Microsoft Healthcare Users Group and Microsoft Open Call for Entries

Awards celebrate 10th year of recognizing technology innovation for healthcare.

CHICAGO and REDMOND, Wash. — Oct. 6, 2006 — Microsoft Healthcare Users Group (MS-HUG) and Microsoft Corp. today announced a call for entries for the MS-HUG Healthcare Innovation Awards. The annual contest, open to any healthcare organization, recognizes leadership in the use of technology to improve the quality and delivery of healthcare.

Now in its 10th year of rewarding excellence in innovative healthcare technology, the awards program highlights solution categories seen as most critical to driving transformation in healthcare delivery. Understanding that people, not processes, are the key to business and patient success, Microsoft® technology helps enable healthcare workers to make informed decisions based on the most relevant information, made available at the right time. Eligible solutions must be based on Microsoft technology and must enable individuals to measurably improve significant business and/or clinical processes that affect patient care.

The MS-HUG Healthcare Innovation Awards showcase organizations that promote performance breakthroughs by enhancing the quality of patient care, reducing costs, streamlining clinical and business processes, driving interoperability, improving productivity and workflow, and enabling informed decisions. The awards will recognize the healthcare organization, together with any collaborating industry solutions vendor or systems integrator, that demonstrates industry leadership in each of the following categories:
• Clinical Records, Inpatient
• Clinical Records, Ambulatory
• Delivery Transformation
• Disease Surveillance
• Interoperability
• Outcome Reporting

Awards Schedule

An online entry kit and full awards details are available on the MS-HUG Web site at http://www.mshug.org/awards. Entries must be submitted online by Monday, Nov. 20, at 5 p.m. PST. More information about the awards is available from Monika Skibeness at v-moniks@microsoft.com or (425) 316-3079. Winners will be announced at the 2007 Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society annual conference and exhibition (HIMSS 2007), Feb. 25 through March 1, 2007, in New Orleans, and will be highlighted on the MS-HUG, HIMSS and Microsoft Web sites.

About MS-HUG

Microsoft Healthcare Users Group is a membership community within the HIMSS Users Group Alliance Program, providing technology leadership and knowledge for improving healthcare delivery and efficiency. The alliance provides HIMSS with targeted industry expertise to help broaden its professional and industry contributions, and provides MS-HUG members with the opportunity to reach new markets with educational and professional development programs.

MS-HUG is the leading healthcare industry forum for exchanging ideas, promoting learning and sharing solutions for information systems using Microsoft technologies. MS-HUG works to provide industry leadership, drive appropriate standards and develop associated requirements in support of healthcare solutions. The diverse membership of MS-HUG is united by a shared interest in implementing vendor- and user-developed software based on Microsoft technology to improve quality and efficiency in healthcare. More information can be found on MS-HUG’s Web site at http://www.mshug.org.

About HIMSS

The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) is the healthcare industry’s membership organization exclusively focused on providing leadership for the optimal use of healthcare information technology (IT) and management systems for the betterment of healthcare. Founded in 1961 with offices in Chicago, Washington, D.C., and other locations across the country, HIMSS represents more than 20,000 individual members and over 300 corporate members that collectively represent organizations employing millions of people. HIMSS frames and leads healthcare public policy and industry practices through its advocacy, educational and professional development initiatives designed to promote information and management systems’ contributions to ensuring quality patient care.

About Microsoft in Healthcare and Life Sciences

Microsoft provides standards-based products and technology that helps empower people in the healthcare and life sciences industries to break down information barriers between disparate IT environments across provider organizations and physicians, pharmaceutical and medical device companies, government and private-sector employers, health insurers, and consumers. Microsoft’s vision for knowledge-driven health utilizes the company’s technology to help healthcare organizations and their people integrate their systems, enhance collaboration, and increase information sharing and learning — ultimately resulting in the ability to deliver high-quality products and services to patients and consumers worldwide. More information about Microsoft in Healthcare and Life Sciences can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/healthcare.

About Microsoft

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

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Contact Information

Waggener Edstrom Worldwide

Rapid Response Team

Microsoft Corp.

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