Technology

Editors Picks

The 2013 Healthcare Informatics Innovator Awards: Third Place Winner: Shannon Medical Center

Gabriel Perna
From the minute any clinician steps into their professional environment, they know the importance of hand hygiene. Yet, for some reason, gaps in hygiene compliance remain a problem at many medical facilities across the country, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reporting that 90,000 die in the U.S. each year from hospital-acquired infections (HAIs). For this reason, Shannon Medical Center, a 400-bed hospital in San Angelo, Texas, implemented an automated radio-frequency identification (RFID)-based hand-hygiene monitoring system.

Top Stories

Top 10 Tech Trends: Keeping Pace with Innovations

February 15, 2013     John DeGaspari
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New technology innovations have clearly captured the imaginations of clinicians and patients alike, and provider organizations will see big demands on bandwidth, which will put pressure on provider organizations to upgrade their IT infrastructure. At the same time, hospitals, medical groups, and health systems will need to continue to maintain data security and privacy. The upshot is that patient care organizations can’t afford not to make investments in infrastructure—often a tough sell to the hospital boards that control budgets—just to stay one step ahead of new demands.

Wisconsin Health System Announces Breach

February 15, 2013     Gabriel Perna
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Froedtert Health, a three-hospital health system based in Milwaukee, announced a data breach, reporting that one of its employee’s computer account was hacked. The breach, according to a report from the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel, may have affected more than 40,000 patients, although the health system says it found no evidence that any personal information or medical records were accessed.

Large-Scale Data Breaches Have Increased, but Fewer Patients Affected, Report Says

February 14, 2013     Rajiv Leventhal
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According to a report from Carpinteria, Calif.-based Redspin Inc., a provider of IT security assessments, the number of large-scale health data breaches increased from 2011 to 2012, but the number of patients affected by such breaches decreased last year.

Study: Social Media Could Prove Effective in HIV Prevention

February 12, 2013     Rajiv Leventhal
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According to new UCLA research, Facebook and other social networking technologies could serve as effective tools for preventing HIV infection among at-risk groups.

Massachusetts Announces Telehealth Pilot for Sexual Assault Treatment

February 8, 2013     Gabriel Perna
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The Massachusetts Governor’s office recently announced the creation of a telehealth nursing center, which aims to help victims of sexual assault by providing around-the-clock medical assistance in sexual assault treatment services to providers who do not offer anything in this area. It’s being called the Massachusetts Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) Telenursing Center and is getting $3.3 million in federal grant funding from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Featured Links

New eBook on Patient Safety & Bar Code Technology

Healthcare Informatics Executive Summit: May 6th-8th, Orlando

Check out the 2011 Healthcare Informatics 100 list

Searching for the Value of Patient Feedback in an EHR

February 6, 2013     Gabriel Perna
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Backed by a study from the Office for the National Coordinator of Health IT (ONC), researchers at the Danville, Pa.-based Geisinger Health System and the National Organization for Research at the University of Chicago (NORC) recently discovered that patients can help make the information in their EHR more accurate. These results were touted in a recent webinar from the National eHealth Collaborative (NeHC).

Tracking Disease Before the Outbreak

February 5, 2013     Rajiv Leventhal
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Healthcare Informatics Assistant Editor Rajiv Leventhal had a chance to speak with Shaun Grannis, M.D., director of the Indiana Center of Excellence in Public Health Informatics at the Regenstrief Institute, about how INPC uses surveillance to track data and warn public health officials of outbreaks.

Report: Most Global mHealth Projects Target Communicable Diseases

February 5, 2013     Gabriel Perna
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According to a new report from the Washington, D.C.-based mHealth Alliance, countries in sub-Saharan Africa have the highest number of mobile health (mHealth) projects when compared to similar low and middle income countries (LMICs). Researchers of the report looked at the adoption, implementation, funding, and impact of mHealth in LMICs in Asia and Latin America.

GE Healthcare Announces New Cardiac MRI Analysis Software

February 4, 2013     Rajiv Leventhal
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GE Healthcare has announced two new software packages designed to improve cardiovascular exam processing for the technologist and clinician while maximizing patient care. The packages—CardiacVX and MR VesselIQ Xpress—are for advanced analysis of cardiovascular magnetic resonance (MR) images.

MD Anderson Announces Analytics Initiative

February 1, 2013     Gabriel Perna
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MD Anderson, the Houston-based cancer center, has announced its going to start up an organization-wide analytics initiative, aimed at creating new types of personalized cancer treatments. The cancer center said it will use the Redwood Shores, Calif.-based Oracle to lay the foundation for this analytics initiative, which will aim to bring together clinical, genomic, financial, administrative and operational information from internal and external sources.

Weill Cornell, New York Presbyterian Launch Individualized Medicine Hub

January 31, 2013     Rajiv Leventhal
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New York-based Weill Cornell Medical College and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital have partnered to create the Institute for Precision Medicine, a new medicine research hub that will offer targeted, individualized treatment based on each patient's genetic profile.

Cord Blood Bank Settles with FTC Over Alleged Breach Involving 300,000

January 30, 2013     Rajiv Leventhal
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The operator of Cbr Systems, Inc., a cord blood bank based in San Bruno, Calif., agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission (FTC) charges that it failed to protect the security of customers’ personal information, and that its inadequate security practices contributed to a breach that exposed Social Security numbers and credit and debit card numbers of nearly 300,000 consumers.
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