RED HOOK, N.Y. — May 8, 2012 — Facing an unprecedented demand for limited services for special needs children affected with autism and other severe disabilities and disorders, Devereux New York, a nonprofit healthcare organization, has implemented TeachMe from Operant Systems, which uses Microsoft technologies Microsoft SQL Server and Windows Phone, to improve its strategy for collecting behavioral data and clinical analysis.

Devereux New York, like many healthcare providers, sought to increase the efficiency of its programs. With the number of children diagnosed with autism doubling in the past decade, services have become more expensive to provide and funding for them has become increasingly scarce. In addition, the applied behavioral analysis required for individual treatment programs depends upon a massive, virtually continuous collection of behavioral data for clinicians to analyze, which comes from staff who both work with the children and lug around binders and clipboards to record their behaviors.

In 2010, executive director John O’Keefe discovered TeachMe from Operant Systems and quickly found it more efficient and flexible than previous electronic systems for collection and analysis of behavioral data, which had typically been confined to client-server systems. With TeachMe and its integrated Microsoft technologies, Devereux staff is now able to use Windows Phones to record behavioral data in the field as it happens with an intuitive TeachMe app. The data is then seamlessly uploaded to SQL Server databases hosted by Operant at its datacenter via cloud technology. Clinicians can quickly analyze that data using a TeachMe Web interface from virtually anywhere at any time.

The implementation of TeachMe into Devereux’s business practices has been declared a success within the first year, especially for the children under their care. A 60 percent increase in the volume of data collection has resulted in faster and better analyses of behaviors and better refinements in treatment plans by clinicians. More in-depth analyses and closer tracking of progress has since allowed staff to successfully treat children with issues that are “more intense, more problematic” than before. For the first time Devereux New York was able to assemble comprehensive reports and analyses that cover a child’s experience across various environments, including as campus residents, day-program clients, intensive care facility (ICF) participants, or any combination.

“We know we can depend on Operant TeachMe for data collection and analysis because it’s built on Microsoft, from the front-end smartphones to the back-end database,” O’Keefe said.

Devereux has also opened four ICFs within the past year because it is better able to identify children who are likely to thrive in small-scale community settings, and better monitor and assess their progress.

More information on Devereux New York’s implantation of TeachMe, which uses SQL Server and Windows Phone technologies, is available in the Microsoft case study. Additional information can be found on the Microsoft Customer News Center.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential. Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (eHealth Week) and NOVI SAD, Serbia — May 7, 2012 — The Institute for Emergency Medical Service (EMS) in Novi Sad, Serbia, has turned to Microsoft Lync 2010 for assistance with upgrading its once-antiquated dispatching system. Previously when patients called EMS, their details were taken down on paper and a dispatcher relayed that information to the teams in the field via radio station or cellphone. This approach was fraught with a number of challenges, which had a direct impact on the quality of service provided when every second can mean the difference between life and death.

The first challenge was the quality and accuracy of data verbally taken from patients by call center operators and written down on paper, the second was that all the data then had to be manually entered into a facility computer by a person from administration who was not initially involved in the collection process, which inevitably meant inconsistencies occurred, and the third problem was that this approach meant it was practically impossible to gather statistical data that could be analyzed and evaluated for research purposes.

“Our dispatching center is the vital link between citizens who are in need of emergency care and medical response teams,” said Dr. Nenad Aracki, chief of the Institute for Emergency Medical Service. “The process in place was out of date, burdensome and directly impacting the ability of employees to do their jobs effectively.”

Through an application developed by Microsoft Gold Certified Partner CPU, patients’ calls arrive automatically, providing the caller’s name, address and phone number to the responding operator along with call history and detailed information about the patient’s previous calls. The operator can then enter patient data into the application, supported by Lync 2010, give the patient call a priority (1: red, 2: yellow, 3: green), and determine if the police or fire department need to be dispatched.

If a caller’s emergency is a matter of life or death, the operator can distribute information within three to five seconds, and if callers want to know the status of an intervention in progress, they can get an answer.

“We managed to shorten certain time parameters, specifically the call center response time,” Aracki said. “As we receive more than 650 calls on a daily basis, any savings in time is valuable. Now the operator can receive and distribute any information with just a few mouse clicks and within seconds.”

CPU also developed an application for EMS based on Lync 2010 that records the exact time when a call is initiated, how long it lasts, how long it takes for information to be distributed to the field unit, when the responders arrive at the patient’s location and the length of time of the medical intervention.

“Since the majority of our patients suffer from chronic diseases, they call frequently,” said Dr. Srdjan Cobanov, chief of the dispatching center. “This new system enabled us to go through previous patient calls, and now it is easier for our dispatchers to diagnose, triage and send the EMS team to that patient.”

More information on the EMS’s deployment of Lync is available in the Microsoft customer case study and the Microsoft Customer Spotlight newsroom.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

MUMBAI, India — May 7, 2012 — Tasked with managing a plethora of intranet applications and portals that were developed over time with varying technologies and user interfaces, global IT and product engineering services firm MindTree Limited has developed a unified corporate intranet portal — PeopleHub — using Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010. The result has been a single access point to all application content, transactions and information sources along with social networking capabilities that have promoted cross-unit collaboration and helped create a sense of community.

“With SharePoint Server 2010, we have an intranet solution that supports enterprise content management, application development and collaboration — all in one,” said Sudhir Kumar Reddy, vice president and chief information officer, MindTree. “In my opinion, it will enable at least 15 minutes, if not more, of productivity improvement per person, per day at MindTree.”

PeopleHub was integrated with two FAST Search servers, which has made it possible for its employees to find information stored in different content sources. It is fine-tuned to not only bring up the best hits in a logical order but also create groupings of multiple results. PeopleHub is robust enough to facilitate an average of 3,000 hits daily (up from 2,250 in a span of six months), 2,000 blogs, 1,300 active discussion threads and growing, 100 wikis, and 60 communities while employees have increasingly made it their landing page.

“We now have a unified platform across the board for transactions, content and social networking,” said NS Parthasarathy, chief operating officer, MindTree. “The new environment encourages information sharing through its user-friendliness, boosts efficiency and has resulted in higher employee satisfaction.”

Supporting the use of social networking tools, such as blogs and wikis, has also encouraged employees to connect with each other and create their own sense of community.

“Our goal was to bring employees together using various modes of communication,” said Sagar Paul, chief knowledge officer, MindTree. “The social networking tools in SharePoint Server 2010 mean better sharing of information, which in turn helps save time and money, and furthers innovation.”

More information on MindTree’s integration of SharePoint Server 2010 with PeopleHub is available in the Microsoft case study and Microsoft Customer Spotlight News Center.

More information about Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 is available at http://www.microsoft.com/sharepoint.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential. Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

The PGMag team is very pleased to announce the release of the first issue of PostgreSQL Magazine.

This issue #01 is brought to you thanks to the collective work of dozen of people. Writers, Editors, Reviewers. Kudos to them all !

Here's a quick view of the ToC :

• PostgreSQL 9.1 : 10 awesome new features
• NoSQL : The Key Value store everyone ignored
• Interview : Stefan Kaltenbrunner
• Opinion : Funding PostgreSQL Features
• Waiting for 9.2 : Cascading Streaming Replication
• Tips & Tricks : PostgreSQL in Mac OS X Lion

The magazine is available online and on paper. You can either :

• Read it Online
• Buy the Print Edition
• or Download the PDF

Finally, I would like to thank our benefactors… Fotolia.com has offered us a free subscription plan to access their stock photo database. We also received fundings from PostgreSQL Europe (PGEU) and Software in the Public Interest (SPI). Thanks a lot to them !