February 15, 2012

The Philippines is poised to become the world leader in the multi-billion-dollar worth healthcare information management outsourcing this year, an executive of the Information Communications and Technology Office (ICTO) said.

ICTO deputy executive director Alejandro Melchor III

According to Alejandro Melchor, ICTO deputy executive director, the availability of licensed healthcare professionals such as nurses in the country would ensure the steady supply of agents to fill in the seats for healthcare outsourcing.

Aside from medical transcription, the healthcare outsourcing market has evolved to include high-value services namely, clinical coding, disease management, revenue cycle management and pharmaceutical benefits management.

Healthcare information management outsourcing is one of four areas that the Philippines is looking into…

Google has rolled out the Chrome for Android Beta to bring features and apps of Chrome to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich phones or tablets.

Click to enlarge

With Chrome for Android, users can scroll through Web pages as quickly as they can flick with their fingers. When searching, the top search results are loaded in the background as a user types so pages appear instantly. Like in the desktop version, both search and navigation can be done from the Chrome omnibox.

Google said Chrome for Android was designed from the ground up for mobile devices.

“We re-imagined tabs so they fit just as naturally on a small-screen phone as they do on…

The Department of Science and Technology recently gave recognition to 257 elementary and high school students who won in various international science and mathematics competitions.

The YEs awardees pose for a shot with DOST and Mathematics Trainers Guild officials (seated from left to right, MTG adviser Myrna Agtarap, DOST- Science Education Institute Director Filma G. Brawner, DOST Undersecretary Fortunato T. dela Peña, and Philippine Science High School–Main Campus Director Helen E. Caintic)

The students received the Youth Excellence in Science (Yes) Award, a medal of distinction given by the DOST, which signifies its high regard for excellence and competitiveness through the achievements of young Filipinos in international science and mathematics competitions.

DOST-Science…

By Richard Parcia

This was supposed to be a piece for Valentine’s Day, but I decided to postpone it just to continue my personal tradition of not riding on the trend of the moment. I wasn’t even supposed to write about this, but I bumped into a friend of mine whose love story just got hit by a computer virus.

Teddy Boy Locsin once said in one of his defunct TV shows that if you think you can fall in love with the use of a keyboard, you are pathetic. Those are not the exact words but his point was very clear.

It is easy to dismiss Teddy Boy’s comment as just…

Worldwide smartphone sales to end-users soared to 149 million units in the fourth quarter of 2011, a 47.3 percent increase from the fourth quarter of 2010, according to research firm Gartner.

Total smartphone sales in 2011 reached 472 million units and accounted for 31 percent of all mobile devices sales, up 58 percent from 2010.

Smartphone volumes during the quarter rose due to record sales of Apple iPhones. As a result, Apple became the third-largest mobile phone vendor in the world, overtaking LG.

Apple also became the world’s top smartphone vendor, with a market share of 23.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011, and the top smartphone vendor for 2011 as…

The overall IT services market in the Asia-Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) region is expected to grow by 9.1 percent in 2012, according to research firm IDC.

“2011 was a tumultuous year for some countries in the region. Flooding in Australia at the start of the year and then later in Thailand, economic inflation in Vietnam, political unrest in Asean and a less than expected growth in India were the backdrop of a year that also experienced growth in the region.

“This year also marked mega projects such as the national ID project in India and Indonesia, as well as the National Broadband Network (NBN) development in Australia, lifting the spend in…

Epson Philippines Corporation, together with SM malls and SM Cyberzone, is concluding its Epson Color Imaging Contest (CIC) 2011 which highlights the splendor of the Philippines.

With the theme “Beautiful Philippines”, the contest encouraged photography enthusiasts to capture images that bring out the natural, cultural, or human beauty of the Philippines.

The contest ran from November 1 to December 31 last year. This is also the first time that the contest was hosted through the popular social networking site Facebook.

From the 445 entries, Epson will recognize the winners of the competition at the Epson Color Imaging Contest 2011 awards ceremony and exhibit, which will be held at the 4th floor of…