EoW January 2013

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Transatlantic cable
January 2013 23
According to Fran Caul eld, research director for Insight
Research Corp, healthcare providers are avid consumers of
telecommunications services and new technology. She told
Ms Azevedo: “The combination of increased demand for wireless
and broadband access, massive data storage demands, and the
conversion to electronic health records (EHRs) and procedures is
straining existing healthcare networks.”
The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical
Health Act, a part of the American Reinvestment and Recovery
Act of 2009, says hospitals that can demonstrate “meaningful
use” of electronic health records will receive money from the
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Those that don’t
will face a reduction in Medicare patient reimbursement
rates. “It’s clear that the larger organisations are converting to
electronic health records sooner and they are doing it more
expensively,”Ms Caul eld said.
† Even as more doctors in the US adopt electronic health
records, and more patients have access to those records via
Internet-based systems, Insight Research believes everything
that is happening related to telemedicine is just the
beginning. An example cited in Network supports that view.
Twenty years ago, the University of Texas Medical Branch
at Galveston began using 600-pound videoconferencing
equipment to connect patients and doctors. Today the
institution’s videoconferencing equipment has been
reduced to a system that can sit on a desktop and weighs
15 to 20 pounds. Thanks to advancements in technology,
wrote Ms Azevedo: “Sick or injured people in remote areas
such as the South Pole and on cruise ships can get evaluated
by specialists.”
Automotive
After a precipitous drop just
three years ago, the US auto market
has made a stunning turnaround
Bill Vlasic, the Detroit bureau chief of the New York Times , wrote
in mid-October that the US auto market, growing “fast and
furiously,” was up 14 per cent for the year to that point and
headed above 14 million in annual sales for the rst time since
2007. He sees that market, after crashing to its lowest sales level
in 25 years in 2009, as having regained its status as a safe haven
for the world’s automakers as well as their most reliable source
of pro ts.
Jesse Toprak is similarly impressed. The chief market analyst for
the auto research site TrueCar.com told the Times: “The industry
was able to heal itself with natural remedies: new products,
improved gas mileage, better technology, and providing good
value to people who need to replace older models.”
Over the course of the recent recession, the average age of
vehicles on American roads stretched out to 11 years: the best
stimulus the industry could have asked for, in Mr Vlasic’s view.
When consumers resumed shopping, they found the products
o ered by Detroit and its competitors to be more fuel-e cient
than ever and replete with new technology and safety features.
“The key was that the industry could now sell new cars without
resorting to huge incentives that destroyed pro ts,” said
Mr Toprak, the analyst. “They could spend more on improving
their products.” (“When a Crisis Comes With a Reset Button,”
11th October).
† Mr Vlasic noted the “unique vantage point” commanded
by Sergio Marchionne, the chief executive of Detroit’s
Chrysler and its parent company, the Italian carmaker Fiat.
Successfully so far, Mr Marchionne has utilised Fiat-based
technology and platforms to improve Chrysler’s product
lineup.
According to the philosophical Mr Marchionne, the travails
endured by Chrysler prepared the way for its marriage
to Fiat. Moreover, he believes that the broader American
auto industry is better o for having su ered through the
bankruptcies, bailouts, and dismal sales. “Surviving these
events makes you into a di erent person because you
end up realising you got really close to losing it all,” the
Chrysler-Fiat chief said. “[And] if we don’t manage it properly,
it could happen again.”
Technology
GM makes its choice of a
lightweight material to help its cars go
farther on a tank of fuel: magnesium
General Motors in late October announced that it had been
testing a new forming technology. Steve Rousseau of Popular
Mechanics wrote that magnesium sheet metal – roughly 75 per
cent lighter than steel and 33 per cent lighter than aluminium
– might seem an obvious choice for a producer gearing up to
meet the ambitious fuel economy standards to be imposed in
the US over the next decade or so. But, he noted, “Its high cost,
complex forming processes, and vulnerability to corrosion have
led auto makers to shy away.”
According to GM body structure development engineer
Paul Krajewski, the company has solved all three problems. In
its new high-volume forming process, he told Mr Rousseau,
magnesium sheets are quickly heated to 842ºF, then placed in
airtight dies that use air pressure to form the sheet into a panel.
The method is based on high-temperature plastic vacuum
forming.
“You don’t form the magnesium with mechanical action –
pushing it or drawing it or ironing – like you would typically do
with sheet metal,” Mr Krajewski explained. “Rather, you clamp it
around the outside so it’s sealed, and you apply gas pressure to
form it into shape.” (“GM Touts Weight-Saving Magnesium Sheet
Metal,” 24th October).
By taking advantage of its existing manufacturing infrastructure,
GM believes it can e ciently produce magnesium parts at high
volume, o setting their high cost. The automaker also intends to
use a corrosion-resistant coating to enhance the endurance of its
magnesium sheet metal.
Traditionally, wrote Mr Rousseau, magnesium has been used
in performance parts such as steering wheels, engine cradles,
and the iconic mag wheels most famously found on the Shelby
Cobra. But GM claims that the use of magnesium for structural
components could shave up to 150 pounds from the weight of
a vehicle, for fuel savings of between nine and 12 per cent. And
the technology may be coming to the company’s cars quite
soon. Mr Krajewski disclosed that 50 vehicles were set to roll
o GM assembly lines by the end of October equipped with
magnesium inner panels on doors and trunks.
“This is another thing in our toolbox,” said the GM engineer.
“We’re also working on aluminium, high-strength steel, and