How would you like to live in a city where everything is new and built from the Ocean? That is Songdo, a city near Incheon, South Korea.
Songo, South Korea is considered the gateway to Southeast Asia. With its unique location that can be reached by 1/3 of the world’s population within a 2 hour flight. It is the epicenter for a new Asian financial district and residential city.
The Songdo International Business District (Songdo IBD) is a $30+ Billion master planned international city being developed on 1,500 acres of reclaimed land along the waterfront of Incheon, South Korea. When completed, the city will be home to 65,000 permanent residents with an additional 300,000 commuters, business travelers and visitors on a daily basis. The city will consist of approximately 50m sq.ft. of commercial space, 35m sq.ft. of residential use, and 15m sq.ft. for retail, hospitality, and school use, while 40% of the total area will be maintained as open space. With the strong commitment to environmental sustainability, as well as the amenities rarely seen in a city of this magnitude, the quality of life in the Songdo IBD will be unparalleled. Source: Gale International
Key Features
· 65 Story, 1,300,000 sq.ft. Multi-Use Northeast Asia Trade Tower (NEATT)
· 400,000 sq.ft. Convention Center
· 1,250,000 sq.ft. Retail Mall
· Cultural Center
· 9 million sq.ft. of parks, including the 100-acre Central Park
· 250 acre, 18-hole Championship Golf Course designed by Jack Nicklaus
· International Public and Private Schools for 6,000 students
· World Class Hotels with 5,000 rooms
· State-of-the-art International Hospital
· Ubiquitous City Based on Leading IT Infrastructure
· LEEDs Certified Development
· Ecotarium
· Construction is currently is underway with 10 projects costing $5 billion, with a
total of 27 projects and $10 billion scheduled to be underway by the end of 2007
Source: Gale International
Microsoft global presence is evident in Healthcare. It is a well kept secret intentionally or unintentionally that Microsoft has made significant investments in the healthcare industry. This is a long term investment to improve health around the world.
On October 15th, 2008 many groups within Microsoft will come together to host a Healthcare Information Exchange Event in Beijing, China. Event is FREE so if you happen to be in the area, please register to attend (contacts below).
Microsoft Healthcare Information Exchange
Microsoft Innovation in Healthcare: Enabling the Possibility Today & Tomorrow
Overview
This is a unique event designed for business decision makers & technology decision makers from partners & customers in the healthcare industry in China. We eagerly invite you to join us to discover new ideas, innovative healthcare solutions, thought leadership and strategy on how to improve health around the world. Microsoft has made a significant investment in healthcare with a comprehensive strategy for enabling customers and partners to delivery world class solutions through Software + Services. With market growth opportunity globally and especially here in China, you will see how Microsoft technology and solution innovations can benefit customers and partners.
•Repeatable Industry Solutions
• Thought Leadership
•Technology Innovations
Agenda
| Date | Time | Topics |
| 2008-10-15 | 13:00 - 13:30 | Registrations |
| 13:30 - 14:00 | Microsoft Healthcare – A look into the Futures |
| 14:00 - 14:45 | Executive Keynote: Microsoft China Healthcare Perspectives |
| 14:45 - 15:30 | Microsoft Healthcare Products Overview |
| 15:30 - 15:45 | Tea Break |
| 15:45 - 16:30 | Architectural Best Practices & Strategies for Healthcare |
| 16:30 -16:55 | Partner Showcase: Neusoft |
| 16:55 – 17:55 | Customer Solution Showcase: Zhongshan City Hospital |
| 17:55 - 18:40 | Surface Computing in Healthcare |
| 18:40 - 19:00 | QA/Closing Remarks/Prizes |
Key Topics Introduction
Keynotes: Microsoft China Healthcare Perspectives
Nigel Burton
GM - DPE Group, Microsoft GCR
Peter Moore
GM - PUBLIC SECTOR, Microsoft China
Microsoft Healthcare Products Overview
Some of you may have heard about them, others may be scratching their heads in bewilderment. This is a great opportunity to gain business insight and technology perspectives - Microsoft’s flagship Health Product brands.
Microsoft Healthcare Strategies & Industry Specific Solutions
Every vision and strategy must have a plan - a blueprint for execution from both a near-term and long-term perspective. In this session we discuss Architectural Best Practices such as Microsoft’s Connected Industry Framework, providing specific context and solution strategy across the Health & Life Sciences Industry. Our Premier Partner Sponsors will describe how they are leveraging the Framework in the delivery of Health & Life Sciences Industry solutions.
Partner Ecosystem
How to build a strong & healthy ecosystem for all partners & customers to win together? The showcase might provide you the answer. We’ll invite partner & customer to present their showcase which use Microsoft’s Technology Platform in a unique, Industry impactful way, which bring more value & efficiency for their business.
Touch the Future with Microsoft Surface
You’ve heard of it, but NOW you can touch it. We will have a Microsoft Surface device available during this summit –Microsoft WWPS team & DPE Industry team have developed 2 Healthcare Demo applications that will be showcased at this event, attendees will be able to view, interact, and see compelling demonstrations of how Microsoft Surface can be used in Health & Life Sciences.
Registration & Contact:
We eagerly invite you to attend this great summit!
Please help to fill in the attached registration form & send back to the following event contact by email or by fax, we will follow up & confirm with you as soon as possible.
If you have any questions regarding event & registration, please feel free to contact with us.
Your Contact:
Mr. Jack Jin
Email: jack.jin@force-focus.com or MSHealthcareSummit@force-focus.com
Tel: (8610) 5202 6801 ext 116 (13911926375)
Fax: (8610) 5202 6802
Background (Sources Beijing Trip.com)
The Forbidden City, also named the Palace Museum, shares the honor of being one of five world-famous palaces with the Palace of Versailles in France, Buckingham Palace in England, the White House in the U.S. and the Kremlin in Russia. The palace, the most magnificent and splendid palace complex in China, was listed as a World Cultural Heritage Building in 1987. It was built in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and the construction of this group of buildings took fourteen years from 1406 to 1420. In the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), it was the imperial palace where twenty-four emperors ascended the throne and exercised their strong power to the nation.
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The incomparable palace occupies an area of 720,000 square meters (177.9 acres) and has approximately 8,700 rooms. A high red wall with a total length of 3,400 meters (3,718 yards) encases the palace. There are four gates in each side, with Meridian Gate (Wu Men) as the main entrance. Four exquisite watchtowers sit at the corners of the wall. With roofs covered with golden glazed tile, red painted walls and grey-white bases, the rectangular palace appears extremely luxurious and grand. Spectacular halls in it are neatly arranged in bilateral symmetry along a central axis that conforms to the axis of Beijing City.
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The palace has two primary parts: the Outer Court and the Inner Court. Some halls are converted into art galleries to exhibit paintings, clocks, bronze wares, pottery and other invaluable treasures. It is said that there are over 1,000,000 articles in this museum that account for one-sixth of such national treasures. Tourists can enter into the palace from the Wu Men (Meridian Gate) or the Shenwu Men (Gate of Divine Might). It is impossible for visitors to see every corner of the palace in a single day. Let's start our virtual guide from the Wu Men to make our route clear.
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The animals and figures seen here are typical of ancient Chinese architecture. Its purpose is for function, esthetic, and social communication.
Esthetic and Social Communications:
According to my Chinese sources, the animal represent various demons said to exist in the world. Confucius, a famous Chinese philosopher lived during 551 BC- 471 BC. His philosophy emphasized personal and governmental morality, correctness of social relationships, justice and sincerity. During his life time, he was regarded as an outcast. His radically thinking was ahead of his time. It was not until the Han Dynasty that these values gained prominence in China.
Descendents of Confucius was proud of their ancestor lineage and was regarded as high class nobles. According to legend, one of his descendents was very deformed and ugly. His family would not allow him to venture out into the streets during daylight. He was allow to come out at night and was said to roam among the demons at night. He later came to be regarded as the guard against bad demons as represented by the various animals seen on the picture. These figures were incorporated into building architect as a way to guard as evil demos. The guy riding on a chicken is the ugly descendant of Confucius guarding against evil demons. Only odd number of animals are used (5,7,9,11,13). The higher the family status was in society, the more animals they incorporate into the roof. Passerby can determine the status of a family just by looking at the number of animals. In Chinese society, arranged marriage is a common practice so this helps with the selection.
Function:
The position of the animal also serve as an anchor for the roof tile so it will not fall off. It also serve to break down snow build up during winter. During rainy season it help to break the water flow down to the ground.
Yellow tiles are reserved for house and palace of Emperors. Nobles use yellow with mixture of green. Commoners use green tiles. |
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Sept 12th - Today, I was privileged to take part in a tour of a real Chinese Hospital System in operation with my Microsoft colleagues in China. Our host was Dr. Liu, CIO of Zhongshan City People's Hospital. James Chen, Microsoft Dir. of Strategic Investment and Business Development helped arranged the visit. This is a rare opportunity for us to spend an entire day with Dr. Liu to get an inside look of the complex processes and operations of one of the top 20 rated hospital in China. Dr. Liu is a really busy man and we appreciated his time spent hosting the Microsoft team.
Background:
In every Province of China there are three types of hospital services. City, Town, and Village (community).
City Level - Generally large hospital in a well populated city. Example: Zhongshan City Hospital has 1250 beds and expected to increase to 1500 beds by year end 2008 operated by 2000 professional staff. Well staffed with senior doctors and nurses. Facilitities and medical testing equipment are widely available such as onsite lab test analysis, Cat Scan, pharmacy, etc.
Main entrance to Zhongshan City Hospital in Guangdong Province
Main floor of Zhongshan City Hospital - payment, pharmacy, and triage center.
Our host and us in the IT operational center.
Very similar to a NASA Houston Control Center.
Town Level - Small town serving local populates. Staff and facilities are adequate but major complicated lab tests are sent to the City level hospital for analysis. Example: Sanjiao Township Hospital has 100 beds and 230 staff including doctors, nurses, etc.
Sanjiao Medical Clinic, example of a township level hospital facility
Sanjiao Medical Clinic Patient registration center and triage.
Village Level - Small health clinic with basic facilities. Example: Suburb of Sanjiao township with 7 professional staff.
Each hospital has a rating system ranging from A (lowest) to AAA (highest). Within each rating class there are their tier level. Zhongshan City Hospital is rated at the top tier of AAA. AAA is a prestigious rating that is very difficult to achieve with clear criteria. Example are # of beds, # of in-patients and out-patients processed annually, organizational structure, # of specialty, information technology department, quality control, # of specialist certified, and years of operational services. For AAA rating a minimum of 10 years in service operation is required. Zhongshan City Hospital has been in operation for 50 years.
Sanjiao Community (village) clinic
Village clinic medical service rate charges. All rates are quoted in Chinese RMB. As you can see rates for medical services and prescription drugs are really nominal. For residence of the village, the service are covered by government health insurance program. fro non-residence such as migrant workers who leave their home cities to work in larger cities, towns, and villages they are not covered. Thus for non-residence they either pay out of pocket or get coverage via commercial health insurance.
Impressions:
Due to the massive amount of population, hospital systems in China are focused more on outcome instead of quality. Quality do play an important role for AAA or AA rated hospitals BUT access to healthcare is a much higher priority.
Zhongshan City Hospital System headed by Dr. Wang is the poster child of a well run hospital system. Information Technology plays a key role in its efficiency. However, those efficiency could not be achieved without changes in operational processes. Dr. Wang was instrumental in eliminating outdated processes and adopting new ones since the introduction of an integrated Hospital Information System (HIS) that is now deployed to all three types of hospital in Zhongshan City Hospital System (City, Town, and Village as mentioned above).
Zhongshan City Hospital demonstrated the best of how information technology and streamlined process could achieve miraculous results in a city hospital that served over 2.17 million out-patients per year in 2007 with a professional staff of only 2000 people. In a country of 1.3 Billion people, such efficiency and scale is a matter of life and death. Operational processes used in this hospital are very similar to a good manufacturing process where everyone input and output are monitored and orchestrated to run in optimum efficiency. We can learn a lot from this way of thinking in applications to all that we do.
Witnessing history in the making is a rare opportunity. To me, one has to contrast the old Beijing to the New Beijing to appreciate the transformation China is making on a global scale. Fresh from a successful Olympic, China has been proclaiming to the world..."We Have Arrived". The sleeping dragon is not only awaken but poised to make its mark in every aspect of human existence on this planet. Just look at the stuff you buy everyday and see where it is made.
As with any emerging powers, there are opportunities and challenges even among its populations. There are the upper class and lower class. Not much in between. This is very similar to Cambodia. Big difference is China is a full member of the WTO and a global influencer. Social and economic changes happen in an accelerated pace. This transformation I believe is for the better for its people.
Old Beijing
Temple at Forbidden City
More Temple at Forbidden City
Bada Ling section of GreatWall
Temple at Summer Palace
New Beijing
Modern building in New Beijing
China built new road infrastructures for the Olympic. This is a special express lane toward Olympic venues.
New building in Olympic village used during Opening Ceremony
Microsoft China office building taken from 65 MPH from a newly constructed highway.
In this China Series, I invite you to come with me on a 6 week journey to the Far East (i.e. China). I will share my perspective as an eastern descendant raised in a western country.
1. Lots of pictures
2. Chinese cultures and historical sites
3. Healthcare perspective: Challenges and Opportunities
4. Exotic Foods
5. and anything I can think of.
Sacred Walk of the Ming Tomb. I'm the good looking guy on the right:)
Come back in a day or two for next entry.
During my trip back to the homeland, I was able to visit among many things the newly opened office of Microsoft Cambodia MDP on August 15th, 2008.
Microsoft Office in Cambodia.
Left to right: Chhaykalyan Prak (PAM), Tony Seng (Acct Mgr), Pily Wong (GM), Nath Chan (TS), Hong Choing (HLS AE), Sroeun Suon (Asst. Office Mgr.)
Like most developing countries, Cambodians do not pay for a majority of their software usage. Piracy is prevalent everywhere. The Microsoft Cambodia is a part of a Market Development Program (MDP) for emerging markets.
OK, back to the Cambodian Traffic System.
This is truly a small world. When I left Cambodia in 1979, the country was in chaos. Now the only chaos I see in present day Cambodia is a "Control Chaos" which is the best way I can explain the way their traffic system works.
Controlled Chaos is the best way I can explain the Cambodian traffic system. Cars, van, motorcycles, bicycles all share the same road. While there are traffic lights in some main intersection, people come and go as they please regardless of the color of the light. Still fatality is surprisingly low given the volume of vehicle moment. Cambodian people just assume that other people will NOT follow the rule so therefore they are apt to be more careful themselves as a defensive move. Consequently since everyone is on the defense, traffic flows a bit slower than in Western country. Additionally, the road condition are not as good compared to more developed countries thus it takers longer to get from point A to point B. This slow speed does help with surviving an accident. Overall the Chaos seems to work BUT you have to be aggressive and defensive at the same time in major cities such as Phnom Penh and Siem Riep to get around.
August 2008 - tropical steamy hot weather, perfectly clear blue sky setting upon acres of rice field among tall coconut trees surrounded by cow and oxen. These are the memories of an 11 year old boy in 1979. Why am I writing about this and what is the significance?
I am a survivor of the Cambodia Holocaust during the brutal regime of the Khmer Rouge headed by the ruthless dictator Pol Pot. This month I am fortunate to be able to return to the very spot in a country that has survived through one of the worst period of human atrocity in modern history. This is the land where I was born where I've experience what seems to be a life time of memories in four years between 1975-1979. For more information about this period go here.
Cambodia is a country recovering from years of war and is progressing slowing both politically and economically. As with any developing country, there are major gap between those with privileges and power and those who are struggling to make a living for themselves and their families. Middle class are non-existing. I sincerely hope time will narrow those gaps. Cambodia is a beautiful country with rich natural resources. With proper use these natural resources and historical treasures in the form of ancient temples and arts should benefit all its citizens. Again, only time will tell.
Rice field of Cambodia
Palm trees
Today's reality where families are forced to beg on the streets
Site of my original home in Prey Svey, Cambodia. The large tree on the right was planted by my father.
Prey Svey's water supply. This ditch was the original water supply used by my family prior to 1975. During Pol Pot, the ditch was filled with dirt so no water was able to collect after rain. The people in the town had to walk miles to obtain drinking water. In 2003, my aunt had the ditch excavated so water could be retained from rain. Today, the people of Prey Svey are able to use this ditch again as a source of vital water supply for drinking and bathing.
Ancient ruins of the Angkor Wat. In the runnings for the 7th Wonder of the World and is now a UNESCO World Heritage site.
A humbling view from a massive temple of Angkor Wat.
Country side traffic in Cambodia's roads
Former site where my sister was born in 1975 during Pol Pot's regime.
Listen/download podcast (15:14 min)
http://www.scientificcomputing.com/Information_Management_in_the_21st_Century.aspx
In the global information economy of the 21st century, effective information management is critical to gaining competitive advantage. In virtually all industries, companies that can best transform their data into information will have an edge over the competition, as vast knowledge can be gained, resulting in better speed to insight and confidence in decision making.
Unfortunately, enterprises are fraught with complex interdisciplinary processes and challenges when it comes to integrating systems to be able to take full advantage of the information they are generating. These challenges include:
- inability of the scientist/manager to efficiently find information locked in a variety of unconnected and frequently incompatible systems across the organization
- lack of integration among the devices and equipment in the laboratory and enterprise systems
- a multitude of different systems used for analysis
- manufacturing and research teams, under pressure to move quickly, that are compelled to make decisions without all of the relevant data at their disposal
- manual reporting processes resulting, for example, in compound pipeline reports that are out of date before they are even completed
To enable effective information management, there are many IT-based activities that need to be conducted by researchers, scientists and managers, such as
- search
- data integration
- collaboration
- analysis/visualization
- reporting/business intelligence
This podcast discusses these five activities, illustrating the complexities and challenges and, more importantly, the advances in technology that address them thereby driving innovation.
Listen/download podcast (15:14 min)
Ben and Hong's Excellent Adventure - a series of video shorts documenting their journey starting from the HIMSS 2008 Conference in Orlando, Fl to the Microsoft Wave 2008 Product Launch of Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 in Los Angeles, CA. Join us for a five minute whirlwind tour...
Register now for the conference - it is free but space is limited.
Video: Coast To Coast: Road to HLSDevCon2008 Part 2
Ben and Hong's Excellent Adventure - a series of video shorts documenting their journey starting from the HIMSS 2008 Conference in Orlando, Fl to the Microsoft Wave 2008 Product Launch of Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 in Los Angeles, CA. Join us for a five minute whirlwind tour...
Register now for the conference - it is free but space is limited.
February 21, 2008
Microsoft today announced a set of broad-reaching changes to its technology and business practices to increase the openness of its products and drive greater interoperability, opportunity and choice. These changes are codified into four new interoperability principles and corresponding actions: 1) ensuring open connections; 2) promoting data portability; 3) enhancing support for industry standards; and 4) fostering more open engagement with customers and the industry, including open source communities.
Microsoft Introduces New Interoperability Principles
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/interoperability/default.mspx
Today, the Health Solutions Group is reinforcing its commitment to interoperability with the public disclosure of three things:
1. First, Microsoft is demonstrating our commitment to cross-platform development by establishing a set of open "wrapper" libraries that facilitate HealthVault development across a broad set of environments. This week we created a Codeplex project to house the first of these libraries under the Microsoft Public License, for the Java environment. As we continue to engage with partners on other platforms, we will continue to create similar projects and solicit active participation from the HealthVault community.
2. Second, over the next few months (late Spring) we will be releasing our complete .NET SDK on Codeplex under the Microsoft Reference License -- meaning that full source code will be available, but that Microsoft retains control over updates to this specific project. We have heard from partners that they want to have one place to go to understand the "official" way of interacting with HealthVault, so ensuring that only we make updates to this project makes sense. But by making the full and complete source code for the .NET SDK available, there will never be any question about how Microsoft has implemented HealthVault functionality, nor will there be any fear that developers will miss out on particular HealthVault capabilities by choosing an alternate development platform.
3. Finally -- and most importantly -- we will release the HealthVault platform XML interface protocols -- the stuff required to recreate and re-implement the HealthVault service -- under the Microsoft Open Specification Promise (OSP).
This exciting development for HealthVault is described in detail on Sean Nolan’s blog http://www.familyhealthguy.com/
Excitement is building up for the annual Microsoft Health & Life Sciences Developer and Solutions Conference. Check this teaser for what's in store at the conference. This is a unique conference sponsored by Microsoft (my team, US HLS Industry Group, Worldwide Pharma Industry Group, HSG, and Microsoft partners and customers)