Category Archives: Electronic Message Board

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AIS Newsletter Reports on Tough Halifax Integrity Agreement

Washington, DC (PRWEB) March 26, 2014

As part of its $ 85 million False Claims Act settlement with the Department of Justice for alleged Stark violations, Daytona Beach, Fla.-based Halifax Hospital Medical Center and Halifax Staffing have agreed to a five-year corporate integrity agreement (CIA) that requires its top managers — including the chief medical officer, chief revenue officer and service line administrator — to certify in writing that their departments comply with federal health care regulations. In the March 24 issue of Atlantic Information Services, Inc.’s (AIS) Report on Medicare Compliance, one chief compliance officer calls the Halifax CIA one of the toughest he has seen.

Like other CIAs, it requires the hospital to hire and retain a compliance officer who is not subordinate to the CEO or general counsel and reports directly to the board. “Noncompliance responsibilities of the compliance officer should be limited,” the CIA notes. In another familiar move, board members are required to routinely review the compliance program and sign a resolution every time attesting that Halifax has implemented an effective compliance program that adheres to all federal health program requirements. If they can’t make that promise, board members must sign a statement that they can’t guarantee compliance and lay out their corrective action plan.

But with the requirement that hospital executives must certify their departments’ compliance, Halifax’s CIA goes a step farther. “If you have to certify something, you take it very seriously,” says Brian Kozik, chief compliance officer at Lawrence General Hospital in Lawrence, Mass. “This will hold them accountable.” He also calls the CIA “a big message to the industry and to boards. All those people who sign certifications will be more accountable. It’s spread across the organization.” The CIA should empower compliance officers everywhere because it shows the weight the federal government is giving compliance programs — specifically the importance of face time with the board and reporting, he continues.

Halifax Hospital and Halifax Staffing were scheduled to go on trial March 3 before a jury in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida when word came down of the settlement. The case is USA and Elin Baklid-Kunz v. Halifax Hospital Medical Center and Halifax Staffing, Inc. (U.S. DC MD of Fla., No 6:09-cv-1002-Orl-31TBS).

Visit http://aishealth.com/archive/rmc032414-03 to read the article in its entirety.

About Report on Medicare Compliance

The industry’s #1 source of timely news and proven strategies on Medicare compliance, Stark and other big-dollar issues of concern to health care compliance officers, the award-winning Report on Medicare Compliance identifies and provides valuable guidance on dozens of high-risk billing and documentation problems and foreshadows the next moves of federal enforcers and their armies of RAC, ZPIC and MAC auditors. “The best information there is for hospital compliance officers,” the 8-page weekly newsletter includes insights and strategies not available anywhere else.

Since 1992, Report on Medicare Compliance has been written by Nina Youngstrom, who has a reputation for being one of the most knowledgeable journalists and incisive writers in the field. With excellent contacts at the IG’s office and at CMS, and strong relationships among industry experts and compliance officers, each issue of Report on Medicare Compliance contains exclusive, inside news. Visit http://aishealth.com/marketplace/report-medicare-compliance for more information.

About AIS

Atlantic Information Services, Inc. (AIS) is a publishing and information company that has been serving the health care industry for more than 25 years. It develops highly targeted news, data and strategic information for managers in hospitals, health plans, medical group practices, pharmaceutical companies and other health care organizations. AIS products include print and electronic newsletters, websites, looseleafs, books, strategic reports, databases, webinars and conferences. Learn more at http://AISHealth.com.







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Forest Square Shopping Center Chooses Formetcos LED Message Center to Promote Their Businesses

Atlanta, Georgia (PRWEB) April 04, 2014

The Owner of Forest Square Shopping Center was looking for ways to enhance his shopping center’s presence in the marketplace and to appeal to customers in a very competitive shopping area in Atlanta, Georgia. In evaluating their marketing dollar expenditure, they realized that their main objectives were three fold. They needed to help their tenants attract more customers which would in turn increase revenue for them, they needed to attract new tenants to promote the available retail space and they needed to create more exposure for the retail space that is hidden from the main road. After evaluating these objectives, the Forest Square Shopping Center realized that the best advertising medium would be an LED Electronic Message Center. This would allow them to rotate multiple advertisements, showcase special promotions for the different businesses in the plaza, and create awareness by bringing attention from passing motorists. By teaming up with Whiteway Neon-AD and Formetco, Forest Square Shopping Center has a new look and extremely happy tenants.

“We are very pleased with our electronic message board that we purchased from Formetco. They have been great to work with and have surpassed our expectations from start to finish. Our tenants are now able to advertise their products without having to buy expensive Atlanta Media time. Also, this sign will support us in our leasing efforts as we solicit new tenants,” said Philip Sunshine, General Partner at Buford Clairmont Co., Ltd.

“We are elated that Whiteway and Buford Clairmont Co. decided to partner with Formetco on this project. This location is great for this type of advertising and offered Formetco the opportunity to help a key partner with their advertising needs,” said Jeff Frazier, Director of EMC Sales at Formetco. Visit http://www.formetco.com/emc for information regarding LED video displays.







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Social Media Outperforms Wall Street at Predicting Earnings Surprises?

Atlanta, GA (PRWEB) April 01, 2014

Researchers from three prestigious schools – Georgia Institute of Technology, Purdue University, and City University of Hong Kong – have released what they believe is the first study proving the ability of social media to predict future stock returns and earnings surprises. Forthcoming in the April 2014 issue of The Review of Financial Studies, the study, “Wisdom of Crowds: The Value of Stock Opinions Transmitted through Social Media,” examines data from 2005-2012 available on social investing site Seeking Alpha and compares it to market data for that period.

Citing the study’s conclusion that peer opinions published online reliably predict positive or negative stock returns anywhere from one month to three years in advance, Associate Professor at Georgia Institute of Technology, Yu Jeffrey Hu, states, “Traditionally the domain of professional forecasters, financial analysis is increasingly being performed and broadcast by investors themselves.”

The study’s researchers performed textual analysis of more than seven years’ worth of material posted to the web site Seeking Alpha. Seeking Alpha is a crowd-sourced investing site that allows contributors to publish research and ideas, which the community of users then peer-reviews.

The data included more than 97,000 articles and 459,679 comments. Articles were written by 6,500 authors and covered over 7,000 stocks. When compared to market data and articles from Dow Jones, analysis showed:

●    Articles on stock investing and community comments on the Seeking Alpha site predict stock returns over every time-frame examined: three months, six months, one year and three years.

●    This was not true of previous studies of the predictive value of short chatter messages posted on Internet message boards, which demonstrated no predictive value.

●    Unlike previous sell-side research showing that financial analyst opinions are quickly incorporated into the market price, this study finds that the value relevant information on Seeking Alpha site affects the market price at a slower pace.

●    The Seeking Alpha user community successfully identified the predictive value of authors in real time.

     ●     When the community disagreed with authors, their opinions had predictive value

     ●     Authors who were historically accurate met with less or no community disagreement.

●    Community sentiment – either positive or negative – was more accurate in predicting future stock prices and earnings surprises than Seeking Alpha articles alone, sell-side analysis, or similar content from Dow Jones.

●    Previewing the results, the Wall Street Journal wrote, “Seeking Alpha predicted stock returns and earnings surprises above and beyond Wall Street analyst reports and financial news articles.”

Hu and his fellow researchers concluded, “The predictability holds even after controlling for the effect of traditional advice sources, such as financial analysts and newspaper articles. Together, our findings point to the usefulness of peer-based advice in financial markets.”

“Social media outlets are unique in the sense that they enable direct and immediate interactions among users. These interactions, combined with the seeming intelligence of the ‘crowd,’ may be one of the primary reasons social media platforms are able to produce value-relevant content that is incremental to that revealed through traditional news channels,” said Hu.

Professor Hu worked on this independent study with Hailiang Chen of City University of Hong Kong, Prabuddha De and Byoung-Hyoun Hwang of Purdue University. The study was conducted independently from Seeking Alpha.

About Yu Jeffrey Hu

Yu Jeffrey Hu is an Associate Professor at the Scheller College of Business at Georgia Institute of Technology. He is an expert on big data, business analytics, electronic commerce, Internet retailing, social media, consumer behavior, and online advertising.

He has also written papers on pricing models in online advertising and mechanisms to protect online consumers’ privacy. His research has been discussed and cited by media outlets such as New York Times, TIME Magazine, Wired Magazine, National Public Radio, InformationWeek, INC. Magazine, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Atlanta Channel 2 (WSBTV). His papers have been adopted for classroom use by many top universities around the world.

Dr. Hu received his Ph.D. in Management Science and Information Technology from MIT’s Sloan School of Management. Prior to joining Georgia Institute of Technology, he worked for Purdue University as a tenured associate professor. He also worked for MIT’s Center for Digital Business as a research associate. He received a B.S. degree in Finance with the honor of Outstanding Graduating Student from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, and received a M.S. degree in Economics with honor from University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Wisdom of Crowds: The Value of Stock Opinions Transmitted through Social Media

The Review of Financial Studies

About Seeking Alpha

Seeking Alpha is disrupting traditional equity research by giving serious investors direct access to the investment ideas of financial professionals and industry insiders.

Seeking Alpha delivers:

●    Breadth: Seeking Alpha authors published ideas on 6,351 unique stocks in 2013, including more than 3,000 small- and mid-cap stocks.

●    Depth: With over 8,500 contributing authors, 3 million registered users, more than 1 million comments, and 24-hr moderation, insight and discussion are informed and sophisticated.

●    Influence: Seeking Alpha articles frequently move stocks due to its large and influential readership. Seeking Alpha articles and comments have predictive value that widely outperforms traditional equity research and other social-media platforms.

—

Press Contacts:

Sean Lough

Director of Marketing

Seeking Alpha

+1 (212) 497-1168

sean(at)seekingalpha(dot)com

@Sean_Lough

Fred Bracken

Press Support

press(at)seekingalpha(dot)com

+1 (646) 371-3428

info(at)getfred(dot)co

Seeking Alpha and the Seeking Alpha logo are trademarks of Seeking Alpha Inc. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

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DirectTrust Surpasses ONCs Secure HIE Specs, Earns Renewal

Washington, D.C. (PRWEB) April 08, 2014

DirectTrust, a non-profit trade alliance that advances secure, health information exchange via the Direct Protocol, announced today that its Cooperative Agreement with the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health IT has been renewed for a second full year. The renewal came after DirectTrust not only met, but exceeded the goals of the ONC’s Exemplar HIE Governance Program.

“This is a time when identity theft and privacy concerns are prevalent, so securing patients’ personal health information in Direct messages – and trusting the identity between senders – is a must,” DirectTrust President and CEO David C. Kibbe, MD, said. “In a remarkably short period of time, our members have created a national network for secure and trusted health data exchange over the Internet. EHR users in hospitals, medical practices, and other health care facilities, as well as their patients, will all benefit from the ability to move data securely across organizational and IT boundaries via Direct. The work has been done on time, and on target.”

DirectTrust sets policies and standards for secure health information exchange and operates a voluntary, accreditation program for Health Information Services Providers (HISPs) in partnership with the Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission (EHNAC). Accredited HISPs provide trusted, low-cost message exchanges from within EHRs, web portals, and other applications for the purposes of health care coordination and patient engagement.

To qualify for renewal, DirectTrust had to meet a number of deadlines and milestones for growth of its trust community. One of those involved their Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission (EHNAC)-DirectTrust program. Accredited HISPs share digital certificates with one another, making it transparent and efficient for Direct relying parties to know who to trust, without having to engage in one-off contracts or single-use connections.

In all to date, DirectTrust has enrolled 49 organizations – including leading EHR companies, connectivity vendors, and state HIEs – in more than 80 accreditation and audit programs encompassing privacy, security, and trust-in-identity controls. That far exceeded the goal of 50 programs set for the first year of the Cooperative Agreement.

“Over the past year, DirectTrust worked hard to promote good governance practices and enable the exchange of health information,” said Kory Mertz, the Challenge Grant Director at the ONC. “We expect that in the second year of the contract, DirectTrust will continue this success and help to enable HISP-to-HISP interoperability among their participants.”

According to John Blair, MD, Chair of the DirectTrust Board of Directors and CEO of MedAllies, an accredited HISP, “The country has placed a high priority on digitizing providers throughout the health care industry. For the last several years, significant money and effort has gone into moving providers from paper to EHRs. Direct exchange is our greatest hope to create interoperability between these disparate EHR systems for transitions of care and care coordination. The partnership between DirectTrust and ONC has been a very productive collaboration between the private sector and government, something we don’t see every day.”

Details on the benefits of HIPAA-compliant messaging and EHNAC-DirectTrust accreditation can be found at http://www.DirectTrust.org.

About DirectTrust

DirectTrust is a nonprofit, competitively neutral, self-regulatory entity created by and for participants in the Direct community – including health information service providers (HISPs), certificate authorities, registration authorities, doctors, patients, and vendors. It supports both provider-to-provider, as well as patient-to-provider Direct exchange. The goal of DirectTrust is to develop, promote and, as necessary, help enforce the rules and best practices needed to maintain security and trust within the Direct network, consistent with the HITECH Act and the governance rules for the NwHIN established by the ONC. DirectTrust is committed to fostering widespread public confidence in the Direct exchange of health information. To learn more, please visit http://www.DirectTrust.org.

About the ONC Exemplar HIE Governance Program

The Exemplar Health Information Exchange Governance Program funds cooperative agreements that advance the efforts of existing governance entities that benefit consumers and healthcare providers by allowing health information to flow securely between unaffiliated healthcare organizations. Ultimately, this aligns interoperability requirements and business practices with national priorities; overcomes interoperability challenges; reduces implementation costs; and assures the privacy and security of health information exchange.







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Randhurst hopes new signs draws more shoppers to center's interior

Randhurst hopes new signs draws more shoppers to center's interior
It will feature 11 tenant panels and an electronic message center. "It would be just for the stores that are within the Main Street area, as well as a video board on the right that would display images of basically the types of restaurants, the …
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Dennis-Yarmouth message board lights up
Shortly after noon on Friday, March 28, the Daktronics Galaxy electronic message board in front of Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School lit up for the first time with a series of messages thanking the donors that made the $ 50,000 project possible.
Read more on Wicked Local Yarmouth

Increased IT usage by GP practices
This has taken added time. Now — using the new system — following a patient visit, consultation notes are written up, those notes appear on the electronic referral message to the hospital under the new system, and letters are no longer required …
Read more on Irish Medical Times

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POLICY WATCH: RISARC CEO Richard Stephenson Asks, Did Hillary Clintons Message to the Healthcare Industry at HIMSS14 on Electronic Health Records Get it Right?

Burbank, California (PRWEB) March 11, 2014

Richard Stephenson, Founder and CEO of RISARC, a leading national high-technology and revenue recovery consulting firm to the health care industry, has endorsed the view of Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that federally-mandated electronic health records (EHR) are transforming the health care industry.

Secretary Clinton appeared at the Annual Conference on February 26. HIMSS is the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, the world’s largest global health information-technology association. HIMSS is based in Chicago and has more than 52,000 members worldwide.

Electronic efficiencies

Said Stephenson: “Secretary Clinton, herself a pioneer advocate for a broad national healthcare system, was on point in her address at this important annual conference of the health care industry’s IT leaders. The success of the Affordable Care Act depends a great deal on the efficiencies that electronic health records are bringing to the industry.”

“We are finally seeing the promise of electronic health care records leaving behind the outdated, obsolete, 20th Century – in some cases, 19th and 18th Century – ways that records are kept,” said Secretary Clinton at the conference which was held in Orlando, Florida.

Paper losses

Secretary Clinton spoke of the chaos that followed Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans when thousands lost their paper-based health care records in the storm’s destruction. Clinton expressed particular concern for the thousands of elderly patients who relied heavily on the information contained in that mountain of paper work lost in the floods and building disasters across the city for maintaining their prescriptions and treatment plans.

In the same week, Kathleen Sebelius, U.S. Secretary for Health and Human Services, spoke about far reaching challenges that the EHR revolution is bringing to the industry. Secretary Sebelius addressed the Care Innovation Summit put on by the Aspen Institute and Advisory Board Co. in Washington on February 27.

Health-first attitude

Said Stephenson: “The $ 20-billion electronic health records incentive program, part of the 2009 federal stimulus package, was intended principally to aid in the efficient management of individual health care regimens. Under the leadership of Secretary Sebelius and her team at HHS, the abundant digital information mined from individual EHRs is also capable of providing the structure and tools enabling a health-first attitude in wellness, diagnosis and treatment. ACA gives healthcare providers the structure and tools to develop a health first attitude – leading to better patient care, management and provider/patient partnerships by improving access on both sides to critical medical documentation.”

But that only happens, according to Stephenson, if the information is made widely available. An initiative inside Secretary Sebelius’ own HHS has begun to do just that.

Said Stephenson: “The new Hospital Compare website, sponsored by Secretary Sebelius, protects anonymity but aggregates and repurposes the information now flowing into the federal system. It also allows patients to match and compare their own experiences in categories such as patient experience, average wait times and whether a hospital has medical imaging capabilities.”

A July 2013 press release on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services CMS) website points out that approximately 80 percent of eligible hospitals and more than 50 percent of eligible professionals have adopted EHRs and received incentive payments from Medicare or Medicaid. The article continues, stating that the upside of EHRs is, according to CMS Administrator, Marilyn Tavenner: “Electronic health records are transforming relationships between patients and their health care providers. EHRs improve care coordination, reduce duplicative tests and procedures, help patients take more control of their health and result in better overall health outcomes.“

Obamacare 2.0

Added Stephenson: “I see this as Obamacare 2.0. The first stage of healthcare reform was to provide broad public access to care and to convince the industry to elevate its game with digitized EHRs. As virtually all providers and insurers have come on board, we are now seeing the way that this abundant digital information will quickly transform everything across the landscape – from public health, Medicare and clinical trials to spending on healthcare by the public and private individuals.”

About RISARC

RISARC is a leading national high-technology and revenue recovery consulting firm to the health care industry. RISARC, founded in 1990, has recovered over $ 1 billion for its clients. The company offers the RMSe-bubble™ for secure electronic document exchange and the signature RISARC 360° single-source solution that combines health care revenue cycle expertise with innovative cloud-based, cost-saving technology to help clients optimize existing resources, meet business objectives and reach financial goals. RISARC is a pioneer in health care technology solutions and is a certified Health Information Handler for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, esMD project. The RMSe-bubble provides the industry’s best secure, HIPAA-compliant environment for electronic record and document exchange and has been endorsed and accepted by providers, commercial insurance carriers and government agencies across the United States.

Please visit us at http://www.risarc.com for additional information.







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MH370 black box within 10km grid, Aussie PM briefs Chinese President

MH370 black box within 10km grid, Aussie PM briefs Chinese President
Tony Abbott gave Chinese President Xi Jinping a private and detailed briefing in Beijing about the latest on the search for the missing Boeing 777-200ER aircraft which had 154 Chinese people on board. The MP told the President before a … Delivering a …
Read more on Malaysia Chronicle

Miller: Athletes are used by an unjust NCAA system
What stuck out to me the most — as it had for the entire NCAA Tournament — was the electronic banner that ran along the scorers' bench reading “Celebrating student-athletes.” The message furnished by the NCAA and its corporate partners was front and …
Read more on The Stanford Daily

How Aphex Twin Fans Discovered—And Released—A Lost Album
This process has taken time, but it began almost immediately upon the release of the album, when a member of an email mailing list about electronic music took it upon himself to give names to the tracks on Selected Ambient Works Volume II. Those tracks …
Read more on Gizmodo

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Farzad Mostashari, M.D., Joins Get Real Health Board of Directors

Rockville, Maryland (PRWEB) February 19, 2014

Farzad Mostashari, M.D., has been appointed to the Get Real Health board of directors, effective February 17, 2014. Dr. Mostashari brings unique experience, knowledge and insight into Health Information Technology in the US and around the world. He joined the board in part to amplify his message about the central importance of patient engagement and its transformational power in healthcare — and to stand behind the company that provides the leading-edge patient engagement solution: InstantPHR™.

“As a physician and as a health care proxy for my parents, I have a first-hand understanding of the power of connected care,” says Dr. Farzad Mostashari. “Get Real Health understands the human side of Health IT every bit as much as the technology side. They put patients and providers first, and they built their solution to meet the myriad demands of a healthcare system that is struggling to transform itself. Get Real Health is a leader in this space — and as a board member I intend to help this company ‘stay’ real as it innovates and serves patients and providers.”

“We’re deeply honored to have Farzad on our board,” said Mark Heaney, Get Real Health CEO and founding partner. “He shares Get Real Health’s vision for patient engagement and believes that connected care is a change agent in the healthcare system.”

Farzad cites several key reasons for joining the board:


Get Real Health’s strong international presence in Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom;
Usability of InstantPHR-powered portals for patients who seek to collect their information using Blue Button, organize it and share it with whomever they wish;
The company’s understanding of population health and care coordination for providers

“As we look to the future, the ability of patients to get and share their own data and the ability of providers to engage patients will be true game changers,” said Farzad. “Get Real Health is well positioned to be a leader in this new ecosystem.”

The former National Coordinator for Health IT and current Brookings Institute Visiting Fellow is a well-known and highly respected figure in the healthcare industry globally. @Farzad_MD is also a Twitter star, with more than 15,000 followers, and is frequently named a social media influencer at industry conferences. (People even follow his signature bowtie on Twitter @FarzadsBowtie.

“Farzad’s energy and passion for innovation will help us appropriately steer and expand our product, InstantPHR™, to continue to keep it ahead of our competitors,” said Heaney. “Plus, as a highly sought out expert and speaker in Health IT around the world, we know he will represent us well!”

As a Forbes writer observed, Dr. Mostashari “left an indelible mark on the healthcare IT landscape” in his role as the US Health-IT czar. He’s been called the ultimate patient advocate, and his thought leadership about the power of data to improve patient care has proven to be both prescient and influential. Dr. Mostashari’s understanding of the delicate balance between public policy and industry innovation has made him a highly effective leader both on the public podium as well as behind the scenes.

About Get Real Health

Rockville, Maryland-based Get Real Health is an award-winning global health information technology pioneer specializing in patient engagement and connected care solutions. Get Real Health’s flagship product — InstantPHR™ — is an electronic toolbox for creating and customizing personal health applications. Get Real Health has a diverse global customer base and strategic partnerships with industry leaders including Microsoft, Caradigm, Telstra Health and TELUS Health Solutions. Visit: http://www.getrealhealth.com, or watch a two-minute video at http://vimeo.com/86727501 to learn more.







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Fellows and Associates discuss hiring habits in the Intellectual Property sector

London, United Kingdom (PRWEB) February 20, 2014

It has been reported in previous articles that opportunities for patent attorneys with a background in electronics are rife across the industry. However, in Fellows and Associates’ latest press offering they discuss how this need does not necessarily result in a hiring frenzy once a suitable candidate becomes available.

Phillipa Field came on board in early 2012 and claims since joining the team “I have learnt a fair bit, with one fact becoming glaringly obvious from very early on; patent attorneys with a background broadly in electronics are extremely high in demand. With this in mind, you would think if we found candidates in this area then placing them would be a straightforward process. This actually isn’t the case in all instances”.

She notes that, although the Electronics departments in a number of firms have the workload to accommodate a new recruit, there are other factors that come into play during the hiring process. Personality and experience in business development (or the desire to gain some) can dictate whether a candidate is successful, even if their technical background and academics are of a high calibre. Firms are apparently looking past the black and white and assessing whether the candidate can be successfully integrated on a social level.

Pete Fellows, Managing Director, explains “Whether these candidates are hired or not, there is still the overarching problem regarding the overall lack of candidates in this area.” It is suggested that firms need to play a bigger role in attracting those who are considering a move through mediums such as social media platforms and an investment in brand management. However Phillipa heeds the warning that “a neglected account, or one that is heavily updated but only in sporadic bursts, will not add anything to a firm’s reputation.”

Fellows and Associates pay attention to their own advice it seems, with their social media accounts growing in reputation and popularity. Their latest video, an installment of their ‘Video Roundup’ series, gives viewers an insight into their current work commitments, including further promotion of their third annual Salary Survey.

The inclusion of social media into private practices’ business model is seen as a possible indicator in a change in the way business is conducted in the Intellectual Property sector. Firms can no longer ‘quietly operate behind closed doors and survive solely on historic reputation’ and must be available to potential candidates ‘armed with a defined brand message’. Phillipa explains ‘we have definitely seen a trend in firms becoming more visible in the industry, and also a trend in firms really committing to keeping their own staff as well as accommodating new recruits into their team. So the question we were asking ourselves is why aren’t firms going to greater lengths to welcome the candidates that were on the market?’

It is observed that some firms have become more risk averse since the economic uncertainties of recent years. There is little flexibility in terms of a candidate brief being open to less conventional applicants and perhaps an added pressure in firms beginning a recruitment drive before finalising the attributes they require, causing the process to break down. It seems that personal preference plays a key part with candidates needing to possess interpersonal skills, as well as the right technical fit, in order to secure one of the many great opportunities that are available.

Fellows and Associates are currently working on a number of opportunities across the technology sectors, with roles available with Gill Jennings & Every, Williams Powell and Valipat. Pete concludes ‘we have had an extremely busy start to 2014 which we hope is indicative of things to come. The market is extremely buoyant with firms beginning to think more laterally in terms of their business model and hiring habits. We know that the right personality will still be needed for the right role, but that hasn’t stopped us from going to strength to strength’.

About Fellows and Associates

Fellows and Associates recruit Patent Attorneys, Trade Mark Attorneys, IP Lawyers and other Intellectual Property professionals worldwide. The firm offers a diverse range of recruitment services including search, advertised selection and managed campaigns. Fellows and Associates’ management consultancy division offers targeted strategic advice to firms within the Intellectual Property sector worldwide. See http://www.fellowsandassociates.com for more, phone +44 207 903 5019 or email contact(at)fellowsandassociates(dot)com.







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Aspects of Forum Message Boards

Forum message boards are very exciting and, in many instances, they are known as Internet forums. They are mainly online discussion sites where people can go to. This has led to the development of an online community that is willing hold talks on matters affecting their lives. Forum message boards have brought many people from all walks of life together. Apart from meeting people, they can be so much fun and, you will discover all that it is an amazing way to spend your time. Message boards come with very many aspects or features. To enter, you must first make sure that you have a username and a password. This is to maintain anonymity and confidentiality. Not all people need to know your real identity. This is a very simple thing and, you will be in a position to be a part of the messaging community. You will be required to fill out a form where you can generate an account. After you are through with the process of registration, it is vital that you look at the rules.


For forum message boards to be a complete success, they must be controlled. This is the only sure way to maintain order in a forum. Individuals who are commonly known as administrators or moderators have the duty of providing the rules that govern a forum. They mainly perform 3 duties which are conception, technical maintenance and policies. When you register with forum message boards, you will find a set of rules that governs the system. They reflect the wishes of the moderator. If you are a new member, you can visit the FAQ section or the frequently asked questions so that you can get an idea of what is going on in this regard. If you feel like you are not yet familiar with the principles of a certain forum, it is better for you to take time and establish what is required of you.

If you do something that violates the wishes of the administrator, you stand a chance of being barred from the forum.


Forum message boards will have similar rules and among the most common rules are that, you should stay away from or avoid spamming. Spamming in forums will be taken as an intention for something malicious. The traditional meaning of spamming is carrying out advertisements with no authorization. Spamming is also the repetition of a single word in your messages. You have to adhere to this rule because it is one of the most important. Double posting will also not be allowed and, it is the sending of a single message twice. Many times, you my not understand some rules but, you have to keep them. There are so many other things to learn about message boards and the Internet will shed a lot of light to you. When you wish to post your message, the directions are clear for you to follow. Make sure that your message is written clearly for the other people to read. Avoid the use of abusive or racially suggestive language. This way you will have a safe fun time as you share with others.

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