NADAguides.com Offers 24/7 Access to Online Database
NADAguides.com has launched an automated manufactured housing valuation tool that enables buyers and sellers of mobile/manufactured homes immediate online access to the company's database of values.
Individuals interested in mobile/manufactured home properties can access the database 24 hours a day, seven days a week by logging onto the manufactured homes section of NADAguides.com, completing a short questionnaire and paying a $20 fee. They will receive a detailed value appraisal report that outlines base structure value, state location adjustments and condition adjustments.
According to NADAguides.com officials, the creation of this offering is in response to customer demand; and that many unauthorized third-party websites were using NADAguides.com information to produce their own reports; information that NADAguides.com felt was inaccurate. This also prompted the company to launch this service on its own.
It certainly makes sense for NADAguides.com to deliver this content in a convenient manner for its customers. Consumers interested in the purchase or sale of mobile/manufactured homes are not likely to conduct their research only during regular business hours, so they need a service that is accessible whenever they're ready to use it. This is a perfect example how practically any content can be adapted to serve today's 24/7 demand for information--after all, N.A.D.A. has been offering such information about mobile/manufactured homes since 1973.
Because the company has such a long track record and strong brand recognition, customers will probably prefer to access this content directly from the source instead of from third-party content providers. So it shouldn't be difficult to direct those users to NADAguides.com to access the new tool. Traffic to NADAguides.com will undoubtedly increase as a result.
Thomson Healthcare Launches Assessment Tool
Thomson Healthcare has launched Physician Performance Assessment, an application that health plans, regional health collaboratives and other organizations use to evaluate the quality and cost of medical care. Physician Performance Assessment evaluates whether medical care follows established clinical guidelines while it accounts for the severity and duration of the medical condition being treated. It generates reports that inform physicians and physician networks about gaps in patient care so they know which areas need improvement and they can increase their focus on those particular facets of the process.
Specifically, the tool accounts for the severity of a patient's condition, thus leveling the playing field for doctors with sicker patients so the receive fair comparisons to their peers. It also evaluates physician performance from a clinical point of view, while assessing the use of healthcare resources (focusing on quality of care, not just cost). Physician Performance Assessment also uses measures of physician performance developed by the National Quality Forum, The National Committee for Quality Assurance and the AQA (formerly the Ambulatory Care Quality Alliance).
This product seems to emphasize Thomson Healthcare's commitment to providing products and services that ensure the quality of healthcare services. This particular tool is interesting in that it is designed to make sure all parties in the healthcare process, from insureds, employers and physicians, are on the same page regarding medical care; and that they are focusing on the quality of services offered, not just cost part of the equation.
Because the application can measure these different variables, it should garner much interest in the healthcare community. A tool that addresses such a wide range of concerns has the potential to be well-received in this marketplace. It could lead to some very positive changes in the healthcare industry.
RSMeans Expands Online Tool Offerings
Construction cost information provider RSMeans has launched an online square foot estimator tool on its MeansCostWorks.com site. The new tool enables users to create square foot building cost estimates in just minutes. (RSMeans is a unit of Reed Construction Data).
The square foot estimate provides online access to RSMeans' library of commercial building models and systems. Users can select from 75 commercial building models and specify building type, area, perimeter, number of stories, story height, framing and exterior walls. They can also use Means data for cost escalation, architect fees and contractor overhead, as well as input their own percentages.
The square foot estimator joins another RSMeans online tool, construction cost estimator. Both tools allow users to choose union or open shop labor rates and factor their estimates to more than 900 locations in the U.S. and Canada.
The estimates can be printed out, exported to Excel, shared online or saved for future collaboration or archiving.
This is certainly a smart move by RSMeans for several reasons. First of all, by adding more features to the MeansCostWorks.com site, the company will undoubtedly increase traffic and usage on the site. Plus, this new tool serves as a perfect compliment for the construction cost estimator that users have already been able to access. As a result, users can accomplish more goals on the MeansCostWorks.com site than ever before; making MeansCostWorks.com an even more valuable platform for users.
If the folks at RSMeans haven't already, they should certainly be working on adding even more new tools to the site going forward, taking care to address all of the needs of their construction industry users. It will be a satisfying victory for RSMeans in the future if the company can provide all of the tools these construction professionals need to accomplish their goals. At that point, MeansCostWorks.com could become their only source for cost information.
I was intrigued to read about the launch of the Alacra Content Marketplace, which represents, I believe, the first information reseller to go fully self-service. Publishers (Alacra is actively soliciting participation from data publishers) upload their data, specify their pricing, and Alacra immediately begins offering their content both to its own customer base, as well as on the public Alacra Store site, which allows anyone to purchase content by the slice.
Gone (mercifully) are the days of going to information distributors such as Dialog on bent knee, hoping they would return your call, and having commission terms dictated to you. Because these big distributors couldn't justify the expense of mounting anything but the biggest databases, many small publishers were frozen out. The Web has certainly leveled the playing field for smaller publishers, and specialty online aggregators like Alacra have the potential to deliver meaningful incremental revenue to publishers with their broader reach and a la carte business model.
Labels: aggregation, alacra, alacra store, dialog
Legislators Pull Rank on Ratings
The New York State legislature is considering legislation that would require health insurance companies that rate doctors to do so primarily based on the quality of patient care they provide, rather than on how cost-efficient they might be.
This issue, which has been tagged with the emotionally-tinged label of "physician profiling," seeks to create some consumer- friendly ground rules around the growing interest by health insurance companies in providing physicians ratings and rankings. The fear of both consumers and physicians is that the insurers will give high ratings to doctors who see the most patients, write the fewest prescriptions and make the fewest referrals -- all good things in the eyes of an insurance company, but not necessarily good things for doctors and their patients.
Creating a credible and fair system for rating and comparing physicians is an area of huge opportunity, but as this legislation shows, it's also a minefield. The recent move by Zagat's into physician ratings is a gutsy one, but if they get it right, it will be worth all the pain. We're monitoring this issue, and expect it to be on the agenda for our next Health Content conference, October 27, 2008. Save the date!
Labels: health content 08, physician profiling, physician ratings, zagat