have all of the features you desire. Read the reviews carefully as DPReview does a good job of specifying the pros and cons of each class of camera as well as for the individual cameras themselves. I'm actually quite amazed that both the Sony and the Panasonic above have Image Stabilization and large viewing screens. Clearly, high-end camera technology is working it's way down to the budget models!

If you're interested in digital camera buying this Christmas, check back at the DPReview site for more information and more reviews as they become available.

Enjoy,
Eric

(BTW- Don't judge a camera based on the number of megapixels it has. All new cameras have enough megapixels to produce large prints.)

President-Elect Obama's Electronic Health Record

In a fortuitous coincidence, Will Weider (the CandidCIO) and I are blogging about the same topic this week: President-elect Obama's enthusiasm for Electronic Health Records.

From the Obama health plan:

A study by the Rand Corporation found that if most hospitals and doctors offices adopted electronic health records, up to $77 billion of savings would be realized each year through improvements such as reduced hospital stays, avoidance of duplicative and unnecessary testing, more appropriate drug utilization, and other efficiencies.

At Good Samaritan Health Center, it's the duplicative and unnecessary testing that we're going after in full force with our PACs initiative. Currently, images and interpretations are not well integrated into our referring physician's work flows. As a result, duplication of diagnostic exams occurs. Our goal is to ensure that high quality images and interpretations are available electronically 24/7 to all of our referring physician customers (HIPAA compliant, of course).