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Washington Debrief: Sebelius Responds to GOP Senators on HITECH Criticism

EHR Implementation May Lead to Revenue Loss, Survey Suggests

Take Our Poll: What Do You Think of the Stage 3 Preliminary Rule Release Delay?

Washington Debrief: Meaningful Use Stage 3 Response, ONC Town Hall Held

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Healthcare IT Merger and Acquisition Activity: Expect More Deals, More Consolidation

May 25, 2013     Mark Hagland
article
In late May, the New York-based Berkery Noyes Investment Bankers released a white paper titled “An Overview of M&A in the Healthcare IT Sector,” which analyzes the current landscape around mergers and acquisitions among healthcare IT vendors. Its author sees the greatest level of innovation taking place among smaller vendor firms, with the pace of consolidation accelerating in the next five years.

Live-Tweeting a Surgery: Social Media’s Big Moment in Healthcare?

May 24, 2013     Gabriel Perna
blog
Many healthcare organizations have struggled to adopt and use social media properly, citing valid concerns over privacy and the patient-provider relationship. Yet there is hope in California, as a live-tweeted surgery shows that organizations such as UCLA Health System are figuring it out 140 characters at a time.

ISU to Pay HHS $400k for HIPAA Violation

May 24, 2013     Rajiv Leventhal
news
Idaho State University (ISU) has agreed to pay $400,000 to the Department of Health Human Services (HHS) to settle alleged violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Security Rule. The settlement involves the breach of unsecured electronic protected health information (ePHI) of approximately 17,500 patients at ISU’s Pocatello Family Medicine Clinic.

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Intermountain Launches System to Measure Cumulative Medical Radiation Exposure

May 24, 2013     Rajiv Leventhal
news
Intermountain Healthcare, a nonprofit health system based in Salt Lake City Ut., has launched a program to accurately measure how much cumulative radiation patients receive over their lifetime while getting medical treatment.

At One Medical Center, Leaders are Implementing Mobile Technology to Attack Communication Errors

May 23, 2013     Rajiv Leventhal
article
Healthcare organizations trying to reduce the rate of medical errors often overlook a common but important factor within their systems—communication between physicians, nurses, and clinical care staff. To help fix this issue that could end up being very costly—both financially and clinically—New York City-based Mount Sinai Medical Center has adopted an enterprise-grade care-coordination mobile app designed to improve communication between clinicians.

mHealth Apps: Real-Time Patient Information for Transitions-of-Care

May 23, 2013     Gabriel Perna
article
In this interview with Healthcare Informatics Associate Editor Gabriel Perna, Matthew Mombrea, CTO and co-founder of Cypress North, creator of Smart Sign Out, talks about how the app came to life and what terrible incident partly inspired him. The app helps clinicians by giving them real-time patient information, so they can better coordinate care during shift changes or department transfers.

Advocacy Corner

Washington Debrief: CMS Encourages Participation in Bundled Payments Model

May 21, 2013     Jeff Smith, Director of Public Policy at CHIME

Washington Debrief: Lawmakers Want Ideas on Medicare Payment Changes

May 14, 2013     Jeff Smith, Director of Public Policy at CHIME
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Can Savings, Quality Improvement Go Hand in Hand?

May 23, 2013     David Raths
blog
Once MemorialCare's hospitalists started drilling down into their own data, they realized their group was an outlier in terms of keeping patients in the hospital longer and ordering more tests than peers in other hospitals.

DoD to Pursue Commercial EMR

May 23, 2013     Gabriel Perna
news
According to a recently obtained memo by NextGov, the Department of Defense (DoD) will look into securing a commercial electronic medical record (EMR). The memo indicates the agency will pass on the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)’ Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA) as the basis of its EHR core.

Crossing the Line

May 23, 2013     Tim Tolan
article
When candidates are deeply entrenched in the interview process, there is often a very human desire to connect with the audience they are speaking with in a more personal manner. Some call it building rapport, while others attempt to take the discussion to a whole new level by “letting their hair down” so they can openly share all of their deepest, darkest secrets in an effort to connect with the person or persons on the other side of the table. That strategy is flawed in so many ways!

Time for New Rigor on Vendor Contracts

May 23, 2013     Mark Hagland
article
At a time when the meaningful use process is intensifying for providers, and as accountable care structures emerge, industry experts agree: CIOs and other healthcare IT leaders need to push vendors hard in order to obtain—and maintain—favorable contracting terms

Podcast: The Challenges of mHealth Adoption

May 23, 2013     Gabriel Perna
article
In this Healthcare Informatics podcast, Associate Editor Gabriel Perna speaks with Tom Martin, manager at mHIMSS, a non-profit sect of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, aimed at driving the use of mobile devices in healthcare. Martin discusses why most healthcare organizations are still struggling to figure out how to best use mHealth. “It’s overcoming the existing barriers that inhibit the widespread adoption,” he says.
See all latest stories

Blogs

Live-Tweeting a Surgery: Social Media’s Big Moment in Healthcare?

May 24, 2013     Gabriel Perna
Many healthcare organizations have struggled to adopt and use social media properly, citing valid concerns over privacy and the patient-provider relationship. Yet there is hope in California, as a live-tweeted surgery shows that organizations such as UCLA Health System are figuring it out 140 characters at a time.

Can Savings, Quality Improvement Go Hand in Hand?

May 23, 2013     David Raths
Once MemorialCare's hospitalists started drilling down into their own data, they realized their group was an outlier in terms of keeping patients in the hospital longer and ordering more tests than peers in other hospitals.

Should Patients See Their Doctors’ Notes?

May 21, 2013     Rajiv Leventhal
Although HIPAA allows patients to view and amend their medical records, most never have and don’t realize that they can. Doctors have concerns regarding this, but a recent year-long pilot showed that patients value access to their notes. Thus, the age-old question remains, should patients read their doctors' notes?

Roadblocks to the Learning Health System

May 20, 2013     David Raths
An informatics research team finds that although the technology exists to build a robust national learning health system, a multitude of business, political and social roadblocks stand in the way.
See all blog posts

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