K-State students from College of Business Administration take first in two categories in Cerner Corp. competition

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Source: Gregory L. Smith, 785-532-4356, smithg@k-state.edu
Note to editor: Trevor Bailey is a graduate of Turner High School, Kansas City, Kan.
News release prepared by: Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, 785-532-6415, ebarcomb@k-state.edu

Thursday, May 10, 2007

K-STATE STUDENTS FROM COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION TAKE FIRST IN TWO CATEGORIES IN CERNER CORP. COMPETITION

MANHATTAN -- With two recent wins, students from Kansas State University's College of Business Administration now have won first place in three of four categories in a consulting and software development competition sponsored by Cerner Corp., Kansas City, Mo.

This semester's competition offered three categories and was for students studying management information systems. K-State students took first in the mobile device and dashboard system categories.

For the competitions, students worked on marketing, software, user manuals and other elements that go into developing new medical products for Cerner. For the dashboard system competition, students worked on the development of a system allowing medical professionals to view a patient's vital statistics and other information on a 37-inch screen using radio frequency ID tags for each patient. Gregory L. Smith, instructor of management, said the K-State students specifically worked on a way for the system to alert doctors and nurses about a possible problem -- such as an increase in blood pressure -- without alarming the patient.

In the mobile device competition, K-State students worked with students from the University of Missouri-Kansas City to develop portable, hand-held devices that allow physicians and pharmacists to access information at each patient's bedside without carrying around a handful of charts.

"In health care, this is the No. 1 new technology," Smith said.

K-State management information systems students who participated in the competition included:

Steve Madewell, senior, Andover, first place in dashboard system; Nic Kline, senior, De Soto, first place in dashboard system; Kristin Wagner, senior, Louisburg, first place in mobile device; Anfal Alawadhi, senior, first place in dashboard system, and Trevor Bailey, senior, first place in mobile device, both of Manhattan; Adam Augustine, junior, Salina, first place in dashboard system; and Casey Johnson, senior, Wamego, first place in mobile device.

Cerner Corp. specializes in health care information technology systems. It designs clinical information systems and financial applications to improve the health care industry. According to K-State's career and employment services, the corporation was the largest employer of K-State College of Business Administration graduates in 2005.