By D’Arcy Gue – You may be suffering from IT security fatigue at this point, for which I offer a half-hearted apology. Yes, only half-hearted, because the numbers say healthcare is aware of various security threats but still remains vulnerable, making it imperative that the subject stay top of mind until patient data is reliably protected.
Read More
By Paul Stinson – Health IT-related issues are well-represented on the ECRI Institution’s 2016 list of “Top 10 Patient Safety Concerns for Healthcare Organizations.” Heading the list: “Health IT configurations and organization workflow that do not support each other.” Other top concerns include patient identification problems and inadequate test-result reporting and follow-up.
By Matt Fisher – A patient contacts their physician’s office and asks for a copy of their medical record. The expected response would seem to be obvious. Sure, we will copy the record and send it to your shortly. Not only will the record be sent, but it will be sent in an easily accessible format and exactly as requested.
In his address to the House of Delegates at the American Medical Association (AMA) Annual Meeting, AMA CEO James L Madara, M.D. outlined the challenges and opportunities facing medicine in today’s rapidly-changing digital economy.
Here’s what’s happening to make that reality – DirectTrust launches Partnership for Patients Program, AMA and other medical societies call for a change in interoperability measurements, & Diasend collaborates with Abbott to simplify diabetes data management.
For the first time in history, clinicians are able to capture patients’ heart and lung sounds and integrate them into the electronic health record (EHR). This milestone represents a groundbreaking advance in longitudinal patient care.
By Andy Slavitt – Earlier this year, I announced a new effort to connect new, innovative companies and their investors to the state Medicaid program IT space. Since this announcement, I have been encouraged by the initial interest from companies that may not have otherwise ever thought about participating in this important health insurance program that covers more than 72 million Americans.
By Morris Panner – Love it or hate it, Obamacare didn’t address the cost side of healthcare. Expanded coverage won’t accomplish much if we Americans can’t afford it. Today, nothing is more important than figuring out how our healthcare system can provide quality care at a competitive price. But healthcare is a rotary phone in the iPhone age.
By William Hyman – Computer Decision Support usually takes the form of software generated patient specific recommendations based on patient attributes in the EMR. A recent study takes a somewhat different approach by using EMR data to identify hospital patients who are at risk of death, but offers no treatment suggestions, it just says the patient has an elevated risk of dying.